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Yeah this is another view I see commonly expressed and have found no evidence ever coming from an authority. The Lancet letter (effectively an op-ed), for examp
by ethanbond 5y ago
Yeah this is another view I see commonly expressed and have found no evidence ever coming from an authority. The Lancet letter (effectively an op-ed), for example, mentions race exactly zero times. It does somewhat recklessly affiliate these theories with conspiracy theories, but it’s worth remembering that they were responding to actual conspiracy theories like the virus being a bioweapon purposely released. This is an actual theory of conspiracy for which there continues to be no evidence. Scientists were getting death threats on this basis.
And again, the Lancet letter itself points to the then-current body of evidence, which people can contribute to or refute via their own publications (this is how science works).
- spfzero 5y agoThey weren't responding to any body of evidence. There was zero at that time, on either side. They were trying to get out in front and head off what they thought was something reasonable people would include in their consideration of origins. They had no evidence either way but knew that they had a lot to lose, and fired everything they had.
- ethanbond 5y agoThe letter didn’t blame racism, the letter cited several genomic analyses that actually had already been conducted by that point, and to my knowledge that letter didn’t disrupt any research into the virus’s origins. Open to seeing evidence otherwise though.
- dnautics 5y agoYou're twisting my words and deflecting from my point. To clarify: The letter did not call it racism, other people did. This is verifiable in many places.
- ethanbond 5y agoAnd we’re to take some commentators (Twitter users? TV personalities maybe?) calling it racist as evidence of what would certainly be the largest scientific suppression campaign ever conducted? People are discussing this hypothesis nonstop.