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Certainly could hurt. Saying anything related to China at that moment could sound like conspiracy theory, xenophobia or racism, certainly bringing in question t
by marcodiego 5y ago
Certainly could hurt. Saying anything related to China at that moment could sound like conspiracy theory, xenophobia or racism, certainly bringing in question the reputation and professionalism of these scientists.
Now... "Scientists believed..." Considering the realm of professional scientists, beliefs have no value and should be guarded unless sufficient evidence arises. They behaved well by not announcing it.
Their behavior maybe questionable if it has had any negative impact on the awareness of the problem. But that is another matter and not something one should omit if the problem, initially, turned out the be clearly serious. AFAIK, that was not the case.
- enchiridion 5y agoIt’s anti-scientific to not consider a leak from the lab studying coronavirus in a city where a novel one appears. Where do you think hypothesis come from? Ingenuity based on educated beliefs is a the very core of science. The above stance sounds a lot like the cult of science which has become so pervasive. They did not behave well. Many scientists put forward the seafood market and then animal vector believes which have equal or less evidence.