On the other hand, it's easy to imagine that this sort of research is the only path to permanently curing Coronaviruses (and not just Coronaviruses but also Inf

On the other hand, it's easy to imagine that this sort of research is the only path to permanently curing Coronaviruses (and not just Coronaviruses but also Influenza.) As bad as this pandemic was if it was a required step on the road to permanently curing both Coronaviruses and Influenza... that's a no-brainer, it's well worth the pain, it will save billions of lives. Also if delaying this research delays such a hypothetical Influenza cure by 30 years, that will cost more lives than this pandemic did too.