No, the 2019-nCoV [coronavirus] genome doesn’t really seem engineered from HIV

The Prepared ^ | 1/31/2020 | Ari Allyn-Feuer

[catnipman]

They found that all four of these spike protein inserts appear as matches to at least one sequence in at least one variant of the HIV virus. The sequences come from the gp120 and Gag proteins in HIV, the former of which is also a viral envelope recognition protein. This has led many to credulously assume that this is evidence, or even a strong indication, that 2019-nCoV was engineered from its bat ancestor by humans inserting HIV sequences.

But they’re wrong; it’s still not engineered. An analysis of the paper clearly reveals that:

1. There is nothing remarkable about the fact that 2019-nCoV’s sequence diverges from its nearest known relative, or that its unique sequences are conserved among cases of 2019-nCoV.

2. The sequence matches with HIV are very short and appear in hypervariable regions of both virus, and similar overlaps are seen between 2019-nCoV sequences and many other organisms.

3. The unique biological properties that HIV sequences could theoretically impart to another virus are completely missing from 2019-nCoV, and 2019-nCoV has no unique clinical properties that are outside what is known to be possible for a coronavirus.

In other words, the sequence overlap is not actually uncanny, and there is no big scoop here. The group in India fell prey to some of the pitfalls of bioinformatics research.

The 2019-nCoV genome does not contain remarkable genomic properties which need explaining, and for which we’d look to some kind of bioengineering as a cause.

2019-nCoV continues to give every appearance of being a wild coronavirus that jumped from bats to humans by way of an animal intermediary in the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan in late 2019.

[Black Agnes]

How many of these ‘debunkers’ are in the pay of the chinese government’s TT program?

We know now that harvard chemistry department was basically an arm of the CCP/PLA.

[FreedomPoster]

>> Would China use this to reduce their population? They used the one child policy and forced abortions and sterilizations to enforce it, didn’t they?

Have you seen any reports of mass demonstrations in Hong Kong lately?

Probably just a side effect of this thing getting loose.

[null and void]

From what I understand (which ain't much) these particular sites bind to the ACE-2 proteins, and that ethnic Chinese have more ACE-2 surface proteins in their lungs that any other population. Therefore the virus can stick to and infect this lung tissue more easily.

What made HIV such a bear is T-cells had surface proteins that were particularly attractive to its coat. The body's attempt to eliminate infected T-cells damaged the immune system at a fundamental level.

2019-nCoV doesn't appear, as far as I can tell, attack T-cells.

Sit tight, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I will be by to excoriate me soon...

[OKSooner]

I wouldn't know one way or the other.

My suspicion is that this is a "project", something they've been developing in the Wuhan lab, just in case they ever decide to use it as a weapon but now it's gotten loose somehow - probably because of lax protocols or even deficiency in the lab itself - and they've actually never even taken any steps toward development of an antidote or vaccine against it, whatever that might be.

It was important enough to them to send at least one spy, probably more, to Canada and to steal a progenitor virus from them, so their intent with it wasn't just in the interest of science.

Like someone else said, it sure would be nice if our scientists could have a look at their records. All of them, of course, the REAL records... one would hope that someone would tell them that it would be better for them if that were to happen...

[Swordmaker]

Thank you also for posting that. It also debunks that junk science in the article. Just finding an “uncanny” resemblance is not proof of anything as your son’s report shows. Random recombination of the RNA can account for such “uncanny” similarity resemblances. That does not justify jumping to conclusions about viral engineering of weaponized biowarfare.

[null and void]

I recall that some of these investigators succeeded in getting some totally made up papers accepted by journals that were completely bogus, and even got them peer-reviewed and published, before they revealed the absurdities of their papers.

IIRC, a decade or so ago, a publisher sent sample textbooks to college professors to review, they got glowing reviews from most of them. Only one professor complained that all the pages were blank.

[Black Agnes]

Not sure this is something they intended to be ‘bad’.

It would appear there was at least one researcher there working on studying the immune system of bats. They carry all kinds of scary crap (can I say that and still be a scientist? Hmmm) w/o getting sick. That’s an interesting realm of study to be sure. And likely will provide, at some point, ideas about how to control the spread of pathogens.

This doesn’t have to have been engineered to kill the planet, all non Han, or even destroy your opponent’s medical system. It could simply have been a project that accidentally got loose.

[Diogenesis]

FRiend, you are entitled to your opinon,
but there are too many "coincidences" to wash away.

[Black Agnes]

https://mobile.twitter.com/IsChinar/status/1223116887929716736

China knew, on Jan 1, that SOMETHING out there needed level 3 protection.

SARS is a level 3 pathogen.

[OKSooner]

Fair enough. Just to be clear, I have no training or professional credentials in this stuff. Just trying to understand what's up with it. I can't help but speculate however, especially given the acts of espionage and theft on the part of the Chinese.

Thanks for your help.

[Swordmaker]

The oft repeated 2.2% assumes everyone merely sick will recover. The only reliable statistic, those died vs those recovered shows fatality rates of between 51 and 54%. IOW, anyone ending up in an ICU has a less than 50% chance of walking out.

Stop making stuff up! You are claiming things NOT in evidence. Not one report has anything close to a reported 51-54% fatality rate and you should not be claiming anything such as that based on something you’re pulling out of your nether regions.

Original reports had approximately a 4.6% fatality rate and it has been dropping since then. That’s logical as only worst cases went to the hospital and then wound up in ICUs.

Cases in the USA are only being placed in isolation, not in ICUs. If someone does get sick enough to wind up in an ICU, then naturally they are far more at risk than someone who does not. Persons who have been placed in ICUs generally have secondary infections of pneumonia, or some other bacteriological opportunistic infection due to the weakened condition from what I have read.

The SHUT DOWN of these cities is due to an over abundance of caution to prevent the spread, not due to people actually being sick with the disease.

The Mayor of Wuhan said that five million people left the city before they closed transportation. Where are the infections spreading from those five million? China’s government can close down travel because they can. They use internal passports to limit their citizen’s travel and passage from one area to another.

[Black Agnes]

If this is the result of some sort of IP theft...this time the dog may have actually caught the UPS truck.

[Black Agnes]

“The SHUT DOWN of these cities is due to an over abundance of caution to prevent the spread, not due to people actually being sick with the disease.”

When H5N1 broke out, did the Chinese shut down cities where there were patients?

Nully isn’t making things up.

According to the numbers from china, right now, of the people confirmed with this disease who have completed the disease cycle, 50% or so have died. We don’t know the % of those in the hospital. But the ‘recovered’ vs, ‘death’ is running neck and neck (at lest it was last I checked).

Question, of those admitted to the ICU with pneumonia subsequent to infection with flu, how many leave the ICU happy to be alive if not actually still healthy, vs those that are taken out on gurney to the morgue...? I actually haven’t seen those numbers posted anywhere.

[null and void]

Stop making stuff up! You are claiming things NOT in evidence.

Upper right hand corner 259 dead, 252 recovered.

[Swordmaker]

Do the Chinese have the antidote?

There is no such thing as an “antidote” to a disease. Antidotes are a counter-agent to a poison. There are only treatments for diseases, Antibiotics for bacteria related diseases and for viruses like this, you have to support the infected person’s system while it fights off the virus on its own, developing antibodies that kill or deflect the virus by building an immunity. Some targets of a virus are killed before the target’s defenses can react or even begin to fight back, no matter how much support medical people can provide.

[Clarence The One Eyed Lion]

Seems like a perfect opportunity for them to stop the Hong Kong protests.

[Clarence The One Eyed Lion]

Imagine that... kind of like how Putin poisoned Skripal right next to a British chemical weapons facility.

And speaking of the formerly British Hong Kong, what a perfect way to stop the Hong Kong protests... if running them over with tanks looks bad, nobody can see a virus? Imagine that too.

[null and void]

Also note that I explicitly said:

IOW, anyone ending up in an ICU has a less than 50% chance of walking out.

That's what the actual published statistics say.

[OKSooner]

Yes, one can see how that metaphor works here...

Unfortunately the role of the dog, whose teeth are embedded in the tire of the UPS truck as it accelerates onto the freeway is being played by all of humanity.

/drama

[palmer]

But perhaps they haven't had fatalities simply because the 153 patients simply haven't been sick long enough for the disease to run its course.

Possible. But the Germans (6 at last count) are all stable. No doubt there will be more and we will get more data on all the cases. The new goalpost will be the new cases, forget those old ones, those don't matter.