Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 1001 posts

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#61

Post by 323 »

snird wrote: post #52

As a non-American, the whole thing seems crazy to me. It seems like Trump said it from the start, and the media negated him based on political views, not facts. And now, only years later, there is a reconciliation with the facts. Now, I'm not that aware of the politics or the media in the US. But I think the way I see it may be the way many others saw this story roll. Whether or not it's true - it is a big reason tha…

> the media negated him based on political views

No, the media negated it because all the notable scientists and publications (Nature, Lancet, ..) said it was a crazy conspiracy theory.

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#62

Post by 323 »

boeingUH60 wrote: post #56
someuser54541 wrote: post #51

I'm fairly confident posts like these are artificially weighted to fall off the front page..that seems to happen when a COVID related post gets popular on HN. This post has more points and comments than the majority of stuff on the front page but it's currently on page 3. I've casually noticed something similar over the past ~18 months with posts related to COVID.

Many people flag these types of posts (including myself) because they get too toxic. I even flagged this one despite commenting on it.

Toxic to whom? The scientists which are trying to bury this because it's putting their careers in danger?

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#63

Post by lmiao »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #22
boeingUH60 wrote: post #6

Nothing seems certain at this point, but, let’s say the pandemic was actually caused by a lab leak. That’ll mean the world was brought to an economic standstill and millions of people died because of the errors and carelessness of some people…will there be consequences? What will be the assurance that such deadly mistake won’t occur again? If it was actually a lab leak, then it’ll definitely rank as the most costly a…

Let me play the game. If covid was caused by a lab leak, I think the right question to ask is: who benefits (did benefit) by the leak? And remember that number of dead people is something that governments don’t care about (i.e., governments easily go into war every now and then: it’s clear they couldn’t care less about civilians).

Even if we accepted the idea that "governments don't care", it's still made up of people that act out of self interest. How would they protect themselves and their loved ones from the same fate that they so callously cast upon the rest of us? I think Hanlon's Razor applies: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect"

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#64

Post by 323 »

ironyman wrote: post #4

I strongly suspect that the three-letter agencies have good intel to conclusively show that this is the case, but they have decided to hold back on it for the sake of US-China relations. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-intelligence-releases-repor...

And now that China is thinking of helping Russia militarily it suddenly surfaces...

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#65

Post by belltaco »

snird wrote: post #52

As a non-American, the whole thing seems crazy to me. It seems like Trump said it from the start, and the media negated him based on political views, not facts. And now, only years later, there is a reconciliation with the facts. Now, I'm not that aware of the politics or the media in the US. But I think the way I see it may be the way many others saw this story roll. Whether or not it's true - it is a big reason tha…

Trump said that not because he had some particular insight, but it was just a way to deflect blame, and that's why it was super amplified across the right wing, but lacking any sort of evidence or proof. Also back then there was a strong suggestion that it was bioengineered at Wuhan on purpose to tank the western economies.

Note that he also said covid wasn't a serious thing several times. If that's the case even if there was a lab leak it wasn't a big deal? Note that both of those were to benefit his administration and deflect blame from his admin's response in Feb 2020 to not take covid seriously.

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#66

Post by snird »

belltaco wrote: post #65
snird wrote: post #52

As a non-American, the whole thing seems crazy to me. It seems like Trump said it from the start, and the media negated him based on political views, not facts. And now, only years later, there is a reconciliation with the facts. Now, I'm not that aware of the politics or the media in the US. But I think the way I see it may be the way many others saw this story roll. Whether or not it's true - it is a big reason tha…

Trump said that not because he had some particular insight, but it was just a way to deflect blame, and that's why it was super amplified across the right wing, but lacking any sort of evidence or proof. Also back then there was a strong suggestion that it was bioengineered at Wuhan on purpose to tank the western economies. Note that he also said covid wasn't a serious thing several times. If that's the case even if…

This sounds reasonable. I'm not that into US politics and media, so it makes sense I got this "rough" image from social media.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter.

It will lead to more people losing trust in the media and flocking into extreme social media silos.

The problem is still here, even if the cause of the problem makes no sense.

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#67

Post by groot2581 »

emj wrote: post #59
groot2581 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

The discussion during the pandemic only lead to the "human designed" blame game, so the similarities are striking. It is a view that everyone can share, regardless of political affiliations, a perfect way to get a mob going. It is interesting to discuss how the views on this has changed though.

The human designed blame game is different from the “bio weapons” blame game mentioned in the parent. I get people are discussing human designed but that’s different from bioweapon.

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#68

Post by ethanbond »

aquarium87 wrote: post #47
ethanbond wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think it’s weird that one of the top virologists in the world was responsible for finding virus research and for planning virus outbreak response?

[flagged]

1) That’s a big assumption you’re making, even if it was a lab leak (which is itself a big leap from what’s known today)

2) It also wouldn’t be “weird” at all. That’s like saying you find it weird that a firefighter got burned or a nuclear safety researcher caused a nuclear safety incident.

Re: Lab leak most likely origin of Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agency now says

#69

Post by locustous »

323 wrote: post #61
snird wrote: post #52

As a non-American, the whole thing seems crazy to me. It seems like Trump said it from the start, and the media negated him based on political views, not facts. And now, only years later, there is a reconciliation with the facts. Now, I'm not that aware of the politics or the media in the US. But I think the way I see it may be the way many others saw this story roll. Whether or not it's true - it is a big reason tha…

> the media negated him based on political views No, the media negated it because all the notable scientists and publications (Nature, Lancet, ..) said it was a crazy conspiracy theory.

And all those with different opinions were cancelled... Doctors quickly learned to tow the line or you lost your job and license while the masses cheered. Hard to find "valid dissent" when you punish and disqualify everyone who tries.
Post reply on HN