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NIH restarts bat virus grant

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Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#71

Post by jjoonathan »

sergiotapia wrote: post #67
jjoonathan wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you forgetting that the lockdowns had to happen because authorities (Trump, not CDC) pissed away a month of exponential growth doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on "ignore it and it will go away" instead of jumping on measures to reduce Rt? They only blinked when faced with the imminent prospect of having hospitals spill out into parking lots full of people slowly dying for want of a respirator. The pandem…

"Worse for who?" is the question a lot of people should have asked. I'm not responding to this thread anymore. People are still cultish about this discussion.

Worse for everyone. It's absolutely wild that you think elementary public health is a conspiracy.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#72

Post by lamacase »

> The project no longer involves collecting new bat samples or working with live viruses. WIV has no role beyond contributing more than 300 whole and partial genome sequences of SARS-related bat coronaviruses from its collection, Daszak says.

From the article there's also supposed to be additional review of further grants to deny anything that might look like gain of function research.

My laymen's take is that monitoring viruses for spillover is still important, maybe more important than ever, and gain of function research has negligible benefits and probably shouldn't happen? On that basis, what's presented in this article seems to be on the right track.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#73

Post by ethanbond »

sergiotapia wrote: post #67
jjoonathan wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you forgetting that the lockdowns had to happen because authorities (Trump, not CDC) pissed away a month of exponential growth doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on "ignore it and it will go away" instead of jumping on measures to reduce Rt? They only blinked when faced with the imminent prospect of having hospitals spill out into parking lots full of people slowly dying for want of a respirator. The pandem…

"Worse for who?" is the question a lot of people should have asked. I'm not responding to this thread anymore. People are still cultish about this discussion.

"I would go on living my life with literal airborne HIV... [other] people are still cultish about this discussion"

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#74

Post by galangalalgol »

sillypuddy wrote: post #43

We should warn these agencies that gain of function research is like playing Russian Roulette, but it would go in one ear and out the other.

Whatvare the arguments for gain of function research? Is there any reason to think the mutations gained as a virus adapts to mice with human lung tissue will resemble the ones it makes when it crosses in the wild? Or is it kind of like the old giant nuke plants, a way to peace-wash war tech?

Edit: Vouching for the reply wasn't enough to resurrect it. It was a claim with no support other than an appeal to authority, but that means you reply to it with a counter not bury it. It sidestepped the question of whether adapting an animal virus to humans has sufficient gain for the risk.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#75

Post by freedude »

eli wrote: post #21
local_crmdgeon wrote: post #14

At 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.

Because of all the conspiracy theories, it is not going to be pretty if there's a lockdown in the future for any reason whatsoever. Indeed, I think governments will be very reluctant to order a lockdown even if it's the right thing to do. This has nothing to do with facts about virus research though.

"Because of all the conspiracy theories" Why do you call them theories when they play out as described? Really it should be stated "Because of the government conspiracy to enact totalitarian rule..."

It has been proven the government was wrong about all of their Covid predictions and the methodology for care was flawed because it ignored basic care. Many people died because the government ignored actual science and set out to squelch those that disagreed. This is exactly what our government shouldn't be.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#77

Post by ZoomerCretin »

lvass wrote: post #62
netbioserror wrote: post #19

I 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.

[flagged]

There is no evidence that the pandemic was a man-made disaster.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#78

Post by arcbyte »

sergiotapia wrote: post #34
netbioserror wrote: post #19

I 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.

Whatever happens, I don't think people will tolerate another lockdown ever again for at least two generations. I know in florida there could be literally airborn aids and people will still go out and live life, myself included. COVID lockdowns were a test of how much the government could push without backlash. I feel so badly for the kids that lost their last two years of high school for what?

Florida did lockdowns right.

They flattened the curve and then managed limited social resources.

Many other states just went into irrational and indefinite Long term lockdowns. Illinois for instance was locked down for months and months despite having enourmous hospital capacity - the lack of which was the whole reason for entering the lockdown in the first place. It just didn't make sense after a while except as a political tool.

Early on there was a lot of metrics-driven decision making, and metrics changed as new information came to light. That was good. Florida would still lockdown if done in that light - not without bellyaching but yes it would. When the metrics go out the window so too would Florida's compliance.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#79

Post by secondcoming »

jjoonathan wrote: post #64
sergiotapia wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever happens, I don't think people will tolerate another lockdown ever again for at least two generations. I know in florida there could be literally airborn aids and people will still go out and live life, myself included. COVID lockdowns were a test of how much the government could push without backlash. I feel so badly for the kids that lost their last two years of high school for what?

Are you forgetting that the lockdowns had to happen because authorities (Trump, not CDC) pissed away a month of exponential growth doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on "ignore it and it will go away" instead of jumping on measures to reduce Rt? They only blinked when faced with the imminent prospect of having hospitals spill out into parking lots full of people slowly dying for want of a respirator. The pandem…

If it was Trump's fault, why was most of the developed world in lockdown too?
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