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Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

sciencemag.org

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Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#161

Post by Aperocky »

betterbeehome wrote: post #150
LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know? I thought about your 'nonsense' and recalled something rather old in 'internet time'. Anyways, i just searched for russian bio lab accident and this came up first: https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/decades-after-deadly... I'm sure there is more to find about that, but for the purpose of rebutting your nonsense i deem it sufficient. What do i mean by that? The theories aren't unfounded when looking bac…

I don't get it. Why are people knee-jerk adverse to this idea? We're not arguing with flat earthers or moon landing skeptics. It's entirely plausible. With people putting their reputation on it, too. Dany Shoham (Israeli biological warfare expert) put his name on the line point this out before a lot of people. It's not out of the realm of possibility and shouldn't be disregarded out of hand like it has been. Could be…

> Dany Shoham

So the same guy that claimed ISIS have biological weapon? Other than public information, so what does he know that others don’t? this guy has no credibility to begin with.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#162

Post by yibg »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #119
ajross wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The virology lab thing is a very popular conspiracy theory. Really the only evidence is that the virus started in the general viscinity of the lab, and that the lab was (somewhat vaguely, but not completely implausibly) suspected of doing bioweapons research. It's worth rebutting. The nonsense is a little out of control.

You know? I thought about your 'nonsense' and recalled something rather old in 'internet time'. Anyways, i just searched for russian bio lab accident and this came up first: https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/decades-after-deadly... I'm sure there is more to find about that, but for the purpose of rebutting your nonsense i deem it sufficient. What do i mean by that? The theories aren't unfounded when looking bac…

They have happened at some place at some point in the past seems pretty weak to go on. A lot of things have happened in the past, doesn't mean they're all potential causes this time around. Seems to me we need a bit more than we've had bio lab incidents before.

I mean by this measure any time someone crashes a car it could be an assassination attempt. It's happened before.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#163

Post by [deleted] »

ggffryuuj wrote: post #111
exdsq wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobste.rs looks cool but I see you can only join if you're invited by an existing member. Would you mind sending one to me, or letting me know where I can go about getting one? :) edward [dot] haigh [at] iohk [dot] io

I’ve reviewed your comment history and was pleased with the technical stuff and lack of flaming. Expect an invite in the next 24 hours

[deleted]

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#164

Post by stef25 »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #119
ajross wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The virology lab thing is a very popular conspiracy theory. Really the only evidence is that the virus started in the general viscinity of the lab, and that the lab was (somewhat vaguely, but not completely implausibly) suspected of doing bioweapons research. It's worth rebutting. The nonsense is a little out of control.

You know? I thought about your 'nonsense' and recalled something rather old in 'internet time'. Anyways, i just searched for russian bio lab accident and this came up first: https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/decades-after-deadly... I'm sure there is more to find about that, but for the purpose of rebutting your nonsense i deem it sufficient. What do i mean by that? The theories aren't unfounded when looking bac…

Because it happened before means it's happened again?

The amount of novel virus to have emerged from labs so far is probably very close to, if not zero.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#165

Post by LoSboccacc »

dylz wrote: post #77
LoSboccacc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and China is testing HIV related drugs for treatment since well before this paper came out https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/chi... but it's just a lucky hunch, right? not like they would try to hide knowing more about it, right?

It was done for other coronavirus: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15144898

so it's a string of random hunches, all rotating around novel Chinese viruses and hiv

damn they're lucky!

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#166

Post by diyseguy »

diyseguy wrote: post #118
svara wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple of days ago I posted a link to the BLASTN sequence alignment between the 2003 SARS virus and the Wuhan virus in a comment on one of the other discussions here. You can see they are closely related, at about 88% sequence identity. There are point mutations spread more or less evenly over the entire genome. This is how evolution works on genomes, and basically rules out genetic engineering, since researchers w…

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.26.920249v1

https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to...

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#167

Post by diyseguy »

diyseguy wrote: post #116
sjwalter wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For more recent, though more vague, evidence that China may not share the same views on handling extremely dangerous pathogens as the rest of the world, we have this story from July 2019, wherein a Chinese researcher working in one of Canada's BS-4 labs, along with her husband who was a SARS researcher, as well as several students she brought over from China to work with her, were all given the boot over unspecified…

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/questions-surroun...

https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debat...

https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to...

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#168

Post by Aunche »

tempsy wrote: post #12

Yeah I have a hard time believing it has been definitively proven that the market was the source of the virus. Wouldn’t that mean they have the carcass of whatever animal transmitted the virus in their possession? And did the first person known to have contracted it actually say they went there?

It's pretty simple. You ask all the first people who got sick what they were doing over the past couple weeks. It's the same way they identified that Chipotle had an E Coli problem.

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#169

Post by SyneRyder »

aaron_m04 wrote: post #154
ci5er wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the rapidity with which the Harvard chemical-biologist was arrested after we received a sample and sequenced it (~36 hours), I think it is possible (possible! not likely!) that we engineered it , and they paid a researcher to give them a copy. * Some pretty heavy researchers in the US say that it (the virus) was not human-engineered. I find their reasoning spurious, but they know more than I do.

> Given the rapidity with which the Harvard chemical-biologist was arrested after we received a sample and sequenced it I'd love to read more. Do you have a link?

I think this might be the official US Justice Department link. It's long, but worth reading the whole thing since it is primary source and not some newspaper summary:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-...

"The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China."

...

"Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese Talent recruit plans that are designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security."

Re: Wuhan seafood market may not be source of novel virus spreading globally

#170

Post by mirimir »

SECProto wrote: post #144
OJFord wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you know enough about something, there's horrible misinformation on it everywhere, even on HN. But one of my favourite things about HN is the rebuttals, deep-dives, and 'well, actually's of informed commenters discussing niches I know little about.

For sure. The best way to get the right answer on [hackernews] isn't to ask a question, it's to give the wrong answer.

Actually, both have worked for me.

But yeah, wrong answers are more informative.

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