Biology, politics: gain-of-function research

Self-tutoring about biology and politics: the tutor stumbles on something perhaps surprising.

I used to be a news consumer: I mainly watched CNN. By and large, the news made sense to me until the meltdown in ’08. 2009-2010, nothing seemed to change anymore, so I watched the news less and less. It was an easier habit to break than I thought it would be. Family life was busy, anyway.

Now, my kids are grown up and in college. Between yard work, car repair, general house chores, and other research, I’ve put my toe in the water once again: I do read the news sometimes. On Edge, I see headlines every time I open a new tab, so a few I do read.

While the news seemed to make sense back in 2006 (for instance), it often doesn’t now. (This is just my point of view, of course.) I’ll save other examples perhaps for other posts. Today’s topic I stumbled upon is gain-of-function research, which reached my attention thanks to Fox News and Senator Rand Paul.

I didn’t know what gain-of-function research is, so had to look it up. Apparently, it’s research that leads disease-causing micro-organisms to evolve so they become more dangerous (more contagious, more virulent, etc). Theoretically, this is all done in confined, controlled conditions.

Rand Paul thinks funding of gain-of-function research should be curtailed – slashed, perhaps. To me, that’s not hard to understand. What’s perhaps more difficult to understand is that such research is going on.

Source:

news-medical.net