From the comments on your site:
> One thing is certain with the current situation is we need to take some risks if we are going to solve it quickly.
Looking for quick answers in a crisis is really risky. There is a natural push to try to get things back to normal as soon as possible, but developing an attenuated vaccine (even with a potential strain already in existence), takes a lot of time and testing.
I certainly agree that we should be trying to sequence every variation we can find in the wild, but even if everything works just right, it will take a lot of time. I haven’t followed enough of the reports, but how many strains have been identified thus far?
Another issue is that even just getting the reagents to collect and passage the virus is difficult as they are all needed for clinical testing. So working with live (even attenuated) virus is very difficult at the moment. But this highlights a reason why it is so critical to study these topics when we aren’t in crisis mode. Much of the current vaccine work has been adapted from earlier SARS-CoV research.
But this approach of finding a weakened strain (or generating one), is a good idea to be attempted in parallel. (I’m sure that someone is trying to passage the virus though a different host to attenuate it as we speak). The first step is to try and sequence as much as we can from the wild, but this has its own logistical difficulties. Hopefully there is a research study going on that is trying to collect as many samples as possible now, so that we can sequence later when things have calmed a bit (because there is likely going to be a second round).
I don’t intend to sound so negative on this. I largely agree that this is one avenue that needs to be studied. And from your background, I know you understand these risks/concerns. I worry about the larger public though. My main concern is that this concept can be very risky, especially with an already scared public looking for quick answers. Seriously, the last thing we need is people intentionally trying to get infected in the hope of getting a less lethal strain. This isn’t a cowpox scenario. I guess my hesitation comes down to me not liking the idea of taking too many risks for the sake of doing it quick. That’s been known to come back and bite people.