No. Its pretty fallacious to imply WIV was only looking at local bats.
The wuhan area certainty has many viruses, but none were anywhere close to the sample found 1800 km away, which WIV certainty had a copy of because they sequenced it.
Agreed. And un(der)regulated capitalism multiplies this by forcing cramped, low cost living conditions for animals.
Not bioweapons. Covid isn’t dangerous enough.
The prime conspiracy theory target is Anthony Fauci because some EcoHealth Alliance / NIH coronaviruses bat funding went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But you don’t need to subscribe to the Fauci Supervillan theory to suspect an accidental lab leak. China has already had 3 (2004, 2016, 2020) in this list. Pointing this out is not sino bashing (look at the number of US incidents). Accidental lab leaks happen all too regularly.
Face time probably isn’t the main factor.
If we didn’t eat so many birds and swine then there would be less animals in close quarters and less chance of new bird/swine flus developing.
People just have conspiracy theories about this one because it turned into the biggest pandemic of them all,
No, it’s because leaked gain of function research is a plausible scenario
which is just the roll of the dice of all the diseases coming out of there.
Maybe we should be more careful when manufacturing thousands of dice with sixes all over them.
I think lax saftey when experimenting with highly infectious coronaviruses is very relevant.
Either improve the protocols or don’t experiment.
coming out of the local bat population
My point is that the word local is both incorrect and misleading. Bats from 1800km away are not local.
the article you pasted even says COVID likely didn’t come for a lab.
It’s clever how they mislead people into thinking that. The scientists actually say.
It is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market
Which doesn’t necessarily imply a zoonotic origin.
You didn’t even read it.
You didn’t understand it. The paper and data they are working from states
What I don’t get is why the intelligence agencies had any say in the likely origin.
If it did originate during the development of a bioweapon then you would want the intelligence agencies to be as informed as possible. Thankfully none believe that to be the case.
they could clearly see it came from a zoonotic source
Yes. 96% zoonotic. It’s that latest 4% that is of interest. Particularly the fully functional cleavage site at the S1, S2 junction.
the subject here is my needs for a truck
I’m not trying to tell you your job. The conversation expanded to other people’s needs for a van.
For some trades a van is perfect.
Great. I think we can leave this conversation alone now.
Modern trucks are too big to actually be useful.
What would you replace your current truck with (ignoring second hand purchases)?
Points to the bar. “You see this bar? I built this bar with my bare hands from the finest wood in the county. Gave it more love and care than my own child. But do they call me MacGregor the bar builder? No.”
Points out the window. “You see that stone wall out there? I built that stone wall with my bare hands. Found every stone, placed them just so through the rain and the cold. But do they call me MacGregor the stone wall builder? No.”
Points out the window. "You see that pier on the lake out there? I built that pier with my bare hands. Drove the pilings against the tide of the sand, plank by plank. But do they call me MacGregor the pier builder? No.
But you fuck one bat …
the whole bioengineered super virus escaping a lab wasn’t taken that seriously
Excellent evidence why there is such a battle over misinformation.
The study itself is quite balanced and honest about data collection. It doesn’t rule out a lab origin like the article claims.
our study does not rule out human-to-animal transmission, as the sampling was carried out after the human infection within the market. Thus, the possibility of potential introduction of the virus to the market through infected humans, or cold-chain products, cannot yet be ruled out.
These findings do not at all suggest that the virus originated in Italy, but they endorse the idea that the virus was likely spreading in China before the first known cases and that could have been circulated by travelers given direct the connections between China and European and US countries, particularly the Northern West and East Italian regions, which are among the most industrialized and connected areas of Italy.
Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies)
This is disingenuous. RaTG13 was sourced in Tongguan in Mojiang Hani Autonomous County 1800km from Wuhan.
Wuhan market didn’t sell bats.
Also, the only bats with a (96%) similar covid strain were in caves 1000 miles away.
However, samples from those bats were stored at the wuhan institute of virology.
But maybe you, a person that doesn’t do my job, knows more about my situation than I do.
The original point above was that vans are better than trucks if you frequently get rained upon. Maybe it’s you who is lacking empathy.
Oh, and this.
I had a chat with him on reddit about a random topic. No pretensions.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew gets you surprisingly close.
Not sure how popular it is nowadays.
The prior paragraph is also important
Left on its own this implies that the lab is the source. However, the next paragraph counters that view. It erroneously implies the local area is full of bats and their species hopping coronaviruses. Not even “China’s Bat Woman” thinks that is likely:-
“I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China.” Her studies had shown that the southern, subtropical provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan have the greatest risk of coronaviruses jumping to humans from animals—particularly bats, a known reservoir.