Here we go again! As if one pandemic wasn't enough! Ridiculous!
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NIH restarts bat virus grant
11–20 of 208 posts
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#12Obligatory: What could possibly go wrong?
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Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#13What would it even mean if we created covid 19 in a lab and it was accidentally released? Would it change anything? Would anyone be held responsible?
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#14At what point does a conspiracy become a fact? This results in another pandemic, it's not going to be pretty when gov't demands lockdowns.
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#15Obligatory: What could possibly go wrong?
Better to study and be prepared, than to stick our head in the sand and pretend emerging infectious disease aren't a recurrent factor in our lives.
Sure, but then if we're gonna create and study viruses that can erase significant percentage of our population, why not do that on some remote island with one month of required onboarding/offboarding quarantine for all of the scientists involved?
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#16At what point does a conspiracy become a fact? This results in another pandemic, it's not going to be pretty when gov't demands lockdowns.
Conspiracy and fact are orthogonal descriptors.
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not really the case here. Gain of function research can not be justified using this argument. There are so many potential mutations that putting specific evolutionary pressure on a virus in order to "prevent" only those specific effects has such low efficacy considering the size of the problem space. GOF research has provided very little in terms of benefits, and many argue it's simply been a way to disguise b…
The NIH, the scientists doing the research, and most other experts in the field disagree. Partisan politicians are the ones yelling about how dangerous it is. I think I'll listen to the experts.
Do you say the same thing about AGI?
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better to study and be prepared, than to stick our head in the sand and pretend emerging infectious disease aren't a recurrent factor in our lives.
Even if that’s the case, which could be possible, it would be nice to have some accountability for the accident that led to the covid pandemic and lockdowns, and a transparent accounting of why even after all that, the risk from not doing this research is greater than that of restarting it
The evidence for the lab leak theory is weak. You're assuming facts that most experts dispute.
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#19I love the appeal to the "independence" of science from politics, after what may have been the single most materially and socially destructive scientific disaster since the invention of the atom bomb. We'll just act like none of that ever happened and continue with impunity.
Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant
#20What would it even mean if we created covid 19 in a lab and it was accidentally released? Would it change anything? Would anyone be held responsible?
It's important that people know the truth.