macrocephalopod

Weasel words and lack of context. Plus, given the density of viruses and rapid rate of recombination and mutation, quite high over time? One of the theories I read last year, the origin of the English variant, was simply an immuno-compromised patient giving a ton of time for

the virus to evolve. Depending on environmental factors, it's quite common for evolutionary optima to be reached. It's how genetic algorithms work.

Would appreciate refraining insults. You never answered the questions. What are the odds an undiscovered virus is 99.5% optimized specifically to binding to human ACE2? Are you srsly refuting that it's low probability?

You are criticizing my language rather than answering my specific questions

You're asking me an unanswerable question. I do not have the data to give you an actual probability, and I'm quite sure you don't either.

This is exactly it. Literally no one in this conversation has the skills to reliably evaluate the evidence. You have drawn some conclusions but in all likelihood they are bullshit because you simply don’t know what you are doing.

Eh, let's take a step back from personal attacks here. I agree with your conclusion here that we cannot reliably evaluate the evidence, but I do think Mitchell knows a lot more than most.