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We'll likely never know. There appears to be evidence that is hard to explain, though. Hopefully that will be investigated as deeply as it can be, rather than
by downerending 6y ago
We'll likely never know. There appears to be evidence that is hard to explain, though. Hopefully that will be investigated as deeply as it can be, rather than just swept under the rug.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoLikely never know the answer, or the burden of proof for accepting an answer?
- downerending 6y agoThe former.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoSo is there any possible way to invalidate the "made in a lab" theory?
- downerending 6y agoNo. That said, IIRC, there was some paper claiming that there was some binding (the spikes?) that appeared to be more specific to human than to any of the animals suspected of passing to us. That's at least rather surprising, if you imagine this to be an entirely natural event. And it might support the idea that there was a lab step (accident?) somewhere along the way.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoOk, so we're determining that you can easily keep the conspiracy going, with relatively minor evidence.
- downerending 6y agoI'm not a microbiologist, and it's unlikely that you are one either. I wouldn't call it a conspiracy, and it doesn't really matter what the truth is. If a Chinese lab blew it, they're not going to fess up, and there's nothing we can do about it anyway, so it's pointless to get upset about it. It's interesting to idly discuss, in an HN sort of way, but my advice is to ignore it and continue to live your life. Or at least move on to this week's outrage-fest.
- tim333 6y agoThe best would be to trace how it came about naturally. For instance with Sars 1 they "traced the virus through the intermediary of Asian palm civets to cave-dwelling horseshoe bats in Yunnan province." (Wikipedia) The covid virus looks like a mix of bat and pangolin coronaviruses so it's possible that similar tracing will be done. People are no doubt trying.