'Proximal Origin' author on COVID-19 says gain-of-function research crucial to stop next pandemic

Gain-of-function research may have produced SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to an author of the "Proximal Origin" paper in 2020 that attempted to discredit the lab-leak theory, research that makes viruses more transmissible, lethal or both is also crucial to saving America from the next pandemic.

Robert Garry, associate dean of medicine at Tulane University, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday on COVID origins, claiming the Nature Medicine paper he cowrote with input from Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not "rule out" lab-leak. 

He doesn't believe SARS-CoV-2 was "created in a lab" – a wording that does not rule out lab manipulation of an existing virus, as genetic curiosities of the novel coronavirus imply – but Garry said he's open to new evidence suggesting lab-leak was more likely than his preferred answer, spillover to an intermediate animal from bats and natural release at a Chinese wet market. 

While researchers need "adequate oversight" from the government for gain-of-function research, it's crucial to not impede such research, which gave the public Tamiflu and a vaccine for cancer caused by human papillomavirus, Garry said.

GoF research might even stop the next pandemic by showing how novel viruses infect humans, which allows treatment to be developed, he said.