The Coronavirus Unveiled: Microscopic Images of SARS-CoV-2 - The New York Times

While the past few months have delivered a flood of data about the virus, some studies have made it clear that it will take years to make sense of SARS-CoV-2.

And:

But scientists can’t even begin to guess at these possibilities, because no one has yet spotted the mini-spike in the wild. And the same will be true for the other new genes, Dr. Stern-Ginossar’s team has found.
“Each one will require additional work to figure out what they’re doing,” she said. “Biology takes time.”

Sometimes it’s nice to step back from all the politics around COVID-19 and learn about what the scientists working hard on figuring out how this thing works.