OT: First coronavirus case of unknown origin confirmed in the USA

[cash05458]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

Just because I can't offer you proof doesn't mean it isn't true. You guys can always go ahead and do your own research.

All I can say is I believe it's 100% true a lab exists there and has for some time before the coronavirus outbreak. This has been reported on at length from the beginning.

Whether or not it's the ONLY lab of its kind, I don't know if this is true it's just what I've heard. It's probably at least 50% likely to be true, and even if it isn't, it doesn't necessarily matter.

As for the virus being engineered: There was a paper published by some Indians (not peer reviewed) claiming the Coronavirus had similarities to HIV and implying that this lent credence to the engineered theory. To the best of my knowledge this has been debunked by people in the scientific community.

As far as I'm concerned there's no plausible evidence that it was engineered, especially because the virus seems to be behaving the way many expected that study these things. Things that confound that conclusion are that there probably isn't a direct link from the virus to any particular wild animal, yet, although the Chinese are supposedly looking. Also some people are calling into question bats (hasn't been proven it's from bats AFAIK) wouldn't be sold at a "seafood market" (the market in Wuhan) but this just seems to be reaching, to support the conspiracy theory.

nice to know you don't believe in "reaching"...

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by cash05458

nice to know you don't believe in "reaching"...

you don't seem to understand that everything I've said is based on me doing more reading about this than all or most people in this thread, from the very beginning, I'm not in the habit of making crap up. I am also in contact with people that study viruses.

edit: I wasn't even the one that brought this theory up BTW I was just trying to explain it fo people can make an informed decision. My first post was simply stating the existence of said lab and nothing more.

[MattTuck]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

Such as?

The discussion about the high level lab in Wuhan is one. That lab was working on... Corona viruses! This was cited in a Nature article from years ago.

Second is that a part of the Covid19 genome that codes for the "spike protein" has similarities to the sequence of HIV.

Third is that the initial patient did not actually go to the Wuhan wet market that (for months) was attributed as the official source.

[goonster]

Originally Posted by tuxbailey

The only BSL4 lab in China is in Wuhan

The CDC recommends handling COVID19 at BSL2 level.

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by colker

So the chinese engineered a biological weapon but being chinese they were incompetent to deal with the virus so it got loose and killed their own people.

Fiction is always easier to build than finding what really happened.

First of all, I am not a proponent of this theory. If the Coronavirus was a bio weapon it would be more deadly or specialized in some way, and also the Chinese would likely already have a vaccine.

Secondly, you just seem like you desperately want to argue with someone, anyone, regardless of whether you are making any points or even making sense. That's fine but the lease you can do is not go around and spread misinformation like "oh wear a mask it's like the flu" when experts are saying to wash your hands and not touch your face because the mask isn't necessarily effective. You think you know what you're talking about but you don't.

[MattTuck]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

As for the virus being engineered: There was a paper published by some Indians (not peer reviewed) claiming the Coronavirus had similarities to HIV and implying that this lent credence to the engineered theory. To the best of my knowledge this has been debunked by people in the scientific community.

In my reading, I did find another group that found similarities. Will try to find it later.

[cash05458]

you guys do know yes that all viruses spin off one another in some way? they don't just drop from outer space like some new form of radical and unexisting biology? so folks studying and looking at virus things from certain areas and new forms really does not mean what you think it might? Perhaps you might want to look up the word "mutate"...

[Tony T]

When I hear the experts saying to wash your hands and not touch your face (which we should be doing anyway), I'm reminded of "duck and cover"

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by cash05458

you guys do know yes that all viruses spin off one another in some way? they don't just drop from outer space like some new form of radical and unexisting biology? so folks studying and looking at virus things from certain areas and new forms really does not mean what you think it might? Perhaps you might want to look up the word "mutate"...

What are you even saying right now? lol

[mtechnica]

Originally Posted by Tony T

When I hear the experts saying to wash your hands and not touch your face (which we should be doing anyway), I'm reminded of "duck and cover"

People don't think it be like it is but it do.

[fiamme red]

I wonder if people are still using bike share in China.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...38463919308764: "Our results reveal the profiles of bacterial communities on shared bicycles, and suggest that potentially pathogenic bacteria may impair human health through shared bicycles, especially in susceptible individuals."

[ghcs]

Originally Posted by Tony T

When I hear the experts saying to wash your hands and not touch your face (which we should be doing anyway), I'm reminded of "duck and cover"

As a life-long fidgeter, the second point will be my doom.

[cash05458]

Originally Posted by mtechnica

People don't think it be like it is but it do.

open to hearing your meaning...but could you give translation Mtech? yay or nay on hand washing etc?

[MattTuck]

Originally Posted by cash05458

you guys do know yes that all viruses spin off one another in some way? they don't just drop from outer space like some new form of radical and unexisting biology? so folks studying and looking at virus things from certain areas and new forms really does not mean what you think it might? Perhaps you might want to look up the word "mutate"...

We're all operating in a bit of an information vacuum, and only going off what gets published. I am not doing the science myself, but I did get my bachelors degree in genetics, so I am pretty familiar with DNA. My understanding of the claim is not that there was single base pair mutation, but that it was an insertion of a significant sequence of DNA from the HIV genome.

This article does a pretty good job of shooting down the claim.

At the same time, this article from earlier today notes that there is an HIV like mutation. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...scientists-say

So, to sum it up:

As a reminder, the running narrative is that the new coronavirus lie dormant in bats somewhere between 20 and 70 years, then 'crossed over' to humans through and unknown species - possibly a Pangolin - before it emerged at a Wuhan, China meat market roughly 900 feet from a level-4 bioweapons lab.

Make up your own mind.

Going back to my original post, I stand behind it:

Originally Posted by MattTuck

There is certainly some circumstantial evidence that suggests it was an engineered virus.

I'm not convinced it is man made -- there is certainly no proof. There are just some things that, taken on their own, make you consider the possibility. And that is all it takes for a good conspiracy theory to get off the ground.

If you want a real conspiracy theory, there is a story going around that the Corona virus was smuggled out of a Canadian bioweapon lab by Chinese spies. That has been debunked.

[goonster]

Originally Posted by cash05458

could you give translation

People resist counterintuitive realities.