To think it’s pointless accusing the Chinese of lying.

[bluemoon77]

Trump seems to suspect the virus could have come from the lab rather than the meat market. Isn’t that going to be impossible to prove. Surely we have enough going on right now without having to worry about Trump making things worse.

The version of this story I read is that there is a lab studying natural viruses it could have escaped from.

Can you link to the article(s) you read? I'd be interested to see the credentials of the author(s) and the evidence they cite for their conclusions.

I doubt it did come from a lab, I'm just relaying that it's not entirely a conspiracy theory that it could have.

Unless those pushing this proposal are providing reasonable evidence to support their claims it is absolutely a conspiracy theory or, if you prefer, unsubstantiated blnd speculation.

I have no idea @Porcupineinwaiting!!!

Actually I have a tiny idea. Isn’t China one of the main lending countries? I assume the USA has significant debt to China and will Angie to get it cancelled.

*angle

Lab or market, China have never been honest about this virus. No one with a brain would trust a word that comes from China.

As for trump well his trump, what do people expect for him? His been president a while and the sky hasn’t fallen yet

I came to the conclusion a conspiracy theory stops being a conspiracy theory when it’s discussed in the mainstream media and held up as a possible theory. I have no science background so I have no idea if it came from a lab. But I suppose I do not trust some,of the proponents of the science because I have no idea where their interests stem from, financial or political.

There are wet markets all over China.

Wuhan also has a wet market AND a bio lab close by.

Go figure.

Trump’s desperately trying to distract from his own failings. His voters are dumb enough to fall for it.

Pot says Kettle is black.

In other news, bear spotted with packet of Andrex, headed for the trees.

I think that china owning so much of western debt will influence the debate about where the virus came from quite a lot.

YABU. China has lied about this from the get go. They knew about 8n Nov/Dec and did nothing other than try and shut up the Drs who said something was happening. They say they locked down Wuhan quickly, no they didn’t, and as it was around before Christmas. They have lied about the numbers having already amended them once.

The bats in question are in a cave 1000 miles from Wuhan, then we discover that actually some are in the lab in Wuhan. I don’t believe they travelled 1000 miles to a wet market

I don’t trust a word they say and whilst I think Donald is mad, at least he’s calling them out, unlike others including the WHO

I’d never believe anything that came out of China. Anyone who does is deluded

I have voted YANBU because it is pointless of accusing the Chinese govt of lying, but that is because they don't usually tell the truth anyway. Like the Russians they will lie as easily as breathing when it suits them, and of course lying at the moment does indeed suit them.

Saying that Trump is not exactly good publicity for the truth either, he fits in quite easily with those he protests about in that respect.

I would imagine that most cities and towns with a university have labs in which people work on viruses. The existence of the centre in Wuhan doesn’t suggest anything.

I think if it came from a lab, then you would not be able to wash it off with soap

That makes no sense at all. Or do you mean you think it’s possible to bioengineer a virus with superglue properties ? Which could actually be theoretically useful for non biowarfare activities ie for some therapeutic applications. But for those you wouldn’t choose a SARs like vector. So no.

I came to the conclusion a conspiracy theory stops being a conspiracy theory when it’s discussed in the mainstream media and held up as a possible theory.

The mainstream media talks a whole load of shite about all sorts of different things. I really wouldn't take discussion on the media as a reason to believe conspiracy theories.

The scientific research and intelligence assessments suggest that it was not created in a lab. It may well have escaped from a lab, but up to now, the only evidence I've seen for that theory is that there is a virology lab in Wuhan.

Trump is looking for a "bad guy" to deflect from his own mistakes. I think there is a genuine conversation to be had about the Chinese wildlife trade and wet markets, but this is not the way to do it. As it stands, you are just going make China more secretive and defensive.

Honestly, if this virus had escaped from a lab, the Wuhan authorities would have probably reacted sooner, with better knowledge of it's transmission and mortality rate.

Shit happens.

It is idiotic and in any case counterproductive. We are where we are. What are we going to do about it NOW?

We are to a degree dependant on China so nothing will happen
China is more dependent on the rest of the world though so they have to be seen to play nice.

Yes it has been undisputedly demonstrated that the virus was not created in a lab. But it could have released from a lab by accident.
Regardless, it’s the same virus.

To be fair to the Chinese (and I do not trust their government) have shared quite a few scientific observations with the world, albeit small. Which makes me wonder what else could they help with.

My bet is they will be the first to discover a vaccine/cure which would be the most reliable solution for a while (until better and possibly safer options come to light). They must be putting all their efforts into finding a solution through own scientific work and borrowing/buying/stealing all the ideas they can get their hands on. It would serve them best to have their own solution and to prove it works so they can sell it to other countries.

I do honestly find it interesting that so many of the global pandemics seem to originate from China. I don’t know why, it just interests me.

China has a huge proportion of the world‘s population so it isn’t very surprising. 32 million people have died of AIDS and that originated in Africa.
As the country that gave the world nvCJD, we might want to reflect that if that had been transmitted in a different way we could have been the source of a huge outbreak just because we wanted to pay less for our meat.

World leaders can't just publicly speculate on things like this just because it sounds a bit plausible. It's a diplomatic nightmare, not to mention embarrassing as fuck because now he's said it, he won't back down and his own intelligence service is having to make contradictory statements.

Crispy as far as I'm aware only two global pandemics in history can be said to have originated in China; Covid19 and Asian Flu in the 50s.

Aids originated in Africa and Spanish Flu probably in the US although I think there's debate about that. A couple of global pandemics have also started in India, cholera etc. Hardly surprising when you look at population density with people and animals living in close quarters.
If you mean SARS/avian flu, those really never came close to pandemic stages. They were well contained.