zlacker

Why is this supposed to be important? It literally doesn't matter if a virus comes out of a lab, if you can find an equally dangerous virus in the nearest bat cave. Being able to blame someone would not solve your actual problems.

>>astran+(OP)
What? Of course it matters. If it was accidentally released from a lab, those responsible should be held accountable so it’s less likely to happen again.

If it was intentionally released, it’s even more important to know by who and why.

>>rlt+B
> What? Of course it matters. If it was accidentally released from a lab, those responsible should be held accountable so it’s less likely to happen again.

Because it doesn't matter if it's accidentally released from a lab, if you're going to catch it from a bat cave anyway. You haven't eliminated it from the world.

>>astran+D1
The problem is this extremely dangerous research is bound to lead to a leak eventually, because in fact there have already been hundreds of lab virus leaks around the world in the past, and the stakes get higher as the viruses they engineer get more and more lethal. China is actually doubling down and increasing the amount of risky virus research they are doing. If it isn’t regulated eventually something even worse could leak out of another lab.

So yeah, it is important to find out what the origin of this virus was because whatever the reason was we want to ensure that it isn’t the same reason for the next big pandemic.

>>astran+D1
If it’s equally likely, I’ll gladly take half as many pandemics by eliminating one source of them.

>>rlt+iY
It wouldn't be equally likely since the lab is a single source. It's normal for caves and pig farms and such to spread diseases like this - usually it's new kinds of flu but sometimes it's worse.

To me it seems like the lab escape story has only developed because of journalist brain. It's convenient if you'll only accept a narrative that involves blaming a human and not a natural system.

Anyway, the story doesn't seem to be developing in that direction:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/health/who-mission-china-intl...

I like how the WHO investigator calls the original patient "dull and normal".