3 ms·

Which we won’t it it was bred in a lab. Hence, we won’t know.

simonh 5y ago
Even if it was bred in a lab, it must have been bred from something. That version of the virus can't be massively different from Cov-19.
- diamondo25 5y ago
  So you could say that this virus is kind of alien[1]? [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien
- guilhas 5y ago
  In the Fauci emails, a reply from a scientist, in the beginning of the pandemic, states a "recipe" on how the virus could have been changed in a lab
  - scotty79 5y ago
    They probably meant RNA code of the virus. Since if you know it you can produce it in a lab and introduce it into cells and they will manufacture functional copies of the virus. It's not a recipe to create virus in a lab. It's a recipe to manufacture copies of the virus in a lab.
    - drran 5y ago
      SARS CoV grows on VERO substrate, so it's relatively easy to make mutations of the virus. Here is example for IBV CoV: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898227/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898227/
- BobbyJo 5y ago
  > That version of the virus can't be massively different from Cov-19. Yes it can. Labs specifically study, and propagate, mutations. A lab can do in years what might take nature decades. If it did originate from a lab, we very likely would never find a close enough progenitor in nature to know where things started (what strain the lab started with).
  - simonh 5y ago
    We can trace mutation histories of viruses very extensively, the tools and techniques for this are now pretty sophisticated, so that's not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. There is a probabilistic aspect to this though. If we happen to find the exact wild virus population Cov-19 originated from (whether it then mutated naturally or in a lab) then I think we'll nail it. On the other hand if we just find an adjacent population that diverged from the actual Cov-19 source some time ago it could be harder to pin down the route.

Even if it was bred in a lab, it must have been bred from something. That version of the virus can't be massively different from Cov-19.

diamondo25 5y ago
So you could say that this virus is kind of alien[1]? [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alien
guilhas 5y ago
In the Fauci emails, a reply from a scientist, in the beginning of the pandemic, states a "recipe" on how the virus could have been changed in a lab
- scotty79 5y ago
  They probably meant RNA code of the virus. Since if you know it you can produce it in a lab and introduce it into cells and they will manufacture functional copies of the virus. It's not a recipe to create virus in a lab. It's a recipe to manufacture copies of the virus in a lab.
  - drran 5y ago
    SARS CoV grows on VERO substrate, so it's relatively easy to make mutations of the virus. Here is example for IBV CoV: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898227/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898227/
BobbyJo 5y ago
> That version of the virus can't be massively different from Cov-19. Yes it can. Labs specifically study, and propagate, mutations. A lab can do in years what might take nature decades. If it did originate from a lab, we very likely would never find a close enough progenitor in nature to know where things started (what strain the lab started with).
- simonh 5y ago
  We can trace mutation histories of viruses very extensively, the tools and techniques for this are now pretty sophisticated, so that's not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. There is a probabilistic aspect to this though. If we happen to find the exact wild virus population Cov-19 originated from (whether it then mutated naturally or in a lab) then I think we'll nail it. On the other hand if we just find an adjacent population that diverged from the actual Cov-19 source some time ago it could be harder to pin down the route.