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Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

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101–110 of 186 posts

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man you are rewriting history for sure. Twitter was banning Wuhan lab theories as misinformation and Fauci's leaked emails show him asking the NIH to further "put down" the lab leak theories.

At the time, it was absolutely misinformation. That it may actually be true doesn’t make it less so.

What? It was misinformation then but it might be true so its ok now? That means it wasn't misinformation then either.

Also who decides what is misinformation?

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#102
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It does seem odd they would want to set up a lab in close proximity to what they wanted to study The lab was nowhere near the site of what they were studying. The coronavirus strains came from a cave 600 miles away and brought to Wuhan for further study. Again, none of these viruses have a unique furin cleavage site for ACE-2. If you read the FOIA document requests, one of the people who got grant money said "I jus…

> The lab was nowhere near the site of what they were studying. > The coronavirus strains came from a cave 600 miles away and brought to Wuhan for further study. The best theory I've come across is that patient zero was a person collecting bats in caves for the lab in Wuhan. By all records, they wore woefully inadequate PPE (unlike the people in the lab itself who had well-established procedures). This theory explain…

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Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#103
post #67
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some confusion and rewriting of history going on here. The left wasn't denying the possibility that it leaked from the Wuhan lab. This was a theory very early on and it wasn't "denied" more that it wasn't substantiated. It became political when it was asserted by people on the right, without any actual research or investigation, that was an intentional release from China. Majority of that blame falls…

Candidly, I think that this comment is actually the one rewriting history. There absolutely, 100% was complete denial, all originating on the political left, that a leak from a lab in China was a possibility. No confusion about intentional vs accidental - total denial of the possibility in any way shape or form. Suggesting it was possible, much less plausible or even likely, was labeled racist. Attempts were made (wi…

You're right, and it's not even hard to verify it, just look at this comment from December 2020:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25587409

In the US, it's because this claim, or rejection of it, is strongly tied to political identity. Because the US is highly polarized right now, once political identity comes into play, you've left the realm of rationality and entered the realm of tribalism.

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#104
post #67
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some confusion and rewriting of history going on here. The left wasn't denying the possibility that it leaked from the Wuhan lab. This was a theory very early on and it wasn't "denied" more that it wasn't substantiated. It became political when it was asserted by people on the right, without any actual research or investigation, that was an intentional release from China. Majority of that blame falls…

Candidly, I think that this comment is actually the one rewriting history. There absolutely, 100% was complete denial, all originating on the political left, that a leak from a lab in China was a possibility. No confusion about intentional vs accidental - total denial of the possibility in any way shape or form. Suggesting it was possible, much less plausible or even likely, was labeled racist. Attempts were made (wi…

[deleted]

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#105
post #67
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's some confusion and rewriting of history going on here. The left wasn't denying the possibility that it leaked from the Wuhan lab. This was a theory very early on and it wasn't "denied" more that it wasn't substantiated. It became political when it was asserted by people on the right, without any actual research or investigation, that was an intentional release from China. Majority of that blame falls…

Candidly, I think that this comment is actually the one rewriting history. There absolutely, 100% was complete denial, all originating on the political left, that a leak from a lab in China was a possibility. No confusion about intentional vs accidental - total denial of the possibility in any way shape or form. Suggesting it was possible, much less plausible or even likely, was labeled racist. Attempts were made (wi…

This is exactly how I remember things.

My stance has always been that Lab Leak required the least number of assumptions. Intent was never factored in, just that it seems awfully strange to so vehemently deny even the possibility of it being a lab leak and not want to investigate. Could it have been the wet market? Sure, but it seems less likely.

There may be some interesting reckoning happening in a few years, but probably not. Like safe and effective vaccines. It turns out, that if you did a RCT with two placebos and only called the people with placebo A vaccinated after two weeks, and called them unvaccinated if the got COVID in those two weeks. Placebo A would have the same efficacy numbers as the vaccines they rolled out.

I also thought RFK Jr was full of shit when he said the current childhood vaccines have not been tested against placebo. I was wrong there. Turns out they only test against previous versions of the vaccines, some of which are known to have serious side effects, and most of the time the previous version goes back to a time when they didn't do much testing either.

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#106
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Twitter, a private company, censored posts, Biden's White House said that they wouldn't rule out any possibility, including the virus being leaked on purpose. He also ordered US spy agencies to do an investigation into the lab leak hypothesis. "The left" wasn't denying anything. It just wasn't willing to jump to conclusions prematurely. Trying to rebrand it as "The China Virus" was a transparent attempt to focu…

Interesting you just ignored the direct quote I gave of Fauci asking the NIH to put it down. I'm pretty sure Twitter had pressure from the Virality Project which worked with Stanford and federal agencies so I think it's disingenuous to act as if they weren't denying anything or trying to play it down. The China Virus thing has nothing to do with what I said

Your "direct quote" doesn't exist. So you may want to get your facts in order, especially if you're going to argue that it portrays something it clearly does not.

In fact, it's the opposite of what you were asserting.

Early on, virologists Michael Farzan and Robert Garry were on a call with Fauci and Collins about the potential that the virus could've leaked.

Following that, Fauci's released emails (another correction, since you called them "leaked") was part of a chain between him and Collins:

> Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy.

- Collins, April 16, 2020.

> I would not do anything about this right now. It is a shiny object that will go away in times.

- Fauci's response

What's more, Robert Garry clarified it further:

> One thing that could be misconstrued is that neither Dr Fauci or Dr Collins suggested in any way that we not write the Proximal Origin paper. Likewise, neither one suggested that we not mention the possibility of a Lab origin.

I hope that helps you put things in proper order.

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#107
post #99
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of those are definitive sources of evidence. Grant proposals that were denied and statements that the furin site could've evolved naturally or been lab manipulated, aren't really evidence that COVID-19 leaked from a lab.

Ok, so? This is inference from a bunch of connected but circumstantial evidence. Can someone explain to me what the harm is in this practice?

Speculate all you want, just don't make definitive claims using non-definitive evidence.

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#108
post #31
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lab leak theorists don’t believe Covid was developed as a weapon. They believe it was an accidental leak from a lab doing normal, non-warfare virological research. The quoted phrasing makes me think that they know it was a leak but redirect the conversation by saying it wasn’t a biological weapon.

Many conspiracy theorists have claimed it was a bio-weapon, along with other batshit stuff like Bill Gates & 5G. Read both quotes, not just the last one.

When I wrote “lab leak theorists” I had in mind experts who think it was a leak. I was not thinking of kooks. I should have been more explicit. In general, I think it best for intelligence agencies not to write things to counter what looney people think. Such people can’t be convinced of anything that is contrary to their lunacy.

Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#109
post #34

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was working on adding a unique furin cleavage site to a bat coronoavirus strain to make it bind to human ACE-2 receptors. This is factual, because the grant proposals are out there and DARPA in the US turned them down: https://theintercept.com/2021/09/23/coronavirus-research-gra... Suddenly, we have a global pandemic featuring a bat coronavirus with a unique furin cleavage site that bi…

Unique furin cleavage sites are very common in coronaviruses (see below paper). In fact, one of the papers linked from the intercept article you posted even mentions HCoV-HKU1 which also has a unique furin cleavage site at s1/s2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187350612... I found all of this in about 10 minutes of googling and 15 minutes of reading. Which means I’m as qualified to weigh in on the…

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Re: Declassified U.S. report on origins of Covid-19 virus [pdf]

#110
post #34

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was working on adding a unique furin cleavage site to a bat coronoavirus strain to make it bind to human ACE-2 receptors. This is factual, because the grant proposals are out there and DARPA in the US turned them down: https://theintercept.com/2021/09/23/coronavirus-research-gra... Suddenly, we have a global pandemic featuring a bat coronavirus with a unique furin cleavage site that bi…

Unique furin cleavage sites are very common in coronaviruses (see below paper). In fact, one of the papers linked from the intercept article you posted even mentions HCoV-HKU1 which also has a unique furin cleavage site at s1/s2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187350612... I found all of this in about 10 minutes of googling and 15 minutes of reading. Which means I’m as qualified to weigh in on the…

There are other coronaviruses (broad category) with furin cleavage sites, but there are not other sarbecoviruses (more narrow category) with furin cleavage sites. What those two facts tell you about the origin of Covid-19 is beyond my pay grade.
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