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

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

#91

Post by alchemist1e9 »

h2odragon wrote: post #72
IngvarLynn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My tangential hypothesis is: the virus was intentionally leaked prematurely to vaccinate humanity from real bio-weapon it would be developed into.

I like that one. I kinda figure Omicron was a developed "vaccination version" of COVID.

It’s not such a crazy idea because it had a large unexplained evolutionary gab in generic sequences from other variants that I believe is still pretty unexplained. The “conventional” theory is an immune suppressed HIV patient, but I’ve read that idea has a lot of holes in it.

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

#92

Post by CurtHagenlocher »

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…

My impression is that Trump started calling it the "China virus" and then there was an increase in physical attacks on people of Asian-appearing ancestry in the United States and that's when and why the pushback started.

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

#93

Post by VagueMag »

aquarium87 wrote: post #43
tkiolp4 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

It's simpler. Tools x labs x pathogens and funding x risk of escape = risk. ALL categories are going up. Ergo, risk is going up exponentially. No need for conspiracies. Just a proper parsing of the words "lab leak"

How do you embrace "lab leak" without also embracing a conspiracy to conceal the virus's origins after it escaped into the wild?

Or has the term "conspiracy" just been fully redefined to mean "a thing that can't happen" at this point?

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

#94

Post by VagueMag »

lmiao wrote: post #63
tkiolp4 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

> How would they protect themselves and their loved ones from the same fate that they so callously cast upon the rest of us?

A good question, but worth noting that they do seem to have in fact done so. I struggle to think of a single-higher up of any significance who was felled by SARS-CoV-2, despite the fact so many of them are octogenarians. Colin Powell maybe, but his blood cancer was clearly the more proximate cause of his death. A few in Iran, but, well.

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

#96

Post by xiphias2 »

ttul wrote: post #79
fidgewidge wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's not the most dangerous interpretation. The most dangerous interpretation of "lab leak" is the one backed by the most evidence - that they were artificially enhancing viruses so they could develop vaccines against them. The Pfizer guy who got caught on camera by Project Veritas said they were considering doing the same thing. Selling people vaccines for viruses the scientists created specifically to create…

Gain-of-function research serves a legitimate purpose, but if this lean stemmed from GoF work, that is not apparent from the SARA CoV-2 genome. See my link elsewhere in the comments to a TWiV podcast episode that discusses the lab leak hypothesis, and the analysis of the genome sequence suggesting it is not the result of human engineering work.

,, Gain-of-function research serves a legitimate purpose''

While this is true, at this point we have evidence that even the highest level security lab can have lab leak with devastating results.

The main problem is not that, but that people can't really talk about it publicly, as the rules should be stricter (for example an international body should be checking the procedures of other countries...the problem is not with the rules, but not enough verification of keeping the rules).

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

#97

Post by lsdflkwe »

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…

[dead]

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

#98

Post by lsdflkwe »

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.

[dead]

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

#99

Post by Centigonal »

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…

When Trump made accusations of a lab leak, there were few facts pointing to that conclusion. Furthermore, the statements he made were dangerous to Asian Americans in the US. Later, as more facts came to light, the lab-leak theory became more plausible.

Guessing right in the absence of evidence shouldn't grant a person any kind of vindication in retrospect

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