Virus Researchers Still Can't Rule Out Lab Accident

[intrepidity]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-12/how-did-covid-19-start-researchers-are-still-trying-to-find-out

Getting more data on Covid-19’s origins — whether in bats or a Wuhan lab — is the best way to prevent the next disaster.

By Faye Flam, January 12, 2021, 7:45 AM PST

People want to know where the coronavirus came from. If humans first caught it from bats, then where and how? Did Covid-19 escape from a lab, as several magazine articles have insinuated? While most scientists dismiss a deliberate release of the virus as a conspiracy theory, they can’t completely dismiss the possibility that it escaped by accident.

International investigations could shed light on the matter, but they’ve gotten off to a bumpy start. A WHO investigative team was held up for months before finally getting admitted to China this week. Another team associated with the Lancet has yet to start field work there. Getting to the bottom of things is not only critical for preventing future pandemics, it’s important for keeping the public in the loop, to keep people motivated to help mitigate the spread.

“I think we all feel that more work should be done in China on trying to find the origins,” says UC Berkeley geneticist Rasmus Neilsen, who has been trying to piece together how SARS-CoV-2 evolved. “I think we all feel that would benefit science.”

One problem, he says, is the spread of conspiracy theories that Covid-19 was created in a lab and then intentionally released. “I think that has really harmed the case for a proper investigation.” While investigating a lab-accident origin is important, he says, it’s gotten lumped in with tinfoil hat ideas.

Much more at link above.

[PSPS]

1. Aw, geez...

[old guy]

2. Oh yeah. Sigh.

[comradebillyboy]

3. Still can't rule out space aliens either.

[torius]

4. The lab leak is also considered a conspiracy theory

There’s no evidence, the samples do not match, and the vast majority of virologists do not believe it had anything to to with the lab. One cannot disprove a negative, so until there is evidence I wish people would stop spreading this as it only keeps people talking about China and leads to more attacks on Asians.

https://www.ft.com/content/255a3524-0459-4724-a92a-58268ab627e2

[intrepidity]

6. Have you

read this article? I would be genuinely interested in your opinion of it:

https://undark.org/2021/03/17/lab-leak-science-lost-in-politics/

[torius]

8. I have read it.

That guy Jamie Metzl calls himself a futurist and wrote a book called The Global Health Conspiracy. He's a Democrat, unlike most of the people spreading this, and he has no scientific background and appears to be a publicity speaker. He uses the Chinese govt. cover-up as pointing to a leak but I think that's ridiculous, as they cover up everything.

To point to the gain-of-function research is to implicate Dr. Fauci, who funded it (Obama had banned these studies, Trump unbanned), and who is someone the RW hates? Fauci.

There's no evidence that this happened. It's not impossible, but the vast majority of scientists say it did not (listen to the TWiV independent virology podcast about it if you want, they are totally against this theory), based on the way the virus is shaped. There's no way to prove or disprove but there's no indication it happened. It's all conjecture and conspiracy. Did anyone say the Spanish Flu was from a lab? The bubonic plague? Polio? This ain't the first pandemic.

Unless and until there's evidence I just think it's pointless and harmful to spread this to the public. I'm half-Asian and everytime I see it makes my blood boil. This is being pushed by the right wing. Spreading these articles makes me not want to let my family go anywhere. I just don't see the point of spreading this when there is zero evidence. What is the public supposed to do with this idea?

[intrepidity]

9. I mean the article by Charles Schmidt

You've read this article?

https://undark.org/2021/03/17/lab-leak-science-lost-in-politics/

[torius]

11. yes

because the other day someone sent me a link to a podcast of an ex CIA director (Morrell) interviewing Metzl and I googled him and came to that article. That publication, Undark seems to posit things that are "kept in the dark" but that doesn't make them true. I also just reread it before posting. All I see is more conjecture and guesses, lots of different guesses and speculation of different things, navel gazing. And I just read some article it linked to about Alina Chan and I do not buy that she noticed something about the virus that showed it was engineered, and that all other scientists missed--it's only her making this claim. If there were something there, other scientists would be others able to see it as well, it would be a huge deal. She sounds like a CT spreader too and is considered one or maybe she just sees something and is misinterpreting it and using that to spread highly questionable information. I know that CT is different than just the plain lab leak one but when you read the stuff is all mixed together. And actually, there's no separating them because the basis of it is that it's a deliberately recombined virus. The only difference is whether it was from an experiment or a deliberate creation of a bioweapon. But all evidence points to NO recombination.

Again, I am not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE but these articles are nothing but speculation. You need to look at who stands to gain from these, who pushes it (hint: Steve Bannon, Fox News).

[intrepidity]

12. Fair enough

I can respect your opinion, because it is, clearly, informed, and that is really all that I am advocating: being informed.

I have gone back and forth on this issue, beginning last March. I thought I was reasonably convinced that there was *no* lab involvement, but new pieces of info keep trickling out, making me revisit and evaluate all the known data, again. That's the process I'm currently in, and I am alarmed by the vitriol, and all of the uninformed opinions on the matter.

BTW, I had planned to listen to that TWiV podcast last night, but fell asleep instead. I had seen Alina Chan's Twitter posts about it, though. So far I have not found any reasons to be suspicious of her or her motives.

As I've said, I'm not convinced of *any* origin theory, and that is precisely my point: there's just not enough actual hard evidence, either way. And it's not because the right questions aren't being asked; it's because the answers are being withheld (by the Chinese government), which is antithetical to an honest scientific inquiry.

[WHITT]

5. The Experts

say the DNA strain matches closely with those in the wild.

[intrepidity]

10. Yes, it does

So?

[brush]

7. There are other corona viruses. Why not start with how they got into the human population?

[Kaleva]

13. Can't prove a negative.

"Virus researchers have been unable to prove that the virus was the result of a lab accident" would be a better way of putting it.