
The pieces of the puzzle of Covid-19’s origin are coming to light - chaostheory
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/05/02/the-pieces-of-the-puzzle-of-covid-19s-origin-are-coming-to-light
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Lammy
Non-registration-nag version:
[http://archive.is/jvQGd](http://archive.is/jvQGd)

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NCG_Mike
Ta.

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pvaldes
Talking about it, why "local superstition" is still called "traditional
medicine" with a respect that modern medicine, (based in hard tests and long
years of research do not always receive), still puzzles me.

A really well written article with many solid bits to think about it, an none
of the common BS. Things like, for example.

"earliest time for this [unique] transfer [from secondary host to humans, is
calculated] as early October 2019"

"In one experiment Chinese, American and Italian scientists, explored the
disease-like potential of a bat coronavirus by recombining its genome with
that of a mouse-infecting coronavirus"

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pacala
Fairly well balanced presentation, even if behind paywall. IIRC, Economist
lets one create an account and read 5 free articles.

One aspect that is particularly worrisome:

> Western experts say categorically that the sequence of the new virus’s
> genome—which Chinese scientists published early on, openly and
> accurately—reveals none of the telltales genetic engineering would leave in
> its wake. But it remains a fact that in Wuhan, where the outbreak was first
> spotted, there is a laboratory where scientists have in the past
> deliberately made coronaviruses more pathogenic.

[...]

> In 2017 WIV opened the first biosecurity-level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in
> China—the sort of high-containment facility in which work is done on the
> most dangerous pathogens. A large part of Dr Shi’s post-SARS research there
> has been aimed at understanding the potential which viruses still
> circulating among bats have to spill over into the human population. In one
> experiment she and Ge Xingyi, also of the WIV, in collaboration with
> American and Italian scientists, explored the disease-like potential of a
> bat coronavirus, SHC014-CoV, by recombining its genome with that of a mouse-
> infecting coronavirus. The WIV newsletter of November 2015 reported that the
> resulting virus could “replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells
> and achieve in vitro titres equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV”. In
> early April this newsletter and all others were removed from the institute’s
> website.

[...]

> Many scientists think that with so many biologists actively hunting for bat
> viruses, and gain-of-function work becoming more common, the world is at
> increasing risk of a laboratory-derived pandemic at some point. “One of my
> biggest hopes out of this pandemic is that we address this issue—it really
> worries me,” says Dr Pilch. Today there are around 70 BSL-4 sites in 30
> countries. More such facilities are planned.

