Gain-of-function research risks

The revelation that CSIRO scientists engaged in research on bats in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology needs a full public explanation. Australians, whose taxes fund the CSIRO, are entitled to be concerned given the possibility Covid-19 may have leaked from the Wuhan laboratory, which US intelligence has linked to the Chinese military. Sharri Markson, author of the forthcoming book What Really Happened in Wuhan, reports the CSIRO has been forced to correct the record on the issue. Questioned by Nationals senator Matt Canavan on June 3, the CSIRO initially gave evidence that its Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness “does not undertake research on live bats”. But Senator Canavan later presented the CSIRO with part of a scientific paper written in conjunction with the Wuhan lab that referred to wild bats being trapped in southern Queensland and transported to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria, where they were euthanised for dissection. CSIRO chief operating officer Judi Zielke now admits the ACDP “did undertake research on bats in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016-17”. The University of Queensland vet school also was involved in a study with the Wuhan institute, according to a paper, Origin and Cross-Species Transmission of Bat Coronaviruses in China, released in August last year.

Such information raises serious questions that need to be answered by government, research institutions or, if necessary, a sharp, closely focused inquiry. First, what were the joint projects between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the CSIRO and Australian universities during the past decade? Second, how many of those, if any, involved “gain-of-function” research or research into potential pandemic pathogens? Third, in what way has such research benefited Australia and how much did it cost a sector in which competition for funding is always tight?

The issue centres on the potential dangers of gain-of-function research, which aims to increase the transmissibility and/or virulence of pathogens. Conducted by responsible scientists, the US National Library of Medicine says, such research aims to improve understanding of disease-causing agents, their interaction with humans and their potential to cause pandemics, to better inform public health and preparedness efforts and develop countermeasures. Amid concerns gain-of-function research may have triggered the pandemic, Senator Canavan and some scientists want Health Minister Greg Hunt to ban such research in Australia, as the Obama administration did in the US in 2014. That ban was overturned by the Trump administration on the advice of the chief medical adviser to the president, Anthony Fauci. But, as Markson revealed three weeks ago, Dr Fauci’s US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, via US universities, funded risky research on coronaviruses with People’s Liberation Army scientists. Had that connection been known as bodies piled up in makeshift morgues in US cities last year, public outrage would have forced a full investigation.

Australian researchers protect the nation’s livestock, fish and consumers from devastating diseases. Such work is vital, and research on pathogenic viruses is restricted to a high-level containment facility, the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory in East Geelong. Since the emergence of Covid, however, transparency about such research and accountability must be non-negotiable.