O-38 - DEFUSE asserted its chimeric-spike work used bat-SARSr-CoV backbones and was 'exempt from dual use and gain of function concerns'
Documents the consortium’s own advocacy framing that the work fell outside gain-of-function/dual-use oversight — flagged in the source’s motivatedness as risk-minimizing advocacy rather than a neutral biosafety judgment. (Quote reconciled from degraded OCR of the scanned proposal.)
Link to original
Why this is evidence
The consortium’s plan for chimeric-spike work on bat-SARSr-CoV backbones (framed as ‘exempt’ from GoF oversight) further documents engineering intent — favouring H-43; weakened by its being a rejected proposal with the chimera work slated for UNC.