[ClearCase_guy]

a deadly pathogen is packaged in a contagious but less harmful virus, or the deadly virus’s lethality is weakened by engineering it in a lab.

I'm not sure that is an accurate characterization of "gain-of-function". Which is what Fauci funded.

[Pollard]

The NIH funds a lot of things and he’s in charge of the NIH.

[Valpal1]

Don’t confuse this with that. Fauci funded both types of research.

[Wuli]

“I’m not sure that is an accurate characterization of “gain-of-function”. Which is what Fauci funded.”

It’s a different subject. Using DNA manipulation to give something a “gain of function” is a process-method, not in and of itself an objective. What they are speking of could use “gain of function” methods, but as I said, that’s merely a tool, a means to an end, not the ends.