4 ms·

He covered accident lab release in Question 4 [0]. He mentions that the WIV lab is well respected, well funded, well equipped, there was public logging of all r

He covered accident lab release in Question 4 [0]. He mentions that the WIV lab is well respected, well funded, well equipped, there was public logging of all relevant bat samples, along with parallel samples sent to other labs, lab workers were not the first who were sick, and there's genetic evidence that the virus did not originate in Wuhan. Dr. Duehr links to a reference that talks about the cleavage site [1], which concluded that "Acquisition of the furin cleavage site might be viewed as a ‘gain of function’ that enabled a bat CoV to jump into humans and begin its current epidemic spread" [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/science/comments/gk6y95/covid19_did_not_come_from_the_wuhan_institute_of/fqpccr1/ https://old.reddit.com/r/science/comments/gk6y95/covid19_did... [1] https://www.virology.ws/2020/02/13/furin-cleavage-site-in-the-sars-cov-2-coronavirus-glycoprotein/ https://www.virology.ws/2020/02/13/furin-cleavage-site-in-th...

dqv 5y ago
Shi herself says that WIV isn't solely a BSL-4 lab and that coronaviruses were handled in BSL-2 prior to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak [0]. The idea that SARS-CoV-2 couldn't have "grown" (again: ignore intentionality) in the lab shouldn't be discounted. I'm also skeptical of other virologists sticking up for WIV due to social pressure. It would be detrimental to virology everywhere if virologists started giving credence to this idea that samples in the lab may not have been handled perfectly. It's a natural social response to try to defend your profession. What we do have records of is that Shi was researching RaTG13, the closest ancestor we know of to SARS-CoV-2 [1]. A question I want to find the answer to is how samples assumed to have low risk of infectivity to humans were being handled. [0]: https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli%20Q%26A.pdf https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli... [1]: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin-chaos-under-heaven-wuhan-lab-book-excerpt-474322 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin...

dqv 5y ago

Shi herself says that WIV isn't solely a BSL-4 lab and that coronaviruses were handled in BSL-2 prior to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak [0]. The idea that SARS-CoV-2 couldn't have "grown" (again: ignore intentionality) in the lab shouldn't be discounted. I'm also skeptical of other virologists sticking up for WIV due to social pressure. It would be detrimental to virology everywhere if virologists started giving credence to this idea that samples in the lab may not have been handled perfectly. It's a natural social response to try to defend your profession. What we do have records of is that Shi was researching RaTG13, the closest ancestor we know of to SARS-CoV-2 [1]. A question I want to find the answer to is how samples assumed to have low risk of infectivity to humans were being handled. [0]: https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli%20Q%26A.pdf https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli... [1]: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin-chaos-under-heaven-wuhan-lab-book-excerpt-474322 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin...