6 ms·
Gain of function research did not cause Covid-19
- 3lit3krew 2y ago[flagged]
- ggm 2y ago[flagged]
- musicale 2y agoWell that settles it, doesn't it? https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-wuhan-lab-leak-hypothesis-is-a-conspiracy-theory-not-science/ https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-wuhan-lab-leak-h...
- jmakov 2y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/opinion/covid-lab-leak.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/opinion/covid...
- ggm 2y agoAs the NY times notes in the URL its under /opinion/ The author of an NY times article is on record thusly: In 2021, the same Alina Chan who penned the NYT op-ed said the following: “I have days where I think this could be natural. And if it’s natural, then I’ve done a terrible thing because I’ve put a lot of scientists in a very dangerous spot by saying that they could be the source of an accident that resulted in millions of people dying. I would feel terrible if it’s natural and I did all this.”
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoShe also wrote a book with a famous climate change denier, which is a bad move if you're trying to convince scientists, but a great move if you want to reach an audience of conspiracy theorists.
- ggm 2y agoThis in a sidebar in the article: The central idea of the lab leak hypothesis, that the virus spilled over from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, is only possible if the virus from which SARS-CoV-2 originated was actually ever inside the institute itself. If the virus originated naturally, with parts of it found in animals that were located in a wild population in Laos, which genetic sequencing uncovered in 2021 indicates, the lab leak hypothesis is ruled out as a possibility. You cannot create something through gain-of-function research that will have an identical genetic code to something that came about in the wild through natural processes such as recombination.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jmpman 2y agoWhy can’t they simply have that virus in the lab, collected from that wild population in Laos, and it was accidentally released? Still a lab leak. Just an accident.
- jmpman 2y agoOk, I’ve always expected that a natural virus was accidentally released by a scientist from the virus lab. Not necessarily gain of function, but simply this is the place where all the weird Covid viruses are brought to when gathered from across the world. It’s the place which would have ALL the possible Covid viruses, from the least concerning to the one which escaped. Every article countering that angle just feels light gaslighting.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoTrapped prior?
- jmpman 2y agoSure, collected in the wild. Probably from a bat in some remote part of the world.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoThank you for disproving your own point.
- jmpman 2y agoWhat am I disproving? A Covid virus could have been in the wild, not yet transmitted to humans, and was then collected and brought to the lab. Only once it was accidentally released from the lab, (possibly having infected one of the workers), was it transmitted to the larger human population.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoA trapped prior is a term for a stance that when adopted precludes someone from accepting contrary evidence. It's a belief blackhole.
- deleted 2y ago
- monsecchris 2y agoThe natural origin is a dangerous conspiracy theory.
- randm_sequence 2y agoThis article does not cast itself in a strong light by immediately calling the lab leak hypothesis a conspiracy theory. The lab leak hypothesis is another valid and plausible theory that could explain the origins of the pandemic. One must question the motives and obvious bias of anyone who feels compelled to call a scientific theory or hypothesis a conspiracy theory.