3 ms·
Another interesting tidbit I'd never heard: > And in September 2019, three months before the officially recognized start of the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute o
by swamp40 5y ago
Another interesting tidbit I'd never heard:
> And in September 2019, three months before the officially recognized start of the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology took down its database of some 22,000 virus samples and sequences, refusing to restore it despite international requests.
- DiogenesKynikos 5y agoThis way an early part of the conspiracy theories, but it was subsequently debunked. This was a private database, not meant for the public, but rather for sharing data with colleagues off-site. It actually remained online until early 2020, when the WIV says it came under sustained attack and was taken offline. It should also be noted that this private database was only in existence for a short time period in the first place - less than a year, I believe. I should warn everyone that this is far from the only error in this article. The lab leak theory has become ever more heavily rejected in the scientific community, as more evidence has piled up on various fronts (the early outbreak clustered around the market; two different viral lineages were discovered at the market, including on stalls where wild animals were sold, suggesting that there were multiple spillovers at the market; new viruses have been found in Laos that are closer to SARS-CoV-2 than anything previously discovered). It seems, however, that the lab leakers are making another effort to push their case in the press, for a popular audience that doesn't know better.