Four federal agencies consider lab-leak hypothesis for COVID origin, one ranks it "low confidence" spurring WSJ headline

[pdq]

Ca Bob wrote:
Thanks for explaining this. I saw a headline (on Yahoo or somewhere) and it didn't make a lot of sense. The biological evidence, including all the DNA sequence data, have gone against the lab leak hypothesis from early on.

Yes, quite.

I didn't read the WSJ article, but skimming the other blurbs gave me the impression that they said, well, there's a new Coronavirus, and a lab in the same town working on Coronaviruses. What are the chances they're not related?

Actually pretty good, based on the actual virological, genetic and epidemiological data. The lab was something like 7 miles away from the wet market initial cluster. SARS didn't originate from a lab, and hit China hard. I have no doubt China has a number of virology labs working on Coronaviruses now in their larger cities (like Wuhan) because of that. Regarding the difficulty in demonstrating an animal vector, for a long time we had no idea what the animal reservoir of SARS was. Twenty years later, we're still not certain - Bats? Civets? These things are not that easy.

I don't particularly trust the Chinese, but I trust science, and the science here favors an animal origin, just like SARS (which was probably at least as infectious as Covid, and deadlier in a case-fatality ratio, but was fortunately contained).

[kj]

Rog is right, clickbait. One side loves it, the other loves to hate it, and everyone clicks.

[Acer]

Clickbait or not, it is of interest. But how long do you to live in this world to know that headlines have always been and will likely always be, the marketing, not the product?

[AllGold]

The Dept. of Energy talking about Covid.

Next, let's hear from the Dept. of Health and Human Services on the cause of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

[jonny]

AllGold wrote:
The Dept. of Energy talking about Covid.

Next, let's hear from the Dept. of Health and Human Services on the cause of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

:goodone:

[RgrF]

Jon Stewart weighs in

[mrbigstuff]

I'm with Stewart. At least as far as we don't know what we don't know.

There are the crazies who said it couldn't have anything to do with China and a lab, even though it came from China, in close proximity to a lab with the same viruses. There are also the crazies on the other side who believed China was unleashing a bio-weapon, and it was all part of a huge conspiracy involving Fauci, Soros, Gates, etc. We will probably not know the answer for some time, as actual journalism has been stifled.

Published about a minute ago:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...nt/673230/

[Tiangou]

mrbigstuff wrote:
I'm with Stewart. At least as far as we don't know what we don't know.

There are the crazies who said it couldn't have anything to do with China and a lab, even though it came from China, in close proximity to a lab with the same unrelated inactive viruses. There are also the crazies on the other side who believed China was unleashing a bio-weapon, and it was all part of a huge conspiracy involving Fauci, Soros, Gates, etc. We will probably not know the answer for some time, as actual journalism has been stifled.

FTFY.

[pdq]

mrbigstuff wrote:
I'm with Stewart. At least as far as we don't know what we don't know.

There are the crazies who said it couldn't have anything to do with China and a lab, even though it in close proximity to a lab with the same viruses.

“Close proximity” in this case means something like 7-10 miles. So the virus jumped that seven miles and caused an outbreak cluster at a market with live wild animals, without any clusters in between. And the viruses are the “same” in the sense that they are part of the same group of viruses, but appear to be genetically distinct from the viruses they worked on in the lab.

neaky:

Not impossible, just not that likely, says the WHO and most virologists and epidemiologists who have studied it. SARS, another Coronavirus, almost certainly came from wild animals in China.

[SteveG]

and meanwhile over on Fox this morning...