• Followupquestion
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    If you go to the Wikipedia page for the Lab Leak Theory, there are absolutely nutty conspiracy theories, but like I pointed out, the idea of somebody cutting corners on either specimen disposal or safety precautions isn’t exactly crazy, as both have happened before.

    For instance, in 1972 in the UK, there was a leak of smallpox. From the Wikipedia page I cited, “A 23 year old laboratory assistant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was infected with smallpox after observing the harvesting of live smallpox virus from eggs without isolation cabinets at that time. The assistant was hospitalised and before being isolated, she infected two visitors to a patient in an adjacent bed, both of whom died. They in turn infected a nurse, who survived.”

    In 1978, Foot and Mouth disease was accidentally released from Plum Island Animal Disease Center in the US.

    1979 saw a lab leak of Anthrax in the USSR. “Spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a Soviet military research facility near the city of Sverdlovsk, Russia (now Yekaterinburg), resulting in approximately 100 deaths, although the exact number of victims remains unknown. The cause of the outbreak was denied by the Soviet authorities, and all medical records of the victims were removed to hide serious violations of the Biological Weapons Convention that had come in effect in 1975. Scientists from the United States ultimately proved the incident was the result of an aerosolized plume of anthrax spores which were genetically identical to the strain studied in a nearby laboratory, not from environmentally contaminated meat, which was the official Soviet explanation. The accident is sometimes referred to as “biological Chernobyl”.” I emphasized two passages in particular because they sound very familiar.

    Ask yourself this, do you believe the Chinese government specifically is telling the truth about the death toll in Wuhan? If so, what’s up with all the crematoria? In case you don’t like Vice, here’s a Time article on the same. And just in case those two were somehow not trustworthy enough, which I get, check your sources and all that, NBC.

    • TupamarosShakur [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      11 months ago

      What does any of this have to do with Covid lab leak? I’m not denying that lab leaks can occur and have occurred, I’m saying that Covid is not a case of that happening. I also do not understand what Covid case numbers have to do with lab leak. For the record, I do believe Chinese numbers, but even if I didn’t, what would that prove about lab leak theory?