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More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

nytimes.com

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Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#11

Post by ramraj07 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Part of me thinks that we should almost not waste the time to find out. Spend the effort on preparing for the next one, by improving air filtration etc. Politics is too deeply entrenched, it will be an impossibility to uncover the truth.

No this needs more investigation. Even if the Chinese side might be hard to crack, the American angle needs to be fully evaluated. Which American scientists were at least aware if not complicit (including Fauci) in this entire misguided attempt at proactively finding the next virus? Did they actively try to suppress their involvement once everything hit the fan?

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#12

Post by google234123 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #7
google234123 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is sad is that these ideas were dismissed as crackpotish or racist until now.

I wonder in who's best interest it was to dismiss these theories as racist.

China? This seems pretty obvious. The far left also enjoys calling things racist so they probably pushed it too.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#14

Post by fumbly »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Part of me thinks that we should almost not waste the time to find out. Spend the effort on preparing for the next one, by improving air filtration etc. Politics is too deeply entrenched, it will be an impossibility to uncover the truth.

The current plan is to 6x the funding for gain-of-function research, from $200 million to $1.2 billion, in the name of pandemic prevention. That's one serious reason for wanting to investigate whether gain-of-function research may have caused the current one.

The risks of such research have been in open debate for years, and the Obama administration even banned it for a while. It's not a far-fetched possibility, and it's a shame that the discussion about it became such a political casualty for the first year or so. The fact that heads are cooling a little now is clearly the precondition for scientists to be able to start writing letters like the OP.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#15

Post by Judgmentality »

908B64B197 wrote: post #7
google234123 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is sad is that these ideas were dismissed as crackpotish or racist until now.

I wonder in who's best interest it was to dismiss these theories as racist.

Are you saying Trump was complicit in calling it the Chinese virus as part of their propaganda campaign? Sometimes things can just be explained by stupidity.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#19

Post by monday_ »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Part of me thinks that we should almost not waste the time to find out. Spend the effort on preparing for the next one, by improving air filtration etc. Politics is too deeply entrenched, it will be an impossibility to uncover the truth.

If a containment breach of a relatively harmless virus can lead to worldwide catastrophic consequences, you may want to know what procedures were breached and what institutional incentives are required to make sure the risks are constrained.

In software terms, if you have a bug that breaks the production and the response is messy and slow, you absolutely need to spend time and effort to change your response process. But you also need to know how this type of a bug became possible in the first place.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#20

Post by eplanit »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

Part of me thinks that we should almost not waste the time to find out. Spend the effort on preparing for the next one, by improving air filtration etc. Politics is too deeply entrenched, it will be an impossibility to uncover the truth.

Preparation for the next event _requires_ understanding the origin of this one to the greatest extent possible.

I think it's very wrong to shy away from inquiry of the truth out of fear of politics.

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