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

31–40 of 1001 posts

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#31

Post by th0ma5 »

laserbeam wrote: post #30
th0ma5 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I mean... There are references to names, institutions carrying out certain investigations, references to experiments done prior to the pandemic. Yeah, some of it can be congecture. Which is why I really want the direct links to data, not just mentions to the events. I'm not sure it's a conspiracy theory. I think it's a legitimate thing to investigate by an international entity like the UN (not the US), and the outcom…

Sure, but the article is implying there something new that actually would have some kind of bearing or meaning.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#32

Post by rich_sasha »

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…

> But science does not ask this kind of question!

I disagree, it is a scientific question. Whether we can answer it in isolation of politics and prejudice is the question for me.

But if you observe some gravitational waves in a single event, you can correlate it to optical or radio observations, you can try to analyse the signals to match them to existing hypotheses of gravitational waves origination etc. The singularity of the event doesn't make it not science. Same as the emergence of a novel virus.

It is just a shame that most of the evidence is subjective and non-scientific. But the question itself is well posed scientific endeavour.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#33

Post by oneshtein »

laserbeam wrote: post #20

This is the kind of writing you need to properly discuss the lab leak hypothesis. It's not perfect, there are no good links to sources which suggests a lot of it is made up. However, this kind of writing should only happen after years or months of investigation. You can't do the lab leak panic 2 days into the pandemic. You can't even really do it half way through the pandemic. I'm glad such investigations are being c…

> It's not perfect, there are no good links to sources which suggests a lot of it is made up.

Existing evidence points to another lab: BSL4 lab "Vector" in Novosibirsk, Russia. They worked on their "Sputnik" vaccine when blast in laboratory on September 16 2019[2] caused chain of incidents: broken windows, unprotected soldiers break in, which checked rooms for signs of fire, equipment stolen from BSL4 lab by those soldiers[0][1], epidemic of unknown virus in Siberia, Military World Games in Wuhan[3].

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w7SAeNcXA8

[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20200407175030/https://www.youtu...

[2]: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/17/health/russia-lab-explosi...

[3]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7813667/

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#34

Post by oneshtein »

th0ma5 wrote: post #31
laserbeam wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean... There are references to names, institutions carrying out certain investigations, references to experiments done prior to the pandemic. Yeah, some of it can be congecture. Which is why I really want the direct links to data, not just mentions to the events. I'm not sure it's a conspiracy theory. I think it's a legitimate thing to investigate by an international entity like the UN (not the US), and the outcom…

Sure, but the article is implying there something new that actually would have some kind of bearing or meaning.

Russians started to clean up evidence, which points to BSL4 lab "Vector".

IMHO, this article is a part of their disinformation campaign. The name of their vaccine "Sputnik V" (Follower 5) suggests that there was "Something","Sputnik I", "Sputnik II", "Sputnik III", "Sputnik IV" before "Sputnik V".

It's impossible for Russians to produce 5 vaccines in row in such short span of time, just few months, which took billions of dollars and year of time for western companies.

IMHO, Russians started developing of their vaccine since SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2003.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#35

Post by switch007 »

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…

I interpreted it as “in the scientific community”.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#36

Post by seydor »

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…

why not? it is an important scientific question to guide research to mitigate the virus and prevent similar future disasters

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#37

Post by arisAlexis »

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…

"Is it possible for a lab to leak a virus? "

What do you mean? Ofc it's possible and has been done hundreds of times in the past with different viruses and lab security levels.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#38

Post by yyyk »

Leaving aside the question of where and how the virus emerged, it's interesting to note that the lab was nigh useless during the pandemic, despite its main specialty was investigating Coronaviruses! It looks like a lot of dangerous research went on, and even if nothing bad happened because of that research, nothing was gained. A lot of risk for nothing.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#40

Post by justanotheratom »

yyyk wrote: post #38

Leaving aside the question of where and how the virus emerged, it's interesting to note that the lab was nigh useless during the pandemic, despite its main specialty was investigating Coronaviruses! It looks like a lot of dangerous research went on, and even if nothing bad happened because of that research, nothing was gained. A lot of risk for nothing.

"nothing was gained"

I see the irony (gain of function)

Post reply on HN