The totality of the circumstances surrounding SARS-CoV-2 emergence | Hacker News Reader

The totality of the circumstances surrounding SARS-CoV-2 emergence

alexwasburne.substack.com

11 pointsgraeme5 comments

> The totality of the circumstances around the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 ought to give authorities probable cause to obtain additional information. While a laboratory accident is not malicious, accidents that result in the loss of human life may still be considered manslaughter. Manslaughter is a crime. There is probable cause to suspect a crime may have occurred in a laboratory accident leading to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, an accident that proceeded to kill 1 million Americans and over 18 million people worldwide in the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional injury exists in the persistent symptoms of “Long COVID” and the political, economic, educational, and other harms resulting from the pandemic.

This exemplifies the problem I've had with this whole thing. Followed by the deification of science, which is really the antithesis of science anyway.

There is an abundance of circumstances that point directly at a lab leak. During COVID the detractors of the zoonotic theory were canceled quickly and shamed publicly. Fast forward to today and we now have many researchers making the claim again. Yet, this time there is much less noise from the detractors. Recently, a new strain was synthesized here in the states which provides further evidence the technology is there and it can be done. An accident seems to be the most probable cause. Shit happens, the problem is this was a big, stinky one.

It is, at the very least, worth investigating. A lab leak is huge when it happens. A lab leak that leads to a global pandemic is possibly the worst case. We should close the lab if this the case and be very suspect of any "gain of function" research going forward. This article was well written I think.

However, my opinion is that this inquiry will never happen because of the consequences. If we were to prove, for example, that the Wuhan lab accidentally leaked the virus it would cause global economic chaos. In this case, perhaps it better people don't know. From a geopolitical standpoint that knowledge could very realistically start a war.

Even if we could prove it, and I believe with a high credence that it was the Wuhan lab, nothing would happen. Because it's China.

The argument about "manslaughter" is laughable because that's a legal classification in US laws. It doesn't apply... because it's China.

Gain of function research has been considered too dangerous in most developed countries, and funding it could be considered a crime. We have the evidence that Fauci directed funds to the Wuhan lab for this purpose. But nothing will be done, because he's a darling of Democrats for standing up to Trump.

There's a reason Xi Jinping's government replaced the head administrator of the Wuhan virology lab back in March of 2020 with a military officer. It was not so the research would stop, it's so that it would be more tightly controlled. This was actually announced, though the rest of the world was too busy freaking out at the time.

All well and good, but the debate really needs to shift to how we manage gain-of-function research in future and what additional monitoring or protection needs to be in place in ALL laboratories dealing with high-risk viruses and pathogens.

It would not have been the first lab leak and wont be the last.

If you don’t first establish that this was a lab leak, why would anyone attach importance to your own point?

Low quality conspiracy theory noise.

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