The real issue with gain of function "research" has more to do with biological weapons than anyone realizes. Forget viruses for a minute. If you take a regular bacterial strain and change its plasmid to exhibit features of things the human body would normally react to (think allergies), now a regular strain becomes pathological. You can design strains that induce specific chronic illnesses and use them to target specific individuals. Biolabs are a more significant and widespread problem than anyone knows.