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I'm surprised people are still making that argument even after the pandemic showed us the risk is nowhere near worth the reward. Regardless you need to create a

I'm surprised people are still making that argument even after the pandemic showed us the risk is nowhere near worth the reward. Regardless you need to create a vaccine for the discovered virus (which can take less than a week, as was the case with covid). And then you still need to go through months of human trials. I was hoping we were done risking starting pandemics by purposefully creating new deadly viruses.

HaZeust 2y ago
Can you please cite a source that shares that it took "less than a week" for the COVID vaccine to be developed after discovery?
- mkolodny 2y ago
  “You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vac...
  - palata 2y ago
    Isn't there a big difference between "designed" and "developed"? For instance the whole testing phase? Which doesn't mean it is not impressively fast, but still it's not done in a week. Plus testing the covid vaccines was quick because there were many many people to participate in the tests.
zelphirkalt 2y ago
Is this assuming, that Covid was lab made? Since I have not seen or read about proof of that theory, this comes across a bit like conspiracy theory.
jjeaff 2y ago
the jury is still out on whether COVID originated from a lab. it seems very possible, but there is still little evidence that proves it was created in a lab.
- andai 2y ago
  Well, we do know COVID did leak from a lab in China at least one time: in 2021, a researcher in Taiwan was bitten by an infected mouse and contracted the disease. Edit: My bad, as far as public knowledge goes, coronavirus leaked three times in China (SARS coronavirus 2x, COVID 1x), and once in Singapore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity... As for Wuhan in November 2019, the Chinese government took several actions at that time which you would expect to be taken in response to a biosecurity incident: visits from biosecurity officials, remedial biosecurity training, and (coincidentally) government simultaneously began work on a COVID vaccine. Only circumstantial evidence, though... so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Source: a study by the US senate, covered here by WSJ: https://archive.ph/Kh2Fr https://archive.ph/Kh2Fr
nemo44x 2y ago
Agreed. Making super viruses to show what could possibly happen, however unlikely, is the epitome of hubris. But boy is it a great to get funding. I do wonder what the calculus is when comparing the chance nature could mutate and successfully introduce itself to the human population vs the chance of it escaping a lab after being created by humans to study gain of function, etc.

HaZeust 2y ago

Can you please cite a source that shares that it took "less than a week" for the COVID vaccine to be developed after discovery?

mkolodny 2y ago
“You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vac...
- palata 2y ago
  Isn't there a big difference between "designed" and "developed"? For instance the whole testing phase? Which doesn't mean it is not impressively fast, but still it's not done in a week. Plus testing the covid vaccines was quick because there were many many people to participate in the tests.

zelphirkalt 2y ago

Is this assuming, that Covid was lab made? Since I have not seen or read about proof of that theory, this comes across a bit like conspiracy theory.

jjeaff 2y ago

the jury is still out on whether COVID originated from a lab. it seems very possible, but there is still little evidence that proves it was created in a lab.

andai 2y ago
Well, we do know COVID did leak from a lab in China at least one time: in 2021, a researcher in Taiwan was bitten by an infected mouse and contracted the disease. Edit: My bad, as far as public knowledge goes, coronavirus leaked three times in China (SARS coronavirus 2x, COVID 1x), and once in Singapore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity... As for Wuhan in November 2019, the Chinese government took several actions at that time which you would expect to be taken in response to a biosecurity incident: visits from biosecurity officials, remedial biosecurity training, and (coincidentally) government simultaneously began work on a COVID vaccine. Only circumstantial evidence, though... so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Source: a study by the US senate, covered here by WSJ: https://archive.ph/Kh2Fr https://archive.ph/Kh2Fr

nemo44x 2y ago

Agreed. Making super viruses to show what could possibly happen, however unlikely, is the epitome of hubris. But boy is it a great to get funding. I do wonder what the calculus is when comparing the chance nature could mutate and successfully introduce itself to the human population vs the chance of it escaping a lab after being created by humans to study gain of function, etc.