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

wsj.com

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

#141

Post by photochemsyn »

denotational wrote: post #24

Without meaning to take a position either way, as a non-American, why does the Energy Department have a position on this? I’m aware that the Energy Department has sone degree of responsibility for the US nuclear arsenal, but even taking that into account, it seems out of scope.

DOE and the national labs have done extensive work with biological weapon detection systems and various forms of analysis related to delivery systems. E.g.

https://web.ornl.gov/info/news/pulse/pulse_v270_08.html

>"A team of scientists at DOE's Sandia National Laboratories recently revealed their involvement in the more than six-year investigation led by the FBI surrounding anthrax spores that killed five people in the fall of 2001. Their work, using transmission electron microscopy, was the first to link the spores from several of the letters as coming from the same source."

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

#142

Post by GreedClarifies »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #112
ttul wrote: post #11

The This Week In Virology podcast has been talking about the lab leak concept since the early days of the pandemic, with various experts opining on the likelihood. In [1], the expert discusses how the virus itself does not seem engineered; it’s most likely a naturally created virus. However, this is exactly the sort of virus that they study at the BSL4 lab in Wuhan, quite legitimately - and they produce good science…

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

#143

Post by Zetice »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #112
ttul wrote: post #11

The This Week In Virology podcast has been talking about the lab leak concept since the early days of the pandemic, with various experts opining on the likelihood. In [1], the expert discusses how the virus itself does not seem engineered; it’s most likely a naturally created virus. However, this is exactly the sort of virus that they study at the BSL4 lab in Wuhan, quite legitimately - and they produce good science…

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You're commenting on a report that the (US Government's) DoE is saying it was lab leaked, so... the US isn't actively supporting any cover up, or they're doing a profoundly terrible job.

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

#144

Post by wrycoder »

r053bud wrote: post #116
2-718-281-828 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Because what good does it do to actually dealing with the outbreak? I assume the government just made a decision that it was politically less desirable to do for a number of reasons. Mainly, probably the continuing attempts at thawing of relations with China.

"At this point, what difference does it make?"

-- famous politician, responding to a question on a different issue

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

#145

Post by celticninja »

TearsInTheRain wrote: post #133
r053bud wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because what good does it do to actually dealing with the outbreak? I assume the government just made a decision that it was politically less desirable to do for a number of reasons. Mainly, probably the continuing attempts at thawing of relations with China.

If China is engaged in a behavior that lead to a global pandemic, we have to know everything about what they were doing so that we can stop this from ever happening again. Who gives a crap about thawed relations after the extraordinary amount of damage this pandemic has done to the world

What they were doing was downplaying the severity of the problem until it was sufficiently widespread that it was not just a China problem. I'm not saying that was the plan from the start, but it definitely morphed into that.

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

#146

Post by smsm42 »

lamontcg wrote: post #111
ttul wrote: post #11

The This Week In Virology podcast has been talking about the lab leak concept since the early days of the pandemic, with various experts opining on the likelihood. In [1], the expert discusses how the virus itself does not seem engineered; it’s most likely a naturally created virus. However, this is exactly the sort of virus that they study at the BSL4 lab in Wuhan, quite legitimately - and they produce good science…

> However, this is exactly the sort of virus that they study at the BSL4 lab in Wuhan No it isn't. The were studying SARS-CoV-1 and WIV-1. They sequenced RaTG13 but that is too far away from SARS-CoV-2 with a thousand random mutations across its genome. And there's no evidence that they ever recovered culturable virus from RaTG13 or were able to culture it--there's a vast gap between sequencing a virus and culturing…

The obvious solution for this conundrum is that they did study it, but didn't publish it because the screw-up happened and all evidence was promptly destroyed. In a totalitarian state, the secrecy is the default mode. You can get exceptions and publish stuff, sure, but only once you asked and received permission. If you didn't - or in the period between you asking and permission being issued something happened - no evidence will be seen by anybody.

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

#148

Post by remarkEon »

Centigonal wrote: post #99
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

I’ll never understand this take.

“The virus accidentally leaked from a highly sophisticated lab in China” is somehow racist and dangerous, but “Chinese people can’t stop eating weird stuff at a wet market and the virus jumped to humans from there” isn’t.

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

#149

Post by smsm42 »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #112
ttul wrote: post #11

The This Week In Virology podcast has been talking about the lab leak concept since the early days of the pandemic, with various experts opining on the likelihood. In [1], the expert discusses how the virus itself does not seem engineered; it’s most likely a naturally created virus. However, this is exactly the sort of virus that they study at the BSL4 lab in Wuhan, quite legitimately - and they produce good science…

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

#150

Post by vore »

corbulo wrote: post #131
Centigonal wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As president, the guy said a lot of things that were outright untrue [1]. By 2020, he had lost any expectation of credulity just on the virtue of his being president in my eyes, and in those of many other Americans. Now, if he had claimed the virus originated as a Chinese lab leak, and the intelligence community came out supporting that contribution, then that would have been a different story. Information from these…

Not everything a politician said was true, therefore if you read NYT and WaPo you're more well informed than the President. Amazing.

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