re: COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron - #10533 by ChrisV
i finally finished reading that Lab Leak 2.0 substack. it is much more alarmist than what could be reasonably considered parsimonious. like, the s/ns ratio of 3.5 sounds kinda arbitrarily chosen, and if environment can change the frequency of silent mutations, e.g. a vaccinated population, than it would also be reasonable to see whether the ratio is different for omicron to begin with, since its mechanics appear to be different.
the lab leaks they claim are delta or omicron are not really lining up with what we think are the start of delta and omicron waves. it almost like the easiest explanation there is that the tech caught delta outside the lab, and they make a huge deal about improper safety precautions like double gloves and removing of goggles, they took should at least try to corroborate it by some evidence that omicron (and delta) can in fact spread via surface exposure like that. or that there’s evidence the tech passed the infection to someone else.
then the comments section immediately raised a flag.
all of this hoopla about banning GoF research, even though they say it would be trivially cheap to do right now in secret or in some jurisdiction where it’s allowed. like their claim is that any phd can just buy some mice, infect them, and start selecting, eventually arriving at a leaked virus. banning the research in controlled environments like universities and labs doesn’t seem like it would actually prevent ambitious people to try.