Dr. Anthony Fauci’s 2012 views regarding gain-of-function (GoF) research resurfaced Wednesday after Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall referenced his previous comments in a Senate hearing on the subject.
In a 2012 piece, Fauci said that GoF research, which involves modifying pathogens to make them more lethal and more infectious to humans, was worth the risk of an accident for the potential scientific benefits. However, in words that now hang eerily over the COVID-stricken world, he warned that unregulated labs in foreign countries could lead to an accidental pandemic due to a leak of a disease.
“The issue that has been intensely debated is whether knowledge obtained from these experiments could inadvertently affect public health in an adverse way, even in nations multiple time zones away,” Fauci wrote a decade ago. “Consider this hypothetical scenario.”
“An important gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with serious pandemic potential is performed in a well-regulated, world-class laboratory by experienced investigators, but the information from the experiment is then used by another scientist who does not have the same training and facilities and is not subject to the same regulations,” Fauci posited.
“In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?”
Read the full story here.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.