3 ms·

is that a reference to COVID? I thought the lab leak hypothesis was stronger than the bat cave hypothesis now?

by exe34 2y ago

yawpitch 2y ago
Yes, it’s a reference to SARS-CoV-2, and no, the lab leak “hypothesis” absolutely isn’t the stronger one. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_of_SARS-CoV-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_of_SARS-Co...
- exe34 2y ago
  that makes sense, thanks for pointing it out! I was going off reports related to this: https://oversight.house.gov/release/classified-state-department-documents-credibly-suggest-covid-19-lab-leak-wenstrup-pushes-for-declassification/ https://oversight.house.gov/release/classified-state-departm... unfortunately I'm not able to work out how the claim in the article follows from the linked documents, so effectively I'm only able to go off the "headline".
  - princearthur 2y ago
    One might assume that a house.gov URL would imply some degree of credibility. This particular link, however, is closer to something that would be found on the ground of said bat cave.
  - yawpitch 2y ago
    First off, question the source: the current Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic includes as one of its majority members the inestimable Marjorie Taylor Greene… consider, carefully, just how much overlap there is between your definition of “credible” and that of someone so inclined to blame wildfires in California on space-born lasers that demonstrably don’t exist. Second, note that all that news report actually includes is a call to declassify a classified document, the only non-redacted portions of which are section headings that, for all we normies know, may have been authored by MTG or any number of nutjobs like her. One of the easiest possible ways for a partisan committee to propagandize is to produce documents with contents that can’t (for whatever reason) be declassified and full of leading headings that support their own circularly-arrived-at conclusion. Virologists and epidemiologists the world over are extremely comfortable that it was a zoonotic transfer. The genome of the virus supports that, as does all available backtracing of the early transmissions. There is zero publicly disclosed physical evidence of a lab origin, there’s just a non-zero chance of a lab origin. Well there’s also a non-zero chance the Earth is flat, the moon landings were faked, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is a genius-level intellect… but me, I’d want physical evidence of any of those before staking myself against the consensus of those with real expertise in the matter.
vasco 2y ago
We know for absolute certain that top officials tried to eliminate the lab leak theory and discredit it, and there's testimony. So while we don't know if it was a lab leak, we know that the top people that would be the ones involved in it, tried to stop the discussion about it and then lied about trying to hide it. One can make their own assumptions as to why top officials would illegally try to stop discussion of fake conspiracy theories that they don't have relation to.

is that a reference to COVID? I thought the lab leak hypothesis was stronger than the bat cave hypothesis now?

by exe34 2y ago

is that a reference to COVID? I thought the lab leak hypothesis was stronger than the bat cave hypothesis now?

Yes, it’s a reference to SARS-CoV-2, and no, the lab leak “hypothesis” absolutely isn’t the stronger one. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_of_SARS-CoV-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_of_SARS-Co...

exe34 2y ago
that makes sense, thanks for pointing it out! I was going off reports related to this: https://oversight.house.gov/release/classified-state-department-documents-credibly-suggest-covid-19-lab-leak-wenstrup-pushes-for-declassification/ https://oversight.house.gov/release/classified-state-departm... unfortunately I'm not able to work out how the claim in the article follows from the linked documents, so effectively I'm only able to go off the "headline".
- princearthur 2y ago
  One might assume that a house.gov URL would imply some degree of credibility. This particular link, however, is closer to something that would be found on the ground of said bat cave.
- yawpitch 2y ago
  First off, question the source: the current Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic includes as one of its majority members the inestimable Marjorie Taylor Greene… consider, carefully, just how much overlap there is between your definition of “credible” and that of someone so inclined to blame wildfires in California on space-born lasers that demonstrably don’t exist. Second, note that all that news report actually includes is a call to declassify a classified document, the only non-redacted portions of which are section headings that, for all we normies know, may have been authored by MTG or any number of nutjobs like her. One of the easiest possible ways for a partisan committee to propagandize is to produce documents with contents that can’t (for whatever reason) be declassified and full of leading headings that support their own circularly-arrived-at conclusion. Virologists and epidemiologists the world over are extremely comfortable that it was a zoonotic transfer. The genome of the virus supports that, as does all available backtracing of the early transmissions. There is zero publicly disclosed physical evidence of a lab origin, there’s just a non-zero chance of a lab origin. Well there’s also a non-zero chance the Earth is flat, the moon landings were faked, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is a genius-level intellect… but me, I’d want physical evidence of any of those before staking myself against the consensus of those with real expertise in the matter.

vasco 2y ago

We know for absolute certain that top officials tried to eliminate the lab leak theory and discredit it, and there's testimony. So while we don't know if it was a lab leak, we know that the top people that would be the ones involved in it, tried to stop the discussion about it and then lied about trying to hide it. One can make their own assumptions as to why top officials would illegally try to stop discussion of fake conspiracy theories that they don't have relation to.