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Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

sciencemag.org

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Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#21

Post by allovernow »

Aperocky wrote: post #17
allovernow wrote: post #2

There is a recently opened P4 biolab in Wuhan within miles of the seafood market in question, with researchers who have recently been working with and publishing on the topic of Corona viruses, including research on human transmission. Not to be sensationalist, and personally I think the title is alarmist, but are a number of suspicious elements to this story that are worth examining: https://medium.com/@siradrianbon…

s/biolab/World Trade Center/ s/biolab/Apollo/ ‘Number of suspicious elements’ Even the VOA has came out to classify this as a hoax. Sometimes people just want to believe in conspiracies.

Did you read the article before you dismissed this? The links are a little more substantial than 9/11 conspiracies.

And the mechanism is far less far-fetched, considering that on at least one instance SARS was confirmed as having escaped a research lab much like the one in question.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20040423/china-sars-death

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#22

Post by coolspot »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #10
erichocean wrote: post #5

"Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag" https://biorxiv-cache.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2020.01.30.... > [ABSTRACT] We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in ot…

Can someone translate this?

Parts of 2019-nCoV are similar to Human Immunodeficiency Virus .

[HIV] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_and_genome_of_HIV

[gp120] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gp120

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#23

Post by gravelc »

erichocean wrote: post #5

"Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag" https://biorxiv-cache.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2020.01.30.... > [ABSTRACT] We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in ot…

This is laughable.

Table 1 shows four alignments. The first two are only six contiguous residues, so can easily happen by chance. Three has multiple mistmatches as well as the gap (red). Four has an even larger gap to get the alignment.

Take any two viruses and there's a decent likelihood of finding similar alignments.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#24

Post by claudeganon »

Aperocky wrote: post #17
allovernow wrote: post #2

There is a recently opened P4 biolab in Wuhan within miles of the seafood market in question, with researchers who have recently been working with and publishing on the topic of Corona viruses, including research on human transmission. Not to be sensationalist, and personally I think the title is alarmist, but are a number of suspicious elements to this story that are worth examining: https://medium.com/@siradrianbon…

s/biolab/World Trade Center/ s/biolab/Apollo/ ‘Number of suspicious elements’ Even the VOA has came out to classify this as a hoax. Sometimes people just want to believe in conspiracies.

Yes, I hate conspiracy theorists who ridiculously claim that governments tested out things like toxic chemicals, radioactive substances, and pathogens on civilian populations throughout the entire 20th century:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentat...

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#25

Post by Tenoke »

I hate to ask again, but why is this submission also getting heavily penalized?

It seems like maybe all 2019-nCoV posts are getting penalized by mod(s) silently? Because this one and the last one an hour ago are. [0]

I am not making any statements about whether that is sensible or not - but why not comment on why, like you've so often done in other cases?

0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22205338

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#26

Post by LoSboccacc »

erichocean wrote: post #5

"Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag" https://biorxiv-cache.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2020.01.30.... > [ABSTRACT] We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in ot…

and China is testing HIV related drugs for treatment since well before this paper came out

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/chi...

but it's just a lucky hunch, right? not like they would try to hide knowing more about it, right?

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#27

Post by Aperocky »

allovernow wrote: post #21
Aperocky wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/biolab/World Trade Center/ s/biolab/Apollo/ ‘Number of suspicious elements’ Even the VOA has came out to classify this as a hoax. Sometimes people just want to believe in conspiracies.

Did you read the article before you dismissed this? The links are a little more substantial than 9/11 conspiracies. And the mechanism is far less far-fetched, considering that on at least one instance SARS was confirmed as having escaped a research lab much like the one in question. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20040423/china-sars-death

There are 23 genome publicly available, And it’s closely identifies with existing coronavirus from bats and are further away from SARS. I am not a biologist, tell me should I trust the existing science or your story? It was said that the virus might not have originated from the market itself, people who actually raised or caught these wild animals might have gotten it first. But to make a jump from that to the biolab is exactly like how the US flag looked like wind blew on it and we never went to the moon.

I’ll believe it when NIH or CDC publish corroborating evidence. Or are they part of the ‘system’ to you?

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#28

Post by stevespang »

Many if not all of the seasonal flu and coronaviruses have historically originated in Asia, specifically China.

A Chinese biologist told me it is because poor Chinese people in rural areas very often overwinter their geese and pigs,etc in the 1st level of the house, some even sleep with them like pets (before they eventually eat them, how touching). That explains the increased levels of animal to human transition of these viruses.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#29

Post by superzamp »

allovernow wrote: post #2

There is a recently opened P4 biolab in Wuhan within miles of the seafood market in question, with researchers who have recently been working with and publishing on the topic of Corona viruses, including research on human transmission. Not to be sensationalist, and personally I think the title is alarmist, but are a number of suspicious elements to this story that are worth examining: https://medium.com/@siradrianbon…

Currently reading a (French) book regarding France-China industrial espionage and relations that was published well before the virus outbreak. Funnily enough, the author describes quite extensively how this P4 in Wuhan came into existence and all the subsequent problems faced by France to get China to honor the deal.

I quote/translate: "In the course of these fifteen years, China has several times failed to live up to their engagement, staying relatively vague about the existence of an offensive biological program. Chinese officials had, for example, previously certified they had no other P4 and no plans to build any, but we now know they do have many, some being quite suspicious, a France official said".

The book is "France-Chine, les liaisons dangereuses" by Antoine Izambard, for those curious.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#30

Post by dang »

Tenoke wrote: post #25

I hate to ask again, but why is this submission also getting heavily penalized? It seems like maybe all 2019-nCoV posts are getting penalized by mod(s) silently? Because this one and the last one an hour ago are. [0] I am not making any statements about whether that is sensible or not - but why not comment on why, like you've so often done in other cases? 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22205338

Major ongoing stories, especially sensational ones like a new epidemic, lead to tons of copycat and follow-up posts. In order for the front page not to fill up with coronavirus stories, or some other sensation du jour, we try to downweight follow-up posts unless there is significant new information. Otherwise the threads fill up with repetition of what's already been said, wild speculation, or both.

We hit on the "significant new information" test after the Snowden storm of 2013, when users justly complained that the front page had become inundated with too many articles that added nothing substantial and were just triggering repeat threads. As a discussion becomes repetitive, it also tends to become wilder and more flame-prone—as if the mind has to resort to that to amuse itself, since there's nothing new to sink its teeth into.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Since HN's organizing value is intellectual curiosity, repetition and groundless speculation are among the things most to be avoided here. That's why we moderate that way.

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