Did this all start with a Pangolin?!

[Bubblty]

Hi, My DH says this all came from a Pangolin. Is that right? I've tried to read online but it's hard to know what is reputable and what isn't. Does anyone know where it came from yet? I know there was talk of a wet market and bats.

Basically is there anything from a reputable journal or something? Am fed up of conspiracy theories.

It's a virus that was first discovered in bats. The part that is unclear is how exactly it made the jump to humans. It either did so directly despite this previously being thought to be impossible, or via a third unidentified species, or was engineered in a lab in order to be able to infect humans.

The things I've read recently suggest that scientists are becoming more scepitical of the third species theory, meaning that the virus actually was capable of jumping directly to humans from bats far more readily than believed, or that it's been bioengineered and somehow infected one of the scientists working with it due to lax biosecurity. Most appear to believe the former is still far more likely.

It started when an elephant made love to a pig!

@XDownwiththissortofthingX thank you for this summary

@BeesRGood. Okaaaay

I thought the latest theory was that it was more than likely created (or modified unnaturally from an existing bat virus) in a lab as it’s unlike anything seen before in nature. I will try and find the link.

Nobody knows.

Could have come from a Pangolin.

Could have come from the lab in Wuhan researching corona bat viruses in biosecurity conditions which had previously been criticised as inadequate for the type of research they were doing.

China has not co-operated fully in the investigation so both options remain plausible and always will do. We may never have a definitive answer.

It comes from a bat, and I firmly believe it escalated from the Wuhan lab

Sorry, that was a South Park reference.

I've heard this book is pretty good. The authors do lean towards the lab leak theory & have been challenged on that, but then again the people who challenge them seem to have a pro-China bias so I wouldn't discount it:

www.amazon.co.uk/Viral-Search-Covid-19-Alina-Chan/dp/006313912X?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Well that seems a tad unfair!

No. It’s pretty much accepted by the science world now that it was from a lab leak.

@Natsukine

No. It’s pretty much accepted by the science world now that it was from a lab leak.

Source?

It's highly likely the whole mess started in a lab.

Evidence here - this video has been around since April 2020 so it's not like this idea has come from nowhere. It was interesting watching that then and then see all the denials, but then reality doesn't seem to matter with the media and Covid:

Channel 4 UK Special: Did Covid Leak from a Lab in China?
www.channel4.com/programmes/did-covid-leak-from-a-lab-in-china

Sky TV Australia special on this:
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: What Really Happened in Wuhan

If you want to look at how dodgy all this, is look at the way the Chinese hampered the investigation in Wuhan. It's bonkers. They even invented a Swiss scientist which the Swiss government had to end up saying didn't exist!

But if you do look into this stuff be careful as when you get the the point of the Americans funding the lab in China (because the research they were doing there was illegal in the US), you will probably start to be getting close to where the 'conspiracy theory' stuff starts, which isn't that helpful with finding actual facts!

The pangolin theory was big at the start when it was believed to have come from the wet market but I think that’s been disproved.

No it started with us.

Did humans really expect we could destroy the planet, leave out fifth everywhere , destroy habitats and force animals nature kept apart with distance or nocturnal habits etc to be I'm such close proximity to eachother, and who spend their days in equal measure either trying to cure or kill eachother, without consequence?

Lab leak either accidentally or on purpose is more likely and WHO and others are basically saying the same.

Poor pangolin, poor guy was just living his best life before he was brutally murdered and sold as bushmeat lol.
On a more realistic answer, I don’t know about COVID I do know my animals and both wetmarkets and bushmeat are an increasing issue, with little regulation and high levels of food contamination. I doubt a pangolin was being offered as a food source, they are more likely to be killed for their scales and apparent medicinal properties (aka complete bullshit) bats though, are a common wet market/source of bushmeat. So, technically it could have been a pangolin but they are like gold dust as medicinal cures so I doubt they were just being sold as a meat source all over the place. More likely a bat i think or one of the other unidentifiable ‘meats’ available at a wet market.

Watch the Southpark Pandemic Special, then you'll know 🍆😉

It is apparently (according to China) nothing more than a billion-to-one coincidence that it started in the very place where there just happens to be a lab conducting research into this type of virus.

@BeesRGood I seeee

The original explanation was that it passed from bats to humans via some third species. But that third species was never actually identified so make of that what you will.

It's pretty much accepted by the science world now that it was from a lab leak.

We were all saying that at the start, how it was SURELY from the Wuhan lab, and were all shot down for scaremongering.

Of course it came from a lab.

It’s come from stupid fucking humans playing god and arrogantly assuming they have control when they don’t. As usual most horrible mess on this planet comes from us.

As usual most horrible mess on this planet comes from us.

At a planet level it's not a horrible mess at all. Fewer humans = a positive development.

@Chloemol - No one else is sure but you know 100%. Ok