Need debunking please...original cause of the coronavirus

[steve2470]

Note: Before someone excoriates me, I do NOT believe the conspiracy-laden BS out there.

My understanding is the virus originated from a market in Wuhan, possibly a bat. The virus then spread in the local population. Nothing pointing to some nefarious government conspiracy to infect anyone.

This friend of mine pointed me to two articles to buttress her theory (that the USA government gave the virus to China), which I argued strongly against. Here's the articles:

https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky-research-1.18787

and

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/lab-made-coronavirus-triggers-debate-34502

I pointed her to this part in the nature.com article:

Editors’ note, March 2020: We are aware that this story is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm

The first patients apparently got the virus at a "wet (live animal) market". Precisely where you might expect to get such a virus jumping to humans from animals naturally.

[steve2470]

2. yes, precisely what I had heard nt

[PoliticAverse]

3. Part of the reason people believe the conspiracy theories is that China's only "Level 4" bio lab...

is in Wuhan. But again the Doctor that first brought attention to the virus traced the apparent origin to the live animal market.

https://www.livescience.com/china-lab-meets-biosafety-levels-new-coronavirus.html

[steve2470]

4. oh thank you for that, I was not aware the doctor did trace it nt

[PoliticAverse]

6. Yes the medical staff natually attempted to determine what the several victims had in common

and the "Huanan Seafood Market" was apparently the common denominator...

From: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/01/31/800975655/why-theyre-called-wet-markets-and-what-health-risks-they-might-pose

Patients who came down with disease at the end of December all had connections to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan China. The complex of stalls selling live fish, meat and wild animals is known in the region as a "wet market." Researchers believe the new virus probably mutated from a coronavirus common in animals and jumped over to humans in the Wuhan bazaar.

[LizBeth]

5. I heard disease in bat gut, snake ate bat, snake in wet market. I heard chickens, too.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. Another counter to this bullshit....

(and I apologize for not having a reference at hand, but it's out there) is that scientists that study the way these viruses mutate can somehow trace the genetics of a virus back to a previous virus that was known to be harbored by the same groups of animals suspected to have carried this to humans.

They believe the mutation occurred naturally in recent years in some members of those suspect species. In other words, Mother Nature and evolution running its normal course.

They may never know, however exactly where on earth the mutation occurred since the wild animal trade is mostly black market and not controlled.

KY

[thesquanderer]

10. Won't help. Those who believe the nutty conspiracy theories don't believe in evolution. nt

[duforsure]

8. A good video on the Wuhan outbreak on You Tube

or just search it under Wuhan Covid-19

[Clash City Rocker]

9. I think that's Russian propaganda

Meanwhile, right-wingers here are pushing a Chinese conspiracy theory, and pretty much every conspiracy theory they push comes from Russia. It’s all about sowing chaos.

And, you may have noticed, Russia is getting relatively few cases of the virus. Putin is laughing his ass off right now.

[zonemaster]

11. Keep in mind - the number of cases Russia REPORTS...

may be quite different from the number of cases Russia is currently treating, which may be quite different, still, from the number of cases that Russia actually has. Remember - Putin stays in power using tactics Trump and his lick-spittles employ - stifling and poo-pooing factual data while pumping up fake news and fantasies. And Putin has been doing this much longer than Trump, and has more control over the media than Trump does, so he's probably getting a 'better' result. I read an article somewhere yesterday that mentioned that Russia is currently experiencing an unusual spike in 'pneumonia' cases, which may tell you something.

I'm not implying that Russia started the pandemic, just that, to impress its citizens and make them feel more love for him and the mother-country, it's in Putin's self-interest to downplay and lie about Russia's infection rate - just like Trump.