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This type of pandemic is heavily predicted. It’s not a coincidence that it is being researched. It’s no more coincidence than studying earthquakes near a fault

This type of pandemic is heavily predicted. It’s not a coincidence that it is being researched. It’s no more coincidence than studying earthquakes near a fault line.

yters 6y ago
That's a very good point. So it is that Dr. Fauci anticipated the outbreak, and that is why he is advising the president.
- CathedralBorrow 6y ago
  > So it is that Dr. Fauci anticipated the outbreak, and that is why he is advising the president. I believe Dr. Fauci is advising the administration because he is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and been an advisor on epidemics to every president since Reagan.
  - yters 6y ago
    Yes, and I haven't seen him show up in previous epidemics like swine flu, so I made the connection that his recent gain of function funding might have given him special insight for this particular pandemic. I'm trying to make sense of the odd correlation between his involvement with the administration and that he was also instrumental in research about the very zoonosis the experts think occurred. Perhaps it is all a coincidence. I don't know all the background probabilities involved.
    - hxym28fa1B8 6y ago
      I seriously doubt that Fauci is doing any research himself, given that he directs NIAID. Where are you getting the idea that he did gain-of-function research? I'm actually interested in where this misinformation is getting generated.
      - yters 6y ago
        From the newsweek article I posted in the parent comment. https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741 https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan... Fauci is not personally conducting gain of function research, but he is both funding and promoting such research. Particularly, he funded the Wuhan lab to research bat to human coronavirus gain of function in 2019 before the outbreak. One of the lead researchers successfully created a chimeric virus that is similar to how covid-19 theoretically became so good at infecting humans. Obviously, there is good reason for this research, since that's where SARS, MERS and swine flu came from, so Fauci's foresight got him a few months ahead of the covid-19 pandemic. It is quite impressive that he picked both the vector and location prior to the pandemic outbreak. Seems like we should be giving him much greater recognition for this achievement.
        hxym28fa1B8 6y ago
        > he is both funding and promoting such research You mean the US NIAID is funding it? Fauci doesn't personally review and approve every (or even any) grants issued by NIAID. The NIAID director is far too busy to do that. I think it's done by scientists who volunteer their time. > Particularly, he funded the Wuhan lab to research bat to human coronavirus gain of function in 2019 before the outbreak. The grant doesn't appear to say anything about gain-of-function research at the WIV. Are you getting this claim from Newsweek, or have you seen it elsewhere? > One of the lead researchers successfully created a chimeric virus that is similar to how covid-19 theoretically became so good at infecting humans. Really? Which researcher did that, and can you cite the publication in which they describe that chimeric virus? > It is quite impressive that he picked both the vector and location prior to the pandemic outbreak. Seems like we should be giving him much greater recognition for this achievement. It sounds like you're saying that Fauci engineered SARS-CoV-2, but I may be misinterpreting you. Is that indeed what you're suggesting? Where did you get this claim from?
      - yters 6y ago
        For some reason your most recent comment is dead, and I cannot reply to it, so I'll reply here. It looks like the funding did cover the WIV research, from what I understand the article to say. "The NIH research consisted of two parts. The first part began in 2014 and involved surveillance of bat coronaviruses, and had a budget of $3.7 million. The program funded Shi Zheng-Li, a virologist at the Wuhan lab, and other researchers to investigate and catalogue bat coronaviruses in the wild. This part of the project was completed in 2019." Here's the 2015 paper co-authored by Zheng-Li Shi detailing a chimeric coronavirus that uses the SARS backbone to target ACE2, very similar to how covid-19 operates. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/ "Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV." It makes me confused regarding the recent debunking article that claims there is no way humans can have engineered the covid-19 spike that targets ACE2, and there is no known backbone used in the covid-19 genome. Seems in contradiction to this 2015 paper.
    - CathedralBorrow 6y ago
      He's been there though, even if you haven't seen him. Here's a C-SPAN interview from 2009 about H1N1 for example: https://www.c-span.org/video/?288279-6/h1n1-virus https://www.c-span.org/video/?288279-6/h1n1-virus
      - yters 6y ago
        Yes, I saw that. But he doesn't seem to have been front and center like he is with the current pandemic. I chalk that up to the remarkable fact he was able to predict both the vector and location with his funding prior to the outbreak. Fauci's got his ear to the ground!

This type of pandemic is heavily predicted. It’s not a coincidence that it is being researched. It’s no more coincidence than studying earthquakes near a fault line.

yters 6y ago

That's a very good point. So it is that Dr. Fauci anticipated the outbreak, and that is why he is advising the president.

CathedralBorrow 6y ago
> So it is that Dr. Fauci anticipated the outbreak, and that is why he is advising the president. I believe Dr. Fauci is advising the administration because he is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and been an advisor on epidemics to every president since Reagan.
- yters 6y ago
  Yes, and I haven't seen him show up in previous epidemics like swine flu, so I made the connection that his recent gain of function funding might have given him special insight for this particular pandemic. I'm trying to make sense of the odd correlation between his involvement with the administration and that he was also instrumental in research about the very zoonosis the experts think occurred. Perhaps it is all a coincidence. I don't know all the background probabilities involved.
  - hxym28fa1B8 6y ago
    I seriously doubt that Fauci is doing any research himself, given that he directs NIAID. Where are you getting the idea that he did gain-of-function research? I'm actually interested in where this misinformation is getting generated.
    - yters 6y ago
      From the newsweek article I posted in the parent comment. https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741 https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan... Fauci is not personally conducting gain of function research, but he is both funding and promoting such research. Particularly, he funded the Wuhan lab to research bat to human coronavirus gain of function in 2019 before the outbreak. One of the lead researchers successfully created a chimeric virus that is similar to how covid-19 theoretically became so good at infecting humans. Obviously, there is good reason for this research, since that's where SARS, MERS and swine flu came from, so Fauci's foresight got him a few months ahead of the covid-19 pandemic. It is quite impressive that he picked both the vector and location prior to the pandemic outbreak. Seems like we should be giving him much greater recognition for this achievement.
      - hxym28fa1B8 6y ago
        > he is both funding and promoting such research You mean the US NIAID is funding it? Fauci doesn't personally review and approve every (or even any) grants issued by NIAID. The NIAID director is far too busy to do that. I think it's done by scientists who volunteer their time. > Particularly, he funded the Wuhan lab to research bat to human coronavirus gain of function in 2019 before the outbreak. The grant doesn't appear to say anything about gain-of-function research at the WIV. Are you getting this claim from Newsweek, or have you seen it elsewhere? > One of the lead researchers successfully created a chimeric virus that is similar to how covid-19 theoretically became so good at infecting humans. Really? Which researcher did that, and can you cite the publication in which they describe that chimeric virus? > It is quite impressive that he picked both the vector and location prior to the pandemic outbreak. Seems like we should be giving him much greater recognition for this achievement. It sounds like you're saying that Fauci engineered SARS-CoV-2, but I may be misinterpreting you. Is that indeed what you're suggesting? Where did you get this claim from?
    - yters 6y ago
      For some reason your most recent comment is dead, and I cannot reply to it, so I'll reply here. It looks like the funding did cover the WIV research, from what I understand the article to say. "The NIH research consisted of two parts. The first part began in 2014 and involved surveillance of bat coronaviruses, and had a budget of $3.7 million. The program funded Shi Zheng-Li, a virologist at the Wuhan lab, and other researchers to investigate and catalogue bat coronaviruses in the wild. This part of the project was completed in 2019." Here's the 2015 paper co-authored by Zheng-Li Shi detailing a chimeric coronavirus that uses the SARS backbone to target ACE2, very similar to how covid-19 operates. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/ "Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV." It makes me confused regarding the recent debunking article that claims there is no way humans can have engineered the covid-19 spike that targets ACE2, and there is no known backbone used in the covid-19 genome. Seems in contradiction to this 2015 paper.
  - CathedralBorrow 6y ago
    He's been there though, even if you haven't seen him. Here's a C-SPAN interview from 2009 about H1N1 for example: https://www.c-span.org/video/?288279-6/h1n1-virus https://www.c-span.org/video/?288279-6/h1n1-virus
    - yters 6y ago
      Yes, I saw that. But he doesn't seem to have been front and center like he is with the current pandemic. I chalk that up to the remarkable fact he was able to predict both the vector and location with his funding prior to the outbreak. Fauci's got his ear to the ground!