this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2023
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Science

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French scientist who discovered that animals susceptible to coronavirus were present at Wuhan market now receives personal threats on social media (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 years ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
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"I’m not living the best days of my life right now,” Florence Débarre says. "But being truthful is essential." The day after she published her findings, the relevant data had been made inaccessible, apparently at the request of the Chinese researchers who include the top virologist George Gao, a former director general of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. “We were shocked,” says Débarre. “But not surprised.”

The next step will be to investigate the illegal supply chains that brought the animals to the Wuhan market during winter 2019 and see whether they might lead closer to the virus’s original reservoir.

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[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Chinese authorities may trigger a Streisand effect by restricting access to scientific data.

There's no ground for blaming this virus outbreak on a specific country, not China more than any other. But restricting access to data may bring more intense scrutiny onto this, and add more fuel to conspiracy theories.

[–] tardigrada@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I am wondering whether the Streisand effect is already here, but am not sure whether the Chinese government would care. And it's not only China but also the US which doesn't fully cooperate with the UN as I have read recently. There appears to be too much politics, too much national interest on all sides.

More data transparency would not only help scientists to better understand the origin of the virus but also help to fight future pandemics. I am not an expert in this field, but I guess more international collaboration would be beneficial for the entire globe (not in the least because, as you suggest, there's no country to blame for as such an outbreak can happen anywhere, anytime).

[–] ilk@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There’s no ground for blaming this virus outbreak on a specific country,

There's ground for making them responsible for not avoiding at all costs spreading that, for lying/deception/manipulation, for prosecuting health professionals early reporting on the sarscov-19... and still hiding the truth, making it inaccessible; they are afraid, guilty of something very big. At that point, we should have no such worldwide pandemics. This caused and causes many pain, suffering, that could have been avoided. I will not forget, I can't say I can forgive (all governments included)

btw https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a