Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
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Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#2Rootclaim, an Israeli startup, claims Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 was developed in a Chinese lab and was released was released by accident.
They are offering to bet $100,000 on the accuracy of our analysis.
Here you can find information about the challenge: https://www.rootclaim.com/rootclaim_challenge
Personally, I think their logic is doesn't work and I would like to see someone credible challenges them.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#3Rootclaim, an Israeli startup, claims Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 was developed in a Chinese lab and was released was released by accident. They are offering to bet $100,000 on the accuracy of our analysis. Here you can find information about the challenge: https://www.rootclaim.com/rootclaim_challenge Personally, I think their logic is doesn't work and I would like to see someone credible challenges them.
You can't prove a negative though.
The burden of proof is on them.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#4For those interested, the specific breakdown is on this page [1].
I don’t know what good will come of this discussion, unless all countries are willing to discontinue gain-of-function research if this claim is found to be true. However that’s a lot of “ifs” and there is too much opportunity to simply place blame, which won’t help anyone.
[1] https://www.rootclaim.com/analysis/what-is-the-source-of-cov...
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#5Rootclaim, an Israeli startup, claims Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 was developed in a Chinese lab and was released was released by accident. They are offering to bet $100,000 on the accuracy of our analysis. Here you can find information about the challenge: https://www.rootclaim.com/rootclaim_challenge Personally, I think their logic is doesn't work and I would like to see someone credible challenges them.
No post body was provided.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#6They're probably receiving >$100k worth of attention by making this claim so... I'd like to see more zeroes in the wager.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#7Rootclaim, an Israeli startup, claims Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 was developed in a Chinese lab and was released was released by accident. They are offering to bet $100,000 on the accuracy of our analysis. Here you can find information about the challenge: https://www.rootclaim.com/rootclaim_challenge Personally, I think their logic is doesn't work and I would like to see someone credible challenges them.
You can't prove a negative though. The burden of proof is on them.
I wonder if that's why they're making the bet.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#8The Chinese sure acted like it was a possibility that it came from their own lab - their initial reaction was to downplay and cover up.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#9I’m also convinced that that is the case.
Re: Israeli startup claims Covid-19 likely originated in a lab, willing to bet on it
#10Oh 2020. It's a crazy thing to say out loud (or even to type), but there is substantial doubt about the origin story of this virus in mainstream scientific circles.
The National Academy of Sciences published an opinion piece from a reputable scientist containing fairly strongly worded (for PNAS, anyway) conjecture regarding a possible laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2. [0]
(you might recognize Relman's name from his work on identifying the human gut microbiome.)
This is particularly strongly worded for this publication:
""" Some have argued that a deliberate engineering scenario is unlikely because one would not have had the insight a priori to design the current pandemic virus (3). This argument fails to acknowledge the possibility that two or more as yet undisclosed ancestors (i.e., more proximal ancestors than RaTG13 and RmYN02) had already been discovered and were being studied in a laboratory—for example, one with the SARS-CoV-2 backbone and spike protein receptor-binding domain, and the other with the SARS-CoV-2 polybasic furin cleavage site. It would have been a logical next step to wonder about the properties of a recombinant virus and then create it in the laboratory. Alternatively, the complete SARS-CoV-2 sequence could have been recovered from a bat sample and viable virus resurrected from a synthetic genome to study it, before that virus accidentally escaped from the laboratory. """