This is a disease that will likely kill ~10 million people directly (0.5% IFR, 25% spread), a few more million due to lockdown (economic downturns lead to starv

This is a disease that will likely kill ~10 million people directly (0.5% IFR, 25% spread), a few more million due to lockdown (economic downturns lead to starvation for starters), and cost tens of trillions of dollars (world expenditure on just masks is looking to cost something like $200 billion this year). We can prevent lab mistakes. If there's _any_ reasonable chance it was a lab mistake, that absolutely should be investigated thoroughly, so it doesn't happen again. And the fact is, gain of function research is already controversial, because of the obvious potential safety risks. Second, most of us live in democracies. Even if it can't be proven, voters should absolutely know if a lab mistake is plausible, so we can make good decisions on what types of risks we're willing to take for scientific research, and what kinds of oversight are appropriate.