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U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

science.org

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Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#41

Post by landemva »

infamouscow wrote: post #37
dvngnt_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

heart attacks don't spread in enclosed spaces

Who cares? Everyone has been vaccinated at this point unless you're so deluded from reality you missed the vaccination campaigns in every country on Earth.

A few years ago I got the 'rona and recovered. A few weeks later I went to doctor who got me blood test to confirm antibodies. He wrote letter stating I had it, I fully recovered, and the vaccines are not recommended. On a lark I got another antibody blood test recently and the markers are as strong as the first blood test - no waning.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#42

Post by jrflowers »

anonporridge wrote: post #24
dvngnt_ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

heart attacks don't spread in enclosed spaces

No, but they do spread via memetic infection of cultural norms that direct us as individuals to adopt unhealthy lifestyles.

I hate it when I catch an avoidable memetic infection from somebody a couple seats behind me on a plane because of the relaxed memetic infection rules.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#43

Post by callalex »

Obscurity4340 wrote: post #36
cameldrv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have tried something similar (getting to the bat cave in Yunnan), but the Chinese put literal roadblocks in their way (parking a truck in the middle of the road to stop them from getting to the cave) https://www.businessinsider.com/china-policing-bat-caves-sci... Getting any information from China has been made extremely difficult. I think it's reasonable to draw some conclusions from that.

Why can't they sanction China for obstructing this effort? They've got a real nice economy, it would be a shame if we piled on sanctions to help compound their current economic woes if they refus to allow this work to be done. That they were already read to go in blocking that cave suggests they already knew and are being obstructive.

Because, frankly, they have won the economic war. Every modern country is 100% reliant on the manufacturing that happens in China.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#44

Post by omginternets »

Obscurity4340 wrote: post #36
cameldrv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have tried something similar (getting to the bat cave in Yunnan), but the Chinese put literal roadblocks in their way (parking a truck in the middle of the road to stop them from getting to the cave) https://www.businessinsider.com/china-policing-bat-caves-sci... Getting any information from China has been made extremely difficult. I think it's reasonable to draw some conclusions from that.

Why can't they sanction China for obstructing this effort? They've got a real nice economy, it would be a shame if we piled on sanctions to help compound their current economic woes if they refus to allow this work to be done. That they were already read to go in blocking that cave suggests they already knew and are being obstructive.

This is effectively what is happening. The key phrases to look out for are "strategic interests" and "critical infrastructure". See: repatriation of chip-manufacturing, for example.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#45

Post by DangitBobby »

we_never_see_it wrote: post #20
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #16

> DEEP VZN drew especially sharp scrutiny because the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that specializes in sampling animals in attempts to prevent emerging diseases, played a central role in the PREDICT consortium. (EcoHealth also had a long-standing collaboration with the Wuhan lab at the center of the lab-leak theory.) This is why it actually matters to try to figure out if the lab leak is the most probably cause, t…

[flagged]

I get trolling can be fun for some people but I genuinely don't understand what you get out of it in this case.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#47

Post by Obscurity4340 »

omginternets wrote: post #44
Obscurity4340 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't they sanction China for obstructing this effort? They've got a real nice economy, it would be a shame if we piled on sanctions to help compound their current economic woes if they refus to allow this work to be done. That they were already read to go in blocking that cave suggests they already knew and are being obstructive.

This is effectively what is happening. The key phrases to look out for are "strategic interests" and "critical infrastructure". See: repatriation of chip-manufacturing, for example.

I don't see (given their environment about secrecy and not wanting to give their bosses/politicians the bad news when there are failures) how this could be successfull. Its hard to innovate when your family risks being disappeared when you inevitably fail at some point of the larger effort and on the way to results that transcend the faults of that overall developmental process.

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#48

Post by op00to »

omginternets wrote: post #31
jstarfish wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is very impenetrable. Too much of that line of inquiry discredits itself with speculation.

I don’t disagree with you, but it’s precisely the journalists job to lay bare these opacities and contradictions. What happened instead is that the lab leak hypothesis was treated as mere conspiracy theory. Edit: your comment also ignores the involvement of the USA in the purported lab leak. That’s easier to investigate. There is no excuse for the collective behavior of journalists.

If it’s so easy, why is no one doing it?

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#49

Post by dang »

we_never_see_it wrote: post #15

[flagged]

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle. That's not allowed here, regardless of who or what you're for or against. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

Ditto for trolling.

Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with; it will eventually get your main account banned as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: U.S. cancels program aimed at identifying potential pandemic viruses

#50

Post by TurkishPoptart »

Kerb_ wrote: post #28
kevlened wrote: post #10

This is fantastic news. I recommend listening to Rob Reid's interview with Kevin Esvelt on the topic. The gist is the program was designed to find potential viruses, then share them openly so countries without resources for this research could still prepare for future viruses. Obviously, open access to recipes for pandemic-grade viruses means they could also be used for nefarious means. It's worth listening to the an…

China hiding evidence of a pandemic-grade virus is exactly why it spread globally before anyone was able to do Jack shit about it

And why did the U.S. never restrict flights from China until months later?
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