Does It Matter Where COVID-19 Came From?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Department of Energy says COVID-19 was caused by a lab leak. But that doesn’t mean COVID-19 was definitely caused by a lab leak. In fact, the agency’s report, which made headlines last week, states it has “low confidence” in its own conclusion. Scientific evidence, on the other hand, has overwhelmingly pointed toward a natural spillover from animals to humans — the same origin of nearly every other outbreak in history and a growing threat.

-snip-

This is not, after all, the first time scientists have thought about lab safety. Or the first time anyone has talked about, or implemented, biosecurity regulations. We spoke to Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and one of the scientists investigating COVID-19’s origins, to understand how scientists were thinking about lab safety before the pandemic politicized it — and what needs to happen to protect the world from pandemics, wherever they might come from.

Maggie Koerth: Whether COVID-19 came from a lab leak or if it was a zoonotic spillover, does that change what we have to do to prepare for or mitigate the risk of future pandemics?

Angela Rasmussen: Yes, it matters. But also, no, it doesn’t. So we already know that lab accidents are potentially dangerous. We also already know that they’ve happened before. But as far as I know, there’s been one lab-associated pandemic, and that was a flu pandemic in 1977, that started … likely as a result of a vaccine trial. Lab-acquired infections are a known risk. We also know how to mitigate that risk pretty well. That doesn’t mean we eliminate the risk. But it does mean we can mitigate it significantly, and of course we should. No matter what, we’re not going to be like, “Oh, it was zoonotic. So let’s not worry about biosafety biosecurity anymore.” Nobody at all is ever going to say that because we were already worried about biosafety and biosecurity.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/covid-lab-leak/

[FarPoint]

1. From an epidemiology view point...yes it matters.

What really needs to never be forgotten is how tRump and company sabotaged the safety of everyone....people died.

[Baked Potato]

2. To me, the most important lesson is "response."

There will be leaks and accidents and acts of God until whenever. Some could even be intentional.

Some day the masses could be manipulated using various means, be it Nuclear, Chemical, or Biological sabotage, attacks, or false flags.

The Response will be the key to survival.

Laying blame and its potential consequence is juicy and ripe material to be manipulated by whoever has the means to control media.

[brush]

3. It only matters to republicans who want to shiftt the blame...

for the million American lives lost away from trump and his bungled and delayed response in stopping the spread of the virus, getting testing and masking going, and later being against vaxxing even.

Just a total fuck up in handling the crisis so they want to blame it on a lab leak and somehow connect Dr. Fauci, a Democrat, to the lab and the leak.

[MasonDreams]

4. Baby out with the bath water?

Sure response was criminal. But, "gain of function research" let's not do that.

[Skittles]

5. OF COURSE IT MATTERS

WTF

[Wonder Why]

8. Right on! All the treatment in the world, even if we had a real President

at that time, would not have stopped a lot of the deaths because it took time to recognize the full dangers and the treatment (vaccine) didn't exist and took time to develop.

If it is a lab release and the lab notifies an honest government which notifies other governments, then the lab working with scientists everywhere have a far better chance of stopping or containing it with far fewer deaths.

With an intentional release or a dishonest lab, we now know we have to protect ourselves from the activities of that lab or that country in more ways than ever, just like we now have to protect the country from radioactive materials being brought surreptitiously into the country.

Lab release can be controlled by better safety procedures so they are generally considered "preventable" unlike causes from the wild which are much less preventable. With a lab release, it is generally pretty easy to diagnose what went wrong and fix it as well as notifying other labs so they can look at whether their processes have similar weaknesses.

Knowing the source of any pandemic is critical to preventing, stopping or containing it and knowing that as soon as possible is even more so.

[Skittles]

9. yup

I understand there are people interested only in the xenophobia they can display but that does NOT negate your last sentence.....AT ALL!

[Paladin]

6. Not nearly as much as where it's going. (nt)

[LeftInTX]

7. Yes and No

We learn from the past. Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Bucky]

10. Of course it matters where the virus originated. Silly question. But that said

The whole point of science is finding out about natural processes so that we can mitigate the harm they cause our fellow humans. The more we know about how viruses work and originate and evolve, the better able we'll be to handle the next pandemic crisis to come along.

If Covid 19 did come from the Wuhan lab, that's no defeat for the people who supported precautions and vaccinations. If these theories don't pan out, it's no loss for the vaxx deniers. The facts don't care about anyone's opinions.