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This aligns with my prior likely release hypothesis, informed by this excellent deep dive article that looks at a lot of the arguments for either the wet market

This aligns with my prior likely release hypothesis, informed by this excellent deep dive article that looks at a lot of the arguments for either the wet market or the lab: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/practically-a-book-review-rootclaim https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/practically-a-book-review-r... My favorite quote from the article: Fourth, for the first time it made me see the coronavirus as one of God’s biggest and funniest jokes. Think about it. Either a zoonotic virus crossed over to humans fifteen miles from the biggest coronavirus laboratory in the Eastern Hemisphere. Or a lab leak virus first rose to public attention right near a raccoon-dog stall in a wet market. Either way is one of the century’s biggest coincidences, designed by some cosmic joker who wanted to keep the debate stayed acrimonious for years to come

tootie 2y ago
Isn't this not a coincidence at all? The research lab was put there because it was known hot spot for wild coronavirus strains.
- tripletao 2y ago
  I guess this meme will never die? It absolutely was not, to the point that Dr. Shi used blood samples from Wuhan as negative controls. The closest known bat viruses were collected around Yunnan (~900 miles away), and in Southeast Asia. EDIT: And since my comment is downvoted, here's a reference from Dr. Shi herself: > We have done bat virus surveillance in Hubei Province for many years, but have not found that bats in Wuhan or even the wider Hubei Province carry any coronaviruses that are closely related to SARS-CoV-2. I don't think the spillover from bats to humans occurred in Wuhan or in Hubei Province. https://web.archive.org/web/20210727042832/https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli%20Q%26A.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20210727042832/https://www.scien... No one expected natural spillover near Wuhan. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but the claim that the WIV was situated based on that is unequivocally false.
janice1999 2y ago
> biggest coronavirus laboratory in the Eastern Hemisphere. A laboratory (and nearby university) that was carrying out risky gain of function experiments with US funding, as finally admitted to in recent congressional hearings.

tootie 2y ago

Isn't this not a coincidence at all? The research lab was put there because it was known hot spot for wild coronavirus strains.

tripletao 2y ago
I guess this meme will never die? It absolutely was not, to the point that Dr. Shi used blood samples from Wuhan as negative controls. The closest known bat viruses were collected around Yunnan (~900 miles away), and in Southeast Asia. EDIT: And since my comment is downvoted, here's a reference from Dr. Shi herself: > We have done bat virus surveillance in Hubei Province for many years, but have not found that bats in Wuhan or even the wider Hubei Province carry any coronaviruses that are closely related to SARS-CoV-2. I don't think the spillover from bats to humans occurred in Wuhan or in Hubei Province. https://web.archive.org/web/20210727042832/https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Shi%20Zhengli%20Q%26A.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20210727042832/https://www.scien... No one expected natural spillover near Wuhan. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, but the claim that the WIV was situated based on that is unequivocally false.

janice1999 2y ago

> biggest coronavirus laboratory in the Eastern Hemisphere. A laboratory (and nearby university) that was carrying out risky gain of function experiments with US funding, as finally admitted to in recent congressional hearings.