I was thinking if a virus was first spotted in New York City and it had a virus lab, would that be immediately blamed? It’s like all there is in Wuhan is a wet market and a virus research lab and they are located next to each other. I think that’s how the world perceives Wuhan.
> I was thinking if a virus was first spotted in New York City and it had a virus lab, would that be immediately blamed?
To answer your question: If NYC had a virus lab that actively mutated bat coronaviruses so that they could become infectious in humans, and then one day a human-infecting virus with 96% similarity to a bat coronavirus started popping up in New York City with no known origin… Yes, people would start asking questions about that lab.
Check out this commentary from 2015. This type of research was being subcontracted out to the Wuhan lab, despite public concerns that safety wasn’t tight enough there.
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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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:
Look, Americans would question the fuck out of the real origin of the virus if the official story was it came from a Wendys in Manhattan. That’s pretty much what CCP is saying, ‘uh, our local Wendy’s had like a virus’.
Yeah ok.
How about this China, find out what cave the market was getting their bats from. Go in there, confirm the bats have it, and release some data.
I don't know if a Wendy's is a fair comparison. I've heard those wet markets are kind of problematic for hosting pathogens especially. Personnally I'd find it coming from a wet market or a lab to both be just as iresponsible. In the latter you were trying to research possible new virus mutations to learn more about viruses and had poor containment procedures that leaked it out. In the former you run a unsanitary market with animals and people in too close proximity, with lack of proper hygiene.
