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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

#771

Post by officialjunk »

wkat4242 wrote: post #670
dangwhy wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then why even propose any theory ? why not let it remain a mystery.

That's what China wants yes. But while this helps the CCP party save face, it doesn't help to move on with the investigation. It's not even about the blame. We investigate air crashes in such detail so we can prevent them from happening again. Of course with an even bigger event like this we should do the same. The pandemic has happened and no kind of blame or money can revert it. But we can try to learn everything a…

let's remember that the US contributed the the funding of this research https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027290/gain-of-...

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

#772

Post by landemva »

wkat4242 wrote: post #672
landemva wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> least shitty theory I read about CIA false flags in Cuba. Nordstream didn't blow itself up because the pipe was angry it allowed .de and .ru to engage in commerce. I guess a rogue western intelligence group bribed or compelled a Chinese lab worker to sabotage something. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rfk-ope... "The CIA had been plotting to assassinate Castro since the summer of 1960, even bef…

I really doubt this. The pandemic was bad for the whole world, not just China. I'm sure it was an accident.

Bad for whom? Some billionaires reportedly believe in the discredited Malthusian population problem.

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

#773

Post by stevespang »

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…

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

#774

Post by twblalock »

Putting aside all the speculation here:

What is the biggest possible gain we can get from gain-of-function research?

Does it outweigh the possible downside of a gain-of-function experiment escaping a lab?

I’m seriously interested in seeing a defense of this kind of research.

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

#775

Post by [deleted] »

ss108 wrote: post #667
walkhour wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naming something by its origin it's not racist. The tone you're talking about is a completely subjective statement, and it has no place in a serious discussion. Using that name should've never been controversial and making it controversial was creating drama where there was none. The fact that people are still hurt about Trump saying that years ago shows how unprepared we are to have a discussion about anything.

This just willfully tone deaf as to what was going on and being implied then. The other component of it was this kind of "blame China" attitude he was trying to engender to deflect blame, and that's another reason why the theory never caught on. (Also to be clear, it's not even that the China stuff made him racist; he clearly established himself as a racist, and then he said that stuff, which I agree wasn't necessari…

[deleted]

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

#777

Post by zmalqp »

mwbajor wrote: post #430
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If lab leak is confirmed the correct course of action is to design new systems and protocols to prevent such a thing from happening again in the future. Failure to do so will result in more issues down the line. It's basic engineering. If this kind of research is so important then maybe the nations of the world should buy a cruise ship and implement extreme isolation protocols between interactions, if that's the only…

I know, basic engineering, so simple and straightforward right? And when a country says "no", I assume we issue a series of stronger and stronger worded warning letters to them right?

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

#778

Post by slumos »

brigandish wrote: post #683
lamontcg wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know they constructed Chimeras of the WIV1 SARS-1-like virus because they published it: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1517719113 Pretty bad secrecy. We knew WIV1 existed as well because they published it 3 years earlier: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5389864/

How long had they been working on either of those before publishing? You're giving the end points of the research, the person you're replying to is saying the end point wasn't reached, hence it was still secret.

See if you can determine that for yourself by e.g. reading the second paper as far as the first sentence of the second paragraph and then looking at the publication date.

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

#779

Post by Arn_Thor »

ffssffss wrote: post #168
alchemist1e9 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And the WSJ piece says the CIA is undecided! I wonder what explains the different assessments.

And for the record, the National Intelligence Council and four other unidentified agencies say with "low confidence" that the virus came about through natural transmission.

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

#780

Post by giardini »

hotpotamus wrote: post #723
bradleyjg wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember articles and quotes firmly rejecting the lab leak hypothesis and darkly implying that those championing the theory had a hidden agenda. The considerations were: — there were random attacks on Asians - public health officials and scientists were worried about an anti science backlash - virologists were really worried about a backlash against virology — relations with China had not yet deteriorated to their…

There were and are problematic elements of the lab leak people as well - I still see people (on this site) who claim that some or all aspects of the virus were synthetically created at the behest of Anthony Fauci. You may say I'm nutpicking, but I truly have a hard time determining what the lab leak theory is sometimes. But my sense was that the agenda behind the lab leak family of theories was to lay blame at some h…

hotpotamus says >"You may say I'm nutpicking, but I truly have a hard time determining what the lab leak theory is sometimes. "

Whose nuts are you picking? And, for God's sake, why?!

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