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I have not kept up with this topic. What does the evidence point to? Has any new evidence surfaced in the past year?

by tmaly 3y ago

xracy 3y ago
I have certainly not heard of any new evidence that would change my view that it was not caused by a lab-leak yet. My impression is that the market animal to human jump was still the prevailing theory.
toomim 3y ago
There has been little or no new physical evidence. We have seen new evidence of coverup, though, where scientists privately said there was high likelihood of lab leak in slack messages before publicly signing publications claiming there was no likelihood of lab leak. The leaked slack messages are damning.
- wredue 3y ago
  That’s a complete mischaracterization of that situation. The conversation DID ask if it was a leak. Then they studied the evidence and only after studying the evidence did they publicly sign that it was probably of natural origin.
  - toomim 3y ago
    That's not true at all. They had already studied the evidence on February 2 when they had the slack conversations. No new evidence appeared. Then they said out loud that they were changing the paper's conclusions away from their actual beliefs because of the political consequences: > “Given the shit show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release, my feeling is we should say that given there is no evidence of a specifically engineered virus, we cannot possible distinguish between natural evolution and escape so we are content to with ascribing it to natural processes.” > “Yup, I totally agree that’s a very reasonable conclusion,” Andersen responded. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but it’s impossible not to, especially given the circumstance. We should be sensitive to that.” https://theintercept.com/2023/07/21/covid-origin-nih-lab-leak/ https://theintercept.com/2023/07/21/covid-origin-nih-lab-lea...
tootie 3y ago
There's really none. The biggest evidence is the fact that an animal reservoir was never found and it was found relatively quickly during the first SARS and MERS outbreaks. There's no evidence from the lab itself and no evidence the virus that reached the public was subject to GoF. And just general distrust of China.
someuser2345 3y ago
I don't think we'll ever find out. There's no incentive for the Chinese government to investigate this issue, and plenty of incentives to keep it hidden.

I have not kept up with this topic. What does the evidence point to? Has any new evidence surfaced in the past year?

by tmaly 3y ago

I have not kept up with this topic. What does the evidence point to? Has any new evidence surfaced in the past year?

I have certainly not heard of any new evidence that would change my view that it was not caused by a lab-leak yet. My impression is that the market animal to human jump was still the prevailing theory.

toomim 3y ago

There has been little or no new physical evidence. We have seen new evidence of coverup, though, where scientists privately said there was high likelihood of lab leak in slack messages before publicly signing publications claiming there was no likelihood of lab leak. The leaked slack messages are damning.

wredue 3y ago
That’s a complete mischaracterization of that situation. The conversation DID ask if it was a leak. Then they studied the evidence and only after studying the evidence did they publicly sign that it was probably of natural origin.
- toomim 3y ago
  That's not true at all. They had already studied the evidence on February 2 when they had the slack conversations. No new evidence appeared. Then they said out loud that they were changing the paper's conclusions away from their actual beliefs because of the political consequences: > “Given the shit show that would happen if anyone serious accused the Chinese of even accidental release, my feeling is we should say that given there is no evidence of a specifically engineered virus, we cannot possible distinguish between natural evolution and escape so we are content to with ascribing it to natural processes.” > “Yup, I totally agree that’s a very reasonable conclusion,” Andersen responded. Although I hate when politics is injected into science – but it’s impossible not to, especially given the circumstance. We should be sensitive to that.” https://theintercept.com/2023/07/21/covid-origin-nih-lab-leak/ https://theintercept.com/2023/07/21/covid-origin-nih-lab-lea...

tootie 3y ago

There's really none. The biggest evidence is the fact that an animal reservoir was never found and it was found relatively quickly during the first SARS and MERS outbreaks. There's no evidence from the lab itself and no evidence the virus that reached the public was subject to GoF. And just general distrust of China.

someuser2345 3y ago

I don't think we'll ever find out. There's no incentive for the Chinese government to investigate this issue, and plenty of incentives to keep it hidden.