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ren_engineer
should be noted this research was done at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, which means researchers were messing around with this virus in a non BSL-4 lab. Pretty much every expert opinion I've seen online says this research is insane and provides no value for the risk involved
infotainment
China's really excited to get the next pandemic going already; that'll fix their economy for sure!
sand500
Risks of this virus getting out aside, it would be invaluable to study and understand how a 100% lethal variant works. Even just knowing there exists a 100% lethal variant let's us be prepared in case one shows up from random mutations.
jakderrida
Wouldn't there be a natural tradeoff between how contagious it is and how deadly it is, though??

A virus that quickly kills all the hosts would probably not spread very far.

I feel like if there could exist one in nature, no species would last very long.

rngname22
We have arms control and embargoes to prevent Iran from gaining fissile material but we don't give a fuck when nations that have proven themselves capable of regulating their biomedical research safety pursue reckless gain of function research. Makes total sense.
castles
If it were a weaker country? You can imagine the response might be different?
toomuchtodo
How would you defend against such a variant without access to the sequence?