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There's a chance for everything. Nevertheless I find it much more likely that we really see a case of zoonosis here, given the fact that Chinese food culture h

There's a chance for everything. Nevertheless I find it much more likely that we really see a case of zoonosis here, given the fact that Chinese food culture has "little respect" for anything. Also: If this came from an institute for virology, that must be the WORST of its kind of all times. That is making mistakes on the Resident Evil level.

sampo 6y ago
> If this came from an institute for virology, that must be the WORST of its kind of all times. Not really. SARS escaped from laboratories (at least) 3 times. Once in Singapore, twice in Beijing. SARS doesn't have the long asymptomatic but still contagious period that SARS-CoV-2 has, so the lab escapes were much easier to contain before they spread widely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome#Laboratory_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndr...
mytailorisrich 6y ago
It's not even necessarily linked to "Chinese food culture" (which seems to be a somewhat racist trope more often than not). Bats interact with cattle, from drinking points to barns. It is believed that MERS jumped from bats to camels to humans, yet we hardly read any criticism of the Middle Eastern "food culture", do we?
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  When camels were implicated as a MERS reservoir, one indeed did see offensive comments on social media about traditional Middle Eastern culture or the warped stereotypes based thereupon. If we didn’t hear more of that talk, and it eventually died out, that is only because MERS never managed to spread beyond a limited part of the Middle East, unlike COVID.
  - mytailorisrich 6y ago
    The point stands that this is really thinly veiled (or not veiled at all) racism more than anything, be it against Chinese or Arabs. And apparently it's not even OK to point this out judging by the reactions to this comment and my previous one. But I also think that the targeting of China is something that is let to happen because it fits some agendas.

sampo 6y ago

> If this came from an institute for virology, that must be the WORST of its kind of all times. Not really. SARS escaped from laboratories (at least) 3 times. Once in Singapore, twice in Beijing. SARS doesn't have the long asymptomatic but still contagious period that SARS-CoV-2 has, so the lab escapes were much easier to contain before they spread widely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome#Laboratory_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndr...

mytailorisrich 6y ago

It's not even necessarily linked to "Chinese food culture" (which seems to be a somewhat racist trope more often than not). Bats interact with cattle, from drinking points to barns. It is believed that MERS jumped from bats to camels to humans, yet we hardly read any criticism of the Middle Eastern "food culture", do we?

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
When camels were implicated as a MERS reservoir, one indeed did see offensive comments on social media about traditional Middle Eastern culture or the warped stereotypes based thereupon. If we didn’t hear more of that talk, and it eventually died out, that is only because MERS never managed to spread beyond a limited part of the Middle East, unlike COVID.
- mytailorisrich 6y ago
  The point stands that this is really thinly veiled (or not veiled at all) racism more than anything, be it against Chinese or Arabs. And apparently it's not even OK to point this out judging by the reactions to this comment and my previous one. But I also think that the targeting of China is something that is let to happen because it fits some agendas.