Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by dangrossman on Monday January 03, 2022 @01:08AM (#29777862)

Wuhan is also home to bat caves where we've identified dozens of SARS/COVID-like viruses to date. They're the same caves three of that lab's researchers went into before becoming hospitalized with a flu-like illness in December of 2019. Even if you could trace this pandemic to those three researchers, it would not be evidence of SARS-COV-2 being a manufactured virus.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by xyzzy123 on Monday January 03, 2022 @01:49AM (#29778073)

This is plausible sounding but wrong, in fact it's in Alina Chan's top 10 myths:

"(4) (FALSE) Wuhan is a place where SARS transmits from animals into humans frequently. That's why the Wuhan Institute of Virology was built there.

Actually, Wuhan is ~1000km away from SARS spillover zones. Its human population was even used as a negative (no SARS) control group."

https://twitter.com/ayjchan/status/1394327680456220672?s=12

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by bawolff on Monday January 03, 2022 @02:19AM (#29778224)

That doesn't really seem to contradict the important part of the parent's argument: that the researchers went into the caves in question. I have no idea if that's true, but how far away the caves are seems like a quibble that's fairly irrelevant.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by xyzzy123 on Monday January 03, 2022 @03:21AM (#29778519)

There are 3 sentences in OP's post, the first two are wrong or misleading. The third (conclusion) is OK only insofar as it doesn't depend on the (false) premises.

1. Wuhan is not known for spillover.

2. Cave visits did happen but this has never been connected to the 3 "sick researchers" reported by US intel.

3. Sure, lab origin, zoonosis, engineering or not, all still on the table, just factually what OP wrote was inaccurate or misleading.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by mytailorisrich on Monday January 03, 2022 @04:25AM (#29778886)

Wuhan is a very large city in Central China and a transport hub. So it at least sounds plausible that the virus might have been carried there by someone, though I don't know how plausible it is that (if that's what occured) it did not seem to have left a trail of contamination (or perhaps it did but we don't know...)

Also, I believe that the first recorded outbreak of SARS was in Guangdong while the origin of the virus was eventually found to be in Yunnan, 1000+km away.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by timr on Monday January 03, 2022 @01:14AM (#29777885)

> Wuhan is also home to bat caves where we've identified dozens of SARS/COVID-like viruses to date.

The closest related natural viruses to SARS-CoV2 were not found in Wuhan. They were found in caves in Yunnan, and possibly Laos.

> The same caves three of that lab's researchers went into before becoming hospitalized with a flu-like illness in December of 2019

Again, Yunnan, not Wuhan. The researchers worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by petre on Monday January 03, 2022 @01:16AM (#29777898)

The bat caves are mostly in the region of Yunnan, a mountainous region famous for the tea with the same name. It directly borders Myanmar and Laos.

Noted, about "nearby", edited.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by wk_end on Monday January 03, 2022 @01:37AM (#29778021)

Not really "nearby" - they're something like 1500km away. Unless you'd refer to Warsaw as a nearby city of Paris, or Atlanta as nearby to New York, or Vancouver, BC as nearby to San Jose.

ETA: parent comment (to their credit!) edited the above to remove the world "nearby" either while I was replying or right after. Still leaving this comment up because it's worth pointing out just how far those caves are from Wuhan.

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Re:Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron var... by kennywinker on Monday January 03, 2022 @05:21AM (#29779222)

Since you called it out, and I live in Vancouver, BC - before the pandemic put a damper on travel I would say that Vancouver, BC and San Jose are pretty close - not geographically but for virus transmission. More important than physical distance, for a virus, is how often and how many potential carriers move between the locations.

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