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There is not one "lab leak theory", there are quite a few distinct possibilities. The problem is that the nutcases ran with the one that said China was working

There is not one "lab leak theory", there are quite a few distinct possibilities. The problem is that the nutcases ran with the one that said China was working on weaponizing this exact virus and then it leaked. But there are other explanations for lab workers getting sick. They could have been working on samples of this virus without knowing it, and not taken enough precautions. They could have infected themselves outside the lab and then each other. The question about what a "Wuhan lab leak" means is a lot too early, because nothing is known about what exactly happened and probably there will never be enough information, given the general CCP policy. And still, any deliberate attempt to weaponize a Corona virus would be unlikely and require much more evidence. Certain other pathogens, maybe, but not something that has pandemic potential. It just doesn't make sense.

gremlinsinc 5y ago
> And still, any deliberate attempt to weaponize a Corona virus would be unlikely and require much more evidence. Certain other pathogens, maybe, but not something that has pandemic potential. It just doesn't make sense. I'll say first, I'm not a right-wing nut - I'm leftist/socialist and I'm not saying it was a lab leak, but I can see a BIG reason for china to release a pandemic. China is on the cusp of becoming the #1 super power, a pandemic could distract other nations while it raises even more it's economic power. It seems china has faired pretty damn well over the pandemic. China could care less about fatalities, or even world support. If it cared about world support it wouldn't have UYGHURS in prison camps. China doesn't want mass casualties (more mass than covid anyhow), if they want world domination they need survivors to rule, so a pandemic virus with the features of covid seems perfect, or maybe it was just a social experiment to see what the world would do during a pandemic. Pandemic could also weaken local countries they might be eyeing to take over - like Taiwan, even though they handled it pretty well there, but others like India maybe? Or maybe it was just an accidental leak, but they were still experimenting with it from a "potential weapon" - standpoint. Whether you fire a missile on purpose or accidental there's still repercussions following.
- nieve 5y ago
  Even assuming they'd do such a thing it doesn't make any sense to do a deliberate release on their own citizens. Chinese intelligence is good enough to do a secret release on someone else's territory and even if scientists quite reasonably asked how the coronavirus in question had made it from China to say Brazil there'd be less political exposure. Doing it to themselves when they were manifestly not ready to handle the public health side would have been just plain dumb. I don't doubt that the morals and ethics of the ruling party could be that weak, I just don't think a China release of an COVID-like virus is an approach they'd see as worth it.
  - bayesian_horse 5y ago
    Theoretically they might have intended to release it somewhere else but accidentally it escaped in Wuhan. But no, I think no nation state would try to weaponize a virus of that sort for precisely those reasons: China has as much or more to lose than everybody else, both in the event of an accidental as well as an intentional release.
- bayesian_horse 5y ago
  Viruses that spread readily suck as biological warfare agents. Even if you don't care all that much about your own people, the risk of Chaos is much too great. Nobody can contain such a virus, and China didn't come out ahead, nor did it expect to. Its export markets suffered a great deal, and at the beginning it was far from certain that China could contain the domestic damage as well as it did.

gremlinsinc 5y ago

> And still, any deliberate attempt to weaponize a Corona virus would be unlikely and require much more evidence. Certain other pathogens, maybe, but not something that has pandemic potential. It just doesn't make sense. I'll say first, I'm not a right-wing nut - I'm leftist/socialist and I'm not saying it was a lab leak, but I can see a BIG reason for china to release a pandemic. China is on the cusp of becoming the #1 super power, a pandemic could distract other nations while it raises even more it's economic power. It seems china has faired pretty damn well over the pandemic. China could care less about fatalities, or even world support. If it cared about world support it wouldn't have UYGHURS in prison camps. China doesn't want mass casualties (more mass than covid anyhow), if they want world domination they need survivors to rule, so a pandemic virus with the features of covid seems perfect, or maybe it was just a social experiment to see what the world would do during a pandemic. Pandemic could also weaken local countries they might be eyeing to take over - like Taiwan, even though they handled it pretty well there, but others like India maybe? Or maybe it was just an accidental leak, but they were still experimenting with it from a "potential weapon" - standpoint. Whether you fire a missile on purpose or accidental there's still repercussions following.

nieve 5y ago
Even assuming they'd do such a thing it doesn't make any sense to do a deliberate release on their own citizens. Chinese intelligence is good enough to do a secret release on someone else's territory and even if scientists quite reasonably asked how the coronavirus in question had made it from China to say Brazil there'd be less political exposure. Doing it to themselves when they were manifestly not ready to handle the public health side would have been just plain dumb. I don't doubt that the morals and ethics of the ruling party could be that weak, I just don't think a China release of an COVID-like virus is an approach they'd see as worth it.
- bayesian_horse 5y ago
  Theoretically they might have intended to release it somewhere else but accidentally it escaped in Wuhan. But no, I think no nation state would try to weaponize a virus of that sort for precisely those reasons: China has as much or more to lose than everybody else, both in the event of an accidental as well as an intentional release.
bayesian_horse 5y ago
Viruses that spread readily suck as biological warfare agents. Even if you don't care all that much about your own people, the risk of Chaos is much too great. Nobody can contain such a virus, and China didn't come out ahead, nor did it expect to. Its export markets suffered a great deal, and at the beginning it was far from certain that China could contain the domestic damage as well as it did.