I urge you to ban gain-of-function research in Colorado, including institutions of higher education. Colorado State University is currently building a lab to research dangerous pathogens borne by bats, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Nipah virus and Hendra virus. There are few safeguards in Colorado regarding such dangerous research at universities, and especially with poor standards, something could easily go wrong. To protect Coloradans, please support and enact a ban on gain-of-function research.

Please outlaw gain-of-function research at Colorado universities by enacting strong legislation. This is important because Colorado State University is currently constructing a facility to study dangerous diseases carried by bats. This facility is being built despite little input by the surrounding area. Universities across the United States, including UW-Madison in Wisconsin, are known to have failed to properly report dangerous incidents involving gain-of-function research or otherwise violated regulations regarding such research. Research involving gain-of-function could easily go wrong -- with severely dangerous consequences. Please prevent the potential creation of dangerous pathogens by banning gain-of-function research in Colorado.

I strongly request that you enact strong legislation prohibiting gain-of-function research at universities. This is not a hypothetical issue. Colorado State University is currently constructing a research facility to study dangerous bat diseases. In Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin--Madison is one of the main pandemic pathogen research facilities in the United States, and it has been at the center of several recent dangerous incidents involving gain-of-function research. We don't want a similar situation here in Colorado. We've already experienced the dangerous effects of gain-of-function research, since the lab in Wuhan was conducting such experiments. Please don't allow such a dangerous incident to be repeated right here in Colorado. Please support strong legislation to ban gain-of-function research.

I implore you to support and pass legislation to ban Colorado universities and other institutions from conducting gain-of-function research, as well as strengthen reporting requirements. Colorado State University is planning to soon begin dangerous and extremely risky research on bat pathogens, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Nipah virus and Hendra virus. We need robust legislation to prevent dangerous and potentially catastrophic incidents from such research. We cannot afford to mess around with dangerous pathogens. Please put an end to this by enacting legislation to ban all gain-of-function at universities and other institutions.

Please act immediately to prohibit and outlaw gain-of-function in our state. Gain-of-function research is extremely risky and dangerous, and our universities -- particularly Colorado State University -- are currently conducting gain-of-function experiments. This is dangerous, and with potentially dangerous consequences. Other universities in the United States, including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, already conduct such research, and there have been multiple reported incidents where it did not properly report dangerous gain-of-function incidents or otherwise violated regulations regarding such research. We already know why gain-of-function is so harmful. It's now well-known that the Wuhan Lab regularly conducted gain-of-function research with poor safety standards. Please don't allow these mistakes to be replicated in Colorado. Please outlaw gain-of-function. Please enact strong legislation doing such now.