
Dr. Fauci Backed Controversial Wuhan Lab for Risky Coronavirus Research - chaostheory
https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741
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hef19898
This kind of research seems to be a rather normal and reasonable thing to do.

That being said, I have two issues with this article:

\- it makes the Wuhan lab story sound credible, while it is just another
conspiracy theory

\- it paints Dr. Fauci in a bad light by linking him to that lab and the
theory

The factually true info is the kind of research and the fact that it was
cofunded by the Fauci org. Everything else is just spin.

~~~
RobertoG
I agree that the link to Dr.Fauci is only "click bait" but, after reading
another linked article, I have changed my mind and now I think that the Wuhan
lab theory deserves some consideration.

This is the more interesting article in my opinion:

[https://www.newsweek.com/controversial-wuhan-lab-
experiments...](https://www.newsweek.com/controversial-wuhan-lab-experiments-
that-may-have-started-coronavirus-pandemic-1500503)

~~~
jml7c5
My basic issue with the lab escape theory: if SARS-CoV2 is a natural strain
(and there is at this point no evidence that it isn't), then why assume some
researcher was patient zero, when millions of other people catch bat
coronaviruses each year? The following interview (from [1]) puts it
succinctly:

>“If you do the math on this, it’s very straightforward. ... We have hundreds
of millions of bats in Southeast Asia and about 10 percent of bats in some
colonies have viruses at any one time. So that’s hundreds of thousands of bats
every night with viruses,” Daszak says. “We also find tens of thousands of
people in the wildlife trade, hunting and killing wildlife in China and
Southeast Asia, and millions of people living in rural populations in
Southeast Asia near bat caves.”

>Next, he says, consider the data he’s collected on people near bat caves
getting exposed to viruses: “We went out and surveyed a population in Yunnan,
China — we’d been to bat caves and found viruses that we thought could be high
risk. So we sample people nearby, and 3 percent had antibodies to those
viruses,” he says. “So between the last two and three years, those people were
exposed to bat coronaviruses. If you extrapolate that population across the
whole of Southeast Asia, it’s 1 million to 7 million people a year getting
infected by bat viruses.”

>Compare that, he says, to what we know about the labs: “If you look at the
labs in Southeast Asia that have any coronaviruses in culture, there are
probably two or three and they’re in high security. The Wuhan Institute of
Virology does have a small number of bat coronaviruses in culture. But they’re
not [the new coronavirus], SARS-CoV-2. There are probably half a dozen people
that do work in those labs. So let’s compare 1 million to 7 million people a
year to half a dozen people; it’s just not logical.”

[1]: [https://www.vox.com/2020/4/23/21226484/wuhan-lab-
coronavirus...](https://www.vox.com/2020/4/23/21226484/wuhan-lab-coronavirus-
china)

~~~
RobertoG
Thanks for this. It really change the priors, reading those numbers. I will
read all the article.

Weighting against the lab theory also, it seems that there is not record of
the "animal passage" technique was being used in the Wuhan Institute of
Virology. That seems like something necessary.

There are so many thing that I don't understand in all this, that I'm probably
not qualified to have a strong opinion yet (or maybe never). For instance, I
don't understand why bats are so prone to be source of viruses instead of
other mammals.

~~~
kixiQu
If [https://healthcareinamerica.us/what-makes-bats-the-
perfect-h...](https://healthcareinamerica.us/what-makes-bats-the-perfect-
hosts-for-so-many-viruses-3274c019bb4d) is accurate:

* variable body temperature (they heat when they fly) * many species roost very closely in large numbers * weird immune system traits (they have very fast metabolisms, so they present an odd environment for pathogens)

------
yung0
"controversial"

Controversial for what? The lab should be backed, and has been backed, and was
funded by many governments around the world. Funding should be tripled so we
can find these viruses before they become pandemics (the reason for their
research).

~~~
_iyig
The controversy is explicitly described in the article:

>The work in question was a type of gain-of-function research that involved
taking wild viruses and passing them through live animals until they mutate
into a form that could pose a pandemic threat. Scientists used it to take a
virus that was poorly transmitted among humans and make it into one that was
highly transmissible—a hallmark of a pandemic virus. This work was done by
infecting a series of ferrets, allowing the virus to mutate until a ferret
that hadn't been deliberately infected contracted the disease.

>The work entailed risks that worried even seasoned researchers. More than 200
scientists called for the work to be halted. The problem, they said, is that
it increased the likelihood that a pandemic would occur through a laboratory
accident.

When you set these concerns next to 2018 diplomatic cables describing safety
problems at the biolab in question [0], perhaps the accidental-release theory
does seem worthy of investigation.

[0] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-
dep...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-
cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/)

~~~
yung0
Were those 200 scientists talking about a Wuhan lab program, or a completely
different lab + program? My comment is about the Wuhan lab.

According to the article Fauci is cited as writing, that research took place
in Europe and the United States.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-flu-virus-risk-
wor...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-flu-virus-risk-worth-
taking/2011/12/30/gIQAM9sNRP_story.html)

------
christmm
In order to help the fight against the pandemic, it would be best if the
general public was not aware of certain information.

~~~
brutt
Yeah, we will survive, while our enemy will die. Moreover, if we will supply
our enemy with false information, it will work even better.

------
blackrock
So which is it guys?

1) It was man-made, and biologically engineered in a lab. It escaped
containment.

2) It came into being because the Chinese eat bats. So China should shut down
the wet markets.

Because it cannot be both.

The Trump Regime is lying and talking out of their asses, to cover up their
own incompetence. And they are saying that it is both. And the American public
are so gullible, that they’re believing everything Trump’s henchmen are saying
(or at least his supporters are).

Perhaps a more plausible theory, is that it really did emerge naturally from
some random mutation in nature. And the Chinese were the first to detect it.

The Lancet published back in January [1], a theory that the virus had no
connection to the Wuhan Seafood Market, this was just coincidence that some
early patients had gone there.

Thus, the virus existed, before it got to the seafood market.

The interesting new info, is that the French are now saying that they detected
their first case back in December 27, 2019, after reviewing old case files
[2]. This was 4 days before China published to the W.H.O. about the
possibility of a new novel coronavirus.

How is this even possible? Did the virus just magically hop on a plane in
December?

[1] [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-
market...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-
not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally)

[2] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/03/french-
politicia...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/03/french-politicians-
row-lockdown-restrictions-can-eased/)

Edit: If you’re going to downvote me, then provide some counter evidence to
prove me wrong.

~~~
jml7c5
Just a note: a call to stop the sale of "bush meat" in wet markets is not
dependent on how this outbreak started. AFAIK the practice has been considered
a disease risk for some time. While obviously the pressure to do something is
much stronger now, that pressure would remain even if the outbreak was
conclusively shown to be unrelated, given public awareness of just how
disastrous a pandemic really is.

>The Trump Regime is lying and talking out of their asses, to cover up their
own incompetence. And they are saying that it is both. And the American public
are so gullible, that they’re believing everything Trump’s henchmen are saying
(or at least his supporters are).

Please limit the partisanship. The point you're making can be expressed in a
way that is less vitriolic and more open to meeting of minds.

