I can see that, but it still seems risky and of dubious value. I am not convinced any vaccine research is going to transfer from a synthetic virus to humans, an

I can see that, but it still seems risky and of dubious value. I am not convinced any vaccine research is going to transfer from a synthetic virus to humans, and animal studies also have issues transferring. Good high risk research is high risk high payoff. This seems very high risk low payoff to me. Then there is smallpox. The idea of doing anything with smallpox samples other than placing them in an ultra high temperature autoclave is horrifying. That stuff is extinct in the wild. It should be extinct from the timeline entirely. I am suspicious of Asia Times, but also of the drive to blame this on China. I raised my question in the abstract since so far I see no concrete evidence that COVID-19 originated in anyone's lab whether Chinese or American.