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

51–60 of 1001 posts

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#51

Post by oneshtein »

arisAlexis wrote: post #39

I remember still when it was considered a conspiracy theory and we got downvoted here and banned on reddit for even implying the possibility. Unfortunately something similar is happening with AI x-risk right now.

Accusation without evidence is witch-hunting.

We still have no strong evidence for lab leak from BSL4 lab in Wuhan, while we have some evidence (two early strains of SARS-CoV-2: A, then B; B was in Wuhan in December; where and when was parent of A and B?) that suggests start of epidemic outside of China in mid-September 2019. Russians start to delete videos about blast at their BSL4 lab "Vector" in Novosibirsk on Sep 16 2019[0], which suggests that this information may cause harm for them.

So, "Lab leak" theory may be right, while "lab leak from BSL4 lab in Wuhan" theory may be wrong.

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

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#52

Post by throwaway2990 »

th0ma5 wrote: post #47
seydor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[flagged]

The lab leak theory started in China. It has never been about xenophobia. The only people pushing the whole xenophobia thing was the CCP. Chinese news called it wuhan virus long after it was given the name Covid-19.

So stop trying to protect the CCP.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#53

Post by computerfriend »

th0ma5 wrote: post #47
seydor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[flagged]

Don't ascribe motive ("cause xenophobic feelings") unless you can back it up.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#54

Post by throwaway2990 »

th0ma5 wrote: post #19
pyuser583 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a peer reviewed paper earlier in the pandemic where scientists used their knowledge of viral anatomy to argue it wasn’t engineered. Subsequent scientific have disagreed. But this isn’t purely historical.

[flagged]

Science is in agreement that it is most likely not natural and was engineered. The missing piece is where it originated and majority agree that it most likely originated from the wuhan institute of virology.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#55

Post by pcrh »

After a quick read of the article, it presents no new data, and is replete with innuendo pointing at the Wuhan lab, rather than any direct evidence.

Most importantly, the general reader should know that all labs researching viruses do research on dangerous viruses. After all there is no incentive to research benign viruses. So the fact that the Wuhan lab worked on coronaviruses is not in itself an indication of any ill-intent. Additionally, the closest relative to SARSCov2 that has been identified (RaTG13) was found in a cave in Mojiang county in Yunnan, over 1,000 km away, with no evidence that it was ever studied in the Wuhan lab. Further, genetic clocks show that RaTG13 and SARSCoV2 diverged almost 50 years ago.

The map presented upfront from is also misleading, the early cases clustered around the market not the lab [0]. Furthermore, several different isolates were found in the market, indicating that SARSCoV2 had been circulating before the epidemic took off.

[0] The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#56

Post by th0ma5 »

throwaway2990 wrote: post #52
th0ma5 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The lab leak theory started in China. It has never been about xenophobia. The only people pushing the whole xenophobia thing was the CCP. Chinese news called it wuhan virus long after it was given the name Covid-19. So stop trying to protect the CCP.

Protect them from what? Being blamed? What does that do except stoke fear? There are actual things to talk about like their aggressive naval horseshit why do we have to make them nefarious mind controllers or secret world saboteurs or whatever this lab leak hypothesis is supposed to prove.

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#58

Post by th0ma5 »

computerfriend wrote: post #53
th0ma5 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Don't ascribe motive ("cause xenophobic feelings") unless you can back it up.

That's the very point I'm trying to make about this dubious article and all the people posting conspiracy theories here. How can we say they aren't trying to cause xenophobic feelings?

Re: Inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid

#59

Post by calderwoodra »

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.

Are you implying the lab shouldn't have existed at all? And/or future coronavirus labs shouldn't exist either?
Post reply on HN