Talk: Wuhan Institute of Virology (Wikipedia) | Hacker News Reader

Talk: Wuhan Institute of Virology (Wikipedia)

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3 pointsern3 comments

If you had told me prior to 1986 that Russian workers in a nuclear plant would do "what could possibly go wrong" experiments without chain-of-command permission, I'd have told you how naive that was. How could people do something so insane, in a command-economy with strong rigid line-of-command issues?

If you had told me scientists in the US would be able to send anthrax in the mail to members of the government, because they were pissed off with things, I'd have said "but that would never happen" -Except, it did kind of happen. Anthrax leaked out because somebody with access to secured disease facilities in the US, decided to do something. Something reprehensible, but they did.

So if you tell me its theoretically possible a gain-of-function experiment happened, And that all this behaviour from the Chinese government was after-the-fact fears about uncommanded, unacceptable risky behaviour in a lab, I maybe should be open to saying "ok: it is certainly possible people do bat shit crazy (hah) things"

I don't actually think a GOF experiment is at the root of this problem. I think its zoonotic, not manufactured, and I think seeking to write the lab into spread of a zoonotic disease is seeking to make political capital because of anti CCP feeling or trade wars.

Like diseases spread because farming and food practices are high risk for disease transmission. its sort-of Occams razor to say "it just happened" because we have good evidence it does just happen. Demanding this be seen as a smoking gun of human mediated lab-experimentation, I think is silly.

I would be asking Virologists and Geneticists: Does a Gain of Function experiment leave fingerprints in the DNA and RNA that we can track down?

I shared this link because the way the Wikipedia administrators are behaving is noteworthy. Actively and aggressively silencing others who cite mainstream reliable sources which point to an alternative hypothesis that, whatever its likelihood, is not really a conspiracy theory is a dangerous escalation in Wiki-lawyering and admin bullying in the name of "combatting misinformation" (I haven't edited the page, but the POV dispute led me to the talk page). In light of broader attempts to discredit and silence those who raise a lab-escape hypothesis, it's downright sinister.

As for your point about it being a trade-war tactic only goes so far when one realizes that Australia, which has China as its biggest trading partner, most vocally brought up the need for an investigation, and is being punished. Why would Australia start a trade war with its biggest customer?

Why would Australia start a trade war with its biggest customer?

Because we're politically native, and often misread the signals? Some of us believe it was a misguided attempt to curry favour in the US by bringing the US China dispute into Australia.

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