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China lab suspected of Covid leak stripped of US funding for violating biosafety rules
(www.telegraph.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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sigh I know you've probably either already made up your mind or you're not arguing in good faith, so I'm not gonna engage any further except to say that it's entirely possible for a virologist to do research on zoonotic viruses. Just because it's a bat virus doesn't mean it stays a bat virus.
Also, there are probably billions if not trillions or quadrillions of individual COVID viruses out there. Each time a new one's made, there's a chance for it to mutate into something else. It's totally possible for a virus to evolve similar features in separate environments. I believe the term, "convergent evolution" applies here, and you can find examples larger than viruses in plants and animals, where even separate species can sometimes evolve the same features independently from one another. Carcinisation is an extreme example of this.
Just so you know, not only them are reading your response. I appreciate your response.
And as someone that isn't working in the field, I have to admit that it is very illogical that they would conduct gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in a country previously hit by a coronavirus outbreak while violating safety standards. Obviously that's hindsight but shouldn't this be very obviously a bad idea? It's not like the existence of a virus like COVID-19/sarscov-2 was completely unexpected.
I mean, you'd do the research where you would be finding the wild zoonotic pathogens you want to study. So the location makes perfect sense.
The biosafety issues are more just a long-standing problem with how science is done in China in general, which is overall bad.
So you admit that China has lax protocols, and that the US and China were studying the same virus that became a problem later, but you offer me nothing but insults for wondering if that same virus leaked from that same poor quality lab.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Oh, I guess since it was "illogical" there is no way that could be the origin.
I meant what actually happened is illogical to me. So I'm simply a bit confused and understand that there might be some nuance that I'm missing.
And I think an accidental leak is absolutely possible, it's only that a conscious effort by China and the USA is unrealistic.
Of course virologists study viruses, and sloppy government labs in backwater parts of authoritarian countries have lax safety protocols. You haven't contradicted me one time. You've just thrown up strawmen and irrelevant arguments.
That doesn't prove shit. You understand that nothing you say there is contributing to your argument, right?
You understand that I'm just casting doubt on the official narrative and the people arguing are the ones vested in their narrative, right?