On the Origins of Covid

There was probably an intermediate animal between bats and people is what the report says.

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And what the F is the world going to do if through error or malfeasance China screwed up? What’s the prescription?

It’s in that NY Magazine article I linked to yesterday. What evidence do you have that they’re closer?

So what if scientists killed millions of people and derailed the global economy fucking around with weird bat viruses? What practical implications could that possibly have?

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What in gods name happened to this thread?

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This thread is either a filthy wet market from which this discussion naturally arose, or a laboratory where our close examination of such discussions made our infection inevitable.

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most serious takes were not against the nuclear designs themselves, but the engineering tenet that designs for 20-meter tsunami disasters will eventually get wiped out by a 21-meter tsunami disaster. the wisdom of building reactors on geological fault lines is something to consider, separate from the debate on nuclear.

This post, and everyone that liked it, is one of those moments that is basically a list of people who don’t understand what is happening in this discussion.

SK has claimed, repeatedly, that a lab leak (not artificially made, but sometimes artificially made) is ‘likely’. That is nonsense. Stop the nonsense.

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South Korea? Really?

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No, the other SK.

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imo what seems to be happening in this discussion is a few people stubbornly and repeatedly refusing to not just admit that the chance of lab origin is non-trivial, but also won’t even consider any new evidence presented. As of this morning, the list of very reputable scientists who say a much better investigation is needed - including the lab - now has WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as a member.

And yes, many of these very reputable scientists also continue to raise questions about the possibility that the virus was in fact modified by humans, presumably in that same lab. I don’t know if that scenario is “likely” or not, but it seems like a good spot to at least hedge bets and not assign vanishingly small probabilities or claim case closed.

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Your opinion is not supported by the posts in this thread. It is not likely. It is not even close to that. If you want to quibble about if it’s 5% or 1% or whatever go on I could give a shit less. There’s a strong consensus against any sort of position that this is more than a very small chance. It’s not ‘about to go mainstream’. It’s not likely. It’s not probable. That should be the end of it.

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People keep claiming that there is growing support for the lab leak theory of origin, but it just isn’t materializing.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I’m not trying to browbeat people who think the wet market or frozen cod or whatever is the likely source. I acknowledge there isn’t good evidence for anything right now and all of that is probably possible. But they’re trying to browbeat people who think the lab leak theory is actually a pretty reasonable one. Strange.

Not sure what this mean but in general “people say” is not evidence.

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It’s an allusion to an old 2+2 post. I’m pretty sure caffeine needed will get the reference.

We’ve gone from ‘likely’ and ‘more mainstream this week!’ to whinging about people telling you that you’re wrong and stating ‘there isn’t good evidence’ in less than 24 hours. Probably as close to you admitting you made a mistake as possible.

What am I missing here? The WHO report all but completely ruled out the lab being involved and suddenly this thread goes full Alex Jones. There’s no additional evidence pointing to the lab other than a hunch from some random postdoc on Twitter.

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What? I still think it’s likely. I’ve said from the start that there isn’t solid evidence for the lab leak, or any other theory. This is because of China’s obstruction and bad faith.