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[return to "An appeal for an objective, open, transparent debate re: the origin of Covid-19"]
1. dreen+w8[view] [source] 2021-09-19 09:02:36
>>alwill+(OP)
It's well known that local Chinese authorities silenced a doctor (Li Wenliang) who was giving early warnings about the virus. That to me is a more grave mistake than an accidental lab leak, because they lost a chance to nip it in the bud. Accidents happen and quick response is essential.

An intentional lab leak makes no sense to me at all. Its like starting a fire in your house to spite your neighbour.

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2. dkerst+w9[view] [source] 2021-09-19 09:19:16
>>dreen+w8
> An intentional lab leak makes no sense to me at all.

Very few people are arguing that it was intentional. I agree that an intentional lab leak is highly, highly unlikely, but I think an accidental lab leak is at least just as likely as the wet market hypothesis and CCP certainly acted extremely suspicious.

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3. sneak+hb[view] [source] 2021-09-19 09:45:53
>>dkerst+w9
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

All major world governments do illegal and shady acts when faced with situations that may result in the need for extreme ass-covering. (cf. "righteous strike")

If it were an accidental lab leak: so what? How does that change things? If anything, it would accelerate a {trade,cold,cyber,shooting} war with China, which is universally a bad thing, even in pursuit of justice for something that was likely accidental (if indeed it came from a lab, which is presently undefined/unknown to the public).

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4. fighte+2c[view] [source] 2021-09-19 09:55:30
>>sneak+hb
> If it were an accidental lab leak: so what?

> pursuit of justice

It has nothing to do with a pursuit of justice, at least not for me. It's about understanding where the disease came from and how it jumped to humans, so that we have a better shot at stopping something like this happening again.

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5. sneak+Ac[view] [source] 2021-09-19 10:02:48
>>fighte+2c
I suppose a better question in that case would be: is it possible to engineer something like SARS-CoV-2 in a lab (perhaps via existing GOF techniques) if it were one's explicit intent to cause a damaging pandemic?

That's a more important question about whether or not this particular virus came out of a lab or not, because, if the answer to the above is "yes", then we need to take whatever your/whoever's proposed mitigation/prevention steps even if this thing came about via natural pathways. Even banning GOF research in labs might not be sufficient, if malicious people (wooo "bioterrorism") could go about doing this outside of labs.

Also, we need to plan and prepare for the next global respiratory pandemic in any event, as we know they happen periodically regardless of origin. That's true even if we never authoritatively understand the origin of this one.

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6. tlb+lm[view] [source] 2021-09-19 12:05:46
>>sneak+Ac
I think we need to go beyond fixing whatever lab leak may have allowed this virus out this time. We shouldn't have humans working in proximity to experimental viruses at all. Virus research should be done entirely by robots inside sealed containers that are never opened. The bits of technology for this all exist, though it'll take some integration to make it all work. Anything less risks billions of life-years.
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