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What makes you think it's "extremely unlikely" that this virus was developed in a lab, and who do you think you're agreeing with? > “It was very unlikely that
by brippalcharrid 6y ago
What makes you think it's "extremely unlikely" that this virus was developed in a lab, and who do you think you're agreeing with?
> “It was very unlikely that anything could escape from such a place,” Ben Embarek said during the Feb. 9 WHO press conference, citing the team’s discussions with Wuhan lab officials about their safety protocols and audits. “If you look at the history of lab accidents, these are extremely rare events.”
> Yet lab accidents aren’t rare.
> What’s rare are accidents causing documented outbreaks. But those have happened, including in 2004 when two researchers at a lab in Beijing unknowingly became infected with another type of SARS coronavirus, sparking a small outbreak that killed one person.
> In the weeks since leaving Wuhan, the WHO’s team has been questioned about its independence and depth, including by the Biden administration, amid media reports that China denied the team access to raw data on possible COVID-19 cases that were identified during the earliest part of the outbreak.
> “We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement last month. “It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government.”
Why is the distinction between development and manufacturing relevant here? Have you read the article?
- Simulacra 6y agoWhile I agree with your statement, please do not insinuate or ask if the commenter has read the article. It is against the rules. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- viklove 6y agoHN has such odd and draconian rules that should really come under scrutiny more often. We're not allowed to think or say certain things? What?
- easton 6y agoIt's why the discourse stays on point and doesn't devolve into flame wars, or that's the theory, anyway. Pretty much everything has been designed to make people stay friendly.
- viklove 6y agoVery Brave New World-esque. Make rules to keep everyone friendly, but meanwhile what you're actually doing is silencing people and making it impossible to have any real discussion. I better be careful, since I'm only allowed to make 4 comments an hour I have to be very selective of the opinions I share.
- jhawk28 6y agoAsking if the user has read the article is an ad-hominem attack. The guidelines are there to encourage good discussion.
- dang 6y agoI wish they would come under scrutiny more often—it would mean people are reading them! Everything on https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html is derived from (a) HN's core value of intellectual curiosity, which is the sole thing we're optimizing for (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20optimiz%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...), and (b) well over 10 years of experience operating this place. Not only that, but they're garbage-collected periodically, meaning that if there's any rule there which isn't 'paying' for the space it consumes on that page, we take it out. It's like a codebase that way: complexity is the enemy, less is more, and deleting is at least as important as adding. If anyone has a cogent case for deleting one of the guidelines, that would be most helpful. If anyone can think of one that should be added, and can't be derived from what's already there, that would also be helpful.
- viklove 6y agoIt's very hard to be intellectually curious when I'm only allowed to post 3-4 comments an hour. What if I'm having a conversation with someone? Why am I not allowed to respond?