No, gain of function research did not cause COVID-19
In late 2019, unbeknownst to all, a new virus first infected humans in Wuhan, China: SARS-CoV-2. This infectious virus — which turned out to be airborne, highly infectious, lethal to a few but capable of causing long-term damage to many — is the cause of the COVID-19 illness that has now infected at least 700 million (and likely billions) across the globe. By January of 2020, dozens of infections had spread to several countries, and the global response was insufficient to prevent a pandemic. As a result, at least seven million people (and possibly tens of millions) died while tens-to-hundreds of millions more were left with long-term, often disabling, conditions. That novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has gone on to mutate many times and continues to be infectious: to humans and animals both.
And yet, one popular conspiracy theory continues to thrive in the media and in politics: the idea that unlike all other virus-caused pandemics, which originated naturally, this virus was instead created in the lab.
