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Comment by wahisurf | Hacker News Reader

Nothing unproven about covid coming out of wuhan lab

House panel concludes that COVID-19 pandemic came from a lab leak https://www.science.org/content/article/house-panel-conclude...

Two-thirds of Americans believe that the COVID-19 virus originated from a lab in China https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/45389-americans-b...

also, Harvard Business Review agreed that "some U.S. regions lost manufacturing jobs as a result of trade with China in the early 2000s" https://hbr.org/2022/11/has-trade-with-china-really-cost-the...

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From the article you linked:

> The committee’s 520-page report, released on 2 December, offers no new direct evidence of a lab leak, but summarizes a circumstantial case, including that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) used NIAID money to conduct “gain-of-function” studies that modified distantly related coronaviruses.

> Democrats on the panel released their own report challenging many of their colleagues’ conclusions about COVID-19 origins. They conclude, for example, that the viruses studied at WIV with EcoHealth funding were too distantly related to SARS-CoV-2 to cause the pandemic.

In other words, it's the same partisan politics we've seen since 2020, with very little science sprinkled on top.

I believe we grossly fumbled investigating the origin of the virus, but unfortunately this report does little to present new, conclusive evidence.

The house panel report is profoundly flawed and used as a political piece more than as a means of real inquiry.

And the fact a lot of people from the US believe it originated from the lab doesn't really make it true. See how many people believe you didn't go on the moon or that 9/11 was an inside job.

It _could_ have originated from the lab, it's a distinct possibility, but there is no concrete proof. We do know it's not created using a gene drive though.

> Nothing unproven about covid coming out of wuhan lab

The burden of proof lies on those making the claim of a lab origin. In scientific investigation, the party proposing a particular explanation must provide evidence to support it, rather than others having to disprove it.

> House panel concludes that COVID-19 pandemic came from a lab leak

The findings of this report are in dispute. There is still no definitive evidence that COVID-19 originated in a lab.

> Two-thirds of Americans believe that the COVID-19 virus originated from a lab in China

The number of people who believe something has no bearing on whether it's factually true. History is full of examples where the majority was wrong. People once widely believed the Earth was flat and the sun revolved around us. Scientific truth is determined by evidence and rigorous research, not popular opinion or consensus.

FTA: "Two-year probe led by Republicans faults agencies for pandemic response, as Democrats on panel challenge final report’s findings on SARS-CoV-2’s origin"

Yeah, the lying-ass republicans repeating the same bullshit Russian-made talking points, meanwhile the Democrats who aren't on the dole disagree.

What gullible Americans "believe" on some random poll site doesn't matter. Belief in something doesn't make it true.

Since you are so blinded by party lines, here's an article in NY times from Dr. Alina Chan, a molecular biologist from MIT

Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/06/03/opinion/covid...

"Given what we now know, investigators should follow their strongest leads and subpoena all exchanges between the Wuhan scientists and their international partners, including unpublished research proposals, manuscripts, data and commercial orders. In particular, exchanges from 2018 and 2019"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42513063

That House panel report is a joke. They massively cherry pick evidence to praise everything Trump did and condemn everything Biden did.

For example, they praise Trump's travel restrictions for saving lives. To support this they cite a single study, which didn't even study COVID. It was a study that used computer models of the spread of other diseases to see if travel restrictions are useful. That's an interesting and useful type of study, but it isn't anywhere near conclusive.

Compare to masks, which they conclude are worthless. They acknowledge that the CDC provided them a list of over a dozen studies that were specifically of mask use in regard to COVID, but they completely dismiss all of them because they were observational studies, not randomized controlled trials.

Here's an article that gives more details on the deficiencies of that report, including the deficiencies in its claims about COVID origins [1].

[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/12/congressional-republ...

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