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The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

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Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#171

Post by warlog »

arrosenberg wrote: post #95
harryf wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying it's shady to provide that funding. What I'm saying is it demonstrates conflict of interest. Last year in May 5 2020 Fauci dismissed the idea that the virus came from a lab that his own organisation was providing funds to - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthony-fauci-wuhan-lab-coronav... Whether or not anything shady was happening, the conflict of interest is clear.

It's not a conflict of interest because Dr. Fauci wasn't gaining anything. The agency he is head of is specifically interested in infectious disease and has a large budget for grants. $120K per year pays for a couple plate of genetic samples and tech time to run them. Maybe in China you can run a few more for that cost, I don't know. As head of that agency, it's also his job to share his professional opinion with the…

But it could be perceived as a conflict of interest, and that of itself is the reason to at least declare it (for transparency). This is how it works in ethics.

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#172

Post by tehwebguy »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #111
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kevin Drum had a good summary of this a couple of weeks ago, much shorter. His take? There's no more evidence for the lab leak theory now than there was a year ago, BUT what has changed is that the cross-over theory implied that we would find certain evidence for the vectors, and that evidence has not shown up. KD's take was that it's not so much that the lab leak theory has become more likely, it's the that biologic…

Haha. No. It’s because of politics and TDS. People were taught that this was a Trump theory. That’s all the media needs to say to ensure that nobody will take it seriously and nobody will tolerate anyone else who takes it seriously.

I mean, fair enough right? Figuring out if it started in a lab has zero effect on the mortality rate while Trump making up new lies every day for months about how it's just about to just go away anyway led people to their deaths, plenty of whom probably weren't his followers.

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#173

Post by generalizations »

triceratops wrote: post #153
generalizations wrote: post #60

This is why people say "do your own research". Because trusting some other authority will end badly, just like this.

> "do your own research" How? I barely have enough time to do my day job. You think I have the time or expertise to research the origins of a virus? Where does it end? Do I grow my own food? Make my own clothes? Build my own car after mining ore, smelting it and doing a million other things?

It's a statement of consequences; just "the way the world works."

Trust the experts if you've no time for more, but this is the likely result.

Put time into your own research, and maybe you won't be caught off guard.

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#174

Post by triceratops »

actuator wrote: post #165
triceratops wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are fine with calling it UK/Brazil/South African/Indian variant Not anymore. They're getting Greek letter designations now.

Tell it to our politically correct liberal friends at Guardian, they are still using the country name. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/03/india-covid-va...

Maybe not every copy editor there has gotten the news?[1]

1. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/01/covid-19-varia...

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#175

Post by triceratops »

generalizations wrote: post #173
triceratops wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "do your own research" How? I barely have enough time to do my day job. You think I have the time or expertise to research the origins of a virus? Where does it end? Do I grow my own food? Make my own clothes? Build my own car after mining ore, smelting it and doing a million other things?

It's a statement of consequences; just "the way the world works." Trust the experts if you've no time for more, but this is the likely result. Put time into your own research, and maybe you won't be caught off guard.

> Put time into your own research, and maybe you won't be caught off guard.

Why? What guarantees are there that I'll do a better job of research than the experts?

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#176

Post by breakyerself »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #87
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #70

You know the story of the boy who cried wolf? Trump was the boy. Everybody knows how that story ended, but as a reminder: "This tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock. When a wolf actually does appear, the villagers do not believe the boy's cries for help, and the flock is destroyed. The moral of the story is that liars will not be rewarded; eve…

This is a weak and frankly shameful rationalization. Just take the L. People who dismissed this fucked up. People who were jerks about it fucked up even more. Trump Derangement Syndrome is your fault, not Trumps. None of the people who were looking into this or following it were getting their information from Trump. Most of the detractors just assumed they were.

I mean the only person in my life expressing an interest in this was my mom and she got it from the radio program coast to coast. Which is almost entirely crackpot conspiracy UFO bullshit. Still. I didn't tell her it couldn't have come from the lab. I said there isn't really enough evidence to conclude that. I think that was the mainstream opinion. Not that it couldn't have come from the lab, but that there wasn't enough evidence to support that conclusion. It's normal that something like this can take years to sort out especially when the authoritarian government controlling the area would prefer not to have that particular conclusion.

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#177

Post by fragileone »

adrr wrote: post #135
nostromo wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason it's coming out now is because Trump is gone. During the election, most of the media decided to ignore anything they were afraid would help Trump or hurt Biden. Whether an activist media is good or bad is left as an exercise for the reader.

Trump officials are the ones who said it wasn’t a lab leak from the start. Did you read the article?

Donald Trump =/= his employees

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#178

Post by swader999 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #73
rootsudo wrote: post #22

It is, the narrative last year was that if you pointed at Wuhan, or Chinese Lab Leak, you were racist/bigoted.

That's not how I remember the narrative. It was split in two. 1. Calling it "the china virus", as the former president was wont to do, was labelled racist/bigoted/nationalistic by those who did not simply agree with anything he said. 2. The claim that it originated in the Wuhan lab was viewed as unlikely, and there was (is) an alternative biological origin story which at the time seemed credible and more likely.

It's been practice for centuries to initially name it after where it was first originated. Spanish flu ring a bell? But yeah Trump's racist for saying China flu.

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#179

Post by mc32 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #168
briefcomment wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craziest excuse I've ever heard: "I couldn't be bothered to act rationally and morally because someone else was being too annoying".

What do you think the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is? Is it a lesson for the villagers, or a lesson for a (potential) liar?

Why is Twitter suspending the account for the Fauci email leaker(s)? Is that the path to truth?

Whom is that a lesson for?

Re: The lab-leak theory: inside the fight to uncover Covid-19’s origins

#180

Post by jkhdigital »

fragileone wrote: post #53

Strange that this article tries to paint anyone right-wing who postulated this theory way before the mainstream finally accepted it as being racist or crazy, as if nobody had talked about this evidence back then. The journal articles published by the lab were public information, as was their prior lab leaks in 2019, poor safety practice anecdotes, etc. Thousands of social media accounts got banned on all the major pl…

Yeah, it’s a good article except for the gratuitous sprinkling of partisan barbs against any and all not-left-of-center political affiliations.
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