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I think this is a big "gotcha". I'm not sure from your post if you've noticed that he yesterday held a press conference with the national UK media in which he

I think this is a big "gotcha". I'm not sure from your post if you've noticed that he yesterday held a press conference with the national UK media in which he cited the fact that he predicted the threat from coronaviruses a year previously.

lhnz 6y ago
He was talking about pandemics and quoting an article which does mention SARS and coronavirus. This is a tiny gotcha "oh but you didn't technically use the word SARS or coronavirus yourself when quoting the article the first time so it doesn't count".
- azernik 6y ago
  He was specifically talking about biolab incidents, which are not how this pandemic started. Using the word "coronavirus" is the only plausible connection to the current crisis, and he fabricated it after the fact for political ends.
  - lhnz 6y ago
    We do know that they were studying coronavirus in Wuhan so it is possible that somebody could have been exposed to it in Wuhan's biolab. And, my understanding is that it hasn't been ruled out. I also disagree that people that had read his blog and that article in particular didn't see them as connected. I had read that article earlier in the year, and I remember being surprised that the UK lockdown hadn't happened earlier since in 2019 he appeared to understand the dangers.
    - azernik 6y ago
      We have quite a lot of evidence for: * recent zoonotic origin (closely related to bat coronavirus samples, with likely pangolin recombination - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0092_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0092_article) * initial spread at an open-air market Whereas our evidence for spread from Wuhan is mostly wild speculation about research on the same very broad family of viruses.
      - lhnz 6y ago
        The article quoted says: "Although the Wuhan market was initially suspected to be the epicenter of the epidemic, the immediate source remains elusive. The close relatedness among SARS-CoV-2 strains suggested that the Wuhan outbreak probably originated from a point source with subsequent human-to-human transmission, in contrast to the polyphyletic origin of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (14). If the Wuhan market was the source, a possibility is that bats carrying the parental SARSr-BatCoVs were mixed in the market, enabling virus recombination. However, no animal samples from the market were reported to be positive. Moreover, the first identified case-patient and other early case-patients had not visited the market (15), suggesting the possibility of an alternative source." And there are people online that read it very differently from you (https://twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/1263536558482866176 https://twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/1263536558482866176).
Tenoke 6y ago
>he cited the fact that he predicted the threat from coronaviruses a year previously. He did, at least about viruses in general. I was specifically remembering him warning about pandemics preparedness when this started. I assume others familiar with him were well aware, too and that it was partially why he played such a big role in the UK's response.

lhnz 6y ago

He was talking about pandemics and quoting an article which does mention SARS and coronavirus. This is a tiny gotcha "oh but you didn't technically use the word SARS or coronavirus yourself when quoting the article the first time so it doesn't count".

azernik 6y ago
He was specifically talking about biolab incidents, which are not how this pandemic started. Using the word "coronavirus" is the only plausible connection to the current crisis, and he fabricated it after the fact for political ends.
- lhnz 6y ago
  We do know that they were studying coronavirus in Wuhan so it is possible that somebody could have been exposed to it in Wuhan's biolab. And, my understanding is that it hasn't been ruled out. I also disagree that people that had read his blog and that article in particular didn't see them as connected. I had read that article earlier in the year, and I remember being surprised that the UK lockdown hadn't happened earlier since in 2019 he appeared to understand the dangers.
  - azernik 6y ago
    We have quite a lot of evidence for: * recent zoonotic origin (closely related to bat coronavirus samples, with likely pangolin recombination - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0092_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0092_article) * initial spread at an open-air market Whereas our evidence for spread from Wuhan is mostly wild speculation about research on the same very broad family of viruses.
    - lhnz 6y ago
      The article quoted says: "Although the Wuhan market was initially suspected to be the epicenter of the epidemic, the immediate source remains elusive. The close relatedness among SARS-CoV-2 strains suggested that the Wuhan outbreak probably originated from a point source with subsequent human-to-human transmission, in contrast to the polyphyletic origin of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (14). If the Wuhan market was the source, a possibility is that bats carrying the parental SARSr-BatCoVs were mixed in the market, enabling virus recombination. However, no animal samples from the market were reported to be positive. Moreover, the first identified case-patient and other early case-patients had not visited the market (15), suggesting the possibility of an alternative source." And there are people online that read it very differently from you (https://twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/1263536558482866176 https://twitter.com/toad_spotted/status/1263536558482866176).

Tenoke 6y ago

>he cited the fact that he predicted the threat from coronaviruses a year previously. He did, at least about viruses in general. I was specifically remembering him warning about pandemics preparedness when this started. I assume others familiar with him were well aware, too and that it was partially why he played such a big role in the UK's response.