4 ms·

I agree, they were most likely studying SARS like viruses to prevent future outbreaks, but due to employee negligence it got out.

abacadaba 7y ago
I'm torn between not being able to entirely dismiss this theory, and the harm it could cause putting this out there whether true or not. Even more geopolitical distrust is the last thing we need right now, but how do you look the other way? Edit: look the other way referring specifically to any cover up done, fwiw.
- JoeAltmaier 7y ago
  Its gossip. Don't spread gossip.
  - abacadaba 7y ago
    Welp, cats outta the bag on that one.
    - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
      The OP indicated natural origin. The rest is speculation/gossip.
      - empath75 7y ago
        So? People speculate on hacker news all the time. It’s a plausible theory for what happened.
        JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        Its a conspiracy theory. And bigoted one.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        laowhy 7y ago
        If there was a viral outbreak at a grocery store within a mile of a CDC infectious diseases lab, no one would assume its bigoted to speculate a containment breach as a possible origin. Its actually less bigoted than the assumption the media pushed before which was that someone ate a bat or because of unsanitary health practices regarding the handling of wild animals. This at least assumes someone was doing scientific research and accidental exposure occurred and no one noticed until it was too late.
  - gdubs 7y ago
    It’s fair to be skeptical when there’s a laboratory that studies SARS-like coronaviruses in the area where the outbreak occurred. People are conflating ‘engineered’ with ‘lab leak’. It would actually be pretty irresponsible not to fully audit the lab’s practices — determine whether such a leak was possible, etc.
  - surge 7y ago
    It's barely gossip when the web site advertised research into coronaviruses and was looking to hire more researchers and the head researcher is missing. http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/ http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/ http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201911/t20191118_5438006.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201911/t20191118_5438006.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201912/t20191224_5471634.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201912/t20191224_5471634.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/zxpy/yjsswgg/201409/t20140923_258008.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/zxpy/yjsswgg/201409/t20140923_258008.... http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200216-%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%89%80%E5%86%8D%E9%81%AD%E8%81%9A%E7%84%A6-%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E7%94%9F%E6%9F%93%E7%97%85%E8%AF%B4%E6%B3%95%E4%B8%8D%E6%B6%88-%E7%9F%B3%E6%AD%A3%E4%B8%BD%E5%86%8D%E6%8B%85%E4%BF%9D%E7%BB%9D%E6%97%A0%E6%84%9F%E6%9F%93 http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200216-%E6%AD%A6%E... http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200217-%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%89%80%E5%A4%96%E6%B3%84%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E4%BC%A0%E8%A8%80%E6%9C%AA%E6%AD%A2%E5%8F%88%E6%9C%89%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF%E6%8C%87-%E9%9B%B6%E5%8F%B7%E7%97%85%E4%BA%BA-%E6%98%AF%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E5%91%98 http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200217-%E6%AD%A6%E... http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/tzgg/201111/t20111104_151377.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/tzgg/201111/t20111104_151377.html http://www.whiov.ac.cn/tzgg_105342/202002/t20200216_5500201.html http://www.whiov.ac.cn/tzgg_105342/202002/t20200216_5500201.... http://blog.creaders.net/u/3027/202002/366239.html http://blog.creaders.net/u/3027/202002/366239.html https://www.backchina.com/blog/261460/article-314718.html https://www.backchina.com/blog/261460/article-314718.html http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/26/695325.html http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/26/695325.html https://bbs.pku.edu.cn/v2/post-read.php?bid=1465&threadid=17542777&page=5 https://bbs.pku.edu.cn/v2/post-read.php?bid=1465&threadid=17... Run these through Google Translate, see what you find. Geopolitical mistrust is healthy when things are being done in bad faith. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence, this lab housed bats, did research on these diseases and was in the proximity of the initial out break zone, everyone seems fine with accepting someone ate a bat as a likely cause. Whenever the lab is mentioned by anyone, a lot of effort is being put into calling it a conspiracy theory using strawman arguments against bioengineering, etc. That's just going to make people more suspicious something is being hidden and create a Streisand effect. It's already been well established that the existence of the disease was hidden at first, its ability to spread was hidden, then the idea of it becoming worse than the flu and a pandemic, why not the origins? It's not so hard to suspect this isn't due to malice, or bio-engineering, but research into a naturally occurring virus, and a lack of good safety procedures or enforcement of safety protocols.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
thinkingemote 7y ago
This has happened at least twice before with a Chinese lab with SARS so it's not unknown. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-beijing-lab-twice-50137 https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-bei... However the cases before, the virus was not new and the spread was quickly stopped.

abacadaba 7y ago

I'm torn between not being able to entirely dismiss this theory, and the harm it could cause putting this out there whether true or not. Even more geopolitical distrust is the last thing we need right now, but how do you look the other way? Edit: look the other way referring specifically to any cover up done, fwiw.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago
Its gossip. Don't spread gossip.
- abacadaba 7y ago
  Welp, cats outta the bag on that one.
  - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
    The OP indicated natural origin. The rest is speculation/gossip.
    - empath75 7y ago
      So? People speculate on hacker news all the time. It’s a plausible theory for what happened.
      - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        Its a conspiracy theory. And bigoted one.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        laowhy 7y ago
        If there was a viral outbreak at a grocery store within a mile of a CDC infectious diseases lab, no one would assume its bigoted to speculate a containment breach as a possible origin. Its actually less bigoted than the assumption the media pushed before which was that someone ate a bat or because of unsanitary health practices regarding the handling of wild animals. This at least assumes someone was doing scientific research and accidental exposure occurred and no one noticed until it was too late.
- gdubs 7y ago
  It’s fair to be skeptical when there’s a laboratory that studies SARS-like coronaviruses in the area where the outbreak occurred. People are conflating ‘engineered’ with ‘lab leak’. It would actually be pretty irresponsible not to fully audit the lab’s practices — determine whether such a leak was possible, etc.
- surge 7y ago
  It's barely gossip when the web site advertised research into coronaviruses and was looking to hire more researchers and the head researcher is missing. http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/ http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/ http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201911/t20191118_5438006.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201911/t20191118_5438006.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201912/t20191224_5471634.html http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201912/t20191224_5471634.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/zxpy/yjsswgg/201409/t20140923_258008.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/zxpy/yjsswgg/201409/t20140923_258008.... http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200216-%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%89%80%E5%86%8D%E9%81%AD%E8%81%9A%E7%84%A6-%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E7%94%9F%E6%9F%93%E7%97%85%E8%AF%B4%E6%B3%95%E4%B8%8D%E6%B6%88-%E7%9F%B3%E6%AD%A3%E4%B8%BD%E5%86%8D%E6%8B%85%E4%BF%9D%E7%BB%9D%E6%97%A0%E6%84%9F%E6%9F%93 http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200216-%E6%AD%A6%E... http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200217-%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%89%80%E5%A4%96%E6%B3%84%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E4%BC%A0%E8%A8%80%E6%9C%AA%E6%AD%A2%E5%8F%88%E6%9C%89%E6%B6%88%E6%81%AF%E6%8C%87-%E9%9B%B6%E5%8F%B7%E7%97%85%E4%BA%BA-%E6%98%AF%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E5%91%98 http://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20200217-%E6%AD%A6%E... http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/tzgg/201111/t20111104_151377.html http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/tzgg/201111/t20111104_151377.html http://www.whiov.ac.cn/tzgg_105342/202002/t20200216_5500201.html http://www.whiov.ac.cn/tzgg_105342/202002/t20200216_5500201.... http://blog.creaders.net/u/3027/202002/366239.html http://blog.creaders.net/u/3027/202002/366239.html https://www.backchina.com/blog/261460/article-314718.html https://www.backchina.com/blog/261460/article-314718.html http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/26/695325.html http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02/26/695325.html https://bbs.pku.edu.cn/v2/post-read.php?bid=1465&threadid=17542777&page=5 https://bbs.pku.edu.cn/v2/post-read.php?bid=1465&threadid=17... Run these through Google Translate, see what you find. Geopolitical mistrust is healthy when things are being done in bad faith. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence, this lab housed bats, did research on these diseases and was in the proximity of the initial out break zone, everyone seems fine with accepting someone ate a bat as a likely cause. Whenever the lab is mentioned by anyone, a lot of effort is being put into calling it a conspiracy theory using strawman arguments against bioengineering, etc. That's just going to make people more suspicious something is being hidden and create a Streisand effect. It's already been well established that the existence of the disease was hidden at first, its ability to spread was hidden, then the idea of it becoming worse than the flu and a pandemic, why not the origins? It's not so hard to suspect this isn't due to malice, or bio-engineering, but research into a naturally occurring virus, and a lack of good safety procedures or enforcement of safety protocols.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

thinkingemote 7y ago

This has happened at least twice before with a Chinese lab with SARS so it's not unknown. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-beijing-lab-twice-50137 https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-bei... However the cases before, the virus was not new and the spread was quickly stopped.