Scientists Are Tired of Explaining Why The COVID-19 Virus Was Not Made in a Lab
(Fusion Medical Animation/Unsplash)
It's a rumour that just won't die. When asked whether the COVID-19 virus was genetically engineered in a lab, scientists have already said "no" rather firmly , but the matter of the new coronavirus' origin is unlikely to be put to rest so easily.
Discussions around this subject have become even more pertinent since US government intelligence officials are reportedly investigating the potential source of the pandemic , focussing on theories that it may have originated in a laboratory, despite all evidence pointing to SARS-CoV-2 not being human-made.
Back in late March, we covered a study published in Nature Medicine , in which the researchers investigated the genomic data of SARS-CoV-2 - particularly the receptor-binding domain (RBD) sections of the virus - to try and discover how it mutated into the virulent and deadly version we're currently struggling to contain .
As a by-product of their research, they were able to determine that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically manipulated.
What experts do agree on is that a pandemic like this is no surprise. Scientists have been warning governments for years that a new disease was on the horizon , and that many countries were woefully under-prepared.
For example, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, told the incoming US government administration in January 2017 about the inevitability of a "surprise outbreak" , urging them to make preparations.
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It's a rumour that just won't die. When asked whether the COVID-19 virus was genetically engineered in a lab, scientists have already said "no" rather firmly , but the matter of the new coronavirus' origin is unlikely to be put to rest so easily.
Discussions around this subject have become even more pertinent since US government intelligence officials are reportedly investigating the potential source of the pandemic , focussing on theories that it may have originated in a laboratory, despite all evidence pointing to SARS-CoV-2 not being human-made.
What experts do agree on is that a pandemic like this is no surprise. Scientists have been warning governments for years that a new disease was on the horizon , and that many countries were woefully under-prepared.
For example, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, told the incoming US government administration in January 2017 about the inevitability of a "surprise outbreak" , urging them to make preparations.
As well, there is this:
" A key section of the 37-page report , which looks at various perils facing the nation, is a nine-sentence narrative under the headline “Pandemic Scenario.” It describes a sequence of catastrophes that would unfold as a “new (novel) strain of influenza virus” spreads across the United States and infects 30% of the populace."
“Because of the pandemic, social distancing is in widespread effect. Utilities, police, fire, government, and other essential services are disrupted due to social distancing and employee absenteeism. Businesses close, resulting in a large-scale loss of services,” the narrative continues."
Although FEMA‘s report has received almost no public attention since the agency posted it in late July, the document was likely read and approved by every federal agency that deals with disaster and emergency scenarios, former FEMA Deputy Administrator Timothy Manning said in an interview.
“If this was published by FEMA, it went through concurrence and was cleared by all the relevant federal agencies,” said Manning, who ran FEMA‘s National Preparedness Directorate and is now a senior adviser at the Pacific Disaster Center, a research group.
“It absolutely shows that the federal agencies’the career civil servants and the senior leadership of the federal agencies’were aware and agreed that a global pandemic was a real threat to the nation that needed to be planned for,” Manning said.
“Nobody ever thought of numbers like this,” Trump said at a White House briefing on March 18. “Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before.”
Anyone who continues to defend this inept moron of a President who continually lies straight to our faces with nonsensical conspiracy theories which attempt to cover up dishonest Donald's irrefutably slow response and dangerous downplaying of the viruses seriousness has blood on their hands.
First let me compliment you on your stubbornness by sticking to this belief.
Secondly, you have been led by the hand with links to the Obama era Pandemic Response team's 69 page playbook which the Trump Administration ridiculed and ignored.
and third but not least, test for what with what?
It's novel and unique, no tests were designed for the unknown. It's ingenuous to expect otherwise.
There is a huge difference from being genetically engineered in a lab and studied in a lab!!!!
This virus most likely came from a bat. Most likely a bat not being sold at a wet market. Most likely being studied down the lane at the Wuhan lab.
Why does the left always try to mislead?
Vic, would you care to post your medical credentials??? You've made a claim, not back up your claim with how you've obtained the expertise to come to that conclusion.
The claim was that there is a difference between a man made virus and a naturally created virus and that fact does not require medical credentials. It is a basic fact. A 10 year old would understand it.
[deleted, find a better way to express this.]
Your claim was:
Support your claim with verifiable medical credentials, or retract it as the lie it is.
I submit this, though there is something better that I don't yet have:
"Based on these results, the authors said the 2019-nCoV likely originated in bats . However, no bats were sold at the Huanan seafood market, which suggests that another yet-to-be-identified animal acted as a steppingstone of sorts to transmit the virus to humans."
In another article a specific bat was named. I can't find it right now.
As for calling people liars that is supposed to be a Coc violation. [ deleted ]
Got it:
"According to the journal, Tian isolated himself for 28 days after the “bats peed on him.”
As well as the Wuhan food market, the lab is also located near the Union hospital where a group of doctors were the among the first to become infected.
The paper states: "… the Chinese horseshoe bats were natural reservoirs for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) which caused the SARS outbreak in 2003."
What's wrong Vic, you made the following claim.
YOU MADE THE CLAIM. Show what expertise you have for the claim. You did not quote anyone else, YOU MADE THE CLAIM. What expertise do you have for your claim.
Look closer Vic, I NEVER called you a liar, is said that what you said was a lie. A very distinct difference. You're the only one being rude here.
I presented what I read and where and BTW did you notice the "Most likely" before each statement? [deleted]
I NEVER called you a liar
[deleted]
No you did not "present" anything. You made a claim, possibly based on something you read, but YOU made the claim.
The best your article does is claim that unnamed Chinese scientists made the claim. Now you trust the Chinese?
Research shows that the virus could not have been created in a lab, as many conspiracy theories have suggested. An article published March 17 says the genetic makeup of the coronavirus, documented by researchers from several public health organizations, does not indicate it was altered.
I think the NT conspiracy theorists have already realized that that bullshit won't fly, so in desperation they are now changing their accusation to the story that the covid-19 virus was in a Wuhan lab and was released from it.
You noticed that did you..... This is what we get from those that willingly ignore science just as their leader does.
It's hard to tell if the people claiming the accusation "changed" are being willfully oblivous.
For those that post their talking points from Breitbart on these seeds, willfully oblivious is the clear case.
“The virus came from a lab” is not the same thing as “Virus was engineered in a lab.” Other contagions - anthrax, smallpox - have been accidentally released by labs. It happens. Before we answer yes or no to these questions, we need to have a clear understanding of what we are talking about.
Did you hear the answer Dr Fauci gave when asked if the virus escaped from a lab? He gave a convoluted response that the virus had to have originated from a bat! Ya, we know Tony. Answer the question and stop pandering to the left!
I think he doesn’t want to declare that this came from a sloppy lab until he has more solid evidence.
There is a very good chance we may never have any evidence.
Oh yeah. I think that’s true. I’ll learn how to fly or turn myself invisible before the Chinese government actually cooperates with an investigation.
Every lab record has been destroyed by now.
Why do you take license to make shyte up out of whole cloth daily?
It's been documented here and on Fox News that the RNA match is only 88% to any know bat corona virus.
Scientists have located three different groups of pangolins that have much higher RNA matches to COVID19.
Why do you always deflect with sweeping generalizations and deflections to SARs and MERs ?
More conspiracy theories...