zlacker

>>datafl+(OP)
I don't really think it matters a whole lot whether it jumped species or was created in a lab. I think the issue is that there are nearly 8 billion people on the planet and that fact has somehow fundamentally changed how disease spreads and mutates.

We need to be figuring out how to deal with that. Wondering where it came from is mostly neither here nor there.

We aren't going to magically stop doing lab experiments if we can know for certain that it started in a lab. If we can determine for certain that this jumped species, welp, it isn't the first time and it won't be the last.

>>Doreen+Fy
The issue with COVID is the precedent of attempts of trying to identify the origin of this new disease being sabotaged for seemingly political reasons (and with no obvious repercussions).

It seems intuitive that knowing the origin of the virus (sample escaping a lab or pure nature) could help prevent similar cases in the future or deal with them more efficiently. Is my intuition wrong here?

>>strogo+xz
When antibiotics were first discovered, the world spoke of "the end to disease." Now, we are actively breeding antibiotic resistant infections and having trouble coming with new treatment options for infections once thought to be easily treatable thanks to the miracles of modern medicine.

This strikes me as just the latest stage of that process (or the latest chapter in that story).

>>Doreen+jA
You do realize that antibiotics have never been directly effective against viruses, don't you?

>>himinl+KA
Yep.