If COVID originated from a lab in China, do you think they should be penalized for it?
CIA shifts assessment on Covid origins, saying lab leak likely caused outbreak
Honest question--why are so many people quick to dismiss the possibility that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan lab?
AFAIK the consensus is that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan. The same Wuhan that has a lab which had been studying coronaviruses for years prior to the outbreak.
Some folks vehemently dismiss the idea that the lab could be the origin point, but why? What makes them so sure that this would have been impossible?
The other commenters have covered some of the points I'd make, so I'll add: After decades of investigation into Patient Zero for AIDS/HIV, there wasn't a single, identifiable transmission event to which the epidemic traced, but rather evidence that the virus was present here and there long before the disease was identified.
Intuitively, I think it's the same with COVID-19, that there wasn't a single, discrete animal-to-human transmission event. Even if my analogy to HIV is faulty, China built the lab in Wuhan to study endemic coronaviruses; that means that anything in the lab had been in the wild for years before researchers collected a sample of it. Therefore, it's overwhelmingly likely that humans had already been exposed to some form of it, and it was present in local populations. At the very least, there would have had to be multiple exposures, because not everybody exposed to the virus got infected, not everybody infected showed symptoms, and not everybody with symptoms transmitted the virus to other people. That, and the fact that it's a respiratory disease, and does not spread by surface contact, makes a lab leak seem exceedingly unlikely.
So, even if the Wuhan lab failed at biocontainment, and people caught a strain of virus it was studying, that wasn't the cause of the pandemic, which could have kicked off any number of ways. I'm not going to dismiss the possibility of a lab leak outright, but on the other hand, even if it's true, there's little practical value to the knowing about it other than improving biocontainment procedures. It certainly doesn't justify the Sinophobia that tends to accompany the lab leak theory, and the Sinophobia is what I think makes people reject the lab leak possibility so vehemently.
(The other "lab leak theory," that it was an engineered bioweapon that escaped, is for drooling morons. Nobody has that technology, not even close.)
That, and the fact that it's a respiratory disease, and does not spread by surface contact, makes a lab leak seem exceedingly unlikely.
Wait, I thought it could spread from surfaces? Otherwise what was the point of all the handwashing/hand sanitiser advice?
The other "lab leak theory," that it was an engineered bioweapon that escaped, is for drooling morons.
It's definitely very, very unlikely it was engineered, that's hogwash. But discovered in the environment and kept to use as a potential bioweapon shouldn't be dismissed so readily. It terrifies me that the US has stores of smallpox, considering its history.
In saying that I very much doubt it was a lab leak. I think there's something inherently racist there, that ties back to the whole "chinesium" bullcrap. As if Chinese labs are worse at maintaining containment somehow.
It borders on a conspiracy. I will never stop repeating this:
Theory 1, a conspiracy: it was designed in a lab as a bio-weapon. this is the one the GOP usually pushes
Theory 2, plausible theory: accidental transmission to a human during a study
More importantly it was a racist dog whistle used to distract from the incompetence and greed of politicians handling a crisis. It directly led to violent hate crimes.
Theory 3, it was used in an attempt to distract from the war in Ukraine by the Russians and much like everything the Russians do, it blew the fuck up in their face and we were all caught in collateral damaged.
Think about it. who directly benefited the most from covid? wasn't China, they lost trillions in trade. wasn't the US, they lost in trade and world trust(which was accomplished by a now known Russian asset.).
that's also a good point, who benefits by a weakened US? Russia. who was providing the most support against Russia at the time? US.
I have zero evidence of it, but I think it's pretty clear at least who benefited the most from it.
Because, it seems less likely to think that China has the technology to build artificial virus, than to think that China hat built a research lab about Coronaviruses in a region where new strain of virus may happen due to biodiversity and climate.
Then we can add the 5 years of reports saying that it's not the case
It's easier to fool someone than to convince them they'd been fooled.
A lot of people have stuck their neck out by saying with certainty that the virus didn't leak from a lab in China and anyone who thought otherwise is probably a racist and a republican.
It's next to impossible for those people to take responsibility for being incorrect, so they just double and triple-down on being wrong. It's ironic because they like to believe they're the voice of reason.
that's how science works, if you want to change the discourse, then prove them wrong
I think NBC "news" should be penalized for running this trash.
It didn't. This is just Trump's blathering bullshit, yet again.
Really? I truly thought that's where it came from. Years before the orange bafoon came along.
Now I have to go down a rabbit hole to find out more.
How did you think it was from a lab years before we even knew about the virus?
Trump is the one who started that rumor in the first place. Multiple investigations concluded that it did not originate from a lab in China. Now that Trump is back in office he's rewriting history to be what he wants it to be instead of what it is.
Theory 1, a conspiracy: it was designed in a lab as a bio-weapon
Theory 2, plausible but: accidental transmission to a human during a study
What?
That is prejudice nonsense politics.
Release the Epstein files now!
What if it came from Justin Bieber's perfume?
Yes yes we have low confidence and no experts think it is likely but WHAT IF?
every Nobel prize winning biologist says it did.
China needs global oversight.
Yeah, and as a punishment I suggest we should require that for an entire year they exclusively eat US fa(s)t food and (because I'm that cruel) that they can only get their news sources from trending US social media. That will teach them... not much, as a matter of fact.
FFS...
"Low confidence it was a lab leak but could still be wild born" is a nothingburger article for clicks.