
COVID-19 evolved to its current pathogenic state naturally - conse_lad
https://sparkonit.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-covid-19-wasnt-engineered-in-a-lab-its-a-product-of-natural-evolution/
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salawat
>So these spike proteins effectively targeting the human cells is a feat
achievable only through the process of natural selection.

I'm calling BS on this. I know for a fact there is the capability to measure
protein binding potential via simulation. That's the entire point behind such
programs as Foldit, and the tools that it was assembled from.

Furthermore, while yes, one might start from the backbone of a virus already
known to cause illness (cited as a reason it must be natural selection of
course), the issue with that is that such an approach is easily recognized,
and also bakes in all the existing medical treatments that are currently in
existence for that backbone. Gain-of-function research is specifically
tailored around inducing human compatibility in non-human compatible viroids
in part to specifically create highly infectious agents we haven't had to deal
with before. Research that was actively taking place in the Wuhan BSL-4 lab.

I offer the following as a convenient assemblage of resources pointing toward
the conclusion that this virus has been the center of a hell of a lot of
research effort in the recent past; and some other ancillary happenings in the
world of higher ed.

[https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-
and-t...](https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-
technical-analysis-of-the-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/)

The level of coincidence is striking me as too damn high. I've noticed most of
the stuff pointed out in the above article, and to be frank, that not long
after research was conducted on producing chimeric, highly infective strains,
the next major pandemic just happens to spawn out of a region containing a
BSL-4 isolation lab? Right next to a bunch of researchers who just happened to
be notorious for participation in not just gain of function research, but also
in isolating strains of human compatible coronaviruses endemic to bat
populations?

If you can seriously read that article and then discount that constellation of
coincidence as being uninvolved, I have a lighthouse in central Texas to sell
you. Profitable and self-sustaining. Mariners basically fork over money and
I'm just tired of raking it in.

That articles keep getting posted that this thing has to be natural, flies in
the face of any semblance of sense.

EDIT: found an old thread on this very article. Now reading up on comments.
Outlook may change. Learning things is fun.

Old thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22344022](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22344022)

Looks like there are some analytical techniques that do suggest the thing is
under some form of natural selection. I'm reading up on them now, trying to
grok the math, but a lot of it seems to have a pretty heavy reliance on being
able to trace things through lineages. Something I'd think you'd either have
to have the all the data for the transitionary period for to get a truly
accurate picture from, and that by the method itself is generally always an
underestimate.

I'm slightly less gung-hi on the engineering at the moment until I've had
enough time to absorb this, but the web of social interactions still rings to
me as where there is smoke, there is fire. Therefore, I'm leaving my post
largely unalteredfor posterity.

