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

212 points · 187 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. mvlipwig · · focus · HN ↗
        It's difficult to say for sure, but the consensus is leaning towards zoonotic origin from a bat or pangolin in a wet market. (I'm not very well researched on this topic and don't have any formal background in it, so hedge accordingly)
        1. SV_BubbleTime · · focus · HN ↗
          >but the consensus is leaning towards zoonotic origin from a bat or pangolin in a wet market

          I literally had to check the date on this post.

          Does anyone else remember when claiming it was a lab in China that leaked was “racist”… but “they eat tainted exotic animals at wet markets” was “the consensus”?

          Wild times!

          1. refulgentis · · focus · HN ↗
            Calling it the “Chinavirus” was obviously racist and weird. It was an ex posto facto thing to claim saying it was a lab leak was racist. I’m sure someone said that, however, no one serious was nor was it a common position.
            1. retsibsi · · focus · HN ↗
              > It was an ex posto facto thing to claim saying it was a lab leak was racist. I’m sure someone said that, however, no one serious was nor was it a common position.

              I think you are misremembering.

              > The lab-leak theory had been floated by President Trump and others in his circle in April last year. It was widely dismissed at the time as an unfounded conspiracy theory with racist undertones.

              <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theconversation.com&#x2F;covid-19-why-lab-leak-theory-is-back-despite-little-new-evidence-162215" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theconversation.com&#x2F;covid-19-why-lab-leak-theory-is-... (2021)

              &gt; New York Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilli deleted a tweet Wednesday night that said the COVID-19 &quot;lab leak theory&quot; had &quot;racist roots.&quot;

              <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.yahoo.com&#x2F;entertainment&#x2F;ny-times-covid-reporter-deletes-132728236.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.yahoo.com&#x2F;entertainment&#x2F;ny-times-covid-reporter-... (2021)

              &gt; The lab-leak theory came to legitimacy by a circuitous path. It was first auditioned by Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo shortly after lockdown started, but journalists were quick to distance themselves from its overtones of crude Trumpian racism. Nevertheless the theory gained new life last spring, when some of those same journalists — abetted by a chorus of concern trolls — began to question if they had been blinded by liberal partisanship.

              <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nplusonemag.com&#x2F;issue-42&#x2F;politics&#x2F;lab-leak-theory-and-the-asiatic-form&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nplusonemag.com&#x2F;issue-42&#x2F;politics&#x2F;lab-leak-theor... (2022)

              Some of this was a case of people failing to recognise that Reversed Stupidity Is Not Intelligence, reasoning (implicitly) like this:

              Trump lies all the time + Trump said X =&gt; not X

              instead of like this:

              Trump says whatever suits him, regardless of the truth + Trump said X =&gt; no significant change to our credence in X

              &gt; Calling it the “Chinavirus” was obviously racist and weird.

              That was a dumb Trumpism for sure, but separately from that, here in Australia, before the global spread of covid became too obvious to ignore, there was a sense among right-thinking people that even being concerned about it, let alone wanting to take any kind of action, was a manifestation of anti-Chinese racism &#x2F; very literal xenophobia.

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