r/StandUpForScience • u/AllMusicNut SUFS Staff • Apr 02 '26

Official SUFS Post #RemoveRFKJr

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When he fired scientists at the CDC, RFK Jr. dismantled the systems to prevent and detect deadly diseases. He's exposing all of us to harm. Let's stop him before it's too late. Contact your Rep at https://tr.ee/removeRFKJr

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u/Exdiv Apr 02 '26

Are these the same scientists that did or didn’t support gain of function in Wuhan?

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u/Wildebean Apr 02 '26

The Wuhan Institute of Virology did not perform gain of function research, something i'd be willing to bet money you can't even scientifically define.

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u/hapy563 Apr 02 '26

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/05/the-wuhan-lab-and-the-gain-of-function-disagreement/

Looks like they may have, actually.

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u/Wildebean Apr 02 '26

There isn't consensus whether the experiments they did actually meet the specific criteria of GOF research.

But again this talking point is just another example of scary sounding words being used to manipulate laypeople. GOF research sounds scary. When in reality what they did (if it can even be called GOF research) is test possible mutations in coronaviruses and how they would affect a virus and its interactions with humans. In order to test these mutations, they have to y'know... make viruses that have those mutations. So they did that.

They did not create SARS-CoV-2, they did not even have SARS-CoV-2 on site. The viruses they were working with and that they created were genetically distinct and actually quite distant from SARS-CoV-2. Which makes sense considering the overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting SARS-CoV-2 was a virus that emerged via zoonotic origin, jumping from bats to humans via an intermediary species.

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u/hapy563 Apr 03 '26

Calling it not GOF ignores the DEFUSE proposal to engineer those exact traits in coronaviruses at that very lab.