4 ms·

The lab leak theory is nonsense and a distraction. If you compare where the mutations of sars-cov-2 are, relative to a wild type bat coronavirus, they are distr

The lab leak theory is nonsense and a distraction. If you compare where the mutations of sars-cov-2 are, relative to a wild type bat coronavirus, they are distributed randomly across the genome. If you were to genetically engineer a virus, those mutations would not be random, there would be a discrete chunk of edited base pairs that had been spliced in from somewhere else but that isn’t present. It seems unlikely that in this day and age a virology lab would be doing gain of function experiments without crispr since it’s far easier than the alternative.

tyleo 5y ago
Genetic engineering is not the only way there could have been a lab leak. Did you read the whole post? It makes a different claim.
wrycoder 5y ago
They are not. They are predominately in the part of the sequence that codes for the spike proteins. There are other evolutionary mutations spread across the genome, but they are minor by comparison.
passivate 5y ago
> If you compare where the mutations of sars-cov-2 are, relative to a wild type bat coronavirus, How many distinct samples do we have of the wild-type variants from that region?
ncmncm 5y ago
Nothing about the lab leak theory requires that what leaked was engineered. Just mis-handling a field sample so that somebody in the lab catches and passes it on can be (and, possibly, was) wholly as bad as an engineered sample leaking. Here, there are hints that the leak was of, explicitly, samples cultured from the 2013 clinical cases.
dekhn 5y ago
all of your claims are entirely speculative and not informed, biologically speaking.
Maursault 5y ago
> The lab leak theory is nonsense and a distraction. I strongly agree. I am not sure why, but there seems to be a terrific bias towards any explanation that requires a conspiracy. Every pandemic and epidemic since the dawn of history was caused by humans living and working in close proximity to animals. Here is a list of epidemics [1]. None of them were caused by a lab breach. There have been plenty of leaks from biolabs in the last 120 years [2], and some pretty nasty stuff has escaped. Nothing came of those breaches, no epidemics, no global pandemics. One stands out as the worst of the lot [3], a major release of weaponized anthrax, yet it still pales in comparison to the deaths and illnesses caused by SARS-CoV-2. If anything is learned by examining a list of lab breaches, it is that any particular person is far more likely to get struck by lightning a dozen times before they'd be infected or die from a contagion inadvertently released from a biolab. Are the conspiracy theorists banking on the law of averages? "It's never happened before, so that must be what happened this time." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak

tyleo 5y ago

Genetic engineering is not the only way there could have been a lab leak. Did you read the whole post? It makes a different claim.

wrycoder 5y ago

They are not. They are predominately in the part of the sequence that codes for the spike proteins. There are other evolutionary mutations spread across the genome, but they are minor by comparison.

passivate 5y ago

> If you compare where the mutations of sars-cov-2 are, relative to a wild type bat coronavirus, How many distinct samples do we have of the wild-type variants from that region?

ncmncm 5y ago

Nothing about the lab leak theory requires that what leaked was engineered. Just mis-handling a field sample so that somebody in the lab catches and passes it on can be (and, possibly, was) wholly as bad as an engineered sample leaking. Here, there are hints that the leak was of, explicitly, samples cultured from the 2013 clinical cases.

dekhn 5y ago

all of your claims are entirely speculative and not informed, biologically speaking.

Maursault 5y ago

> The lab leak theory is nonsense and a distraction. I strongly agree. I am not sure why, but there seems to be a terrific bias towards any explanation that requires a conspiracy. Every pandemic and epidemic since the dawn of history was caused by humans living and working in close proximity to animals. Here is a list of epidemics [1]. None of them were caused by a lab breach. There have been plenty of leaks from biolabs in the last 120 years [2], and some pretty nasty stuff has escaped. Nothing came of those breaches, no epidemics, no global pandemics. One stands out as the worst of the lot [3], a major release of weaponized anthrax, yet it still pales in comparison to the deaths and illnesses caused by SARS-CoV-2. If anything is learned by examining a list of lab breaches, it is that any particular person is far more likely to get struck by lightning a dozen times before they'd be infected or die from a contagion inadvertently released from a biolab. Are the conspiracy theorists banking on the law of averages? "It's never happened before, so that must be what happened this time." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak