[Paul R.]

Hmm... It seems that a good guide / comparison would be those SARS breakouts from facilities in Beijing. IF anyone has info. on what transpired thereafter.

However, the Wuhan lab is both newer and higher level, and, that same article points out the steps taken to overcome the potential problems stated in your excerpt. (Reading further, that Ebright fellow doesn’t seem to want any more labs anywhere, which is just “nuts”.)

That doesn’t eliminate the lab a source - I just think it’s less likely than the biological “soup” of the region.

The biggest problem I have is that we get some people talking like this instance is some sort of escaped bioweapon on the rampage, and panicking themselves or others. (If this is a bioweapon, it is a damn poor one.)

[Ozymandias Ghost]

Wherever it came from, I think we can agree it is getting a lot of “hype” right now and a lot of the posting on it seems to be slanted towards the “worst possible case.” The virus would certainly be a lousy bioweapon for any major world power to unleash; as it is likely to do a lot of economic damage to them. That said, if it was a rogue country like North Korea or Iran; perhaps it would take some of the current “heat” off them (assuming plausible deniability).

It certainly deserves our attention; however, I think “feeding” the current panic/hyperbole surrounding it is unwise; at least until we have more hard facts and enlightened professional analysis. For that reason, I'm going to stand down for the time being. I do appreciate your point of view and polite discussion. Thx!