Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Alan V]

Isn't it suspected to be both? The virus wasn't manmade, but the outbreak originated in a lab? There was a big hullabaloo about the lab in question getting US funding, I believe.

Do you have a reference?  I haven't read it could even possibly be both.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/m...laboratory

The gist being, they think the Wuhan lab was studying the naturally occurring virus (which wouldn't be unusual), but an oopsy occurred, and it got out.

But people hear "From a lab" and they jump to the conclusion of "engineered"/"Man-made."

 
Interesting.  I hadn't thought of that possibility.

But here's a quote from your article: "Most epidemiologists say that while it is possible the outbreak started in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronaviruses have been intensively studied, it is a far less likely scenario than the theory that it was transmitted naturally from bats through an intermediary animal, mutating along the way to become dangerous to humans."

So Trump is still swimming against a tide of experts.

[*]The bats that carry the family of coronaviruses linked to the new strain aren't found within 100 miles of Wuhan — but they were studied in both labs.

Many of the species traded in the Wutan wet-market are not native to the surrounding areas, like many of the pangolins for instance.