Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

  • gerikson@awful.systemsEnglish
    67·
    1 year ago

    I believe the scientific consensus is that it originated in a wet market in Wuhan.

    The “lab leak theory”, while not impossible, is also shorthand for a morass of conspiracy theories grounded in racist attitudes towards China. It somehow conflates that the pandemic is China’s fault, if not an outright attack from China, while simultaneously downplaying any efforts to mitigate such an attack.

    • tetris11@lemmy.mlEnglish
      203·
      1 year ago

      The racist connotations about the lab I knew about, but I didn’t think it made it less true.

      That being said, I just checked wikipedia:

      Most scientists agree that, as with many other pandemics in human history,[1][2][3] the virus is likely derived from a bat-borne virus transmitted to humans via another animal in nature or during wildlife trade such as that in food markets.[11] Many other explanations, including several conspiracy theories, have been proposed.[12][13][14] Some scientists and politicians have speculated that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a laboratory. This theory is not supported by evidence.[15]

      SARS-CoV-2 has close genetic similarity to multiple previously identified bat coronaviruses, suggesting it crossed over into humans from bats

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_COVID-19

      and I think I remember seeing a study that showed the similarity of the sequence to other known sequences and it wasn’t that dramatic a change.

      • self@awful.systemsEnglish
        12·
        1 year ago

        The racist connotations about the lab I knew about, but I didn’t think it made it less true.

        this is an absolute fuck of a sentence and seeing as how you keep JAQing off in a way that platforms conspiracy bullshit, you can just fuck off too

    • Nihilistra@lemmy.worldEnglish
      108·
      1 year ago

      But would the world Powers have said something if it was an escaped virus out of the Chinese Lab in Wuhan?

      I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the wet market is 20 mins from a lab working on bats and viruses.

      You have a global Pandemic, but also a big part of the population wants revenge because the Chinese can’t keep their lab viruses contained and killed grandma with covid, quite a spicy meatball there.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
      47·
      1 year ago

      grounded in racist attitudes towards China

      I don’t understand why that’s considered racist? Why is a conspiracy theory that China has a world class biolab capable of a global pandemic racist?

      A crazy conspiracy that a foreign power has biotech superiority isn’t racism.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      410·
      1 year ago

      I guess most people aren’t up to date with this subject. There has been plenty of discussion with experts that point to the possibility of a lab leak. The wet market hypothesis has so many holes in it that it’s impossible to take seriously.