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First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

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Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#671

Post by Reason077 »

Pyramus wrote: post #662
Reason077 wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "In particular Vanilla strains were milder than beta/delta." Not my experience! OG Covid (March 2020) was just as severe as alpha/beta (December 2020). My most recent infection (August 2022) was much milder, but that could also be explained by being vaccinated.

See my sibling comment with a link to the estimated properties of SARS-Cov-2 variants: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36337757

I don't disagree with your linked comment. But my personal experience, not to mention the high level of hospitalisation and mortality at the time which resulted in the first UK lockdown, disagrees with your "Vanilla strains were milder than beta/delta." statement, if "Vanilla" was the variant circulating in the UK in March 2020.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#672

Post by Pyramus »

Reason077 wrote: post #671
Pyramus wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my sibling comment with a link to the estimated properties of SARS-Cov-2 variants: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36337757

I don't disagree with your linked comment. But my personal experience, not to mention the high level of hospitalisation and mortality at the time which resulted in the first UK lockdown, disagrees with your "Vanilla strains were milder than beta/delta." statement, if "Vanilla" was the variant circulating in the UK in March 2020.

Yes that makes sense. I wrote:

> The fact that Covid (as an illness) has become milder is due to the hosts adapting, not the virus being milder.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#673

Post by evandale »

hotpotamus wrote: post #649
oska wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interestingly, you did much the same thing I did despite my belief that the virus arose naturally Except they decided not to get the injection (so called 'vaccination'), while you did. That's a crucial difference in the eyes of most (on both sides) so I wouldn't agree that they did 'much the same thing' as you.

I didn't think it was a terribly significant difference. Why would you think so?

I don't either and this is coming from a 4x vaxxed who (I'll shamefully admit) was part of the crowd who shamed everyone who didn't get the vaccine.

I still think if you live in a big city or any dense living arrangements, medical field, interacting with the immunocompromised, etc. you 100% should be getting it. But I now recognize if you wanted to roleplay lumberjack living alone in the woods or had a rural lifestyle it really isn't as important.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#674

Post by Gud »

jasonlotito wrote: post #379
mistermann wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is perhaps noteworthy that this is the writing form that a lot of mainstream news articles take (advantage of?). I also am not a fan of it, but I must confess I do enjoy seeing it used in the other direction.

Yep. I aw that. But then I rely on the trustworthiness of the authors, and when I know for a fact at least one of them has been caught literally making up lies that, when uncovered, literally disprove the narrative they were pushing, it really destroys all credibility.

He was not “caught literally making up lies”. There was an error in his reporting. Perhaps he lied, perhaps he made a mistake. Please don’t turn to hyperbole.

Or at least show me the evidence for his lies(not errors, which are not the same thing. Lies require an intent to misconstrue).

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#675

Post by NoGravitas »

geuis wrote: post #225

I don't trust this article at all . > Sources within the US government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus. > It is unclear who in the U.S. government had access to the intelligence about the sick WIV workers, how long they had it, and why it was not shared with the pub…

Yeah, reading this to see what the evidence is, it all comes down to "anonymous State Department sources", and some informed speculation from people in the field. I don't actually think an accidental lab leak is all that unlikely, but I'm also not being presented with any evidence for it.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#676

Post by tim333 »

hedora wrote: post #527
letmevoteplease wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't have to wait long for confirmation. The Director of National Intelligence will be required by law to declassify information about the infected researchers on June 18th, including their names, symptoms, date of onset and role at WIV.[1] [1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/619...

Regardless of that, we already know they were doing related biological weapons research, as part of a cooperative program with the US. Funny how congress isn’t focusing on the stuff they have direct jurisdiction over, like refusing to fund similar programs in the future unless there is additional oversight.

That's a bit misleading. The US via EcoHealth was funding virus research for disease prevention. The Wuhan lab may have been doing weapons research but that's a bit unproven.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#677

Post by NoGravitas »

InitialLastName wrote: post #503
pezezin wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a type-A flu this year in early January, and holy shit was it painful, I hadn't been that sick in 25 years. Some co-workers and relatives also got it (in opposite sides of the Earth!) and reported the same, this year the flu was really strong. In comparison, I had corona last week and it was a walk in the park (I am also quad-vaccinated, that might have helped).

> In comparison, I had corona last week and it was a walk in the park (I am also quad-vaccinated, that might have helped). I can attest that somewhere between vaccines, potential acquired immunity and variants having reduced strength, my pair of confirmed Covid experiences (March 2020, July 2022) went from "the sickest I've ever felt, with symptoms recurring for months and persistent-to-present reduced smell capabili…

Just for anecdata, I had the J&J vaccine early on, then the bivalent booster when it became available. In January, I got COVID, and I was "sickest I've ever felt" for about three days, "bad cold" for a week, "fatigue and brain fog" for another week, and "smoker's cough in the morning" for several months afterward.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#678

Post by tim333 »

ajkjk wrote: post #14
indigodaddy wrote: post #7

‘Said Metzl, “Had US government officials including Dr. Fauci stated from day one that a COVID-19 research-related origin was a very real possibility, and made clear that we had little idea what viruses were being held at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, what work was being done there, and who was doing that work, our national and global conversations would have been dramatically different. The time has come for a fu…

Why?

Re Daszak knowing what was going on, he was a main funder of the lab and a drinking buddy with Shi the head researcher there. He also wrote a proposal on inserting a cleavage site into a coronavirus in pretty much the way you would have to to make covid (defuse grant proposal which was leaked, not revealed voluntarily). Asked what was going on at WIV he's said stuff more like sorry I can't say as we have a confidentiality agreement rather than no idea.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#679

Post by mmcwilliams »

harry8 wrote: post #469
mmcwilliams wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim that the funding doesn't come from a "billionaire owned outlet" doesn't really track if you look at the investors[0] in Substack. I count at least one billionaire-run fund in that list. There was also an incident a couple months ago where Elon Musk accused Taibbi of working for Substack, which he denied, but in leaked texts says they "originally hired" him[1], which I find confusing. [0] https://www.crunchb…

> if you look at the investors[0] in Substack FFS this is like claiming you are funded by BoA or JPM if your salary is deposited there. They are literally paid by their subscribers, Substack is a mere payment & publication tool. Substack do not pay them. Moreover w.r.t. Taibbi he has picked fights with his employers and quit at the first hint of them trying to influence his work. His credibility on that front is actu…

Claiming that a private company with significant investment in it has "owners" is not controversial. It's unclear to me why this bothers you so much. This isn't intended as an attack on Taibbi whatsoever, it is just plain wrong to say that a for-profit company funded by some of the largest SV funds is not an owned entity.

You can make the case that because Substack writers do not have an editorial process and fact checking that it is distinct from other news outlets and you'd be correct, but it doesn't change the fact that it is a platform that billionaire(s) have a financial interest in.

Re: First people sickened by Covid-19 were scientists at WIV: US government sources

#680

Post by tim333 »

stubybubs wrote: post #181
TechBro8615 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had personally decided by April 2020 that there was sufficient information for me to believe that Covid was a lab-enhanced pathogen that was accidentally released by researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. My "source" was mainly common sense (the simplest solution is usually the right one, and guilty people doth protest too much), an understanding of probability (there is a lab studying the pathogen right n…

> My "source" was mainly common sense (the simplest solution is usually the right one https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html 75% of all new infectious diseases come from animals. Isn't the simplest solution that COVID also came from animals? Just because it was a bad one doesn't make it less likely. Where did smallpox come from? Polio? Spanish flu? Is it strange that the lab was near the wet mark…

Simplest given the known facts I think. I mean all viral pandemics in the past have come from nature. However in this case where everyone agrees it came from a bat coronavirus, the nearest similar viruses were in nature 600km+ away or at the WIV 10km away. If natural you'd have to explain how it covered that distance without infecting people en route. Also why no infected animals were found. Also the WIV lab was advertising for coronavirus researcher on its job page at the time of breakout so obviously that stuff was going on.
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