Slack / Private Message Drop — page 725

[Robert Garry] Fortunately all scientists have NOT been fooled. "Nature is clearly a cauldron for intense and dangerous coronavirus evolution." [shared file(s): [14761645 - The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene] The Origin of COVID-19 and Why It Matters.pdf] [2021-04-22 12:32:58] [Robert Garry] "It should be clarified that theories about a hypothetical man-made origin of SARS-CoV-2 have been thoroughly discredited by multiple coronavirus experts.21,28,29" "It is also highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 was released from a laboratory by accident because no laboratory had the virus nor did its genetic sequence exist in any sequence database before its initial GenBank deposition (early January 2020). China's laboratory safety practices, policies, training, and engineering are equivalent to those of the United States and other developed countries,32 making viral "escape" extremely unlikely, and of course impossible without a viral isolate present. SARS-CoV-2 shares genetic properties with many other sarbecoviruses, lies fully within their genetic cluster, and is thus a virus that emerged naturally." [2021-04-22 12:52:47] [Kristian Andersen] Yup - and that's a good article. [2021-04-22 12:53:38] [Kristian Andersen] [from people who would know] [2021-04-22 12:54:16] [Robert Garry] Really love the "Nature is clearly a cauldron for intense and dangerous coronavirus evolution" bit. [2021-04-22 12:56:55] [Kristian Andersen] Yeah. And this was written before we saw all the crazy new viruses and variants as of late - nature really is frightening. [2021-04-22 12:59:31] [Eddie Holmes] https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001586 [2021-04-22 13:00:49] [Eddie Holmes] It's a respirovirus. The clue is in the title. Nothing to do with SC2 at all. [2021-04-22 13:02:51] [Robert Garry] Who would have imaged that any one animal could be infected with more than one respiratory virus? [2021-04-22 13:04:16] [Eddie Holmes] Is she so dumb as to not realise that 'resipirovirus' is a taxonomic name? [2021-04-22 13:09:42] [Robert Garry] Yes - actually dumber. [2021-04-22 13:11:22] [Eddie Holmes]