China built a lab to study SARS and Ebola in Wuhan - and US biosafety experts warned in 2017 that a

[Throck]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Dailymail (UK)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7922379/Chinas-lab-studying-SARS-Ebola-Wuhan-outbreaks-center.html

Scientists warned in 2017 that a SARS-like virus could escape a lab set up that year in Wuhan, China, to study some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world.

Now, a SARS-like coronavirus has infected more than 800 there, spread to at least 10 other countries and killed 25 in Wuhan and nearby provinces.

China installed the first of a planned five to seven biolabs designed for maximum safety in Wuhan in 2017, for the purpose of studying the most high-risk pathogens, including the Ebola and the SARS viruses.

Tim Trevan, a Maryland biosafety consultant, told Nature that year, when the lab was on the cusp of opening, that he worried that China's culture could make the institute unsafe because 'structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important.'

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7922379/Chinas-lab-studying-SARS-Ebola-Wuhan-outbreaks-center.html

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Remember Bird Flu, Swine Flu? Two in my lifetime I've lived thru.


Spanish flu..................

[Faux pas]

1. Don't forget

Hong Kong flu! That one almost killed my family.

[Mike 03]

2. A second story offering this hypothesis.

I have no idea about the credibility of the source, CCN.

Headline: Scientists Pinpoint 2 Causes Behind China’s Deadly Coronavirus – They’re Both Shocking
Link: https://www.ccn.com/scientists-pinpoint-2-causes-behind-chinas-deadly-coronavirus-theyre-both-shocking/

Cause #1: Bat Eating In Wuhan, 2019-NCoV Found In Snakes Spreading Coronavirus

Cause #2: Potential Leak From A Facility Studying The Virus

Based on the development of the virus and the studies that have emerged in recent weeks, cross-species transmission from bats or snakes to humans is a more likely cause of the Coronavirus than a possible facility leak.

Scientists are reluctant towards completely dismissing a facility leak as a potential cause of the Coronavirus outbreak because of the SARS leak in 2004.

But this article concludes by saying the bat to human transmission route is the more likely of the two theories.

If it escaped the lab, it would somehow have had to jump from an infected monkey into the snake population (?), then to bats (?)

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. CCN stands for Crypto Currency News

I wouldn't say they're any more or less reliable than a random person on the internet (unless they're trying to sell you something, when they become less reliable).

[safeinOhio]

3. I use to walk thru old grave yards just to

count the number of young folks that died in 1918. Lots of them.

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. There are two old graveyards in my in-laws' town.

As in an interred Colonel from the French and Indian Wars kind of old, and people are still interred in one of them. The number of gravestones with death dates from September 2018 to December 2018 is remarkable.

[Throck]

7. My wife's grandfather survived the Spanish flu.

He was a kid in an orphanage.

[safeinOhio]

8. My dads mother got it and survived.

He was 5 years old and remembered the folks next door tossing food over the fence for them as no one would come near.

[Throck]

21. I've seen a couple of documentaries where isolated towns just plain shut themselves off.

[groundloop]

4. A Sensationalistic and Misleading Headline

Further down in the article:

But, 'at this point there's no reason to harbour suspicions' that the facility had anything to do with the outbreak, besides being responsible for the crucial genome sequencing that lets doctors diagnose it, Rutgers University microbiologist Dr Richard Ebright told DailyMail.com.

[Miguelito Loveless]

9. Why are we quoting a notorioulsy unreliable

conspiracy-mongering site?

[bucolic_frolic]

10. The mere mention of science and the God's Will crowd is nowhere to be found

Surely they have an explanation?

[PSPS]

11. The Daily Mail?

[IronLionZion]

12. Daily Mail is a British tabloid and not a reliable source for anything

short of fearing foreigners. Asian Brits are facing a lot of discrimination in the UK because of shit like this.

[angrychair]

13. Daily mail is questionable

But 1+1=2 is still true.
1) There is a facility there that is specifically studying SARS-like viruses.
2) A SARS like virus outbreak occurs in the very same town/province that never had a issue, obviously, before the facility was built.

While it not conclusive and no one will likely ever have the ability to prove it one way or the other, typically the simplest answer is the most likely.

[IronLionZion]

14. US and British intelligence agencies would probably know the truth

not some tabloid that posts paparazzi bikini photos of celebrities

[angrychair]

16. I don't disagree

Again, the tabloid aside, the two items I stated are facts.

While my two stated points are technically circumstantial,
It's also still true that the simplest and most plain answer is typically the right one.

Otherwise, you have to believe that a SARS-like variant just happens to pop up, by coincidence, in the same town/province as a lab specifically created to study SARS viruses.
While yes its possible, it would be a hell of a bizarre coincidence.

[IronLionZion]

17. It's certainly possible. And googling it shows it's a common but unproven theory.

They probably test it on animals. And somehow it could have spread to animals outside the lab and people ate it.

[Throck]

19. Some government worker making a few Yen on the side.

Grill up some frozen specimens.

[IronLionZion]

20. PETA always told us meat is murder

[Toorich]

15. ....the plague never dies....

....or disappears for good.....it can lie dormant for years
it bides it's time.....the day would come when it would rouse up again.

The Plague-Camus

[Throck]

18. The Stand............

[Omaha Steve]

22. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

This is analysis, not LBN.

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