We are forgetting the inconvenient truth here that Dr. Fauci said he was not sure if Covid developed naturally. Republicans did not say this, Dr Fauci did.

@St-Sinner As the video shows, Fauci says it is possible the virus escaped from the lab, and that he endorses further study to find evidence or proof, either way. I agree with that. However, the issue has been politicized as part of Trumpism's vendetta against China. Thus, Trump supporters are repeating the conspiracy aspect, muddying the information landscape. It's just another meme to excite the base, and has no bearing except to distract from the incompetence of Trump that caused a half-million American deaths.

@racocn8

The point in my comment was Dr Fauci. I showed you Fauci mentioned that is may not be a natural phenomenon. It has been a high possibility and Republicans are pouncing on it to make hay in the Biden administration instead of pressing in before under Trump. I see that. That is what happens in politics, it is a dirty game. We Democrats play that too.

There are politics on both sides, dirty politics, good gestures and both sides demonize the other. I have seen it over 33 years. We all progressives here agree that Trump was bad and American voters threw him out. But what we also do here is not admit what our leaders do wrong, how sissy they are, how Republicans have a stronger backbone and better game plan. We need to start seeing that our enemy is kicking our ass and we have to better our game. We continue to make lousy heroes and defend them.

@St-Sinner and how Exactly could hee,or anyone else, "be sure", especially while taking questions at a press event? WTF should he have said?!?

@AnneWimsey

Wait until we have gathered enough information to be sure about what you are talking about. Else keep mouth shut.

@AnneWimsey @St-Sinner
In the reference below, carefully examine Fig. 1.

The polybasic cleavage site (RRAR) at the junction of S1 and S2, the two subunits of the spike, shows a newly added RNA coded sequence. Researchers have not fount this sequence in other animals.

Those promoting the lab-release scenario imply that Dr. Shi Zheng-li managed to get this sequence inserted by passing the virus through successive cultures (rather than by genetic manipulation). To obtain this result seems extremely improbable. Maybe 4^12 to start, four for the possible nucleotides and 12 for the length of the sequence, and that's not counting getting that sequence in the right place in a sequence hundreds of nucleotides long. Obtaining a gain of function by serial passage without mangling all the rest of the sequence (compared to the other animal sequences) is, again, extremely improbable.

The article makes other arguments as well.

[nature.com]

@St-Sinner did you look in the mirror as you posted this highly stupid response??

@AnneWimsey

Yes and I looked handsome.

They gave him the Nobel... but again they also gave one to Al Gore who predicted the end of Earth in 2014. Oh well.

@St-Sinner al gore did good ... lots of world ending predictions and none of them were right I don't remember him ever saying the world will end in any certain year .... he did however try and convince us to make changes that would have certainly been a big help in slowing climate change

@whiskywoman

Being good at what you do, public service, good intentions, educating us, suggesting changes... all this is good but Al Gore warned the Congress in a testimony and all of us in the media that the world would freeze in 2014. That is what I am talking about. He maybe a good guy but that does not absolve him from bullshittery. I know we like our heroes not matter how wrong they are. But I did not buy his outlandish claims then and his stock is low with me going forward.

@St-Sinner hes not a hero I just think he was ahead of the curve and I never heard of that quote but I didn't pay much attention them I had babies to feed and men to support

@St-Sinner and we all make mistakes big and small