Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points

New York Times via Internet Archive ^ | June 2, 2024 | Dr. Alina Chan

[grundle]

Dr. Chan is a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, and a co-author of “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.”

The Wuhan lab ran risky experiments to learn about how SARS-like viruses might infect humans.

In the United States, virologists generally use stricter Biosafety Level 3 protocols when working with SARS-like viruses.

In previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, scientists were able to demonstrate natural origin by collecting multiple pieces of evidence linking infected humans to infected animals.

The pandemic could have been caused by any of hundreds of virus species, at any of tens of thousands of wildlife markets, in any of thousands of cities, and in any year. But it was a SARS-like coronavirus with a unique furin cleavage site that emerged in Wuhan, less than two years after scientists, sometimes working under inadequate biosafety conditions, proposed collecting and creating viruses of that same design.

[dfwgator]

All meant to “Get Trump”.

[xoxox]

“nyt says it
i believe it
that settles it.”

/s

[Cobra64]

I thought this was already “settled science” that it started in a lab.

[Salman]

So ... all the right wing paranoid conspiracy theories were correct after all?

Funny how that keeps happening.