
Scientists ‘strongly condemn’ conspiracy theories about origin of coronavirus - Anon84
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/scientists-strongly-condemn-rumors-and-conspiracy-theories-about-origin-coronavirus
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aazaa
> ... We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting
> that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from multiple
> countries have published and analysed genomes of the causative agent, severe
> acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),1 and they
> overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,2, 3,
> 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 as have so many other emerging pathogens. ...

[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736\(20\)30418-9/fulltext)

"does not have a natural origin" is an odd way of formulating the legitimate
concerns I've seen.

From the original Nature article of 2017:

> But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from
> high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard
> Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New
> Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting
> in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping
> BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where
> society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where
> everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,”
> he says.

[https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-
to...](https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-
world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487)

Those who have read the nature article and who have seen the Chinese
government in action before around disease outbreaks have every right to raise
questions around the curious opening of the Wuhan BL-4 facility so soon before
the Coronavirus outbreak.

