31–40 of 267 posts
It really doesn't make a difference if covid came from a lab or not, or even whether it was released on purpose or not. No one will stand up to China whether they did this on purpose or by gross negligence. So no one will stand up to China. So nothing will change...
Where is the RoI on that? We failed miserably.
Youtube is still censoring this topic. Two well known scientists testified before congress on GoF testing and the Corona Virus characteristics. That was pulled down within a few hours. I save all these videos but no idea what to do with them. [Edit] I found a copy of the coverage posted by Forbes [1] and as a matter of correction it is the GOP House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Select Coronavirus Crisis heari…
To think that a few months ago, sharing this article would have gotten someone banned from Facebook for sharing "conspiracy theories".
Because people are sharing actual conspiracy theories and killing others. So it's a blanket ban. How many people are so crazed and convinced that the vaccine makes you magnetic/sterile/whatever?
To think that a few months ago, sharing this article would have gotten someone banned from Facebook for sharing "conspiracy theories".
That's because Facebook is full of bad actors sharing actual complete bullshit conspiracy theories, and the only thing a company like Facebook can possibly do is a make a "nothing that deviates too hard from the Official Line(tm) rule." Otherwise they have to get into the business of being some kind of scientific review board, which they are in no way equipped to do. Bad faith propaganda at the scale we have seen rec…
It really doesn't make a difference if covid came from a lab or not, or even whether it was released on purpose or not. No one will stand up to China whether they did this on purpose or by gross negligence. So no one will stand up to China. So nothing will change...
Better yet, it doesn't matter because supposedly we're spending billions of DoD to actually have plans to defend against a bio weapon attack. Where is the RoI on that? We failed miserably.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I stand corrected. Is any of what they said accurate?
I haven't watched their Congressional testimony, but I've read Quay's "analysis" and heard Asher propound on his bioweapon theory elsewhere. Quay's analysis is not a rigorous Bayesian analysis in any sense. It's a series of subjective judgments about likelihoods of various scenarios. It's classic garbage-in, garbage-out, dressed up as science by using the word "Bayesian." The thing is, Bayesian inference is only as g…
Yes China did seem to contain COVID well, but if it were (hypothetically) a bio-weapon there's no way they could have known ahead of time they'd be this successful or that the virus wouldn't mutate into something far more dangerous. The CCP can be evil but they're not reckless. They prefer a very measured, calculated, incremental approach, not high-risk gambits like releasing a bioweapon. If that backfired it could decimate their population, drag them into WWIII, or both, and none of that would be a win.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually I knew about Shi's work early on because I talked with experts on the field and I shared all this info without problems. The urge to ban that info in social sites came much later, when politicians got the message and considered that info dangerous(and because the West depended on Chinese supplies). Most politicians are so dumb from the scientific and technical side that it took a long time for them to unders…
I don't think you need to make conspiratorial allegations about the info being judged "dangerous" to explain it. It simply got politicized just as masks got politicized. The more one side advocates it the more the other side discredits it.
If Trump kept his mouth shut, it may have gone down differently (that is, less politicized).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's because Facebook is full of bad actors sharing actual complete bullshit conspiracy theories, and the only thing a company like Facebook can possibly do is a make a "nothing that deviates too hard from the Official Line(tm) rule." Otherwise they have to get into the business of being some kind of scientific review board, which they are in no way equipped to do. Bad faith propaganda at the scale we have seen rec…
Official line in which country? And what happens when the WHO says one thing, the CDC says something else, and the President contradicts both?
I didn't say they were doing a good job, just that the alternative would have been to let the platform turn into a complete cesspool of bullshit and hate.
This scenario is a curse you get when you are operating a gigantic Internet forum at that kind of scale.
This is progress. Maybe soon we can finally admit that "gain of function" is the politically correct way to say "bioweapon".
Gain of function research was being carried out for the benefit of society (or resume padding). However, it wasn't subject to oversight (to put it mildly) and was being handled by a lab ill-equipped to do so safely.
China has massive zoonotic reservoirs. The US researchers that led the world in Coronavirus study wanted to do gain of function, but couldn't do it domestically and didn't have access to the wild novel coronaviruses.
Money and notes changed hands, and the Wuhan lab went about gain of function research. The lab was sloppy, the modified virus leaked, and the rest is history.
There are probably only a handful of people ultimately responsible for this. The individuals from the US writing the proposals and pushing for it despite lack of safety, and those in China that knew the risks but went ahead. (The coverup and slow responses are also to blame for the spread.)
Millions of deaths out of lack of oversight and desire for personal prestige. That's the story.
To think that a few months ago, sharing this article would have gotten someone banned from Facebook for sharing "conspiracy theories".
That's because Facebook is full of bad actors sharing actual complete bullshit conspiracy theories, and the only thing a company like Facebook can possibly do is a make a "nothing that deviates too hard from the Official Line(tm) rule." Otherwise they have to get into the business of being some kind of scientific review board, which they are in no way equipped to do. Bad faith propaganda at the scale we have seen rec…
They're not that far off that to be honest - https://oversightboard.com/