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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

#31

Post by elliekelly »

screye wrote: post #22

Shekhar Gupta (One of India's foremost journalists and media people) did a great 30 minute analysis of this article covering who the cast members are and how this ties back into various stories from the last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlO8sKRynBY So far, the lab origin story sounds the most plausible and has the least holes in it. Now innocent until proven guilty is a thing, but is not like the PRC would e…

Since there isn’t any evidence for either scenario I don’t think it’s at all accurate to say one possible origin is “the most plausible”. A lack of evidence for one does not give credence to the other and vice versa.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#32

Post by whatthesmack »

austincheney wrote: post #21
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #8

As it takes longer and longer to find any evidence in nature a lab leaking is becoming the most likely source.

That is an argument from ignorance logical fallacy. The inability to find something has no bearing on whether it exists or not and thus has no bearing on the probability of an inverted outcome. Dark matter/energy also frequently fall into this sort of argument. There is no evidence that they do exist, which does not suggest the absence of their existence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

Not sure what your point is. The source for SARS and MERS were found within months. We're over a year into this with no clue. Based on the current circumstances' inconsistencies with historical circumstances, this appears to be something different.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#33

Post by dang »

Bayesian_bro wrote: post #23

The origin of COVID-19 is going to be one of the biggest news stories in 2021-22 IMO. China's global reputation is going to take a hit. I don't think they did this intentionally. I think everyone had the best of intentions and either they found something deep in a bat cave or there was a lab mishap. I've gone down the rabbit hole on this issue. Here are some interesting links https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=R01A…

Please don't copy-paste comments. It strictly lowers the signal/noise ratio, and it contradicts the principle that HN threads are supposed to be conversations. People don't repeat long pre-written statements in conversation.

If you want to refer to something you said in a previous context, that's fine and is what links are for.

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

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#34

Post by varispeed »

Bayesian_bro wrote: post #23

The origin of COVID-19 is going to be one of the biggest news stories in 2021-22 IMO. China's global reputation is going to take a hit. I don't think they did this intentionally. I think everyone had the best of intentions and either they found something deep in a bat cave or there was a lab mishap. I've gone down the rabbit hole on this issue. Here are some interesting links https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=R01A…

> China's global reputation is going to take a hit.

If having openly racist culture and running concentration camps has done nothing to their reputation, I don't think anything will.

> I don't think they did this intentionally.

Regardless if this was intentional or not, they should take responsibility. Imagine if Russia dropped a nuclear bomb on Europe by mistake. This is the same calibre of "oops my bad.". It's not a secret that these viruses were researched as a potential bio-weapon. In that sense whether it was intentional or not, it has done immense damage to worldwide economy, which is exactly the goal of such bio-weapon.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#35

Post by dasudasu »

eplanit wrote: post #20
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.

Besides, forgoing any investigation is a political statement and indeed the preferred outcome by one major political player.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#36

Post by bko »

btilly wrote: post #27
mirekrusin wrote: post #18

What's the point? Regardless if it leaked from the lab or not we have to prepare for the future the same way.

The question is whether the type of research that might have lead to this result should be shut down to prevent similar accidents in the future. If COVID-19 was, in fact, a lab release then that's a strong argument for shutting the research down.

And maybe liability on the offending party?

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#39

Post by monday_ »

The trouble here is that a lot of institutions and public persons have more or less staked their credibility on dismissing the lab origin hypothesis. They had their reasons - if anything, over the last years their standing and the value of expert opinion was under constant pressure (notice I'm talking about a reason, not a justification).

But this makes any admission of an error and, by extension, any useful reflection on it very, very improbable. I think if the lab origin is true and at some point becomes common knowledge, it will be treated like the Iraq war. The people responsible for botching the response and the message will fail up and treat the pandemic as if it were a tsunami, rather then human error.

Re: More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

#40

Post by 908B64B197 »

google234123 wrote: post #12
908B64B197 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wonder if that's why the comment was downvoted so heavily and flagged.
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