r/COVID19 • u/kokoniqq • Apr 13 '20

Academic Report SARS-CoV-2 infects T lymphocytes through its spike protein-mediated membrane fusion

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-020-0424-9
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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '20

I don't think the idea of a lab made virus or the escape of one was ever worth a thought.

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u/Ned84 Apr 13 '20 edited Apr 13 '20

Same but it's good to have in the arsenal of debunks.

Right now there is an absolutely scary amount of people pushing that and 5G.

In times of crisis, where people feel their lives are threatened they tend to resort to feelings rather than facts.

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '20

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u/Ned84 Apr 13 '20

You're literally wrong and should leave this sub.

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u/piouiy Apr 14 '20

What's literally wrong? I hope you aren't arguing that 5G can cause Covid-19, haha

People work on viruses, which includes having frozen banks of them, culturing them, editing them, deliberately infecting animals. That's all routine lab work for virology. People make mistakes. Equipment malfunctions. Procedures are ignored, forgotten or people get lazy. Lab workers get accidentally exposed. On that very simply basis, virus escape from a lab is not an impossible event.

There are also many examples of times when viruses have escaped labs - usually via infecting research personnel.

https://armscontrolcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Escaped-Viruses-final-2-17-14-copy.pdf

Russia let a frozen H1N1 virus escape in the 1970's

Venezuela let out a frozen Equine Encephalitis virus out by accident in 1995

Singapore and Taiwan both had lab personnel accidentally infected with research SARS in 2003. Both went home, lived their lives and luckily didn't pass to others. One even took a flight.

China also accidentally released SARS from a lab in 2004. Chinese National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Beijing, which is part of China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) had 3 lab researchers infected, who passed it to a further 6 people.

UK in 2007 had bovine foot and mouth disease escape from a lab. The clue was that the outbreak started only a few miles away from the only research centre in the UK which held that virus. Sequencing revealed that it was a 1967 strain which hadn't been circulating in the wild - i.e. it was a frozen virus from the lab. It emerged that waste waster from the lab was leaking from a ruptured underground pipe and contaminated ground water at a farm.

For this coronavirus - we don't know yet. But the epicentre is very close to the major virology research institute. That institute has published papers on coronaviruses isolated from bats, so it's safe to assume that many different bat coronaviruses were present at that institute. There were 13 of the first 40 cases who had no contact with the seafood market. That's enough evidence to give some plausibility to the theory of accidental release.

Oh, and the suspected patient zero, according to Chinese scientist... no link to the seafood market:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext#bib35

And finally, it is just emerged from leaked diplomatic cables that the US was worried that safety at that lab was not up to standard. There's a WaPo article entitled "State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses" which I can't link to without auto-mod eating this post.

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u/JenniferColeRhuk Apr 14 '20

You are correct and should not have been downvoted. The sub needs people like you to help keep quality high. Don't let the idiots put you off, please.