Norway Scientist Claims Report Proves Coronavirus Was Lab-Made | Hacker News Reader

Norway Scientist Claims Report Proves Coronavirus Was Lab-Made

forbes.com

18 pointspunnerud10 comments

Forbes probably withdrawn it because the paper is withdrawn and soon (<1week) to published again as two papers.

https://www.ibtimes.sg/british-norwegian-study-claims-corona...

Edit: It looks like I have confused Birger Sørensen with Ralph S. Baric, who is the real expert.

This is unfortunate news.

For context, Birger Sørensen is one of two global experts in genetically engineered Corona viruses and the other is Shi Zhengli, based out of Wuhan.

For the last 20 years, the two have been in competition to humanize coronaviruses and test how contagious they are in mice and primates.

"Unfortunate" how?

Unfortunate because it's professional jealousy, likely to hold back the field? Or unfortunate because it's likely true?

By the way, I love your HN name.

Unfortunate because it lends a tremendous amount of credibility to the lab-made hypothesis, which can only increase tensions with China and lead to geopolictial consequenses which will leave us all worse off.

Glad you like the name!

> in competition to humanize coronaviruses

Forgive my naivety, but how is that possibly a good thing?

Following the SARS outbreak, there was a great interest in understanding the potential risk coronaviruses pose to human populations.

This is done by collecting viral specimens from all over the world and looking at ways in which they could combine or mutate, and how the resulting virus behaves. You then infect and animal with the most dangerous (or probable) new virus, and test new vaccines for treating it. If done correctly, you have a catalogue of vaccines for potential threats before they occur in nature.

http://archive.is/voHST

> contains sequences that appear to be artificially inserted.

When did 'appear to be' constitute proof?

The link says the page is no longer active.

where is the proof, none of the researches that are mentioned are publicly available on the internet.

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