China is an authoritarian surveillance state. They have ample relevant data to help determine the origins of covid, and can choose to share it or not. But our search for the answer should not be conditioned on their willingness to cooperate, or the consequences of making them mad
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Chinese citizens, because they live under authoritarian rule, are unable to pressure their government from within for a candid investigation into the origins of covid. The only possible source of pressure comes from abroad, and we can't abrogate our duty to seek answers.
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If it turns out this was an iatrogenic pandemic, then that also has immense global implications for how we study dangerous pathogens in the future. This is not a "blame China" issue but a basic question of risk.
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Those who equate criticism of the Chinese government with sinophobia or racism are carrying water for a genocidal regime, and doing immense disservice to the very people they claim to be defending.
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Regardless of the source, we should operate as if both had happened.
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Yeah, there’s not much reason to suppose that the source of another pandemic would be the same as this one.
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The most ironic part is that China was doing so much research in an attempt to understand and prevent the potential futures SARS pandemics, but the lab leak would mean they caused it instead.
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Yeah, exactly. We need to know whether the research in the end poses a greater threat than what is being studied.
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Sort of, yeah, but we know it could be either and should be prepared for either (and to do what we can to avoid either). It would hard to avoid geopolitical implications of a lab escape, though you’re right overall: we absolutely need to know whatever we can
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Regardless of the origin of covid, how much did China’s biowarfare budget explode after watching Americans respond to a plague by coughing in each other’s faces? We should be preparing for a human created pandemic either way
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