Scientists close to Wuhan virus lab break silence, push away latest conspiracies | Hacker News Reader

Scientists close to Wuhan virus lab break silence, push away latest conspiracies

globaltimes.cn

3 pointsabbassi5 comments

As the debate surrounding the origins of the COVID-19 virus has long branched out as Western politicians and media's muzzle of China-bashing, and individuals' tool to gain personal fame, Chinese and foreign scientists who buried their heads in studying the puzzle have also been pushed out front, such as Shi Zhengli. They decided to break their silence, and hopefully they can veer virus tracing back to a "scientific and rational" way.

In a rare interview with the New York Times published on Monday, China's "bat woman" Shi Zhengli, a virologist from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which was mired at the center of "lab-leak" conspiracy, said, "How on Earth can I offer evidence for something where there is no evidence?" when confronted with "lab-leak" suspicions.

How can I trust a voice from China, when a wrong message means severe suppression for the scientist and their family?

There is no need to trust either side (and indeed we should not trust either side, everything should be backed with evidence and verifiable facts [though note that one cannot prove a negative]). You can just notice that no evidence have been provided at this stage so while the lab leak is within the range of possibility there is nothing to discuss further unless and until facts surface. There is little doubt that the lab leak theory is pushed by a narrative more than anything else at the moment.

True, the likelyhood of such a transmission happening naturally should be considered, the locality could be just a coincidence.

I think natural transmission is the default theory unless someone has very strong evidence of something else.

However, there's a push to reverse this and have the lab leak theory as the 'obvious' one. What is obvious is that this is orchestrated.

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