Things that went whizzing by that I want to remember: Is there any reason not to take this as a reasonable, non-stupid, rational, calm take on the issue? Lindsay Beyerstein: Covid: Why a Natural Origin Story Is More Likely: 'As far as anybody knows, the closest strain the WIV had is a bat virus called RaTG13 that’s 96 percent similar to Covid–19, but the gulf between 96 percent and >99 percent is vast.... If RaTG13 were used as a backbone for Covid–19, Rasmussen told me, you’d expect to see big chunks of exact similarity with coherent chunks of new information added in…. Instead… Covid–19 differs from RaTG13 by over 1,000 point mutations…. Given that Covid (or its direct ancestor) must exist in nature, it’s more likely that it got out naturally (like SARS and MERS) than that it took an undetectable detour through a secure biolab..." Add to this the fact that most of those enthusiastically pushing the lab-leak theory have a track record of being bad actors…
Briefly Noted: For 2021-07-02 Fr
Briefly Noted: For 2021-07-02 Fr
Briefly Noted: For 2021-07-02 Fr
Things that went whizzing by that I want to remember: Is there any reason not to take this as a reasonable, non-stupid, rational, calm take on the issue? Lindsay Beyerstein: Covid: Why a Natural Origin Story Is More Likely: 'As far as anybody knows, the closest strain the WIV had is a bat virus called RaTG13 that’s 96 percent similar to Covid–19, but the gulf between 96 percent and >99 percent is vast.... If RaTG13 were used as a backbone for Covid–19, Rasmussen told me, you’d expect to see big chunks of exact similarity with coherent chunks of new information added in…. Instead… Covid–19 differs from RaTG13 by over 1,000 point mutations…. Given that Covid (or its direct ancestor) must exist in nature, it’s more likely that it got out naturally (like SARS and MERS) than that it took an undetectable detour through a secure biolab..." Add to this the fact that most of those enthusiastically pushing the lab-leak theory have a track record of being bad actors…