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> What specifically changes if we determine it came from a research lab? The understanding of its origin may help us to learn more about it and the analysis of

• lumost 5y ago
  There are a few follow-on questions that would have significant impact to future developments. 1) Did China know that it was a lab-leak? and when did they know? 2) What were the objectives of the gain of function research? If China had a large coverup and did not provide significant aid to erstwhile allies then they may find these alliances to be much colder in the future. The Chinese population may take extreme issue with their governments choices in handling the pandemic. If there were connections between the Chinese military and the gain of function research, then countries may demand reparations/financial penalties at later treaty negotiations. China may find that the perception of the world population to the potential of being the victim of a weapons program to be significant. Both scenarios could yield a situation similar to an extreme version of the Chernobyl disaster and the Soviet Union.