>We can say with a high degree of confidence that SARS-CoV-2 was _not_ engineered.
The lab leak hypothesis doesn't depend on GoF research. CoV-2 could have a natural origin, been collected by the WIV, and leaked into the city. This has happened before.
That said, there's no way to evaluate if it was engineered. Some methods of engineering are indistinguishable from natural selection, and fingerprints from detectable methods have a very short half-life in a fast mutating virus.
>So even if the very first jump was in the lab, it was likely a result of insufficient biosecurity measures.
Virtually no one is claiming otherwise. This is a weakman argument.
>and it's a matter of time until a new spillover happens.
At the start of CoV-2, everyone told me that it takes years to develop vaccines. I told them it takes days to develop and weeks to test. Turns out that I was right. If the mortality rate of CoV-2 had been 3%, like early reports suggested, then the mRNA vaccines would have been in production by March.
The lab leak hypothesis doesn't depend on GoF research. CoV-2 could have a natural origin, been collected by the WIV, and leaked into the city. This has happened before.
That said, there's no way to evaluate if it was engineered. Some methods of engineering are indistinguishable from natural selection, and fingerprints from detectable methods have a very short half-life in a fast mutating virus.
>So even if the very first jump was in the lab, it was likely a result of insufficient biosecurity measures.
Virtually no one is claiming otherwise. This is a weakman argument.
>and it's a matter of time until a new spillover happens.
At the start of CoV-2, everyone told me that it takes years to develop vaccines. I told them it takes days to develop and weeks to test. Turns out that I was right. If the mortality rate of CoV-2 had been 3%, like early reports suggested, then the mRNA vaccines would have been in production by March.