Of course it is a necessary condition. In order to leak from the lab, the virus has to be collected and be propagated in the lab. And all the rest isn't plausible if they knew the bat virus they had in their vials had the potential to cause a pandemic. But it must have had some rare "talent" that was as yet undiscovered. Otherwise nothing of the "lab leak" hypothesis makes sense. You can't "gain-of-function" just any virus and end up with a killer pandemic.
You can interpret a molecular clock or a phylogenetic tree qualitatively, and you would expect to see multiple samples with the protein in question, but which have individually acquired so many mutations that they must have diverged before the dynamic. That would mean the protein sequence in question predates the pandemic by a long shot, unless you think the Wuhan lab tested the Virus in Laos...
I guess the disagreement is around the word "undetected". It's possible some failure was covered up and I trust the Chinese government to be capable enough to do that.
> virus has to be collected and be propagated in the lab
That's a weaker statement than the one I replied to. I'm referring to the how it's necessary that it needs to a "pandemicable" virus that enters a lab "undetected" and I guess leaves the lab "undetected". There's several possible ways the virus could have made it into Wuhan:
- Improper handling occurs somewhere in transporting the samples from bat caves (w/e) to the lab.
- Improper handling of samples in the lab.
- Improper disposal of samples in the lab.
- Entering a more speculative area; bat samples are used in experiments and improper handling or disposal occurs.
- Deeper into speculation: Improper handling/disposal of viruses used in gain of function research.
And when any of the above occurs, use the state's staggering power to cover it up.
> You can interpret a molecular clock or a phylogenetic tree qualitatively
I'm sure that could work but I imagine the error bars are quite wide as otherwise that's definitive proof and we wouldn't be discussing this online.
> unless you think the Wuhan lab tested the Virus in Laos
Nice attempt at absurd rhetoric. Strengthens the argument doesn't it?
The whole point is that the virus that was collected would already need to have some properties that predispose it to become a dangerous pandemic. Which is unlikely because those Viruses are pretty rare.
And the rest of your comment just tells me you know nothing about biology.
So the crux of your argument is that it's more likely that a virus with that type of predisposition occured in nature in a specific area around the Wuhan market as opposed to being sampled from one of many areas, potentially modified, and then leaked into said area? Seems unlikely considering the rarity as you pointed out.
>And the rest of your comment just tells me you know nothing about biology.
No need to resort to ad-hominems ; all it achieves is tainting your future responses on the topic with a lingering question of whether they are being made in good faith.
It's not ad-hominem if it's true. I really don't have the energy to debunk every "argument" that is borne out of misunderstandings about basic biology.
The alternative hypothesis is not that a very dangerous zoonotic virus emerges in a specific area around Wuhan (which also isn't really the agreed upon origin anyway), but rather that it emerges anywhere and causes a pandemic. Your argument here is a basic misunderstanding about how random processes work. Our observation that Wuhan was the first epicenter of this pandemic already preconditions us to assume a pandemic-capable Virus emerged there in some form or another.
Such viruses are indeed rarities. But they exist and every once in a while they come into contact with Humans and cause a pandemic. However this is not the same likelihood as with the lab leak hypothesis, because collecting viruses for labs is an event that happens multiple orders of magnitude less often than contacts between animals and Humans. So while it is a rare coincidence that a lab would collect a killer virus when randomly collecting bat viruses, it is not so strange that every once in a while a novel pandemic virus makes the jump from animals to Humans somewhere in the world.
Non sequitor. That's not the statement I'm referring to. It's certainly the case a virus emerged from nature with all or most of the properties we saw in the original. Unless it was engineered in Loas lol
Good job defending your point. If the error bars weren't so wide on the biological clock idea why we would we be having this discussion? Does the west supress that, and you're one of the few smart ones who have the truth?
Wait, wait...does this whole debate hinge around the idea that you think the WIV staff are reliable, honest agents? The very idea is hilarious. They operate within an authoritarian regime that restricts their freedom of speech and makes threats against them and their families for non-compliance. It is irrational to trust anything they report as being true.
Well, that's an interesting question. If the public health dept wants to inspect a restaurant to make sure its hygiene standards are adequate, and the restaurant goes out of its way to try to delay or block such an inspection, should we lean towards:
a) The restaurant has something to hide and is therefore likely to have poor standards
or
b) It is irrational to hold ANY position on the hygiene standards of the restaurant, given the lack of dispositive data
I completely reject he analogy between health inspections of a restaurant and blaming a country for a pandemic using a highly speculative theory. It feels so ridiculous I don't know where to start.
You can interpret a molecular clock or a phylogenetic tree qualitatively, and you would expect to see multiple samples with the protein in question, but which have individually acquired so many mutations that they must have diverged before the dynamic. That would mean the protein sequence in question predates the pandemic by a long shot, unless you think the Wuhan lab tested the Virus in Laos...