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> But because it is stripped of the virus’ RNA genome, it can’t hijack a cell’s machinery to replicate and burst out of the host cell to infect more cells. “It’
by jazzyjackson 5y ago
> But because it is stripped of the virus’ RNA genome, it can’t hijack a cell’s machinery to replicate and burst out of the host cell to infect more cells. “It’s a one-way ticket. It doesn’t spread,” says Charles Rice, a molecular virologist at Rockefeller University.
Did these people not take Jurrasic Park seriously? Life finds a way!
- shadowgovt 5y agoProbably best not to extrapolate too much from some fun but inaccurate science fiction when actual human lives are on the line. The odds of creating a super-virus researching Delta with this method are far, far lower than the odds of Delta continuing to stack up a body-count if we can't understand it better.
- jazzyjackson 5y agoIf you want to tell the truth, write fiction. The odds of COVID19 escaping a BSL4 facility were also pretty low but here we are.
- civilized 5y ago> The odds of COVID19 escaping a BSL4 facility were also pretty low but here we are. Only a small fraction of scientists actually believe the lab leak hypothesis, so it's a bit ridiculous to speak as if it's an established fact.
- drran 5y ago> Only a small fraction of *scientists* actually *believe* Emmmm. It doesn't look like scientific argument.
- civilized 5y agoAre you under the impression that the lab leak is proven unless I myself disprove it in these comments? I'm just telling you a reason you should doubt that it has been proven. Is this confusing or something?
- drran 5y agoScience (all about profs) is opposite to belief (acceptance without proof). «Some folks, which are used to use proofs, are accepting something without proof...» Emmm...
- mandmandam 5y ago> Only a small fraction of scientists actually believe the lab leak hypothesis Got a source for that? And, let's not forget that wholly insubstantial Daszak / Lancet piece, used to justify massive censorship of the lab leak theory. Millions of posts discussing the lab leak hypothesis were scrubbed from FB and Twitter - even posts by legit scientists with highly valid and relevant points and questions.
- civilized 5y agoHaving trouble finding my original source but I remember an NYT article that interviewed a bunch of virologists, and the consensus was that the vast majority of the community were unsure because the evidence so far was so limited. Only a tiny, vocal minority is going definitively one way or the other, putting forth arguments that are much flimsier than they sound. Believe me or no, that's what I remember in good faith. And I think it's supported by the fact that extremely few people with the relevant domain knowledge are coming public with a strong opinion either way. And don't believe stuff just because FB and Twitter censored it. They're not trying to hide the Truth, they just hate anti-establishment opinions regardless of whether those opinions are true. And things are not true just because they're anti-establishment. That's just the opposite end of conformity.
- coupdejarnac 5y agoThe letter signed by scientists discrediting the lab leak theory has itself been discredited. You are far behind in the news. https://thepostmillennial.com/dr-daszak-bullied-fellow-scientists-into-signing-letter-denouncing-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory https://thepostmillennial.com/dr-daszak-bullied-fellow-scien...
- civilized 5y agoI didn't care about that letter to begin with. Peter Daszak is obviously a creep trying to cover his ass. That doesn't change the fact that the origins of COVID are a hard scientific question that no one has figured out yet. If you're keeping up with the news, do you just read partisan polemics or do you actually keep up with the scientific developments? Here is an article on an exceptionally close bat coronavirus relative to the COVID coronavirus, which can bind to ACE2. The lab leak peanut gallery said such a thing didn't exist anywhere. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2
- shadowgovt 5y agoThe Chrichton story about a virus escaping a laboratory is the Andromeda Strain. Sometimes, fiction is just fiction.
- mandmandam 5y agoAre you trying to say viruses escaping labs is "just fiction"? ... It's not.
- Dylan16807 5y ago"just fiction" is talking about the earlier reference to jurassic park, in contrast to viruses escaping. A virus without any genetic code contents isn't going to "find a way" to reproduce.
- kbelder 5y agoIt happened at least once.
- Dylan16807 5y agoWhat did? Viruses escaping a lab, or a gene-free virus infecting a cell and causing it to make more of that virus? I don't think the latter has happened. If I really stretch, maybe something could trigger a reactivation of a virus that's burned into your DNA? But that can't give you a new virus, and such a reactivation could happen on its own without help. Or if you were implying something about the origin of viruses, I disagree and don't think the mechanism we're talking about was part of that story.
- tlb 5y agoAlthough they have a BSL-4 facility, the WIV lab was also doing bat coronavirus research in their BSL-2 and BSL-3 facilities through 2019 [0]. The odds of leaks from those facilities are not as low. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology#SARS-related_coronaviruses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology#SA...
- tejtm 5y agoOr that movie where all the wanted posters turned into clones of the outlaws they represent. Hate it when that happens in real life
- themitigating 5y agoRemember in TNG when it turned out warp engines damage space?
- jazzyjackson 5y agoFair counterpoint, but in my defense there really are animals that switch sex when their population is lacking one or the other, so there's not much fictional about it: the scientists were confident in their plan because they didn't know one of nature's tricks.
- maxerickson 5y agoBlue-green algae poisoned the Earth. (note that my catastrophe actually happened vs being the dilemma of focus in a morality play)