[ExI] it's not? indeed?

[Keith Henson]

On Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 8:58 PM Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

snip

> I can't say definitively whether or not Covid was leaked from the lab
> and I doubt anyone can.

I agree, but it is illogical, especially an intentional leak.

> I did see an Australian news production where
> Donald Trump was interviewed and said he believed it came from the lab
> based upon secret stuff he couldn't share publicly. The Donald is
> honesty challenged at best.

As you say.

> However, it has seemed likely since
> January of 2020 to me based upon the fact that the virology lab is
> proximate to the initial outbreak and the bats in question live far
> away.

It was quite a few miles, but like the first spillover, there was an
intermediate host involved, probably raccoon dogs so the question of
where the bats lived is irrelevant.

> All that being said, I can be more definitive about the Facebook
> response to the lab leak hypothesis.
>
> The following is partially based upon the following three articles
> published at the time.
> https://www.wionews.com/technology/facebook-lifts-ban-on-lab-leak-posts-as-us-investigates-origin-of-coronavirus-387899
> https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-facebook-reverses-wont-lab-virus.html
> https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/27/facebook-is-no-longer-censoring-the-lab-leak-theory/
>
> Facebook initially limited and blocked posts that promoted the lab
> leak theory of the COVID-19 virus during the early days of the
> pandemic. This action was part of their broader policy to suppress
> what they considered to be misinformation about the pandemic. The
> policy included banning posts suggesting that COVID-19 was a man-made
> virus or had escaped from a lab.

At that time, and likely to this day, human technology is not up to a
man-made virus.  That being the case, it is exceedingly unlikely to
have existed much less to have escaped from a lab.

Now humans *can* modify viruses.  We know the Covid virus can be much
more infectious because natural selection has made it that way.  If it
was modified in a lab, they did a piss poor job.

> However, Facebook reversed this policy on May 26, 2021 and lifted the
> ban on posts discussing the lab leak theory as a possible origin of
> the coronavirus. This change in policy occurred in light of ongoing
> investigations into the virus's origins and evolving discussions in
> the scientific community and the media about the possibility of a lab
> leak. The reversal also followed new intelligence and public
> statements that lent some credence to this theory.

I understand the technology involved and give no credence to the theory at all.

> So, while the lab leak itself is controversial, the Facebook response
> to the lab leak hypothesis is very well documented.

When FB policy determines "truth" we are in a sad state.

Keith

> -Kelly
>
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