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Comment by HKH2 | Hacker News Reader

Well it's potentially racist to some, so common sense has to go out the window.

The fact that labs exist in other countries with people of different ethnicities is not racist

But the fact it was basically a recycling of several racist "those filthy foreigners are responsible for disease" tropes along with "scheming orientals" tropes.

No the argument is nonsensical on its face. A lab leak supposedly recycles those tropes but emergence from an unsanitary wet market does not?

Seems more like you projecting some racist stuff no one else was thinking of.

As opposed to the "approved" knowledge that it came from foreigners with poor hygiene eating strange animals?

It's not "potentially" racist. It was being spouted by racists and directly leading to violence against asians in America and elsewhere. When this behavior is seen, and with the standard lack of any nuance in both reporting and social media, making such claims publicly if you're less than 95% certain is irresponsible.

What makes you certain that there was less than a 1 in 20 chance that the lab leak theory was wrong at the time?

After all, percentage fbtou are going to wait for every theory to be 19/20 chance of being correct before you announce it as a theory, no theory would have been announced at all for COVID

You can't prove a negative. Again, you are ignoring my point - most science isn't trying to make claims already being used to incite violence. There is a higher standard before publicly discussing such things.

The lab leak theory was not being touted by the Black people who beat up Asians in droves the last 3 years. The idea that it was Trumpists was a conspiracy theory not borne out by stats

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