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> It’s a Level 2 facility, not studying bats or coronavirus. It is indeed a level 2 facility, and it was being used to perform the bat coronavirus research out

by T-A 5y ago

> It’s a Level 2 facility, not studying bats or coronavirus. It is indeed a level 2 facility, and it was being used to perform the bat coronavirus research outsourced to the WIV [1]: The NIH decided the risk was worth it. In a potentially fateful decision, it funded work similar to Baric’s at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which soon used its own reverse-genetics technology to make numerous coronavirus chimeras. Unnoticed by most, however, was a key difference that significantly shifted the risk calculation. The Chinese work was carried out at biosafety level 2 (BSL-2), a much lower tier than Baric’s BSL-3+. [1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027290/gain-of-function-risky-bat-virus-engineering-links-america-to-wuhan/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027290/gain-of-...

awb 5y ago
This article talks about WIV (est. 2018), which is across the city from the market, not 2 blocks away and about 2016 research that was also not located near the wet market in 2016. The Level 2 lab only moved near the wet market in 2019, at which point the Level 4 lab was the one conducting the research. Also from the article: > The genetic code of SARS-CoV-2 does not resemble that of any virus the WIV was known to be culturing in its lab, such as WIV1, and Baric says he still believes a natural spillover is the most likely cause. The timelines and genetic profiles don’t match up for a level 2 lab leak 2 blocks from the wet market.
- T-A 5y ago
  > This article talks about WIV (est. 2018), which is across the city from the market, not 2 blocks away It moved just before the outbreak [1]: The lab, where Chinese scientists research mild human diseases with bats, was moved near the seafood market where the first COVID-19 cases were found just days before the outbreak, WHO investigators said. Classified with a “Biosafety Level of 2,” the lab also has ventilation controls that aren’t as strict as other more secure facilities, according to the report. I find it surprising how little attention this tidbit got; a move of lab equipment and animals probably involved external personnel not used to bio-safety procedures. Perfect opportunity for a virus to escape. > The genetic code of SARS-CoV-2 does not resemble that of any virus the WIV was known to be culturing in its lab The key words here being "was known", since the WIV notoriously took its database offline and even requested the deletion of sequences stored on US servers [2][3]. [1] https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/who-scientist-eyes-on-wuhan-lab-that-moved-before-pandemic/ https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/who-scientist-eyes-on-wuhan-la... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/u-s-confirms-removal-of-wuhan-virus-sequences-from-database https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/u-s-confi... [3] https://www.science.org/content/article/claim-chinese-team-hid-early-sars-cov-2-sequences-stymie-origin-hunt-sparks-furor https://www.science.org/content/article/claim-chinese-team-h...

by T-A 5y ago

awb 5y ago

This article talks about WIV (est. 2018), which is across the city from the market, not 2 blocks away and about 2016 research that was also not located near the wet market in 2016. The Level 2 lab only moved near the wet market in 2019, at which point the Level 4 lab was the one conducting the research. Also from the article: > The genetic code of SARS-CoV-2 does not resemble that of any virus the WIV was known to be culturing in its lab, such as WIV1, and Baric says he still believes a natural spillover is the most likely cause. The timelines and genetic profiles don’t match up for a level 2 lab leak 2 blocks from the wet market.

T-A 5y ago
> This article talks about WIV (est. 2018), which is across the city from the market, not 2 blocks away It moved just before the outbreak [1]: The lab, where Chinese scientists research mild human diseases with bats, was moved near the seafood market where the first COVID-19 cases were found just days before the outbreak, WHO investigators said. Classified with a “Biosafety Level of 2,” the lab also has ventilation controls that aren’t as strict as other more secure facilities, according to the report. I find it surprising how little attention this tidbit got; a move of lab equipment and animals probably involved external personnel not used to bio-safety procedures. Perfect opportunity for a virus to escape. > The genetic code of SARS-CoV-2 does not resemble that of any virus the WIV was known to be culturing in its lab The key words here being "was known", since the WIV notoriously took its database offline and even requested the deletion of sequences stored on US servers [2][3]. [1] https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/who-scientist-eyes-on-wuhan-lab-that-moved-before-pandemic/ https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/who-scientist-eyes-on-wuhan-la... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/u-s-confirms-removal-of-wuhan-virus-sequences-from-database https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/u-s-confi... [3] https://www.science.org/content/article/claim-chinese-team-hid-early-sars-cov-2-sequences-stymie-origin-hunt-sparks-furor https://www.science.org/content/article/claim-chinese-team-h...