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Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

nytimes.com

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Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#41

Post by capableweb »

mullingitover wrote: post #30
jameslk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you might get a better reception on Infowars Can you elaborate why you added this part to your comment?

The parent comment was a pretty clumsy dog whistle to paranoid folks who believe Gates to be a sinister puppetmaster who is unleashing pandemic disease on the world. The Infowars audience is very receptive to this unfounded notion. Since the commenter is concerned about the popularity of his posts, I proposed a suitable audience that would be more receptive and would provide the desired positive response.

You seem to be the conspirator here, the linked article from hunterb123 makes no claims about Bill Gates (as a puppetmaster or anything else) but simply quotes what he has been saying at some event.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#42

Post by foo92691 »

qwertox wrote: post #23

Apparently this happened before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox > On July 1, 2014, six sealed glass vials of smallpox dated 1954, along with sample vials of other pathogens, were discovered in a cold storage room in an FDA laboratory at the National Institutes of Health location in Bethesda, Maryland. The smallpox vials were subsequently transferred to the custody of the CDC in Atlanta, where virus taken from…

Deciding to culture the samples, versus just destroying them without analysis, must be accompanied by an interesting risk/benefit analysis.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#43

Post by [deleted] »

pm90 wrote: post #18
macinjosh wrote: post #17

Maybe we should shutdown all labs studying pathogens until they can figure out how to handle themselves. We aren’t even through the current scientist caused pandemic yet.

Maybe we should shut down aws until they figure out how to handle their periodic outages.

[deleted]

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#44

Post by BitwiseFool »

mullingitover wrote: post #14
hunterb123 wrote: post #2

Related: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bill-gates-smallp... edit: Wow downvotes for linking to an event related to small pox. I figured it was important especially the timing. How many other small pox events do you remember in recent history? It's simply an interview about smallpox that happened recently. All I said was it was related.

This is not a good topic for Hacker News, you might get a better reception on Infowars.

In the GP's defense, it is not like they posted this article completely out of the blue and on some unrelated topic.

I find it to be an intriguing coincidence that a vial labeled "smallpox" happened to be discovered around the time that "Bill Gates has warned governments to prepare for smallpox terror attacks and future pandemics by investing billions into research and development." It is either a dumb-luck coincidence or some remarkable prescience from Bill Gates. Either way, the article makes no claims on the topic.

No, I don't think this is the beginning of some grand conspiracy. Besides, it is completely within the realm of possibility that a virulent disease like Smallpox could be accidentally or maliciously re-introduced to the world. I see no harm in what the GP posted.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#45

Post by redis_mlc »

pram wrote: post #27

Huh, I got a smallpox vaccine when I was in the military in 2006. I assumed it was still a common thing, but I guess it hasn’t been done for civilians since the 70s? Crazy.

It was eradicated outside labs, but there's always concern of accidental releases, or that militaries will use it.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#46

Post by jameslk »

mullingitover wrote: post #30
jameslk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you might get a better reception on Infowars Can you elaborate why you added this part to your comment?

The parent comment was a pretty clumsy dog whistle to paranoid folks who believe Gates to be a sinister puppetmaster who is unleashing pandemic disease on the world. The Infowars audience is very receptive to this unfounded notion. Since the commenter is concerned about the popularity of his posts, I proposed a suitable audience that would be more receptive and would provide the desired positive response.

It seems like you've been on HN long enough to know the guidelines so I won't parrot them. I think these type of "assuming worst intent" type of comments don't help the community honestly, they just piss people off more and further polarization. I believe it would have been better had you simply left off the "Infowars" part of your comment.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#47

Post by btbuildem »

> In the event of an outbreak, the C.D.C. said, “there is enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate every person in the United States.”

I wonder whether the CDC has re-evaluated their scenarios and simulations given the politicization of vaccines during this pandemic.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#48

Post by dekhn »

wincy wrote: post #7

If I were working in a lab I’d think it was hilarious to write “smallpox” on random bottles. Probably good that I work in software and not biology.

Even correctly labelled bottles can be dangerous. THere was an explosion in my lab when somebody touched a bottle of ether. Please don't make it any harder...

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#49

Post by Aaronstotle »

caseyohara wrote: post #40
macinjosh wrote: post #17

Maybe we should shutdown all labs studying pathogens until they can figure out how to handle themselves. We aren’t even through the current scientist caused pandemic yet.

> We aren’t even through the current scientist caused pandemic yet I'm astonished there are people that think like this on HN

Seems significantly more likely than not this current pandemic originated via a lab leak. Although the comment makes it sound like it was on purpose, rather than an accident which again seems most likely.

Re: Vials labeled ‘smallpox’ are found in Pennsylvania laboratory

#50

Post by 0des »

jameslk wrote: post #25
mullingitover wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a good topic for Hacker News, you might get a better reception on Infowars.

> you might get a better reception on Infowars Can you elaborate why you added this part to your comment?

I interpreted it as a signal of derision.
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