Lab Leak: The conspiracy theory is shaping up to look like real possibility

[Mountain Man]

Withholding funds would probably be in breach of the Impoundment Control Act. I know that Trump does not care about the law, but I do expect better from you, whether or not you think the WHO is well run or not.

Not a violation of the law at all. The president has some discretion within the Impoundment Control Act to decide when and in some cases if earmarked funds are dispersed.

[Sparko]

Yes, I prefer evidence and arguments rather than parrots repeating lies and spins.

OK who are you and what did you do with demi?

[Sparko]

A critical essay being published by a law professor of all people is not proof that the government covered up human to human transmission, dimwit.

Have you become completely retarded?

Are you arguing with your own sock puppet now?

[firstfloor]

meh

[demi-conservative]

OK who are you and what did you do with demi?

Come back when you have something besides 'China knew in November' BS spin.

Are you arguing with your own sock puppet now?

[Sparko]

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/recommended/1661/453637
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Notice there is no direct denial, he is just saying what the WHO and "experts" have said. Well of course. They are relying on the lies from China. China KNOWS whether it escaped from a lab or not, so why just say what the WHO said? Why not just outright say "The virus did not escape from a Chinese lab in Wuhan?"

[demi-conservative]

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/recommended/1661/453637
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Notice there is no direct denial

Interesting. I'll try to find the full transcript.

he is just saying what the WHO and "experts" have said. Well of course. They are relying on the lies from China.

It's good that you're learning to put experts in '''''''''''''''''''. The downside is that the experts have argued that it isn't lab grown based on genetic data months ago.

[Cow Poke]

SO guilty! (though it's a Henry Rifle across the lap) (and you forgot the little stream of tobakki from the other corner of the mouth)

[mikewhitney]

The WHO is like the UN, Labor Unions, and the Trump administration.

I see. You think Trump is corrupt so that now you wish he fund WHO, as a cause of our current problems. You don't make any sense.

[Juvenal]

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/recommended/1661/453637
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Notice there is no direct denial, he is just saying what the WHO and "experts" have said. Well of course. They are relying on the lies from China. China KNOWS whether it escaped from a lab or not, so why just say what the WHO said? Why not just outright say "The virus did not escape from a Chinese lab in Wuhan?"

[Esther]

Now, do you get the point yet? Or are you now going to argue that it's really completely the wife's fault after all (if you try that, you are required to do it in front of your wife ...)

lol

[Starlight]

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/recommended/1661/453637
-
Notice there is no direct denial, he is just saying what the WHO and "experts" have said. Well of course. They are relying on the lies from China. China KNOWS whether it escaped from a lab or not, so why just say what the WHO said? Why not just outright say "The virus did not escape from a Chinese lab in Wuhan?"

There's two quite different theories though...

1. That China was manufacturing bio-weapons. That this virus was created artificially in a bio-weapons lab. That it escaped from by mistake (or even on purpose) from that lab.

2. That China was doing totally normal scientific study of animal diseases (with a view to understanding them and preventing their future transmission to humans). That one of the labs where they had some caged animals and were studying the diseases of them, was the original source of this virus after one of the scientists there caught it.

China is denying #1, I think rightfully so.

I believe #2 is correct from the evidence I've seen. China is also denying / trying to cover #2 which IMO is silly, but it doesn't really matter whether they admit that one or not. It's not like it makes a difference at this point.

[mikewhitney]

The extended number of flu-like sickness (over and beyond normal flu curves) starting in November suggests that the new sicknesses in America started at around the same time as the sickness started in Wuhan. This overage amount is a clue to the spread of the illness above and beyond the flu. This means that we are long into the spread of the virus and that it has completed its course.

There is no significance to the number of "cases" identified for coronavirus. So we shouldn't pay any attention to that, nor should the government.

[shunyadragon]

Rumors and conspiracies? I believe the government has acknowledge there is no evidence that the COVA(-19 came from the Wuhan lab. I prefer the science, and I am looking forward to more research particularly genetic research.

New genetic research narrows down the most likely source of the COVAG-19 Virus that caused the pandemic.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200326144342.htm

Missing link in coronavirus jump from bats to humans could be pangolins, not snakes

As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus' genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are intermediate hosts of the new virus, and that a key coronavirus protein shares "uncanny similarities" with an HIV-1 protein. Now, a study in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research refutes both ideas and suggests that scaly, anteater-like animals called pangolins are the missing link for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between bats and humans.

Understanding where SARS-CoV-2 -- the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic -- came from and how it spreads is important for its control and treatment. Most experts agree that bats are a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, but an intermediate host was needed for it to jump from bats to humans.

A recent study that analyzed the new virus' genome suggested snakes as this host, despite the fact that coronaviruses are only known to infect mammals and birds. Meanwhile, an unrelated study compared the sequence of the spike protein -- a key protein responsible for getting the virus into mammalian cells -- of the new coronavirus to that of HIV-1, noting unexpected similarities. Although the authors withdrew this preprint manuscript after scientific criticism, it spawned rumors and conspiracy theories that the new coronavirus could have been engineered in a lab. Yang Zhang and colleagues wanted to conduct a more careful and complete analysis of SARS-CoV-2 sequences to resolve these issues.

Compared to the previous studies, the researchers used larger data sets and newer, more accurate bioinformatics methods and databases to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 genome. They found that, in contrast to the claim that four regions of the spike protein were uniquely shared between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1, the four sequence segments could be found in other viruses, including bat coronavirus.

After uncovering an error in the analysis that suggested snakes as an intermediate host, the team searched DNA and protein sequences isolated from pangolin tissues for ones similar to SARS-CoV-2. The researchers identified protein sequences in sick animals' lungs that were 91% identical to the human virus' proteins. Moreover, the receptor binding domain of the spike protein from the pangolin coronavirus had only five amino acid differences from SARS-CoV-2, compared with 19 differences between the human and bat viral proteins. This evidence points to the pangolin as the most likely intermediate host for the new coronavirus, but additional intermediate hosts could be possible, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment.

© Copyright Original Source

[seanD]

There's two quite different theories though...

1. That China was manufacturing bio-weapons. That this virus was created artificially in a bio-weapons lab. That it escaped from by mistake (or even on purpose) from that lab.

2. That China was doing totally normal scientific study of animal diseases (with a view to understanding them and preventing their future transmission to humans). That one of the labs where they had some caged animals and were studying the diseases of them, was the original source of this virus after one of the scientists there caught it.

China is denying #1, I think rightfully so.

I believe #2 is correct from the evidence I've seen. China is also denying / trying to cover #2 which IMO is silly, but it doesn't really matter whether they admit that one or not. It's not like it makes a difference at this point.

China is denying both #1 and 2. They're denying any and all theories, conspiracy or otherwise, related to the pandemic. The Wuhan wet market is the story they're sticking to; at least to my knowledge that hasn't changed. Which leads me to believe #1 is the most likely.