Thank you very much for an excellent essay - you explained it so well that even me, a layperson can understand it. Loved the pasta analogy. Your writing style held my interest throughout. I've subscribed and look forward to reading more....
Whether it was accident, on purpose, or natural, I hope that Omicron marks the end of this pandemic. All the narrative for vaccine passports no longer holds water. Let's start living life again!
1) any chance you could find someone to steelman those who'd explain it away?
2) omicron seems like a gift to the (western) world, especially the blue anon crazies, who did all the things but're still getting sick but not severely. Thoughts?
Not sure I'm ready to think on how to stop doing GOFR in the age of crispr
Great beginning on Substack! Your rightful emphasis on the importance of the orgin caught my attention. I share that view. Have read the detailed scientific publications over the past year, many of which you've sourced, leads to a startling (yet unsurprising) conclusion- it's difficult to deny this thing started in the lab. And that causes cognitive dissonance
It also pulls the Jenga piece that starts the collapse of this canard some still call free governance. It means OUR government, benevolent as it is, funded research that resulted in the largest man-made catastrophe ever witnessed. It lied about it. It aggressively attacked "dissenting" opinions that happened to coincide with the most likely scenario. It labeled any unapproved treatment options as dangerous, born of wild conspiracy theories. It mandated a vaccine that our betters declared untrustworthy a year ago. It required face coverings with openings many times larger in size than the virus, after initially stating they didn't work. Finally, putting whip cream on this pile of dog shit, it covered the whole thing up and demonized anyone smart enough to say, "excuse me?"
I get it. People want to move on. But how is something of this magnitude NOT the most important issue we face? For if we find our republic complicant in this disaster, is it not time to finally demand accountability for those responsible?
A really informative and thought-provoking article; thank you.
A little historical perpective: Many of us are familiar with Eisenhower's warning about the dangers of the power of the military-industrial complex in his 1960 farewell address. The next section of that speech warned of the danger of a scientific-technological elite with too much power:
"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly... the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity...
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
"But a highly transmissible virus is still going to find its way out of a lab on a regular basis. It’s dangerous to mess with it. For example, we know that the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 leaked out of a lab in Taiwan in late 2021."
It´s unbelievable that something such as GOF exists, a shame to all of us. The potential danger of it is unpredictable and these practices should be banned imediately. Thanks for share all these valuable info to public domain at these brilliant article.
BTW (as I commented on twitter) your definition of GoF will meet resistance. "Put in the simplest terms, GoF is research that attempts to take existing pathogens, such as viruses, and make them more dangerous to humans." Prof Peter Doherty (Nobel Laureate in immunology), for example, states that the yellow fever and MMR vaccines are examples of GoF. You can listen to the interview and read the transcript at https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/the-origins-of-sars-cov-2/13441308
I think the problem is "dangerous" GoF. How that can be defined is, of course, contested.
Need an audience? Tweet at Breaking Points' Saagar Enjeti or if that doesn't work the The Hill's Rising hosts (Robbie, Ryan, Kim). Saagar has been banging the "GoF bad" drum for a while and would love this story.
Where is the lab where Omikron escaped from? In Wuhan the first cases happened in the city with two biolabs doing research in corona viruses. But where in South Africa could Omikron have been created? I think a discussion about that issue is really missing in this article.
Thank you for the article, and for encouraging me to continue to keep reading when I was thinking you were a CRAZY conspiracy theorist. (I, myself, am a conspiracy theorist, but one who only has time for the actual conspiracies! But I digress.)
I may have not picked up on this in your piece but do you think the GoF enthusiasts actually believe that they are doing this for the reasons they give, or do you think they are doing it to develop biological weapons?
Thank you very much for this essay. I think you raise some valid points. However, I was wondering how would you explain the BA.2 and BA.3 variants within this hypothesis?
A very easy-to-read article that doesn’t skip the tough bits. Extremely worth the time for a better understanding of what happens in the world of microbiology, and what’s happening right now.
Thank you very much for an excellent essay - you explained it so well that even me, a layperson can understand it. Loved the pasta analogy. Your writing style held my interest throughout. I've subscribed and look forward to reading more....
Whether it was accident, on purpose, or natural, I hope that Omicron marks the end of this pandemic. All the narrative for vaccine passports no longer holds water. Let's start living life again!
Thank you. This really filled some gaps in my understanding of what ethical skeptic has been saying.
Great explainer.
1) any chance you could find someone to steelman those who'd explain it away?
2) omicron seems like a gift to the (western) world, especially the blue anon crazies, who did all the things but're still getting sick but not severely. Thoughts?
Not sure I'm ready to think on how to stop doing GOFR in the age of crispr
Great beginning on Substack! Your rightful emphasis on the importance of the orgin caught my attention. I share that view. Have read the detailed scientific publications over the past year, many of which you've sourced, leads to a startling (yet unsurprising) conclusion- it's difficult to deny this thing started in the lab. And that causes cognitive dissonance
It also pulls the Jenga piece that starts the collapse of this canard some still call free governance. It means OUR government, benevolent as it is, funded research that resulted in the largest man-made catastrophe ever witnessed. It lied about it. It aggressively attacked "dissenting" opinions that happened to coincide with the most likely scenario. It labeled any unapproved treatment options as dangerous, born of wild conspiracy theories. It mandated a vaccine that our betters declared untrustworthy a year ago. It required face coverings with openings many times larger in size than the virus, after initially stating they didn't work. Finally, putting whip cream on this pile of dog shit, it covered the whole thing up and demonized anyone smart enough to say, "excuse me?"
I get it. People want to move on. But how is something of this magnitude NOT the most important issue we face? For if we find our republic complicant in this disaster, is it not time to finally demand accountability for those responsible?
A really informative and thought-provoking article; thank you.
A little historical perpective: Many of us are familiar with Eisenhower's warning about the dangers of the power of the military-industrial complex in his 1960 farewell address. The next section of that speech warned of the danger of a scientific-technological elite with too much power:
"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly... the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity...
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."
We should have paid more attention on all counts.
"But a highly transmissible virus is still going to find its way out of a lab on a regular basis. It’s dangerous to mess with it. For example, we know that the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 leaked out of a lab in Taiwan in late 2021."
Did you mean omicron variant here?
It´s unbelievable that something such as GOF exists, a shame to all of us. The potential danger of it is unpredictable and these practices should be banned imediately. Thanks for share all these valuable info to public domain at these brilliant article.
BTW (as I commented on twitter) your definition of GoF will meet resistance. "Put in the simplest terms, GoF is research that attempts to take existing pathogens, such as viruses, and make them more dangerous to humans." Prof Peter Doherty (Nobel Laureate in immunology), for example, states that the yellow fever and MMR vaccines are examples of GoF. You can listen to the interview and read the transcript at https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/the-origins-of-sars-cov-2/13441308
I think the problem is "dangerous" GoF. How that can be defined is, of course, contested.
I'm partial to the idea that Omicron was accidentally created by Merck while testing their mutation-causing covid drug in South Africa: https://twitter.com/ydeigin/status/1474116195444006922
Need an audience? Tweet at Breaking Points' Saagar Enjeti or if that doesn't work the The Hill's Rising hosts (Robbie, Ryan, Kim). Saagar has been banging the "GoF bad" drum for a while and would love this story.
Here is another angle #1:
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/covid-lab-leak-whitewash-has-been-death-science-says-professor-who-found-unique "But it was highly unusual to find so many positive charges in a row because they also repel each other, he said.
“We realised when they released the sequence of the virus it broke the laws of physics for a natural virus meaning it was genetically modified. "
#2 angle:
https://thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com/2022/01/17/moderna-patented-man-made-sars-cov2-gene-sequence-in-2018/
"SARS-CoV-2 genome contains a 19 nucleotide sequence #CTCCTCGGCGGGCACGTAG
Probability of sequence occurring by chance: less than 1 in a billion.
There’s no known virus including this sequence prior to SARS-Cov-2."
Where author of #2 article is not aware of article#, since it is not so "random" affinity, and charges dictate probability!
And then your article!
Now you have more to make new information fusion for updated article!
Where is the lab where Omikron escaped from? In Wuhan the first cases happened in the city with two biolabs doing research in corona viruses. But where in South Africa could Omikron have been created? I think a discussion about that issue is really missing in this article.
Thank you for the article, and for encouraging me to continue to keep reading when I was thinking you were a CRAZY conspiracy theorist. (I, myself, am a conspiracy theorist, but one who only has time for the actual conspiracies! But I digress.)
I may have not picked up on this in your piece but do you think the GoF enthusiasts actually believe that they are doing this for the reasons they give, or do you think they are doing it to develop biological weapons?
Thank you.
About 1/3 of the way in you say "Edited, 5 Jan 2021" and I believe that should read 2022.
Thank you very much for this essay. I think you raise some valid points. However, I was wondering how would you explain the BA.2 and BA.3 variants within this hypothesis?
A very easy-to-read article that doesn’t skip the tough bits. Extremely worth the time for a better understanding of what happens in the world of microbiology, and what’s happening right now.