Trump’s last minute gain-of-function policy could sow researcher confusion

In 2011, two teams of scientists created an uproar after revealing they had separately mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus to spread among ferrets through the air, something it didn’t do naturally. The teams had created a virus that, were it to be found in nature or leak from a lab, would be a potential pandemic threat, experts said. And critics questioned whether the benefits of the experiments had outweighed the risks.​