Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

thetimes.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 1001 posts

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#171

Post by hombre_fatal »

yorwba wrote: post #113
akomtu wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN should limit the rate of comments per user per post. This user is seriously worked up to mute this discussion and spams in every comment thread. Edit: this user wrote 26 out of 88 comments here.

HN already has a rate limit. You get the message "You're posting too fast" when you exceed it. Though I think it's also tied to karma and might not trigger when all those comments get upvoted. And if you try to downvote them all, you'll run into the protections against mass-downvoting. Tuning the feedback loops to encourage good discussions while damping flamewars is a difficult problem.

Once you have some post history, I’m pretty sure the harsh rate limit, the one that would stop someone from posting in every comment thread, is only triggered manually by the mods if you’re a prick (personal experience).

The basic new account rate limit and the one you get from getting downvote quickly are too weak to stop what they are complaining about.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#172

Post by sgift »

himinlomax wrote: post #156
pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

The problem with Wuhan lab is that the Chinese dictatorship blocks any independent inquiry into it. If they had nothing to hide, they wouldn't be hiding everything. If that was a criminal case, this kind of behavior would be taken as a evidence of guilt.

> If they had nothing to hide, they wouldn't be hiding everything. If that was a criminal case, this kind of behavior would be taken as a evidence of guilt.

No, it would not. First, dictatorships hide things all the time, whether there is something or nothing. It's just how they operate. (Many democratic governments do to btw. How often do we need freedom of information requests just to find out that it was totally benign, the government just stone-walled because they could).

Second, not saying anything is not evidence of guilt in any criminal case in the civilized world. Everyone has the right to silence.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#173

Post by jug »

pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

Also, before one draws conclusions based on the _kind_ of virus that is researched, coronaviruses aren't even uncommon. So better evidence is clearly necessary than innuendo.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#174

Post by AbrahamParangi »

pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

I’m sure most of this is true or at least true-ish but to be appropriately skeptical, all evidence which has a Chinese source here should be considered as potentially made up.

Regardless of whether or not there was a coverup, the Chinese government has certainly acted like it was covering something up.

The circumstantial evidence is sort of ridiculous here though. An institute with weak safety controls experimenting with creating novel pathogens has an outbreak of a novel pathogen next door? No no, it’s because of climate change (an actual argument I have seen).

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#175

Post by ajross »

pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

My position hasn't changed for years: if covid was really a lab creation we'd know, because someone would have told us. An email dump, a memo, a document, an interview. Something would have leaked out. The incentives are just too high and the access is too pervasive[1] to believe otherwise.

Is it possible? Sure! Is it likewise possible that some of the circumstantial claims about WIV are true? Sure! But if someone made this thing, someone else would have told us by now.

[1] This is science! There are notes and logs and backups and email and chat and whiteboard photos and conference attendees and visiting scholars, all spread around a population all trained to compete with each other.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#176

Post by jakear »

BryantD wrote: post #168
pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

What a terrible article. “Thirty-five-year-old scientists don’t get very sick with influenza.” The rate of hospitalization among 18-49 year olds with flu in the US was 54.1 per 100K in 2019-20. It’s rare, sure, but that kind of absolute statement from an anonymous researcher doesn’t instill confidence.

[flagged]

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#177

Post by [deleted] »

pcrh wrote: post #55

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence. Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any i…

[deleted]

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#178

Post by BryantD »

jakear wrote: post #176
BryantD wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a terrible article. “Thirty-five-year-old scientists don’t get very sick with influenza.” The rate of hospitalization among 18-49 year olds with flu in the US was 54.1 per 100K in 2019-20. It’s rare, sure, but that kind of absolute statement from an anonymous researcher doesn’t instill confidence.

[flagged]

That point is inaccurate. I quoted the stats; they are what they are.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#179

Post by throwaway2990 »

pyuser583 wrote: post #13
LeonB wrote: post #11

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…

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.

The one with Peter Daszak who was hand picked by the CCP for the investigation and money trail back to the CCP??

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#180

Post by jakear »

BryantD wrote: post #178
jakear wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That point is inaccurate. I quoted the stats; they are what they are.

Stats say nothing of relative severity, why do you think they’re relevant in any way?

Edit: is your argument seriously “uhm actually, event X happens 0.054% of the time, so when you said {more rare version of X} doesn’t happen you’re wrong”

Post reply on HN