Research by Chinese experts published in the Lancet in January showed the first known patient, identified on Dec. 1, had no connection to the market, nor did more than one-third of the cases in the first large cluster. Also, the market didn’t sell bats.
The Chinese government, meanwhile, has put a total lockdown on information related to the virus origins.
Several of the doctors and journalists who reported on the spread early on have disappeared.
This is quite concerning. I doubt we'll ever know if the virus escaped one of these labs, in any case, what is more concerning is that another virus may "escape", either in China, or another country.
I too am worried that this will amplify xenophobia, we've got to remember that it's not individual citizens, either of China, or Chineses people in other countries that are to blame, they aren't any different from us, they are in danger too, not the cause of the danger.
A friend sent it my way saying "this is insane" and its entirely plausible bc of how fiercely china controls the news that comes out of it and how into spin they are...but then makes me nervous bc there is already so much dangerous xenophobia happening. Plus it's all conjecture, but with evidence. AGH. I feel weird.
Update (4/14/2020):
especially this:
“As many have pointed out, there is no evidence that the virus now plaguing the world was engineered; scientists largely agree it came from animals. But that is not the same as saying it didn’t come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals,” said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley.
This is quite concerning. I doubt we'll ever know if the virus escaped one of these labs, in any case, what is more concerning is that another virus may "escape", either in China, or another country.
I too am worried that this will amplify xenophobia, we've got to remember that it's not individual citizens, either of China, or Chineses people in other countries that are to blame, they aren't any different from us, they are in danger too, not the cause of the danger.
This article made me really uncomfortable.
A friend sent it my way saying "this is insane" and its entirely plausible bc of how fiercely china controls the news that comes out of it and how into spin they are...but then makes me nervous bc there is already so much dangerous xenophobia happening. Plus it's all conjecture, but with evidence. AGH. I feel weird.
especially this: