Origin of the Coronavirus

[AltaGuy]

I mean, those are some pretty dumb lab workers.

"Imma sell this here infected bat/monkey/bat-monkey down at the market."

My honest opinion is that we've got it narrowed down to two options: bad lab and bad market. We likely won't ever have definitive proof either way, but seems to me both have some serious issues that should be reformed.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Not really. I am also not believing 3 year old data the Chinese suddenly uploaded now that the noose is closing.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid...gins-1.6782273

China does not want wet market being the source of the pandemic. They've been trying to steer the discourse to other countries and have suppressed any investigations of local markets

[photon]

Interesting read on a new analysis based on a bunch of metagenomic data that was uploaded then removed from a database.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023...ovids-origins/

A group of independent, international researchers has released its full analysis of newly uncovered metagenomic data collected by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January and February of 2020. The data closely links SARS-CoV-2 to the genetic tracks of wild animals, particularly raccoon dogs, sold at the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group's analysis says.

The full analysis provides additional, compelling evidence that the pandemic coronavirus made its leap to humans through a natural spillover, with a wild animal at the market acting as an intermediate host between the virus' natural reservoir in horseshoe bats and humans. It was authored by 19 scientists, led by Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona; Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in California; and Florence Débarre, a theoretician who specializes in evolutionary biology at France's national research agency, CNRS.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

China does not want wet market being the source of the pandemic. They've been trying to steer the discourse to other countries and have suppressed any investigations of local markets

Fair but why?

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by OldDutch

Fair but why?

Likely because a worldwide pandemic starting from illegal wildlife trade and protected species being openly sold at wet markets (after they had already been implicated in the SARS outbreak) in violation of the law makes the Chinese authorities look weak and ineffective.

For the first 1.5 years of the pandemic the Chinese government denied that live animals were even sold at the Huanan Seafood Market. Only when a paper (co-authored by British and Canadian researchers) showing evidence of live animals being sold at the market from 2017 to late 2019 was released did they even concede that. They clearly don't want the wet market or their animal trade implicated in being the source of COVID, any more than they want a lab leak to be the source.

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by driveway

Having lived in Asia for over a decade, it will take some very, very strong evidence to move me off of my personal belief that the following is the origin of the pandemic:

1) The Wuhan lab was experimenting with coronaviruses

2) Staff at the lab were making extra money by selling animals & meat to the wet market

3) An animal infected with a coronavirus ended up at the wetmarket, and from there infected either people directly, or another animal and from there people.

I'm not sure if you'd classify this as a 'lableak' or a 'zoonotic' or what, but nothing I've read has come close to moving me off this belief.

I also subscribe to this. Just personal opinion with zero evidence but likewise based off of my time in Asia. It's how everything worked that I ever saw.

[jjgallow]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...-risk-pandemic


wherever Covid came from, one thing is clear: We've learned nothing, done nothing about the risks.

Cool. I guess it wasn't big enough.

[jjgallow]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-ne...senate-report/


Pretty quiet in here considering the latest updates.

[activeStick]

This thread from a virologist covers that Senate report nicely. Have a read.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1648458957722390529

[jjgallow]

Originally Posted by activeStick

This thread from a virologist covers that Senate report nicely. Have a read.

blah blah

That's great and all for people still clinging to their poorly constructed realities where there should be no coincidence about a mutated coronavirus virus appearing beside a lab with a poor safety record that mutates coronaviruses.

I saw this massive wall of twitter text (worst medium you could ever use for that). Her main point seemed to be that:

1. The font was bad
2. She found some grammar and spelling mistakes.


So. What she actually did, was publish a draft article probably entrusted to her or someone she knew for legitimate feedback. And as soon as the actual article was released, she published the draft article rather than the real one.

That...is...among other things, unethical, unprofessional, childish, and narcisistic considering she did a big big thing on twitter (again why twitter?) last year about she "knew" the truth and how great she was. BTW for anyone who's visited her website, she should not be knocking 1990s websites.

For anyone interested in actually reading the real article (I know, twitter is so much more reliable), it's here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...origins-report

It might help some people to understand why the rest of the world outside of this person's twitter account is starting to take lab safety and regulation a little more seriously now.

[nik-]

That virologist was also claiming it was 100% settled that it was natural occurrence before there was any solid evidence of it. She certainly knows the topic, but there's also a bias there. If you're claiming something is 100% settled when you have no definitive evidence in either direction, it's a problem.

[Codes]

Originally Posted by jjgallow

I saw this massive wall of twitter text (worst medium you could ever use for that). Her main point seemed to be that:

1. The font was bad
2. She found some grammar and spelling mistakes.

I haven't read the document in detail, and it is not my intent to provide any commentary on the debate itself, but I will say it is disingenuous to liken these errors as simple grammar or spelling mistakes. Instead, she is rightly pointing out that the authors display a critical lack of understanding on the subject, which really does torpedo the credibility of the report. If this was published in an academic setting, well, it wouldn't have been.

But certainly, her publishing the draft report is not a good look. It would be interesting to compare the documents to see what made the cut.

[calgarygeologist]

I don't know where the other Covid threads are and I don't remember if there was a good news thread but the WHO declared that the global public health emergency is over. Congratulations everyone, we made it! Time to party.

[Knut]

I have already started licking doorknobs again. The Brass ones are my favorite.

[fotze2]

Do you think that the Vax jabs and the associated mandates went back in time and caused this virus?

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Do you think that the Vax jabs and the associated mandates went back in time and caused this virus?

Leaning towards no.

[getbak]

The US is lifting its proof-of-vaccination requirement for entry via plane next week, as well.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Leaning towards no.

so it was UCP is what you are saying?

[PepsiFree]

Tough day for all the people who said they definitely didn’t care about the pandemic or any restrictions now that they’ll officially be the only ones left still obsessing over it.

Hope the Thursday corner crew in Inglewood doesn’t take this news too hard.

[Erick Estrada]

Glad that this is being put behind us but I don't trust that China will put forth the proper measures to ensure it doesn't happen again as their track record kind of speaks for itself.