The three scientists were engaged in “gain-of-function” research on SARS-like coronaviruses when they fell ill.
It looks like the Chinese lab leak conspiracy theory is slowly being revealed to be conspiracy fact?
The three scientists were engaged in “gain-of-function” research on SARS-like coronaviruses when they fell ill.
It looks like the Chinese lab leak conspiracy theory is slowly being revealed to be conspiracy fact?
There’s two theories that often get conflated:
During the pandemic, the first was widely debunked, and the second was generally considered possible but unlikely. I find the evidence for a lab leak is compelling but circumstantial, as there are alternate explanations that seem to explain covid without introducing these variables. However, consensus seems to be evolving; in researching this matter it seems there’s a lot of disagreement among geneticists and virologists about the possible origins of the Spike Furin Cleavage Site, for example. I’m interested in this, but weighing the various approaches and probabilities is beyond my knowledge set.
Ultimately, though, does it matter? Would punishing China if it was a lab leak accomplish anything, or has the dangers of viral leaks and the necessity of precaution already been made obvious to everyone? Would outlawing gain-of-function genetic engineering even be meaningful, considering the cost of generic engineering is plummeting and becoming decentralized thanks to techniques like CRISPR and PASTE?