Re:The Lab Leak Hypothesis
by treis on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @11:51AM
(#25647425)
>he similar virus was known to the lab was enough to drag me to thinking it is probably a toss up.
A human generated virus wouldn't be similar in this way to a wild one. You would take a candidate virus and splice in genetic material from a different one. The new virus would match 100% in most places and then be completely different in a few places.
Re:The Lab Leak Hypothesis
by mgamache on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @12:53PM
(#25648453)
This is not how they conduct gain of function research. It's uses serial passage (using biological hosts and the virus's own variations). This produces vary little evidence of manipulation.
A human generated virus wouldn't be similar in this way to a wild one. You would take a candidate virus and splice in genetic material from a different one. The new virus would match 100% in most places and then be completely different in a few places.