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

229 points · 208 comments · ericmay

robmusial · 1791169542 · 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 · 1791170758 · 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 · 1791171119 · 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.
    Angostura · 1791178768 · focus · HN ↗
    > 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.
    Except - as far as I know - the first patients weren’t.
    nostrademons · 1791180951 · focus · HN ↗
    What do you know?
    In 2021 the WSJ reported that 3 workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 with symptoms resembling COVID-19 that they sought hospital care. Their source was a U.S. intelligence report.
    <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/intelligence-on-sick-staff-at-wuhan-lab-fuels-debate-on-covid-19-origin-11621796228" rel="nofollow">https://www.wsj.com/world/china/intelligence-on-sick-staff-a...
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210622121243/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/covid-19-origins-wuhan-lab-staff-treatment-illness-flu-14873524" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20210622121243/https://www.chann...
    The WHO responded by saying the lab leak theory was extremely unlikely, and this line of investigation was dropped (except possibly within the government - this is the sort of information that would be convenient for governments to know but inconvenient for the public to know). But then in a follow-up documentary, a WHO scientist that published that statement says that they were under heavy pressure from the Chinese government to do so:
    <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/12/who-origins-embarek/" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/12/who-origins-...
    adrian_b · 1791186509 · focus · HN ↗
    Another poster above has quoted that US intelligence report that you mention, and it concluded that there is no evidence that any earlier illness was related to COVID.

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