The now disgraced COVID origin investigator Peter Daszak - whose "EcoHealth Alliance" funneled U.S. taxpayer cash to the Wuhan Institute of Virology - defended SARS gain-of-function experiments that potentially rendered the virus "Capable of directly infecting humans" in a Nature article unearthed from November 2015.
"Lab-made coronavirus related to SARS can infect human cells," Nature summarized, which counted funding from Mr. Anthony Fauci's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and included collaboration with two researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
While noting how a virus from horseshoe bats in China was manipulated to "Infect human airway cells" and "Mimic human disease," Nature posits that the study qualified as gain-of-function research.
"The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens - what is known as 'gain-of-function' research," the article explains.
"For years, Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist in the U.S., has been collaborating with Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Virology Institute, sharing his discoveries about how to create super viruses. This gain-of-function research has been funded by the NIH," Senator Paul outlined before Fauci claimed the theory was "Entirely and completely incorrect."
"Studies testing hybrid viruses in human cell culture and animal models are limited in what they can say about the threat posed by a wild virus, Daszak agrees. But he argues that they can help indicate which pathogens should be prioritized for further research attention."
In 2013, researchers reported this ability for the first time in a different coronavirus isolated from the same bat population.
https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/peter-daszak-defends-wuhan-baric-gof-research/
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