China Bioharzard Lab Likely Source of Coronavirus

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South China University of Technology biologist Xiao Botao has co-written a paper the #COVID19 might have originated from an animal research lab 280 meters away from the epicentre of the outbreak. The scientists were reportedly bitten by bats used for a test on louse.

Bats are not eaten at the Wuhan fish market and bats were never traded at the market. The bats live 600 miles away and would not migrate over to Wuhan.

Researchers were bitten by the bats they were studying and did not quarantine themselves long enough. They quarantined themselves for 14 days but the virus can incubate for 24 days.

96 thoughts on “China Bioharzard Lab Likely Source of Coronavirus”

  3. hes claiming its a CIA type bio-warfare operation on china to slow their economic growth prob started by trump according to the other poster.

  5. The funny thing is they built the BSL4 lab partly because of the general need in the wake of SARS, and partly because of the Beijing lab escapes.

  6. Nah… It’s no more derogatory than “millennial” or any other phrase applied to a generation of people… The funny thing is, as a child of a baby boomer, I know for a fact your generation used to wear the label with pride… Now that millennials are trying to use it as an insult, suddenly boomers think it an invective.

    As for you getting the reference to Umbrella, that’s great, but many boomers don’t get it, first and foremost, they’re not into video games like the later generations. That said, I definitely get how you’d know the reference from the Resident Evil movies.

  7. SARS escaped from a lab in Beijing at least twice. The BSL-4 lab in Wuhan was explicitly made to study coronaviruses like SARS and some african viruses like ebola. China was publically warned by the US something like this might happen, because it has happened before.

    A conspiracy theory requires there to be some kind of conspiracy. There’s no need for a conspiracy here. Well known lab researches SARS-like viruses and it escapes. That’s a plain and simple theory that could easily happen.

    If you tack on “it’s a bio-weapon to kill old people and improve the economy! They all knew and released it on purpose !!!!1111”, then it’s a conspiracy theory.

  8. These rumors appear to stem from SARS vaccine development efforts, where SARS anti-bodies from the attempted vaccine created what is known as antibody dependent enhancement of the virus.

  10. Conspiracy Theory: Someone diligently seeks alternative information sources and uses objective facts to make conclusions that would unsettled the crumb trail of information being fed to the masses.

    “Proven conspiracy”: Sensational narrative that is fed to the unsuspecting masses a by deep pocketed entities that don’t want to see any disruption to the portion of the status quo that benefits their cause, but conversely want the comatose public mind to transform and embrace their logic.

  12. Go figure… Bre Payson abruptly died from swine flu in her San Diego apartment. Interesting that Bre broke the story on the California Senator’s Sino-intelligence driver.

  13. What is the difference between a proven conspiracy and a conspiracy theory?

    Conspiracy theory: Some nefarious actor deliberately made the covid-19 to increase sales of paper masks, or wipe out the Chinese, or benefit Israel, or to oppress women or some stupid reason.

    Proven conspiracy: Twitter sets out to ban people discussing any topic that the Twitter leadership considers unsuitable for the peasantry to be aware of.

  15. It is very common to eat civets, pangolins etc. for traditional medicine in China. It is not believed the virus jumped from bats directly to humans; they usually don’t; SARS is believed to have recombined with another corona virus in a Civet before jumping to humans. Early indications here are that pangolins may be involved but nobody really knows for sure yet.

  16. China built a level 4 lab in Wuhan to test SARS (level 3 virus, I think?) and related coronaviruses as well as some level 4 shit like Ebola.
    They’ve done research on SARS sporadically since the original outbreak, and it escaped from a lab in Beijing twice. It’s been recognized that a SARS-like corona virus could flare up at some random time from wild-life, so it’s not reasonable to study corona viruses. This place in the article is not the level 4 lab, that’s a km away. This is some lesser security facility where it is claimed they had wild-caught infected animals for some purpose as per the article.

  17. So- probably not an engineered bio-weapon then, but legitimate research. Although, having a deep inventory of natural pathogens to feed the CRISPR is always handy in an emergency.
    It is hard to avoid the nefarious possibilities in this sort of event.
    I suppose Twitter would ban me for suggesting this remote possibility, if I were a user. Some countries are off-limits for these sort of conjectures. Others, not so much.
    Wow. Another conspiracy theory without even intending.
    Somebody stop me.

  18. Have some proves ?, I find hard to believe all those conspiracy theories when a much simple answer is available.

  20. If the corona virus source is the lab then consider the biological weapons labs. I hope their protocols are more constrained. Best wishes to all those infected.

  22. They’re exactly what they deserve for their general crimes against humanity. Dying of coronavirus would be too good for Winnie.

  25. original building was demolished back in the 90’s. I guess wasn’t exactly a great selling point “yes, you can have your office where there was a monkey ebola outbreak. Special price.”

  26. “Yeah? Well, it’s uh, it’s actually a compliment! So there, snowflake!” – the definitely-not-triggered actual snowflake in this scenario.

  27. I’m not surprised. Not that I saw it coming, but way back when I read it occasionally (seems like 10 years or more) it already looked like that kind of echo chamber.

  29. Nope, that’d be AboveTopSecret. It used to be kinda fun, with UFO sightings and experimental aircraft. Now it’s just all Trump, Trump, Democrats are literally Hitler, Trump, Trump, Trump.

  33. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, though he could be right. In that scenario, if he’s right and the worse case is ten million people die… well, that’s not just a drop in the bucket, but Spanish influenza killed 50 million or more. So, it’s not THAT, at least. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into that. Talk about a “this sucks” scenario.

  35. There seems to be sufficient evidence that the incubation period is as long 24 days so a 14 quarantine seems daft.

  36. It’s a wonder that Twitter decides to censor information coking out of China. The CCP (along with any government that actively censors its citizens) can e** me. If Twitter is complying with them for any other reason other than two stop trolls and stem the spread of panic, they can, too.

    But, if they’re censoring information in order to stop the spread of falsified information being used to incite panic, that’s different. That said though, how could they possibly filter that without filtering EVERYONE? They couldn’t. So, perhaps they’re just casting a wide net.

  39. I’ve read The Passage by Justin Cronin. I’ve seen the trailer for Morbius. I know how this turns out. xD

    We all gon’ be some vampires.

    Not really (though I wouldn’t complain), but I’d love to know what other kinda of research was going on in that lab. Makes me wonder if the researchers knew the bats were infected.

    Maybe those scientists can make me a Twilight vampire so I can be sexy-sparkly with diamond skin and am unquenchable thirst for– Hmm. Yep, stopping there.

  40. I’ve driven right up to the old ‘Monkey House’. Chilling. In a super nondescript strip of single level office buildings. The ‘Monkey House’ is like a pre-school or child care facility now.

  42. 1) I am a Boomer
    2) I get the reference
    3) What a terrible “derogatory” term. Not because it is so heinous, but because it is far more a compliment. Let’s compare
    Snowflake = fragile little crystals of ice that can not stand even a little heat.
    Boomer = a nuclear submarine that can rain down death and destruction upon millions frying whole cities. Ya… I’ll take that “derogatory” nickname any day.

  43. What’s the truth to the rumors that reinfection with this virus is possible? I’ve never heard of that before – at least not within a short time interval.

  51. The facility in question is an animal research operation separate from the Level Four microbe lab. Think of the Reston, Virginia primate facility and substitute bats for primates.

  52. No Twitter is actively censoring what is going on (happened to me when I gave people URLs to videos in Wuhan).

  53. He interacts with them regularly, and for a number of years. He is trying to fight diseases in Africa and elsewhere. I am sure he is repeating analysis epidemiologist friends discussed with him. He could be right if none of the ongoing experiments workout. I think some of these are going to help. And the second wave of treatments will be even better. The best thing that could happen is that containment holds. I would not be letting anyone out at 14 days. Too much at stake. Full month.

  55. Bats are the natural reservoir for many viruses, this one included.

    But as the author states the bats live very far way so how does a bat virus get to Wuhan?

    1. Option One: imported for bat soup
    2. Option Two: accident at the nearby BSL-4 lab handling bats with this virus

    Option 2 is more plausible to me.

  56. I blame the F-ing zoning commission who decided that the country’s first BSL-4 lab should be in the middle of a city.

    Top Men.

  57. China will start destroying cash collected in areas with high exposure to the coronavirus

    Ben Winck
     Feb. 16, 2020, 04:18 PM

    China Photos/Getty Images

    The People’s Bank of China announced it will begin destroying notes collected by hospitals, buses, and markets in coronavirus-addles locales, financial news outlet Caixin reported.

  59. You are now scrambling two separated notes in my line of response! Where did I say that manifestation of higher force is concrete? But since you are are bringing some remnants of a true argument in this, I will answer: There is a line of philosophy and metaphysics that view history as having a direction toward progress. That it is not concrete but does not mean that it should be ruled out or left undiscussed. As I have hinted earlier, it can be researched scientifically, that it was not, is not my concern, as avoiding such topics is another flaw of materialistic science. MOre on this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_history

  62. NBF isn’t even close to being the tip of the very real iceberg of anti-rational discussion platforms. Despite some very questionable choices.

  64. If, as stated, the bats are already carrying a similar virus in the wild, then it would be perfectly normal for such bats to be studied in a virus lab.

  65. Originally there were claims about this because that lab had already isolated a very similar virus. But the one they isolated was still different enough that it couldn’t have been the same strain, so the idea that it escaped their freezers was debunked.

    That said, this is the first I’ve heard of the bat biting incident. Those bats may have had other strains than the one they had on ice. Did anyone check for a match? If the bats were sterilized then it would be hard to disprove now.

  68. Ok and you make this assertion based on zero evidence. And you then assert that that baseless assertion is QED because you say so yourself. So every fallacy is wrapped up into another fallacy.

    Turtles all the way down.

    <<very concrete>>
    What is concrete about
    <<manifestation of a higher force>>

    Nothing but nonsense, and self-serving nonsense at that.

  70. Thats the point. You never are pertinent because you always shift goalposts the way all crackpot mysticists do.

    “Those who sold themselves to some type of institution without much consideration, will use anything to defend it, but rarely a real argument.”

    THIS IS A TRUISM. And very seemingly a projection. It’s the same cookie-cutter marble-mouthed cack-handed assertion that’s so general it’s meaningless. The same crap you hear from new age gurus and snake oil salesmen.

    It is never about first principles but about conveniently self-serving mystic principles, like a perpetual Deus Ex generator. You almost systematically accuse others of dogmatism but your own comments are always the EXACT same unfalsifiable crackpot hand-wavy shell-gamey rhetorical bridges to nowhere.

    << manifestation of a higher force aiming for a continued global progress […]. When you are asserting yourself by force, rather than offering prospects for progress a counter force is generated. >>
    WTF is this word salad *actually* supposed to mean?? It means nothing except the same nonsense that Socrates had to slog through back then.

    It’s nothing but self-serving sweet-sounding sophistry.

  72. Yes, this is the part where you shift to general truisms and vaguely threatening existential admonitions.

    And as usual they sound like projections of your own rhetoric.

  74. This sounds very far fetched but I suppose these kind of malicious rumors are exactly what the Chinese Government deserves since they sterilized the wet market eliminating the possibility of actually determining where the virus came from.

  75. Those who sold themselves to some type of institution without much consideration, will use anything to defend it, but rarely a real argument.

  76. This theory has been circulating in various forms for weeks
    ~

    Coronavirus may have originated in lab linked to China’s biowarfare program” and pointing to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

    Despite little public evidence, the theory has spread widely on social media, to conspiracy theory websites and in some international news outlets.

    The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is a “Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4” facility, which means it has a high level of operational security and is authorized to work on dangerous pathogens, including Ebola.

    I hope they don’t mean NBF

  80. As is evident from comments, this patient zero story easily mutates into conspiracy memes since it originates in a Lab. It’s extremely plausible and doesn’t place any real blame on the Chinese government. A simple mistake in the required quarantine period that couldn’t have been known at the time wasn’t anybody’s fault. Still, I’d hate to be a Chinese official deciding whether to be transparent about this since it can so easily undergo memetic mutation.

  81. You’re right, there should be no distinction between being a “possible” and a “likely” source of a 96% or 89% match.

    doi: 10.1101/2020.02.07.939207

  85. Obviously you have never considered history and distribution of Black swan events, this is not dogma materialistic science…

  87. French director of one of the best specialized research hospital (IHU Mediteranee Infections), Pr Raoult on the opposite is not impressed by what is reported…
    He is even clearly fed up by the panic, that is coming again irrationally, while real running disease are not investigated as required…

    The week ending January he estimates France have treated 4000 CoV infected people (not the Chinese one)… routine.
    10k people die of respiratory infection every year in France,
    2.5 millions dies every year in the world…

    Sadly this video is in French and the google transcript is very bad…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhxUbKPImEM&t=8s
    There are few other video, and good advices.
    Best advices is washing your hands, and if you are afraid, get immunized against pneumococcus, because opportunistic reinfections are major cause of death (97% for H5N1)…

    In another video he reminds that early rate of mortality are overestimated because they focus on very sick patients mostly…

    Don’t panic. Do as you would do for flu (seriously, because flu does kill).

  92. I’m not sold on the “engineering” theory yet. I still think the “in and out” theory is credible—that the the virus has been circulating between caged “wild” animals in markets and humans in the rural food industry until someone brought it into the market. That might explain why they saw several early cases that didn’t seem to have connections to the market.

  93. I’ve heard that too but I don’t know how much stock to put in it yet. Even if it is true it could be that the heart failure comes from the side effects of medications being used for the first infection.

  94. Bill Gates thinks ten million may die. Doctors are reporting that people are getting reinfected from the virus and dying from heart failure. So even when they “recover” it is still not over. Wherever it started, it shows no sign of finishing.

  95. The coronavirus epidemic is a manifestation of a higher force aiming for a continued global progress rather than in a world that is falling under China’s grip. When you are asserting yourself by force, rather than offering prospects for progress a counter force is generated.

  96. Until there is official word or a confession by people who work at the disease center, I still suspect the market. They have found a similar viruses in pangolins, and they sell pangolin scales there.
    On the other hand, current quarantines are 14 days. If 14 days just doesn’t work, then they need to extend these things.
    If this disease center is responsible, they would certainly know by now and just be keeping it quiet…or possibly the Chinese government. That would be very bad in this case because they would have been quiet for months well aware that 14 days was not enough.
    The CDC is quarantining people 14 days. If this is not enough, that has to be changed.

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