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A comment on Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19. Parent comment

Re:Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 by nradov on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @12:24PM (#24767045)
No that is not at all how it usually works. The essence of the scientific method is formulating a hypothesis and then conducting experiments in an attempt to falsify it. The more experiments that have failed to falsify a hypothesis, the more confidence we can have in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability

As a basic matter of epistemology we can almost never really prove a hypothesis. All we can do is agree that it fits the available data until something better comes along.

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Re:Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19 by hef19898 on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @12:35PM (#24767176)
Until you found proof for a hypothesis to be correct. At witch point you usually stop trying to falsify that hypothesis. Applying that to the Wuhan lab theory, the correct way would be to properly falsify the natural jump from animals to humans first. Scientifically falsifying it. I have yet to see such proof.

EDIT: Of course these proofs have a certain likelihood of being false, hence all the p-value chasing and confidence-level adjusting.

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