zlacker

My problem with people saying "but it was engineered!" is that it the origin does not change what our reaction should be. The virus is here and now we have to face it. Whether it's a natural mutation, part of a big masterplan, or an accidental release is a matter of international politics, in which most of us have very little, if anything to contribute.

>>speed_+(OP)
yes, but if this research continues we are all at risk of another highly contagious human adapted virus escaping again. The goal should be to try and ban this type of research worldwide. While zoonotic viruses are always a risk, they are far easier to contain due to the time it takes for a virus to gain enough mutations to be easily infectious to other humans such as what happened with SARs1 and MERS. Researchers developing viruses to be highly adapted for humans just creates viruses that are impossible to contain like COVID.

>>speed_+(OP)
If we go back to business as usual, covid will be far from the last allegedly engineered virus to kill millions. The health sciences establishment is in dire need of a reality check, their actions have consequences reaching well beyond petty grant politicking.

>>angelz+c4
Its unlikely the virus was engineered expressly to kill millions - it seems increasingly likely that the virus was engineered to drive mRNA vaccine sales, as well as to disrupt the 2020 American election (by forcing an unprecedent switch to mail-in paper ballots and upending a vibrant US economy - at the same time as China was struggling under international tariffs).

Just look at what an investment in BioNTech would have done if you bought in October 2019:

https://www.google.com/finance/quote/BNTX:NASDAQ?window=5Y

You'd be 25x in less than 2 years.

How convenient for the Gates Foundation to invest $55 million in September 2019! https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-det...

The chief innovation of mRNA vaccines is that instead of using expensive egg cultures, you can reproduce viral proteins inside the vaccinated patient themselves. This presumably means much cheaper manufacturing.

Additionally, you can drive long-term vaccine sales, since antibodies based on a single protein (spike) are more likely to fail compared to immunity based on the complete protein structure. We're already seeing this now with the 'need' for booster shots in response to variants driven by these leaky vaccines.

>>Factor+CK
It is unlikely the virus was engineered specifically for some goal that would involve an intentional release.

The most likely explanation is that the lab was engaging in risky scientific research, because they wanted to do ground-breaking science and were asking themselves whether they could, not whether they should.

Then they made a mistake, had a gap in the protocols, didn't follow them out of laziness, or some other accident, and infected themselves.

As attractive as such theories sound, pandemics are unpredictable enough that noone sane would start one to further some specific goal. At a large scale, there are rarely true winners in a pandemic (or war).

>>baja_b+U2
> While zoonotic viruses are always a risk, they are far easier to contain

Coronaviruses have never been easy to contain. Not this one, nor any of the many other coronaviruses that have been endemic in humans for thousands of years.

We call the common cold common for a reason.