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Early on the article makes a conjecture that others also make which I think is part of why the topic is so hot: “Whether the virus emerged as a result of a leak from a laboratory or from nature has become one the most controversial problems in science.” The words “in science” are my problem here: people thinking this is a “scientific” question. It’s a history question, a political question, and could be made into a f…
> You infect the mice, wait a week or so, and then recover the virus from the sickest mice. Then you repeat.
From The Hardware Hacker (2017) by "bunnie" Huang:
> So, a single base-pair change--simply flipping two bits--might be all you'd need to turn the H1N1 swine flu virus into a deadlier variant... for just over $1,000.
> [Influenza] packs a deadly punch in 3.2 KB... and we [still] haven't eradicated it. Could influenza do hacks like the one I just described on its own already? The short answer is yes.
> ... on average, every copy of an influenza virus has one random mutation.
> [H1N1] was probably just a couple of mutations away from being a bigger health problem.
> ... novel H1N1 acquired a mix of RNA snippets that gave it high transmission rates and made it something humans weren't innately immune to. That's the perfect storm for a pandemic.
> If there were a computer analogy to this RNA-shuffling model, [random relinking of virus "files" at runtime]... would also proliferate a diverse set of viruses in the wild...
Fortunately for swine flu at least,
> ... a patient [had] a novel antibody... to confer immunity to all 16 subtypes of influenza A.
Against Covid, research by Dr. Weismann and Dr. Karikó led to the development of the mRNA vaccine:
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/how-drew-weissman-and-katal...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but the article is implying there something new that actually would have some kind of bearing or meaning.
Russians started to clean up evidence, which points to BSL4 lab "Vector". IMHO, this article is a part of their disinformation campaign. The name of their vaccine "Sputnik V" (Follower 5) suggests that there was "Something","Sputnik I", "Sputnik II", "Sputnik III", "Sputnik IV" before "Sputnik V". It's impossible for Russians to produce 5 vaccines in row in such short span of time, just few months, which took billion…
This guy who published a suspiciously early patent on a covid 19 vaccine fell off a roof three months later?
That’s kind of buried in the article a bit but was this claim been made anywhere else?
Also, the section on activity at the lab at the time of the outbreak does not mention analysis of private app data.
IIRC, one of the early discredited reports suggesting lab origin had relied, in-part, on commercially available app data. The kind of adware built into “free” apps that violate user privacy.
This data supposedly showed clear activity supporting a temporary shutdown of the Wuhan lab.
This information always seemed the easiest to latch on to. Not to prove origin but at least offer an important fact for a pattern.
US military bases have had their locations and perimeters out on the public web thanks to fitness apps.
Was the WIV associated app data not real? If it was, why isn’t it included in this article?
The article relates a study “by academics at Wuhan University located the hotspots in Wuhan where people were reporting on social media that they needed treatment for Covid.”
How would this be more compelling than raw app data showing movement of employees or security workers in and around WIV?
Leaving aside the question of where and how the virus emerged, it's interesting to note that the lab was nigh useless during the pandemic, despite its main specialty was investigating Coronaviruses! It looks like a lot of dangerous research went on, and even if nothing bad happened because of that research, nothing was gained. A lot of risk for nothing.
This is the kind of writing you need to properly discuss the lab leak hypothesis. It's not perfect, there are no good links to sources which suggests a lot of it is made up. However, this kind of writing should only happen after years or months of investigation. You can't do the lab leak panic 2 days into the pandemic. You can't even really do it half way through the pandemic. I'm glad such investigations are being c…
> It's not perfect, there are no good links to sources which suggests a lot of it is made up. Existing evidence points to another lab: BSL4 lab "Vector" in Novosibirsk, Russia. They worked on their "Sputnik" vaccine when blast in laboratory on September 16 2019[2] caused chain of incidents: broken windows, unprotected soldiers break in, which checked rooms for signs of fire, equipment stolen from BSL4 lab by those so…
Early on the article makes a conjecture that others also make which I think is part of why the topic is so hot: “Whether the virus emerged as a result of a leak from a laboratory or from nature has become one the most controversial problems in science.” The words “in science” are my problem here: people thinking this is a “scientific” question. It’s a history question, a political question, and could be made into a f…
why not? it is an important scientific question to guide research to mitigate the virus and prevent similar future disasters
Early on the article makes a conjecture that others also make which I think is part of why the topic is so hot: “Whether the virus emerged as a result of a leak from a laboratory or from nature has become one the most controversial problems in science.” The words “in science” are my problem here: people thinking this is a “scientific” question. It’s a history question, a political question, and could be made into a f…
I think when they say Science they actually mean: the scientific community.
The sourcing and style will raise eyebrows. The revelations are valuable, and clear enough to be verifiable through one channel or another. And given that we are at 7 days remaining before the 90-day WIV intel disclosure deadline, old journo hands expect that info leaks are more likely to happen. https://twitter.com/mbalter/status/1667668700885819395?s=20
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a peer reviewed paper earlier in the pandemic where scientists used their knowledge of viral anatomy to argue it wasn’t engineered. Subsequent scientific have disagreed. But this isn’t purely historical.
Apologies to those accused of being conspiracy theorists, xenophobic, and spreading misinformation will be going out shortly.