Trump pushing "Lab Virus" conspiracy theory now

[orangecrush]

In probably the most disgusting attempt at damage control thus far, now Trump is ordering the intelligence community to find evidence to support the "Chinese lab virus that got away" conspiracy theory.

The press really needs to STOP FUCKING AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO SHIT LIKE THIS, GROW A SPINE AND POINT OUT IN PLAIN LANGUAGE HOW DANGEROUS, DERANGED AND TOTALLY INCOMPETENT THIS SCUMBAG AND HIS HENCHMEN ARE.

It's the least they can do for the families of those killed by his ineptitude.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/fauci-throws-cold-water-conspiracy-theory-coronavirus-escaped-chinese-lab-2020-4%3famp

[Disaffected]

1. Yeah,

it's right out of the Iraq WMD playbook.

[intrepidity]

2. Sorry, but this angle needs investigating

It's infuriating whenever Trump says something that I somewhat agree with, because it immediately becomes suspect, understsndably.

But this one needs looking into.

Fuck Trump!

[tanyev]

3. At this point it doesn't matter where it came from.

The focus right now needs to be on testing and treatment.

[HipChick]

4. Exactly..

[EndlessWire]

5. You are correct.

If our IC could prove that aliens from outer space brought it, what of it? Trump better STFU lest the IC discover what he's really doing palling around with Russia.

And, he used to be courting President For Life Xi until he fell in love with Kim Jung Un, who dumped him, with his current and BFFL Putin waiting in the wings. It's not surprising that Vlady and Trumpy are having late night chats about...wait, what did they talk about?

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Right! 😷

[jmg257]

6. Wrong theory - think the notion is that the Wuhan lab studies such things

And that it escaped, not that it was created there.

There’s plenty of info on these types of labs, and they are usually safety risks/concerns.

https://www.nature.com/news/polopoly_fs/1.21487!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/nature.2017.21487.pdf?origin=ppub


In particular, the emergence of zoonotic viruses — those that jump to humans from animals, such as SARS or Ebola — is a concern, says Bruno Lina, director of the VirPath virology lab in Lyon, France.
Many staff from the Wuhan lab have been training at a BSL-4 lab in Lyon, which some scientists find reassuring. And the facility has already carried out a test-run using a low-risk virus.
But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataw

[struggle4progress]

7. Careful genomic studies will eventually provide info about the origins of the virus

Those studies will be interesting and probably useful. But The Don's ceaseless political noise doesn't help anybody

[intrepidity]

9. Genomic analysis won't answer this question

because the question isn't about it's biological origin, but rather it's geographical origin.

The idea is that the virus, from a bat, was in the lab being studied and accidentally escaped.

Unless there's GPS encoded in it's genome....

[struggle4progress]

11. There are probably hundreds or thousands of strains of this and related viruses

They can be collected worldwide -- and probably are being collected worldwide, as labs around the world study the virus

PCR is a rather powerful tool, and number-crunching today is much easier than it was fifty years ago

From the data, it should be possible to assemble time-varying phylogenetic trees linked to geography

So we may eventually have rather good ideas about the evolution of the virus in time and space

[intrepidity]

12. Here's one of the most recent:

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/07/2004999117

[Jamastiene]

8. That fucker never stops.

Somebody needs to take his crack pipe away. Trump is whack.