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China is a big country. Wuhan is 900km away from the bat caves that are believed to be the breeding ground for these viruses.
...but Wuhan is also 0km away from the wet markets that sell meat sourced x00km away near and around the bat caves.
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That comment was killed by software, similarly to how comments by banned accounts are killed. It was later vouched for by other users, which unkilled it. Please don't take HN threads on these lame meta tangents. They never go anywhere interesting, and people invariably just imagine scenarios that confirm whatever they already believe and get even more upset about it. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycomb…
> Please don't take HN threads on these lame meta tangents. I genuinely don't understand what you are talking about. Now am I being offensive or breaking some rules I am not aware of?
Does that make sense?
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Can we call it the chinese variant then? Because we do that with the new mutations: the brazilian variant, british variant, south african variant
> Can we call it the chinese variant then? Ok sure. What did you win? Have you now advanced science and solved all unknown problems in virology? Was the progress of mankind so impeded by the inability to call COVID-19 the Chinese variant? Seriously ask yourself why you are so hung up on being able to call it the China virus. Are doctors around the world completely unable to sequence this virus because they can’t say…
This is a great article explaining why a lab leak should always be a suspect. The alternative theory is that a virus traveled on its own (via bats or other animals) from bat caves 900km away to Wuhan where there are 2 labs researching bats. One of the labs is lesser known but is right next to the seafood market and the hospital where the outbreak was first known. [1] This article points out that a lab outbreak could…
There is no requirement that bats be transported to Wuhan. It's close to a known bat virus, and that's all we know. There are local bats in Wuhan, needless to say. Other species can easily be involved. The truth is that there is nothing particularly surprising about the way this virus evolved. Fundamentally this is a pandemic like any other. They happen in some species or another every year. And that, more than anyth…
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Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. I've spent a lot of time, energy, and words asking people not to do that in the opposite direction [1]. It applies just as much the other way around. Name-calling, flamebait, and nationalistic provocations take the internet straight to hell. We're trying to avoid that fate here, or at least stave it off [2] a little longer. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsgui…
I'm not. I'm in the US saying "stop attacking China without evidence." Edit: criticize justly and specifically, not nationalistically. Attacking any group using stretched/thin arguments makes the accusers look weak.
Your comment wasn't a good comment for HN because it used name-calling ("yellow journalism", "hating on", "FUD"), and because it was clearly a step further toward conflict between countries in the thread, which is what I mean by nationalistic flamewar.
I'm sure it felt like you were just being defensive and I completely get that, but comments here need to be more substantive and less flamebaity, no matter how wrong or unfair other commenters are, or you feel they are. That's not easy, but it's something we all need to work on, regardless of which side we're on.
Also, I don't think it's accurate to describe this specific article, or most of the comments in this thread (with some bad exceptions) as attacking China. We try to watch out for that and have scolded and moderated many commenters who have crossed that line (including some in this thread). HN's Chinese users, and users with Chinese family backgrounds, are absolutely welcome here, just as welcome as anybody else, and we don't tolerate slurs. You can see some of the long history of this here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
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Taking a step back, does he not at least bring up some valid points? The CCP did bar scientists from early investigation and has gone to considerable lengths to suppress national news outlets from properly reporting on the issue at hand. This does at least deserve some criticism.
Of course. The issue is simply that it needs to happen within the site guidelines, for example this one: " Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. " ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ) Commenters here need to learn the difference between posting in the flamewar style and having curious conversation. The issue is not the topic—it's which mode peopl…
You always make me think, dang. Criticisms by me and others aside, thanks for doing your job.
This is a great article explaining why a lab leak should always be a suspect. The alternative theory is that a virus traveled on its own (via bats or other animals) from bat caves 900km away to Wuhan where there are 2 labs researching bats. One of the labs is lesser known but is right next to the seafood market and the hospital where the outbreak was first known. [1] This article points out that a lab outbreak could…
An eerily prescient quote from a paper[0] published in 2015, two of the authors of which are with Wuhan Institute of Virology: > Understanding the bat origin of human coronaviruses is helpful for the prediction and prevention of another pandemic emergence in the future. China has clearly contributed valuable research into bat coronaviruses. They had all the motivation to look into these after the first deadly SARS. I…
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> Can we call it the chinese variant then? Ok sure. What did you win? Have you now advanced science and solved all unknown problems in virology? Was the progress of mankind so impeded by the inability to call COVID-19 the Chinese variant? Seriously ask yourself why you are so hung up on being able to call it the China virus. Are doctors around the world completely unable to sequence this virus because they can’t say…
It is important to be able to call it the 'China virus' for all the reasons China doesn't want it to be called that - names have power and squelching one to avoid offending a country is at best a slippery slope.
Again it is Americans who are dying, not the Chinese.
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I would think that the reason that people calling COVID the "China virus" are accused of racism is that there is really no reason to use that term for the virus outside of trying to offend others.
Can we call it the chinese variant then? Because we do that with the new mutations: the brazilian variant, british variant, south african variant
Maybe if the US didn't have a very large number of people who are willing to harass people of visibly different races we wouldn't have to have these discussions and worry so much about our language. But we do, and we have a track record of specific races being attacked when nations that have a majority of that race become embroiled in international issues.
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Please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN—especially on divisive topics. The guidelines are clear on this, and we ban accounts that break them repeatedly. Given that we've had to warn you half a dozen times now, it's time for you to review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and fix this.
As someone else who has been unfairly flagged on this thread, I will stand up for jtdev. A quick scan of their profile and posts show they have been here 2-3 years. They have a small number of on topic submissions about CEOs, technologies and science. Their posts are normal enough. There's the obvious theme that they're not in the Woke club though.
The issue isn't how long an account has been on HN or the good posts it makes—it's the bad posts. This shouldn't be hard to understand; it's the same principle by which people who always stop at red lights and are nice to supermarket cashiers still don't get to rob banks.