zlacker

[return to "The origin of Covid: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box?"]
1. uveste+0X[view] [source] 2021-05-07 12:21:02
>>datafl+(OP)
I think most people are confused because of CCP’s successful disinformation campaign, and also out of fear of being seen as prejudiced. The fact is that an epidemic with a corona virus (never before or since seen in the wild) with a peculiarly efficient ability to infect humans started in the _only city in the world with a lab where gain-of-function experiments on corona viruses_ is located. Just apply occam’s razor, and then you are done.

Every other theory requires involving many more unsupported hypotheses.

This would be obvious to the majority of the HN population in most cases, but the disinformation in this case is apparently quite effective.

◧◩
2. lamont+6G1[view] [source] 2021-05-07 16:43:55
>>uveste+0X
> Every other theory requires involving many more unsupported hypotheses.

No it doesn't.

All it takes is bats around farmed animals like minks or raccoon dogs.

That sets up a natural "gain of function" experiment with the bats passing viruses off to the farmed animals who pass it sequentially through the entire farm.

The humans who work at those farms then bring in human coronaviruses which could have recombined with the viruses in the farm.

You have large bioreactors doing gain of function experiments all over China right out in plain view, with Charles Darwin overseeing the lab work.

◧◩◪
3. triple+B22[view] [source] 2021-05-07 18:38:54
>>lamont+6G1
If SARS-CoV-2 evolved on a farm, then shouldn't it be particularly easy to find an intermediate host? No need for wilderness expeditions, just go to the barn and start swabbing. But more than a year later, we're still waiting.

And how does that explain its affinity for human ACE2? At least initially (right after it makes the zoonotic jump), the virus would probably show highest affinity for its animal host, and lower affinity for human ACE2. But SARS-CoV-2 shows highest affinity for human ACE2, and only primates with ACE2 very similar to humans show comparable affinity:

> The very high classification had at least 23/25 ACE2 residues identical to human ACE2 and other constraints at SARS-CoV-2 S-binding hot spots (Materials and Methods). The 18 species predicted as very high were all Old-World primates and great apes with ACE2 proteins identical to human ACE2 across all 25 binding residues.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/36/22311

[go to top]