Back to the pandemic response

[03Cobra (Vance)]

That is minor reason to stonewall and delete in the case of the wet market, yet the cost of that stonewalling and deletion of evidence of a wet market origin is that many rational people will assume the major lab working on bat viruses with a failed ventilation system is the source of the pandemic.

A natural occurrence in a wet market is far less shameful and embarrassing than a lab leak.

So hiding and deleting data and information to protect the wet market as the source would be illogical.

[rsewell (All Truth is God's Truth)]

@03Cobra

So hiding and deleting data and information to protect the wet market as the source would be illogical.

Not for China. That country actually blamed other countries allegedly for sending in mail contaminated with the virus when their quarantine measures failed. Nutty.

A wet market origin does not absolve China of mismanagement.

Li Wenliang, the doctor who first attempted to sound the alarm on a new virus, was silenced by Chinese authorities. This was early on, when a response might have contained the virus. Not a good picture, and any information that there were other prior cases makes it look worse.

So they have good reason to lie; not that they ever need one. But it is most likely the PRC does not know any more than the rest of the world - they just do not want anything turning up.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist [now deceased])]

@03Cobra

Anyone who is compelled to believe the lab leak is as likely as the moon landing being faked may believe that, and that has been a stated opinion on the forum.

Maybe by one? Certainly not by most of us.

@03Cobra

I believe a lab leak is the most likely source of the pandemic.

That is certainly your privilege and no one is denying you that freedom, or ever has in this strangely recurring discussion.

[St.Roymond]

@Dale

If you are compelled to believe a lab leak is the unquestionable certainty

Latest I heard was that a worker at that lab has admitted to having been bitten by a bat.

More Chinese misdirection?

[St.Roymond]

@03Cobra

you also think China will not release information they have that would clear the lab of leaking the virus.

We know China was lying early on; I see no reason to believe they’re telling the whole truth now.

@glipsnort

My baseline assumption was that the Chinese government would hide data and stonewall outsiders as their default behavior. I’ve worked with the Chinese CDC on a much less politically loaded issue than this, and I think it was likely that they lied to us about it.

My older brother got to be consultant for a company helping China build a dam for hydroelectric power, and from his accounts it isn’t just the Chinese CDC that lies, it’s a reality of the Chinese government. It’s why his team worked up multiple models and forecast; they were based on guesses as to how much of what China was saying was true.

@03Cobra

A natural occurrence in a wet market is far less shameful and embarrassing than a lab leak.

Maybe. China’s concept of saving face could well mean that admitting that something they claimed to have shut down would be more embarrassing. Their values are different –

@rsewell

Not for China. That country actually blamed other countries allegedly for sending in mail contaminated with the virus when their quarantine measures failed.

[St.Roymond]

@Dale

@03Cobra

I believe a lab leak is the most likely source of the pandemic.

That is certainly your privilege and no one is denying you that freedom, or ever has in this strangely recurring discussion.

Let’s see – this is Tuesday, so I’m leaning towards the lab leak theory today. Wednesdays I believe it started in an open-air market.