On the Origins of Covid

[CaffeineNeeded]

Flame someone else SK, and read the article.

[anon10396289]

I did read the article! Bizarre being questioned like this by someone who proudly hasn’t read a word of the article in question. Almost like you’re not posting earnestly.

[CaffeineNeeded]

Just to sum up this thread today:

1. The article posted from medium is from an author that has argued in the past that racial stereotypes are the results of genetics.
2. The article is claiming that a mutation that makes covid more infectious is impossible with a set of wildly unsupported assertions
3. The article claims that the USA was doing gain of function research in Wuhan based on grants that clearly state nothing about gain of function

[anon10396289]

@CaffeineNeeded

The article is claiming that a mutation that makes covid more infectious is impossible with a set of wildly unsupported assertions

it does no such thing. I’d say it’s a lie, but that would imply you actually know what the article says. A mistake made from a position of complete ignorance isn’t a lie imo.

[CaffeineNeeded]

ChrisV has helpfully set both quotes from the article and debunkings in this thread, which apparently you haven’t read either.

On the Origins of Covid

Wade might be overplaying the existence of the furin cleavage site. Derek Lowe, who writes the excellent In The Pipeline pharma blog I’ve linked a few times, says this: I’ll eventually have to write about this. I think Wade overestimates the “smoking gun” potential of the furin cleavage site, but on the other hand the lab-escape theory is definitely still on the table. And the actions of the Chinese government are doing nothing to take it off. Wade wrote this: Viruses have all kinds of cle…

[anon10396289]

Where does Wade say it is impossible for the mutation to arise naturally?

Note that your use of the term “mutation” here highlights your ignorance of what the article actually is saying.

[bobman0330]

@j8i3h289dn3x7

@CaffeineNeeded

oh the article written by the guy who states that Chinese people have ‘typical’ Chinese characteristics because of genetics? Good, I can safely ignore that bullshit.

Lol, the Unstuck Politics Overton Window on racism continues it’s long slide to the right. We now unironically cite race science proponents for the proposition that Covid was created in a Chinese Lab, and the majority ITT are fine with it. In another thread today, the National Review was unironically cited for a proposition on an unrelated matter. We’ve come a long way UP!

I’m not a racist you sanctimonious dipshit.

EDIT: The unrelated matter was not believing a crazy white grifter slandering a black scientist for being in on a supposed conspiracy!

[anon10396289]

But Wade makes it clear it’s not just the furin cleavage site but the arginine codon pair that make it so suspicious.

[Jalfrezi]

I can see people are enjoying this back and forth so long may it live, but

1. Until strong evidence is found to confirm or refute the lab theory all we can say is there’s a non-zero chance.

2. Stating this appears to be enough to precipitate foaming fury in certain posters.

[anon10396289]

I think there’s enough to say it’s a lot more likely than nonzero. Like, nonzero doesn’t mean that it should be taken seriously and investigated. But the lab leak hypothesis is certainly plausible enough to be taken seriously and not be summarily dismissed like ikes and Trolley Trollson and Jman want to do.

[Jalfrezi]

I’m not convinced it’s even possible to say that. How would you even start to put a P on something like this?

[CaffeineNeeded]

Arguing that something has a ‘nonzero’ chance of being true is such a low bar that it’s meaningless.

[Jalfrezi]

Quite.

[anon10396289]

It’s very difficult to put a probability on this because it isn’t a random event, it’s something that either happened one way or the other way. The information needed to figure out which is which is hidden, either in the lab records of a lab in Wuhan or in an unknown animal that passed the virus to humans. Wade makes a compelling case that the former is perfectly plausible without ruling out the latter. Which, as you and he both say, would require direct evidence.

[Trolly]

No one says it’s a zero probability, it’s just most of the actual experts who’ve looked into this seem to think it’s the least likely explanation.

[CaffeineNeeded]

@Jalfrezi

Stating this appears to be enough to precipitate foaming fury in certain posters.

This, ofc, is not what happened. No one is riled up because someone said it’s possible. I’m pissed because conspiratorial bullshit from a known racist piece of shit in an unreviewed source was used to say that it was likely. Shockingly, that article was bullshit.

Also, it involved a bunch of people who insisted that they were not pushing the lab creation theory (they were implying it back then) suddenly explicitly making that argument.

[anon10396289]

@CaffeineNeeded

Shockingly, that article was bullshit.

you didn’t read it

[anon10396289]

@Trolly

No one says it’s a zero probability, it’s just most of the actual experts who’ve looked into this seem to think it’s the least likely explanation.

about that

Another Group of Scientists Calls for Further Inquiry Into Origins of the...

[MrWookie]

A group of scientists who haven’t actually looked into this does not falsify a single thing Trolly said.

[6ix]

@anon10396289

ikes

@CaffeineNeeded

try again?

o shit