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A comment on Molecular biology clues portray SARS-CoV-2 as a lab manipulation of RaTG13. Parent comment

Re:Molecular biology clues portray SARS-CoV-2 as a lab manip... by api on Sunday May 30, 2021 @04:01PM (#27336208)
Whether something fits an ideology or political agenda should be irrelevant. Either it was engineered and escaped a lab or it didn’t.

Also in this case the GoF research was partly US funded and involved US researchers, so it can’t be blamed exclusively on China. If the lab leak hypothesis is true there will be lots of egg on lots of faces.

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Re:Molecular biology clues portray SARS-CoV-2 as a lab manip... by IIAOPSW on Sunday May 30, 2021 @05:02PM (#27336719)
Should be irrelevant isn't the same as is irrelevant. You can't derive ought from is.

The methods of science and peer review and open debate only work when a majority of the participants are good faith disinterested truth seekers. When bad faith motivated reasoners start to crowd out the former, you end up with something akin to a show-trial. The process is technically followed by the result is a fraud.

There is so much political interest in the lab leak question that I think good faith scientists are strongly outnumbered. There's a truth value to the lab leak question, but I can't possibly expect to know it in this environment. Anyone making a claim to the contrary is a bullshitter.

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