by benpiper on 1/12/22, 10:49 PM with 69 comments
by srl on 1/13/22, 1:12 AM
> Editors’ note, [30] March 2020: We are aware that this article is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.
And from "The Scientist":
> Update (March 11, 2020): On social media and news outlets, a theory has circulated that the coronavirus at the root of the COVID-19 outbreak originated in a research lab. Scientists say there is no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from a lab.
And an obligatory link to SA's recent post on the phrase "no evidence": https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-phrase-no-evidence...
by alevskaya on 1/13/22, 3:07 AM
by vicpara on 1/13/22, 2:49 AM
This line of thinking wasn't yet authorised by the US government so it must be fake news until approved.
by xupybd on 1/13/22, 3:57 AM
I just hope that if this is man made we have learned something to prevent this happening again.
How hard would it be for someone to do this on purpose?
by benpiper on 1/12/22, 11:11 PM
> Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of to one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice, according to the team’s results, which were published in Nature Medicine.
by option on 1/13/22, 1:34 AM
Edit: Yes, the initial pandemic virus most likely leaked from WIV lab in Wuhan. Whether it was engineered and whether it was intentional are different questions.
by nikolay on 1/13/22, 7:15 AM