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A comment on Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says. Parent comment

Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by JoBrad on Sunday February 26, 2023 @07:49PM (#34951614)
A lab leak doesn’t mean gain of function, bio-engineered virus, or other engineering. It just means that the virus was spread via a lab leak.

> The October 2021 report said that there was a consensus that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program. But it didn’t settle the debate over whether it resulted from a lab leak or came from an animal, saying that more information was needed from the Chinese authorities.

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Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by kodah on Sunday February 26, 2023 @08:15PM (#34951786)
In what way is gain of function not bio-engineering? You're modifying a virus and subjecting it to human-like tissue to observe the results. Lab leak and gain of function are inexplicably tied.

I don't know what point the quote is getting to. I already said it wasn't a bioweapon.

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Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by JoBrad on Sunday February 26, 2023 @10:47PM (#34952720)
You could bio-engineer a virus without gain of function, I presume. My point was that a lab leak does not also mean bio-engineering.
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Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by shrimp_emoji on Sunday February 26, 2023 @10:52PM (#34952747)
I heard that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had inserted furin cleavage sites into random types of viruses in the past and that SARS-CoV-2 is unique among coronaviruses for having a furin cleavage site, but this[0] says otherwise:

``` Furin cleavage sites occurred independently for multiple times in the evolution of the coronavirus family, supporting the natural occurring hypothesis of SARS-CoV-2. ```

0: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33340798/

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