COVID Origin Theories: Gain-of-Function Research
The Claim
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, supported gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab, where COVID-19 originated.
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Emerging story
During a May 11th Senate Health Committee hearing, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul entered into a fiery exchange regarding the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. During the exchange, Senator Paul stated the following: “Government authorities, self interested in continuing gain-of-function research, say there’s nothing to see here." He defined gain-of-function research as "juicing up naturally occurring animal viruses to infect humans.”
Paul then claimed that an American virologist, Dr. Ralph Baric, had been collaborating with Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create superviruses. He also added that this research was funded via the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Fauci responded that Senator Paul was incorrect. He also stated that Dr. Baric was not conducting gain-of-function research.
A range of social media accounts have used this exchange to promote the claim that gain-of-function research is the cause of the coronavirus pandemic.
Misbar’s Analysis
Gain-of-function research describes the study of cellular sequences of varying traits or abilities in living things. It can be applied to basic biological studies on flies, worms, or individual cells. When it's used in the context of viruses, its purpose is to explore how a virus adapts under different settings, which helps researchers to better understand approaches to disease control. It's about getting ahead of potential outbreaks.
Certain forms of this research have been reevaluated in the past to see if its benefits outweigh its risks. Senator Paul’s claim that NIAID funded allegedly risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan may be based on a 2015 study into bat coronaviruses, which involved Dr. Baric and Dr. Zhengli. This study “generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone.” It was primarily run by the Department of Epidemiology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and did involve collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Since last March the editor of Nature, where this study was published, has added a notification that there is no scientific basis in the theories that the coronavirus was engineered in a lab. “We are aware that this article is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered,” the note read. "Scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.”
In 2015, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine published a summary of a workshop about the risks and benefits of gain-of-function research. During this workshop, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka stated that there were three different kinds. He categorized the first type as generating viruses which do not exist in nature, and the second type as generating viruses that were more harmful or contagious than those that exist in nature. He said that a third type exists between the other two definitions, such as lab creating viruses that are made to be more harmful/contagious in animals but not humans.
During that same workshop, Dr. Baric, who Senator Paul mentioned, gave a much broader definition of gain-of-function research. He agreed with Dr. Kawaoaka on his definitions but also stated that identifying and determining pathogenicity and virulence is also gain-of-function research.
As the definition of gain-of-function research is often up for dispute, both Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci could be interpreted as being correct in their debate. However, Senator Paul’s accusation that the information that was shared between University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Wuhan Institute of Virology appears to have no solid evidence to back it up. On May 19th, the director of the CDC, Doctor Rochelle Walensky, did state that it was a possibility that coronavirus originated in a lab. However, she clarified that there was not enough evidence to support this possibility and that coronaviruses are generally contracted from animals.
Therefore, Senator Paul’s suggestion that gain-of-function research is behind the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be claimed as a fact, even with a loose definition of the term.
