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Another speculative discussion about the origins of Covid
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wtg
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quote:
Originally posted by jon-nyc:
THere's a great book by Matt Ridley which does a good job laying out the evidence on both sides.
.


FWIW, the conclusion that Ridley and Chan came to:

quote:
“The reader may want to know what the authors of this book think happened. Of course, we do not know for sure. ... We have tried to lay out the evidence and follow it wherever it leads, but it has not led us to a definite conclusion.”


edit: Ridley has a recent piece in the Daily Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...mic-MATT-RIDLEY.html


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Posts: 37873 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
jon-nyc
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Ridley and Chan now think it’s more likely than not that it came from WIV, but their real goal is to see some real institutional heft behind an investigation.

They were just on Sam Harris’s podcast this week, so you can hear their argument boiled down to an hour. It’s a great interview.


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wtg
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Thanks for the heads up on the podcast.

I've found Ground News to be a useful tool in getting a full picture of a story....they have a timeline on the lab leak theory and how it was covered by left, center, and right media outlets. You can drill down to how various news outlets covered the story.

https://ground.news/timeline/lab-leak-theory

Coverage from PBS in May 2021:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/s...heory-about-covid-19


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37873 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
jon-nyc
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Interesting point from Reason, talking about how odd it was to call the lab leak theory “racist”:

quote:
In hindsight, it's astonishing how credulously—how gullibly—many journalists bought into obvious Chinese government spin. One of the very worst offenders was Apoorva Mandavilli, The New York Times' lead coronavirus reporter, who lamented in May 2021 that people would talk about a theory with "racist roots."

What was racist about the lab leak theory was never well-explained. In fact, one could plausibly argue that the alternative explanation—that it came from a Chinese wet market—has far more racially problematic implications. After all, if wet markets are responsible for the pandemic, then the culprit is a culturally specific Chinese food custom. The lab leak theory, on the other hand, indicts an organization, the Chinese government, rather than a populace. And unlike the wet market theory, a possible lab origin also calls for scrutiny of U.S. agencies, which have funded coronavirus research on bats in Wuhan, China.



https://reason.com/2023/02/27/...-covid-origin-china/


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Posts: 33797 | Location: On the Hudson | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Amanda
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quote:
Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Interesting point from Reason, talking about how odd it was to call the lab leak theory “racist”:



I think calling it "racist" (have we forgotten?) was inevitable if for no other reason than Trump's calling it the "Chinese virus".

Apart from specific connections to a place, a lab and as jon called it "culture-specific" foods,
there's that universal drive in case of calamity to find someone to blame.

(And not only to have a target for rage, but possibly seeking reparations.)

That's being so (and remember that there were anti-Chinese attacks rationalized by their alleged connection to the origins of the pandemic), it was just as predictable that in due course, the Chinese would blame the Americans!

(As they did.)

How ironic if it turns out that BOTH superpowers (cooperating - Ha!) were responsible for this plague. (If this were a few millennia ago, the Jews - professional scapegoats - would surely have been fingered - poisoned wells, etc.)


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wtg
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We have a left/right political schism in the media, in government, and in the general population. Everyone wants to bash the other guy or to score points for their own side.

We have corporations and businesses trying to survive in a world of sick employees, shutdowns, supply chain problems, etc.

We have (most disturbingly to me) scientists who are circling the wagons to protect their fiefdoms.

We have public health officials who are trying to fight a very bad virus that they don't know much about in an environment where it's a struggle to get solid data.

And we have governments that aren't open about what is going on in their countries.

Never have so many talked so much and so passionately about something without having good information and a wide-ranging perspective. (Not directed at WTF, but rather the world at large).

Yea, we're totally messed up.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37873 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
wtg
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quote:
Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Interesting point from Reason, talking about how odd it was to call the lab leak theory “racist”:




Do you think it was odd? I guess I saw it a reaction to TFG's goofy "the Chinahhh virus" mantra.

I also think it was various individuals doing what we all do, namely seeing this through a particular lens that resonates with us. And then we get stuck in a particular stream of thought...guess it's a version of confirmation bias.

I'm halfway through the podcast. Not much new yet, but it is a good summary so far of where we've been.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37873 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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