Since then there has been even more progress. Since 2015 or so it's been possible to "print" DNA of any sequence.
In fact as COVID started to spread in China and the sequence was released, a Swiss lab used this technology to print the genome of SARS2, inject it into some yeast cells, and voila, you have the virus. They wrote this up in Nature [2].
If you wanted to change a naturally sampled virus using this technique, say, to insert a Furin site, swap out an RBD, whatever, you can literally do it with a text editor and copy and paste.
Saved a lot of money this year making Covid-19 at home using the SARS viruses I already have. Takes like 2 seconds
https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39652
Suffice it to say, this has been a very active area of research (and DoD/NIH/NIAID funding) for many years.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120940/
In light of this, people that are confidently dismissing or playing down the possibility of a lab l̶e̶a̶k̶ origin at this point seem to be exhibiting some kind of ideological commitment.
For some reason most discussions claiming that the lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy theory focus 90% of their effort arguing against being a bioengineered weapon and little time arguing against the actual strongest lab leak hypothesis: a zoonotic virus was collected and brought to a virology lab, where it was passed through humanized mice, a worker contracted it, and accidentally spread it in the city the virology lab was based.
The fact that people can pick out whackadoodles in Congress who argue for stupid theories doesn't make the strong theory weaker.
Forgive one another, and you will be forgiven.
In order to forgive, we must have the truth. Without it, we are in a fog of blind judgement and accusation.
Clarity of the source of this misfortune allows us to forgive.
I cannot say that I hold the full pantheon of the origin of these words to be true, but the four books that imparted this teaching to me have left an indelible imprint, and I cannot escape their mercy, justice, and hope.
I have read many other books, of course, and I believe in compassion. Though great calamity has befallen us, we might find any who have acted wrongly to be worthy of forgiveness.
When we grow beyond apprehension of recrimination, blind to fear of punishment for a cataclysm caused by ourselves and others, and only seek to salve our unwilling harm, perhaps then we will be able to say "move!" to a mountain, and it will move.
Yes, I have loved these books. Sometimes, they are my only solace.
The USA just launched a major assault on the human rights of 55% of its population (women and homosexuals), after a yearlong assault on the foundation of our democratic government, all under the guise of four books of "mercy, justice, and hope".
Forgiveness is not on the political table.
The bioweapon theory, however, is politically useful. If you want to start a war, or at least trade sanctions, a villain is a good place to start. Someone violating international law and gene splicing themselves a pandemic in a bottle is exactly the right kind of comic book supervillainy, without being technically impossible.
This is precisely Nature's gambit. She carefully engineered SARS-CoV-2 in a matter of weeks (to conceal the evidence, which was eaten), all naturally of course, but carefully, subtly made it appear like it might have been designed by mere mortals... and for this very purpose. Armageddon. When there's an imbalance, Nature corrects. And no one would deny there is an imbalance in the Earth regarding our species alone totally messing it up for all living things.
"Fire you? I just spent a million lives training you up!"
(For those who don't get the reference, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_j_watson_209882 )
What an utterly extraordinary thing to say!
"it is possible for researchers to reconstruct the virus in a lab, using either fragments of virus from patients, or fragments of DNA that are synthesised chemically by biotech companies. " https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/19172
It seems you can basically type any sequence you want and have it made up.
You keep repeating this sentiment even though there are other comments that provide evidence to the contrary, that we haven't established that at all.
Do you have any sources to support this claim other than what are effectively op-ed essays?
Anyone claiming to disprove the lab leak hypothesis by making a claim against solely molecular engineering is either hilariously uninformed or intentionally misleading you.
I've only heard crack pots claim it was man made up to this point. I think repeatedly bringing it up or acting as if that's what lab leak means to most is disingenuous at this point.
>That doesn't eliminate the possibility that it was a natural virus which had been collected and subsequently escaped due to bad lab technique
That's what everyone is actually talking about. The man made conspiracy theory is a red herring that only serves to strawman and shut down legitimate discussion.