Poll Request: Where do you think Covid came from?

[dolphins4life]

Hoping the mods can convert this to a poll

Option 1: Lab Leak

Option 2: pangolins

Option 3: bats

Option 4: other animal.

the lab leak theory does disturb greatly.  Aren't you supposed to follow protocols in virus labs to ensure that nothing is infected and can leave the lab?

[raptorsfan29]

Lab leak most likely.

[Phishfan]

I'm unsure. I'm not definite on anything.

[Dave Gray]

This just isn't how my head works.

I believe in institutions.  The scientific community does their analysis and makes likely predictions.  And those predictions are my predictions.  How the fuck am I supposed to "guess" whether it's a pangolin or a different animal?

If they tell me it's a pangolin, I'll believe it's a pangolin.  If they get new data and say that it's likelier to have been a bat, I'll update and believe that.

[Brian Fein]

Also, not all lab leaks are malicious.  Could have been improper handling of biohazardous material.  People tend to think "lab leak" means "intentional lab leak" which is unfair.

[Spider-Dan]

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that COVID was leaked from the lab in Wuhan.  That lab studies existing virii; it does not perform any work in bioengineering new viruses.  So if COVID did leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the sample they had would have been from the wild*, which makes the whole "lab leak" theory self-defeating: if the lab in Wuhan leaked it, that necessarily means it was already in the wild.

*Unless the Wuhan Institute of Virology is secretly bioengineering new virii.  But if we're going to say that it's a leak from a secret lab, then there's no need to involve the Wuhan Institute of Virology at all!  You can just as easily say that the Wuhan public library (or literally any other building in a city of 12 million people) is a secret front for a clandestine biological weapons lab.

[Downunder Dolphan]

Can you add another vote option? Like something other than a bat, pangolin or a lab?

It most likely came from some animal from the Wuhan market. They have ruled out a bat and pangolin. There are so many other wild animals there, so take your pick...

I don't think it's a man made virus - it has gradually decreased in toxicity as it has mutated, as you would expect from natural viruses. It needs a host to survive, so it is in its own interest not to kill everyone. That's Darwin's laws of natural selection right there in a nutshell.

This has been backed up by most genuine intelligence agencies (as opposed to extreme media and conspiracy theorists). Sometimes, shit just happens. Count your blessings that we don't have the 10%+ global fatality rate we were possibly looking at when this started really spreading back in early 2020 before we had any kind of vaccine.