4 ms·

U.S. officials: Criticism of Wuhan Institute of Virology would backfire

5 points by miguelazo 4y ago

miguelazo 4y ago
>“After this statement was drafted, I took calls this week expressing deep concerns from counterparts at DNI and HHS,” [Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun] wrote. “The concerns I heard were that early drafts miscast this as if it were an intelligence assessment, called out actions that we ourselves are doing, and demanded access that we ourselves would never provide,” Biegun continued. >HHS oversees the National Institutes of Health. NIH supported work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that discovered new coronaviruses and that enhanced their pathogenicity in the lab, according to federal records and grant reports. NIH did not properly regulate the experiments it funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to two independent watchdogs. The high risk virology research there received improper exemptions from rigorous oversight by NIH, they say.
Mountain_Skies 4y ago
>We don't care how many millions we kill, as long as we're able to cover our asses and keep playing with our fun toys. Wonder how humanity will react when this happens again. Once can be waived away as an unfortunate accident but a second time is pure recklessness. Seeing how things went the first time, it's pretty much guaranteed there will be a second time. Doubt things play out as easily as it did for the viral tinkerers this time.
abudabi123 4y ago
Shouldn't these kinds of dangerous institutes locate themselves where they are difficult to reach and their knockon effects are necessarily confined, say, an island in a lake or ocean or a baking hot wasteland underground?
- miguelazo 4y ago
  Seems like it would be a reasonable precaution. Although the location in this case was (I believe) chosen specifically for its proximity to sites with bats that have lots of coronaviruses. So the decision was presumably made intentionally, for convenience, costs, and maybe so that samples could be recovered within a certain amount of time. Obviously, the virus has no problem island-hopping when scientists leave, especially if they don’t know they’re sick.

5 points by miguelazo 4y ago

>“After this statement was drafted, I took calls this week expressing deep concerns from counterparts at DNI and HHS,” [Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun] wrote. “The concerns I heard were that early drafts miscast this as if it were an intelligence assessment, called out actions that we ourselves are doing, and demanded access that we ourselves would never provide,” Biegun continued. >HHS oversees the National Institutes of Health. NIH supported work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that discovered new coronaviruses and that enhanced their pathogenicity in the lab, according to federal records and grant reports. NIH did not properly regulate the experiments it funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to two independent watchdogs. The high risk virology research there received improper exemptions from rigorous oversight by NIH, they say.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago

>We don't care how many millions we kill, as long as we're able to cover our asses and keep playing with our fun toys. Wonder how humanity will react when this happens again. Once can be waived away as an unfortunate accident but a second time is pure recklessness. Seeing how things went the first time, it's pretty much guaranteed there will be a second time. Doubt things play out as easily as it did for the viral tinkerers this time.

abudabi123 4y ago

Shouldn't these kinds of dangerous institutes locate themselves where they are difficult to reach and their knockon effects are necessarily confined, say, an island in a lake or ocean or a baking hot wasteland underground?

miguelazo 4y ago
Seems like it would be a reasonable precaution. Although the location in this case was (I believe) chosen specifically for its proximity to sites with bats that have lots of coronaviruses. So the decision was presumably made intentionally, for convenience, costs, and maybe so that samples could be recovered within a certain amount of time. Obviously, the virus has no problem island-hopping when scientists leave, especially if they don’t know they’re sick.