Yeah the lab leak hypothesis is fascinating because it actually refers to two things that sound similar but would imply almost entirely different reactions. De

Yeah the lab leak hypothesis is fascinating because it actually refers to two things that sound similar but would imply almost entirely different reactions. Deliberate LLH: China (or, if you’re in China, the US) developed a weapon and essentially released it on the world. This hypothesis basically tells us nothing because we’ll never actually validate or invalidate it. There’s also no mitigation for future leaks because if it were deliberate you can always deliberately do it again. Also, it probably does have racist/xenophobic/propagandist motive pushing it along at various levels. Even if this were true it doesn’t matter because we’re obviously not going to nuke cities or cut off trade or roll tanks or hang leaders in response. Accidental LLH: Hypothesis goes that there was gain of function research and a sample accidentally escaped the lab. This is actually pretty likely, but has the interesting feature of it not mattering whether it’s true in this particular instance. Regardless of whether COVID-19 itself fits this, COVID-19 indicates that GOF research should be banned! There is no need for collaboration-harming “repercussions” (or cries for repercussions, since they’ll never happen anyway). Deliberate LLH: Doesn’t matter if it’s true because 1) we’ll never know and 2) even if it we’re true, no one could do anything about it. Accidental LLH: Doesn’t matter if it’s true because 1) we’ll never know and 2) even if it were false, the correct course of action is to ban/mitigate GOF research. It’s a complete shame that these have not been better distinguished from one another.