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Nearly 200 people under observation after Irkutsk lab worker dies from plague

229 points · 208 comments · ericmay

  1. robmusial · · focus · HN ↗
    I literally just finished Annie Jacobsen's book 'Biological War: A Scenario' last week where the central plot point is an accidental release of modified form of pneumonic plague from a lab in Siberia. Very coincidental timing, especially since it made me wonder how often labs like these have accidents and we never hear about them because it is cleaned up without issue.
    1. petcat · · focus · HN ↗
      > made me wonder how often labs like these have accidents and we never hear about them because it is cleaned up without issue.

      Did anyone ever confirm if the lab in Wuhan China was the originator of COVID? I remember that was a rumor but never heard if there was anything to it.

      1. lumost · · focus · HN ↗
        I recently heard a scientist use a phrase something along the lines of “when two extraordinarily improbably events occur together, there is probably a connection”.

        We’ll never know if the lab in Wuhan originated the virus. But it is awfully strange that the first patients of a novel pandemic coronavirus were workers at a lab conducting gain of function research on coronavirus.

        1. tzs · · focus · HN ↗
          Virus outbreaks are usually first recognized in large cities. Most large Chinese cities have labs that study coronaviruses. They were established in response to SARS-CoV-1 in the early 2000s.

          So no matter where it comes from the chances are good a coronavirus outbreak will first be detected in a city that has a coronavirus lab.

          1. lumost · · focus · HN ↗
            My understanding is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was one of only 2 BSL-4 labs in china in 2019, and the only one focused on emergent viruses. This is out of 684 major Chinese cities.
            1. hypfer · · focus · HN ↗
              The good thing about free will is that one can just believe that something is true, regardless of how much people on the web hit oneself over the head for it.

              Ideally, said belief is rooted in scientific methods, of course.

              But there is actually no need for this "lab! No! Market! no! Lab!" ping-pong that seems to be developing here.

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