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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

#151

Post by aaronbrethorst »

There's a lot of bad headline-writing on this subject today.

Here's the NYT's headline: Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says

And then the sub-head (or dek, if you want to sound like you're in the know): The conclusion, which was made with “low confidence,” came as America’s intelligence agencies remained divided over the origins of the coronavirus.

So we have a conclusion: 'lab leak most likely cause,' and a confidence score: 'low'.

The NYT goes on to say:

Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions, officials said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/us/politics/china-lab-lea...

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

#152

Post by smsm42 »

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

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

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.

That lying about pandemic origins is the best course of dealing with the pandemic is an exceptionally bold statement.

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

#154

Post by alchemist1e9 »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #151

There's a lot of bad headline-writing on this subject today. Here's the NYT's headline: Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says And then the sub-head (or dek, if you want to sound like you're in the know): The conclusion, which was made with “low confidence,” came as America’s intelligence agencies remained divided over the origins of the coronavirus. So we have a conclusion: 'lab leak most likely cau…

Also article mentions FBI has “moderate” confidence it was lab leak. I find that very interesting given it wouldn’t be so much based on scientific analysis but some intelligence collection the FBI has.

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

#155

Post by Zetice »

corbulo wrote: post #114
Centigonal wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Where do you people get briefed? The guy was fucking President

I love this reaction, because Trump, of all people, was getting some of the least useful briefings of any modern US president, due to his inability to pay attention.[0][1][2]

So it's entirely possible that just watching the news casually would leave you better informed than the US president during the years of 2017 to 2021.

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/politics/trump-intelligence-b...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/29/donald-trump...

[2] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fa...

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

#157

Post by wizofaus »

ttul wrote: post #74
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.

Firstly, the DOE has expertise in areas such as biosecurity, biodefense, and biological threat reduction, and is responsible for managing national laboratories and supporting research in various scientific fields. Just one example of this is the HAMMER facility at Hanford, WA, where DOE can train people to deal with all manner of disasters. https://hammer.hanford.gov/ Given the potential for a laboratory-originating…

It's still not obvious why any of those functions are the remit of the Department of Energy though. Defence I could understand.

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

#158

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#159

Post by Zetice »

locustous wrote: post #69
323 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

And yet, these people seemed to have conducted their research without trouble. Weird, how approaching a problem scientifically and not bombastically elicits a more measured response...

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

#160

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

paganel wrote: post #147

This was considered "fake news" and heavily reprimanded all throughout the pandemic in the media attached to the Western consensus, hilarious how they're starting to do a 180 on it (next is doing a 360, I guess).

It's always been a possibility although other explanations are more likely. I'd be interested in the evidence.
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