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How do you think it would play out if it is found that our government (e.g. NIH/CDC) supplied funding for research that created this virus? I suspect many coun

How do you think it would play out if it is found that our government (e.g. NIH/CDC) supplied funding for research that created this virus? I suspect many countries would take notice.

bradford 5y ago
> funding for research that created this virus? The very question demonstrates part of the problem here: there are ways that it could have been 'released' by the lab without being 'created' in the lab (or any lab). It's not clear to me that people are aware of this when the lab origin theory is discussed. Please don't prematurely make an assumption about what was going on in the lab. It's possible that some researcher went into a cave, took some biological samples from bats back to the lab. Thereafter, lack of proper protocol led to an infection that resulted in the pandemic. Embarrassing for China? yes, and I'd imagine they'd want to cover it up (although such accidents have happened at other worldwide facilities).
- hooande 5y ago
  This is the smartest comment. Lab leaks happen frequently, it's part of medical research. There's no hard evidence that this virus was engineered or human modified. China didn't create the concept of a virus. Mistakes happen
- leetrout 5y ago
  This is what I think is very likely given the storage of bat samples in Wuhan. I hate that lab leak is being conflated with engineered. I also think while we want to believe scientists are all honorable individuals that would always speak the truth there are a lot of incentives to not fess up to this and a lot of incentives of other scientists to downplay this theory.
shkkmo 5y ago
The US absolutely knew there were risks here. US diplomats knew that the lab had insufficient safety systems for the research that we already know was being done in Wuhan. Those diplomats explicitly warned the US of the dangers several years ago but the US did nothing. [0] If anything, the Wuhan lab needed more US funding that was primarily focused on safety. Edit: If you want to prevent certain types of dangerous research, simply cutting funding is a bad way to do it because it can reduce safety. Instead you need to use other diplomatic or legal tools that won't increase risk. [0] 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...
- ratsmack 5y ago
  Just throwing more money a any particular situation is no guarantee the situation will improve. In this case, the Wuhan lab is controlled by China and will conform to Chinese laws and regulations.
  - ikrenji 5y ago
    true, but also many problems can be solved by throwing more money at them
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    It's quite possible that there was a better response than more funding. Doing nothing does not seem to be it.

How do you think it would play out if it is found that our government (e.g. NIH/CDC) supplied funding for research that created this virus? I suspect many countries would take notice.

bradford 5y ago

> funding for research that created this virus? The very question demonstrates part of the problem here: there are ways that it could have been 'released' by the lab without being 'created' in the lab (or any lab). It's not clear to me that people are aware of this when the lab origin theory is discussed. Please don't prematurely make an assumption about what was going on in the lab. It's possible that some researcher went into a cave, took some biological samples from bats back to the lab. Thereafter, lack of proper protocol led to an infection that resulted in the pandemic. Embarrassing for China? yes, and I'd imagine they'd want to cover it up (although such accidents have happened at other worldwide facilities).

hooande 5y ago
This is the smartest comment. Lab leaks happen frequently, it's part of medical research. There's no hard evidence that this virus was engineered or human modified. China didn't create the concept of a virus. Mistakes happen
leetrout 5y ago
This is what I think is very likely given the storage of bat samples in Wuhan. I hate that lab leak is being conflated with engineered. I also think while we want to believe scientists are all honorable individuals that would always speak the truth there are a lot of incentives to not fess up to this and a lot of incentives of other scientists to downplay this theory.

shkkmo 5y ago

The US absolutely knew there were risks here. US diplomats knew that the lab had insufficient safety systems for the research that we already know was being done in Wuhan. Those diplomats explicitly warned the US of the dangers several years ago but the US did nothing. [0] If anything, the Wuhan lab needed more US funding that was primarily focused on safety. Edit: If you want to prevent certain types of dangerous research, simply cutting funding is a bad way to do it because it can reduce safety. Instead you need to use other diplomatic or legal tools that won't increase risk. [0] 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...

ratsmack 5y ago
Just throwing more money a any particular situation is no guarantee the situation will improve. In this case, the Wuhan lab is controlled by China and will conform to Chinese laws and regulations.
- ikrenji 5y ago
  true, but also many problems can be solved by throwing more money at them
- shkkmo 5y ago
  It's quite possible that there was a better response than more funding. Doing nothing does not seem to be it.