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NIH restarts bat virus grant

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Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#111

Post by foobarian »

dfadsadsf wrote: post #105
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…

If anything lack of respirators saved lives. With hindsight we now know that putting people on respirator was actually the thing that killed them - not COVID. All this hospital heroic in New York and around the country was huge mistake and most people who were in hospital at the time should have stayed home. On lockdowns - you have to do them 100% (China, Australia, New Zealand) or just give up. Half measures just do…

> With hindsight we now know that putting people on respirator was actually the thing that killed them - not COVID.

Do you have links on this? I'd love to know more.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#112

Post by jeremyjh »

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #77
lvass wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

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

1. They were trying to create this virus in Wuhan

2. It emerged in Wuhan

3. The Chinese government made it impossible for independent parties to examine the origin.

> no evidence

I am not certain this was a man-made disaster, but you simply have no credibility making the statements you are making.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#113

Post by ZoomerCretin »

jeremyjh wrote: post #109
ZoomerCretin wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason it never caused a global pandemic had nothing to do with how transmissible it was, and everything to do with early detection and limited Draconian measures to contain it. SARS-CoV-2 was not only not engineered to bind to human receptors, it was not engineered at all and there is no credible person or source that makes this claim.

It was more transmissible and critically people were infectious for 2-3 days before experiencing symptoms, whereas that period was less than a day with SARS-Cov-1, that was a critical difference.

The period of 1 day of transmissibility before symptoms is the exact same with influenza virus. Influenza, very famously, was not transmissible enough to cause a pandemic at all, ever, and totally does not continuously circulate throughout the entire world to this day.

Oh wait.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#114

Post by 462436347 »

shri_krishna wrote: post #32
echelon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A seriously creepy thought that I've had (that I certainly don't agree with) - It could be a way for governments to quickly and affordably "cull the herd" of expensive to support elders, immune compromised, sick, and infirm individuals. In doing so, it would free up capital, resources, housing, jobs, etc. for the younger workforce. This is of course only a creative musing, not a proposal for an unsubstantiated conspi…

"I try not to think about it too much. But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to" [1] - Sam Altman, OpenAI [1]: https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-ceo-survivalist-prepper

I can't for the life of me understand the personality cult of Sam Altman. He gives off sociopathic vibes, and looks (probably thanks to plastic surgery) creepy.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#115

Post by [deleted] »

bfung wrote: post #98
arcbyte wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

The death rate per capita seems to suggest Florida probably could’ve done better. 20th highest death per capita out of the 50 states. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/covid19_mortality_...

[deleted]

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#116

Post by willcipriano »

bfung wrote: post #98
arcbyte wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

The death rate per capita seems to suggest Florida probably could’ve done better. 20th highest death per capita out of the 50 states. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/covid19_mortality_...

Doesn't Florida have lots of elderly people?

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#117

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #55

EcoHealth should not be allowed to participate in Federal grants. If there is a reason we don't have confidence as a society where Covid came from, it's because of efforts taken by Ecohealth to short-circuit reasonable scientific inquiry. EcoHealth doesn't do science and should be banned.

I think this your point is very important to highlight. I'm very uncomfortable with all the posts that posit "Covid came from the lab" is a conclusive fact. There is considerable evidence, and it's certainly plausible, that it did come from a lab, but it's likely we'll never know with certainty.

That said, EcoHealth's cardinal sin was the Feb 2020 Lancet letter ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_letter_(COVID-19) ). There was clear conflict of interest in that letter, and in retrospect it did huge damage for the effort to study the origins of Covid. Like the saying goes "it's not the crime, it's the cover up". While it's not 100% clear there was an "original crime", that letter certainly looks like a coverup. For this letter alone EcoHealth should be banned from getting federal grant money.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#118

Post by shon »

criticalmass2 wrote: post #87
shon wrote: post #39

First, nice name OP. ;) Second, are there any bio people here who can weigh-in on why this is a good idea and how the potential benefits outweigh the risks? Bioweapons seem like a terrible idea in general. The worst case scenario of any weapon system is that it’s used against its creators and we humans aren’t that good at controlling biology. So what’s the benefit?

This has nothing to do with bioweapons. The reality is that throughout all of human history, viruses have evolved organically in the environment in such a way that they are infectious to humans. Viruses will continue to evolve and future pandemics will happen. This research is attempting to study how viruses might evolve in a way that is particularly concerning to humans so that we can be more prepared in terms of cr…

[flagged]

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#119

Post by unregistereddev »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #33
ethanbond wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Act like what didn’t happen?

[flagged]

I appreciate the clarification, but please remember this is an unproven fact. There is reasonably convincing evidence for both the lab leak theory and the animal origin theory of COVID-19. In both cases, the only available evidence is circumstantial and indirect.

Re: NIH restarts bat virus grant

#120

Post by jeremyjh »

runsWphotons wrote: post #108
ethanbond wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've encountered people like, "hey well if we find out it was China then there should be consequences." Uhh like what? Are we going to invade a nuclear adversary who the whole world is 100% dependent on and with a population of 1.4 billion people to shut down their labs that maybe produced a virus? The best payback for millions of accidental deaths: a billion purposeful ones all over the globe and very possibly…

It is possible the reorganisation of supply chains post covid will be punishment enough in the long run. But a government that would unleash a biological attack on the world (not claiming they actually did, idk more than anyone else) is an existential threat itself. So an international effort of sanctions and pressure for regime change even at great risk might make sense, yes. A war would probably not risk ending civ…

This is just fucking absurd. Are you serious suggesting its remotely possible the Chinese government would release a deadly bioweapon in their own city without even developing and distributing a vaccine first? Because I don't think anyone is suggesting that, but maybe I'm not following the same news sources that you are.

To be clear, I don't think they would develop a vaccine and virus first either, but the idea of "just release it lol" is pants on head crazy.

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