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Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

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11–20 of 55 posts

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#11
> Scientist have long suspected that the rate of new infectious diseases could accelerate, especially in developing countries where human and animal interaction is increasing.

I don't know any "Scientist" making this claim, and I work at a research University. Humans have always lived in direct contact with animals. We evolved from the Natural world living with animals in the forest, desert, and grassland. What has changed is that there are more people and we are more interconnected than ever. So in the past, if someone were exposed to a novel coronavirus, the infection wouldn't leave the village, but now it spreads across the globe in a matter of months.

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#12
post #7

The WHO seems to be under Chinese control. Their investigations should not be expected to embarrass China in any way. They'll produce an innocuous conclusion.

People are downvoting you while journalists who tried to expose these truths rot in Chinese prisons.

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#13
post #9

> Changes in the environment are driving displaced species of animals into new habitats, allowing them to mix with other species or potential hosts. Outside of reactionary comments about banning eating bats and banning "wet markets", I wish there was more serious discussion about how intensive animal farming in general could lead to another pandemic and what we're going to do about it. We're just going to continue as…

There is considerable suspicion that SARS-CoV-2 was enhanced by the Wuhan lab. The simple fact that the species carrying the closest relative of this epidemic was a thousand miles away from Wuhan and was not present at the wet markets in any capacity is sufficient to doubt the narrative. If we want to safeguard our species from zoonotic pandemics, instead of weaponizing them, then a vaccination effort would be better…

"Considerable suspicion" is over-selling it in my opinion. The arguments I've heard go along the lines of 'the virus is surprisingly well adapted to humans'. This reasoning, however, is text-book survivor bias:

Given we observe a pandemic, the probability for the virus to be well adapted is very high.

What we do know is:

* There is a highest safety level virus lab in Wuhan.

* Lab escapes do and did happen.

As far as I know we simply do not have evidence if or if not gain of function research played a role.

\edit: formatting. Can somebody please explain the downvotes?

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#14
post #11

> Scientist have long suspected that the rate of new infectious diseases could accelerate, especially in developing countries where human and animal interaction is increasing. I don't know any "Scientist" making this claim, and I work at a research University. Humans have always lived in direct contact with animals. We evolved from the Natural world living with animals in the forest, desert, and grassland. What has c…

Yeah... surely industrialised animal farming is to blame?

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#16
post #9

> Changes in the environment are driving displaced species of animals into new habitats, allowing them to mix with other species or potential hosts. Outside of reactionary comments about banning eating bats and banning "wet markets", I wish there was more serious discussion about how intensive animal farming in general could lead to another pandemic and what we're going to do about it. We're just going to continue as…

There is considerable suspicion that SARS-CoV-2 was enhanced by the Wuhan lab. The simple fact that the species carrying the closest relative of this epidemic was a thousand miles away from Wuhan and was not present at the wet markets in any capacity is sufficient to doubt the narrative. If we want to safeguard our species from zoonotic pandemics, instead of weaponizing them, then a vaccination effort would be better…

You've got to be joking. No one is going to vaccinate millions of wild bats and pangolins.

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#17
Maybe we should consider getting rid of esp problematic species of bats that are host to the most pathogens. I personally don't see much value in the species. They are like the mosquitos of the mammal world.

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#18
post #10

Alina Chan looks from a scientific perspektive at the lableak hypothesis and it's unresolved as far as I know: https://twitter.com/Ayjchan Bascially we don't know and probably won't know. The conflict of interest with the WHO mission is pretty clear. Beyond any politicization of the issue it's interesting to learn about the possibilities and risks in that research area.

Any credibility to the study released by this Dr. Steven Quay? He seems to have uncovered ample evidence, that in the case of COVID19, it was leaked from a lab.

"A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived"

- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-by-dr-ste...

The first 12 pages of the PDF read like a sci-fy thriller. Link to the PDF (scroll down the page a bit):

- https://zenodo.org/record/4477081

Re: Bats and the Origin of Outbreaks

#20
post #8

How about it leaking from a research facility?

Yeah and it’s clear that they are making this stuff too: “Utilizing the SARS-CoV infectious clone, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse adapted SARS-CoV backbone”

https://www.med.unc.edu/orfeome/files/2018/03/a-sars-like-cl...

another interesting find: http://ge.usembassy.gov/fact-sheet-activity-at-the-wuhan-ins...

The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses. This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was “zero infection” among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.

Accidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people, killing one.

The CCP has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV, including those who were ill in the fall of 2019.

Any credible inquiry into the origin of the virus must include interviews with these researchers and a full accounting of their previously unreported illness.

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