Wuhan Lab Leak

[iris lilies]

My take from the good NYT article is that there has been no new information that would provide more evidence one way or the other. We may never know. What has changed is geopolitics and national politics. And that even if the confidence in a lab leak is low, there should be some new focus on global lab safety and precautions to reduce or eliminate the risk of a future event. There was more to the article, but that's my take..

Trump was such a prolific liar that I can picture a conspiracy theory backlash when he politicized it and immediately assigned it to a lab leak. Now that the big liar is out of office, there might be a more objective take.

I do not want to defend DJ Trump but as he presents as a not especially a deep thinker, and as his advisors would have informed him of the Wuhan Virus Lab, it is not a stretch to think he would assign Covid to a lab effort not as a conspiracy but as gut reaction.

When the big chocolate spill is in Hersey, Pennsylvania it is reasonable for the average citizen to immediately suspect Hersey Candy Co. just may have something to do with it.

[Rogar]

When the big chocolate spill is in Hersey, Pennsylvania it is reasonable for the average citizen to immediately suspect Hersey Candy Co. just may have something to do with it.

So, you're thinking the disease laden Wuhan open market with zero safety controls is analogous to Hersey Candy?

I probably would not matter if DJ had a private phone call from Chi himself, his propensity for false conspiracy theory preceded Wuhan.

[iris lilies]

So, you're thinking the disease laden Wuhan open market with zero safety controls is analogous to Hersey Candy?

I probably would not matter if DJ had a private phone call from Chi himself, his propensity for false conspiracy theory preceded Wuhan.

No, I am guessing there are far more “open markets” in the giant continent of China than there are laboratories that are set up to produces novel coronaviruses. So, the odds favor the rare thing being generated from the rare thing.

That is my hypothesis. I do not know foe fact that animal markets > novel virus labs.

[Rogar]

No, I am guessing there are far more “open markets” in the giant continent of China than there are laboratories that are set up to produces novel coronaviruses. So, the odds favor the rare thing being generated from the rare thing.

That is my hypothesis. I do not know foe fact that animal markets > novel virus labs.

I really don't have a strong opinion of the origin and have an open mind. Like the NYT articles says, we may never know but should pay better attention to lab safety. However, many or most of our human pathogens jumped from animal to human (zoonotic). It's general knowledge. And how many has a person heard that a human pathogen is a result of a lab error. The gut reaction of an informed person would temp the open market theory based on previous evidence.. That is what Fauci kept saying, even though I think he remained open minded, too.

[LDAHL]

The issue of who was or wasn’t funding gain of function research at the lab also seems murky to me.

[Rogar]

In the sense that it has been used with Wuhan, is gain of function a euphemism for the development of a biological weapon? I assume bacteria and virus are commonly modified for constructive purposes, such as vaccines.

[bae]

I can’t read it because I don’t have a subscription.

Often right-clicking and opening up in an incognito window in your browser will pull articles from behind various paywalls.

Why don’t you tell us why we’ve been talking about it all wrong.

Because:

- That was not my thesis.

- I was merely providing a link to what I thought was an interesting discussion of some of the issues. The headline of the article isn't nearly as interesting as the content.

- I will not engage your straw-man hoooey - if you wish to joust with yourself, have at it.

[bae]

In the sense that it has been used with Wuhan, is gain of function a euphemism for the development of a biological weapon? I assume bacteria and virus are commonly modified for constructive purposes, such as vaccines.

I believe some news commentators like to breathlessly repeat the phrase, with a certain element of "nudge nudge, look, we all know the Evil Chinese are doing biological weapons research with Hunter Biden's laptop".

[Alan]

I believe some news commentators like to breathlessly repeat the phrase, with a certain element of "nudge nudge, look, we all know the Evil Chinese are doing biological weapons research with Hunter Biden's laptop".

Straw-man hooey?

[ApatheticNoMore]

One reason it is being brought up now is because the panic is over and Monday morning quarterbacking is taking place. Review of government action is what citizens may do. And you were wrong that it could be discussed everywhere because there was no “discussion “ in some social media sites.

you mean Facebook I suspect, as there was plenty of discussion on twitter. Or do you mean Tik Tok? Um isn't that literally affiliated with the Chinese government? Chinese government site owned by Chinese government does not allow free discussion of all ideas having to do with Chinese government? Or some other social media site?

Why you say it doesn’t matter that we know the origin of this worldwide virus that killed millions of people and interrupted our society for a couple of years is beyond me.

because I'm not entirely convinced it gives us useful information on dealing with future pandemics. And I think that's the point? Or what is the point? Basically just because it came from a lab leak (and this assumes it is knowable. This assumes we find some kind of actual PROOF and as far as I know none exists) doesn't mean there aren't other potential sources of pandemics (like wet markets, like animal aviculture has to be a huge one I's assume) that could lead to pandemics in the future. So if the point is address threats that could lead to future pandemics (and I make no assumption about this being done well regardless) is it relevant?

Now, I don’t think we’ll ever really get there because China, but if our government continues to probe and does identify some facts around the source of this virus, that’s only to the good. Transparency is good, especially in anything to do with this Covid caper.

In theory yes, in reality all these people have their own motives as well. I don't even know how much of whatever the U.S. govt discovered would ever make it to the public.