@bbmom2019, thank you for stimulating this conversation. Diversity of thought is the fertile ground we need here. Attaching a photo of the enormous Wuhan Institute of Virology. The more I read on this topic, the more I realize that more revelations will come out.
My favorite Chinese Communist Party message to the lab that Toy Reid translated was:
“once you have opened the stored test tubes, it is just as if having opened Pandora’s Box” adding “these viruses come without a shadow and leave without a trace”.
As the person who posted the link to the ProPublica article, just circling back to say that in the US in particular, science/medical education in public schools somewhat lacks (I should know, I only had to take Bio and Earth Science to get my HSD), so it is hard for many of us to discern truths and obfuscations in regard to scientific findings even when we can access the original data.
What convinced me was the translations. I excel at linguistics, and I understand the intricacies of translations. It was the translator who found the smoking gun. As @jeanne-mayell pointed out, the pressure the lab was under is clearly visible in the translations, as is the CCP's refusal to provide necessary safety equipment and/or monies to prevent such a thing from happening despite the scientists in Wuhan repeatedly pleading. And then the linguistic indicators that something very serious happened in the lab in early Fall of 2019, but in very couched language, as if they knew that one day someone would translate them and decode their true meaning.
I don't believe it was an act of bio-warfare. I do believe it was a chain of mistakes that snowballed into a pandemic, and possibly it may have been a warning of sorts from the Chinese scientists. Remember when Tylenol was poisoned in the US? People died. And now we all have impossible to open medicine caps. The prevailing theory is that it was a doctor or scientist who wanted to expose the dangers of poor packaging and labelling. It is entirely possible that the scientists in Wuhan, under hard pressure and without the resources they needed to protect the world from the viruses they were working on, decided to just let the chips fall where they may. Maybe they hoped global outrage would prevent this kind of pandemic in future.
While this article's findings are revelatory it seems to me that, while it helps to know what happened, this can happen again anywhere that science is underfunded and under appreciated (like in the US). And that's not even taking into account "bad actors" who are literally looking for ways to create bio-weapons to wipe out opposition to their authoritarian regimes.
This will happen again.
@jeanne-mayell The Republican senator who sponsored the research, Richard Burr of North Carolina, was somewhat less worse than some. He did not run for re-election this year, having been censured by his party for voting for impeachment of Trump. He also worked on healthcare and pandemic response things as senator so had some kind of background in the topic at hand.
Again, It Ain't Over Til It's Over:
Crusie Ship Docks in Sydney With 800 COVID Cases On Board
IMHO, giant cruise ships ought to go away, like forever. They are bad for the environment and for humans. They are each just a representation of greed to me.
@laura-f Hi, it’s feeling a bit deja vu here in Sydney, reminds us of The Ruby Princess docking and starting our Covid outbreak in 2020. We are also expecting a surge from the new variants this month as well. This time won’t be any lockdowns. We muddle on through.
After 2.5 years of avoiding it I managed to finally get Covid and thoughtfully infected my husband as well. Luckily we are mild, we have had 4 vaccinations all up each so I assume that helped. Another week and should be fine, just in time for my birthday.
Like the rest of the world will be glad when it has gone.
Regards to all
Hope you all feel better soon! Silver lining: you can wait 60-90 days before considering getting boosters.
As for COVID going away, it never will. Much like the Flu Pandemic of 1918-20 introduced flu to the whole world, same with COVID. It's here to stay. We can only hope that it evolves to be milder.
If you stopped masking, now might be a good time to put one back on.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday showed that the new subvariants — called BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 — have taken over BA.5. The two together make up around 44% of new Covid infections, whereas BA.5 makes up just 30%.
Both of the subvariants are considered sublineages of BA.5. But preliminary data suggests they are better at evading immunity from Covid vaccines, including the new boosters, or a previous Covid infection than past versions of omicron. That may give these subvariants higher transmissibility, which could fuel a rise in cases this winter.
Good grief! Will it ever end? I'm tempted to post a photo of Munch's painting "The Scream", but I feel too weary to do that ...
Well, I have a good supply of KN95 masks. Never stopped wearing them in public places like the grocery store, and am not about to stop now.
Thanks for keeping us updated, @lovendures. Knowledge is power!
An interesting study came out Thursday which measured how teen brains aged during the first year of covid. Children were already in a different study which was doing MRI images of their brains every 2 years when covid hit. The changes which occurred that first year of covid were dramatic. Their brains aged and changed by what appears to be stress.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/health/pandemic-teen-brains-stress-wellness/index.html