Posted on 02/27/2020 1:06:38 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Did the Wuhan coronavirus originate from a wild animal market -- or a laboratory accident?
TheStreet posed the question of a top microbiology expert who said either was possible.
But, he cautioned, any idea that this particular virus was "created" in a lab can be easily tossed in the wastebasket.
"Based on the genome sequence and properties of the virus, there is no basis to suspect the virus was engineered," said Prof. Richard H. Ebright, the laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University.
It is important to distinguish, however, between the possibility that the virus was engineered, said Ebright in an email exchange with TheStreet, and the possibility that the virus entered the human population through a laboratory accident.
The first scenario, he said, can be "dismissed," but the latter, cannot.
The available data are consistent with either the virus entering the human population as a natural occurrence, he said, or a laboratory accident -- "which is exactly what happened in the second, third, and fourth entries of SARS-Cov into the human population in 2003-2004."
The newly discovered Wuhan coronavirus is one of many coronaviruses that are commonly found in camels, bats and other animals. It's also included among several that have become contagious among humans – including recently SARS and the far deadlier MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The Wuhan coronavirus is believed to have started its spread to people sometime in December in central China from a wild animal market.
Because that bat coronavirus and other closely related bat coronaviruses are known to have been present in nature – such as in a cave in Yunnan province – the first human infection could have occurred as an accident of nature, Ebright said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestreet.com ...
But he said, it is possible that the virus could have been leaked from a laboratory that was studying the virus, too.
“Because the bat coronavirus RaTG13 and closely related bat coronaviruses also are known to have been present in a lab," he said, specifically in the coronavirus collection at Wuhan Institute of Virology. "The first human infection also could have occurred as a lab accident.”
Speculation is exactly what we need right now. /s
Speculation based on evidence provided by the results of research is not such a bad thing.
.
Speculation is exactly what we need right now. /s
Hooray let’s start a new thread for all
“IT’S POSSIBLE” scenarios.
We’re gonna need a bigger FR to handle the possibilities.
Meanwhile, Fang Chi-tai (方啟泰), a professor at the National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health, last Saturday said the virus is likely man-made based on its unusual structure.
Fang said, "...a French team investigating COVID-19 had found that the key difference between RaTG13 and COVID-19 was that the latter has four additional amino acids not found in any other coronaviruses...these four amino acids make the disease easier to transmit. From an academic point of view, it is indeed possible that the amino acids were added to COVID-19 in the lab by humans...it is also still possible that this occurred in nature but that the chances are very slim."
Who to believe???
Janitors and lower level admin at the Wuhan germ lab might have supplemented their meagre income by selling exotic lab animals at the food market a few blocks away...
I think there are too many coincidences that this was simply a natural occurence.
Escaped BioWeapon - bump for later.....
That’s how we got the killer bees
The guy from Taiwan is making things up.
This specifically: “these four amino acids make the disease easier to transmit.”
I’ve been saying for weeks that it could very well have been due to lab accident. Also been saying it wasn’t man made for weeks.
That was suggested weeks ago also
Looking at all the scientific research going on and some of the evidence presented so far, I am today, more inclined to agree with you. IT WAS A LAB ACCIDENT.
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“”Based on the genome sequence and properties of the virus, there is no basis to suspect the virus was engineered,” said Prof. Richard H. Ebright, the laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University.”
Lab accidents are more common than people would like to admit
“Speculation based on evidence provided by the results of research is not such a bad thing.”
... and ruling out certain speculations based on facts and evidence is helpful.
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