What the fuck. We need to outlaw gain of function and pressure every other country to do the same. This absolutely beyond reckless.
I could easily see an authoritarian country like NK doing something like this as a weapon of last resort to be used like nukes but obtained much more easily .
But why Covid? There are a bunch of viruses that are better that they've probably already weaponized. Weaponizing Covid is like using a balloon for an artillery round.
Because we helped make the weapon and have helpfully provided our fingerprints so that if someone else uses it we look guilty. If someone else releases something that looks like this variant the world now has a casus belli against us. (that is, those that don't already for our role in the original virus).