Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[Buster Highmen]

Obvious question, why was the need to culture a bat virus in the first place?

Because the Clintons and Gates paid them to do it!

Gates gave Clintons the technology to transform their pizza parlor into a genetic engineering lab. They passed their work to the Chinese!

[The AD]

Gates gave Clintons the technology to transform their pizza parlor into a genetic engineering lab. They passed their work to the Chinese!

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

[glademaster]

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

Makes Trump getting a golden shower seem downright vanilla by comparison.

[seano732]

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

Clearly the answer is yes.

[Dantheman]

Obvious question, why was the need to culture a bat virus in the first place?

For the same reasons Smallpox still exists in labs, the 1918 flu strain was isolated from exhumed corpses, etc. There could certainly be nefarious purposes, but there are plenty of legit reasons, too.

[hutash]

A patient isn’t dead until they are warm and dead.

Did you go through his pockets look for loose change?

[SkiBall]

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/stat...23836223356928

I don't doubt of the real possibility this virus "escaped" vs happened somehow someway in one of these "wet markets". I mean, this lab IS in Wuhan and people can be sloppy occasionally even when mostly they are very safe.

[Rasputin]

realclearpolitics?

what's next, articles from oann?

fuck off

Are you claiming that RCP is inaccurately reporting the results of polls done independently of their website, or are you disputing the polls themselves?

Given your knee-jerk reaction, I doubt you put much thought into it.

My point stands, that a significant part of the populace thinks the clown who would be king is handling this well. Are you part of the insane clown posse or something?

[funkendrenchman]

Fuck...

ROME—Italian newscaster Alessandro Politi was shocked when he tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11. He and other colleagues were swabbed out of an abundance of caution after a co-worker contracted the virus. The 30-year-old had a slight fever and a sore throat, but none of the chest tightness or other nightmarish symptoms so many have suffered.

Following the Italian Health Institute guidelines for releasing someone from self-isolation, Politi was tested again two weeks after his positive swab. But, fever-free and with no symptoms at all, he tested positive once more. The test was carried out a week later, 21 days after his diagnosis, and he still tested positive for the virus. Now, 30 days later, Politi has just tested positive again, calling into question just how long the novel coronavirus stays in some people’s systems and whether that might play a role in why, despite a month-long draconian lockdown, Italy just can’t seem to shake the virus.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-itali...091501683.html

He is still testing positive, but can he still spread the virus?

[gretch6364]

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

No way are the Clinton's willing to work hard enough to own a pizza parlor or work in the sex trade business.

[liv2ski]

If the Italian government will not let him out of quarantine without two negative tests, I guess they think he is contagious.

[Buster Highmen]

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

Bill Gates borrowed Nathan Myrvolds molecular gastronomy kitchen to blenderize the Clintons child sex workers in the basement of their chain of pizza parlors together with bat guano purchased from the Chinese in a biotech cooperative contract that gave the Chinese control over the extracts from running the resulting electrophoresis gels. Mark Ptashne and Wally Gilbert were in on the deal, inked after snorting loads of quality pink peruvian flake off Mark's Guanari.

[huckbucket]

Bill Gates borrowed Nathan Myrvolds molecular gastronomy kitchen to blenderize the Clintons child sex workers in the basement of their chain of pizza parlors together with bat guano purchased from the Chinese in a biotech cooperative contract that gave the Chinese control over the extracts from running the resulting electrophoresis gels. Mark Ptashne and Wally Gilbert were in on the deal, inked after snorting loads of quality pink peruvian flake off Mark's Guanari.

Thanks Obama ....

[ncskier]

For the same reasons Smallpox still exists in labs, the 1918 flu strain was isolated from exhumed corpses, etc. There could certainly be nefarious purposes, but there are plenty of legit reasons, too.

Probably this. If the chinese lab was studying the origin of the original Sars from 2003 and bats continued to do bat things, I doesn't mean that it was nefarious, it could have been just researchers using these bats to try and stop another SARS outbreak and it infected a lab worker and got out.
It doesn't make it racist to say so and it doesn't mean the chinese were weaponizing it either.
However, if it was a simple accident, just like Mom always said, if you tell me the truth you won't get in trouble if I find out you're lying, there will be consequences.
I am leaning towards simple accident and then a cover up until it got out of control.

[Rideski]

Well there’s quite a lot of that convo going on at Twitter
#ccpvirus

[bobz]

Let's hear it for South Dakota!! One of the two final holdouts (along with Oklahoma) on putting meaningful restrictions on the spread of the disease. And a tea-baggin' governor who (like the governor of Mississippi; who cooks up these talking points?) made sure to get a dig in on my fair state, something along the lines of "we aren't California!"

So, anyway, as of March 30 (NYT data saved to spreadsheet on that day), SD was ranked 46 out of 51 in case rate per population. A half-month later, they're ranked #18, with almost double California's case rate.

Apparently, a big source of the problem was a huge pork plant. Working conditions are generally unhealthy and bad there because, you know, FUCK YOU WORKERS!!! is the rockin' bootstrapin' ethic that supposedly Creates Jobs. Who could have guessed that unhealthy working conditions would lead to a disease outbreak, coinciding with a global pandemic?!?

Anyway, good luck guys. Maybe what needs to happen is a tax cut for the meat plant owners.

[XXX-er]

Did you go through his pockets look for loose change?

I never met the drowned guy but he was a medical professional so as opposed to loose change ... probably a Visa black or something equally high end

[XXX-er]

So were the bats supposed to bite the sex workers at the pizza place? I'm confused.

I just wana know if the bats could take off on a conveyor belt

[rideit]

Let's hear it for South Dakota!! One of the two final holdouts (along with Oklahoma) on putting meaningful restrictions on the spread of the disease. And a tea-baggin' governor who (like the governor of Mississippi; who cooks up these talking points?) made sure to get a dig in on my fair state, something along the lines of "we aren't California!"

So, anyway, as of March 30 (NYT data saved to spreadsheet on that day), SD was ranked 46 out of 51 in case rate per population. A half-month later, they're ranked #18, with almost double California's case rate.

Apparently, a big source of the problem was a huge pork plant. Working conditions are generally unhealthy and bad there because, you know, FUCK YOU WORKERS!!! is the rockin' bootstrapin' ethic that supposedly Creates Jobs. Who could have guessed that unhealthy working conditions would lead to a disease outbreak, coinciding with a global pandemic?!?

Anyway, good luck guys. Maybe what needs to happen is a tax cut for the meat plant owners.

See post 12582

[KQ]

Well there’s quite a lot of that convo going on at Twitter
#ccpvirus

My Qanon friend has been talking about the Chinese lab/Gates Foundation angle since January. Not much new except it's escaped the Qanon lab and is now infecting other platforms.

[The AD]

I just wana know if the bats could take off on a conveyor belt

No, they tend to hang under the belt and get crushed in the rollers.

[Mofro261]

Probably this. If the chinese lab was studying the origin of the original Sars from 2003 and bats continued to do bat things, I doesn't mean that it was nefarious, it could have been just researchers using these bats to try and stop another SARS outbreak and it infected a lab worker and got out.
It doesn't make it racist to say so and it doesn't mean the chinese were weaponizing it either.
However, if it was a simple accident, just like Mom always said, if you tell me the truth you won't get in trouble if I find out you're lying, there will be consequences.
I am leaning towards simple accident and then a cover up until it got out of control.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

Theories of SARS-CoV-2 origins

It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. As noted above, the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 is optimized for binding to human ACE2 with an efficient solution different from those previously predicted(7,11). Furthermore, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one of the several reverse-genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used(19). However, the genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone(20). Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer. We also discuss whether selection during passage could have given rise to SARS-CoV-2.

1. Natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer
As many early cases of COVID-19 were linked to the Huanan market in Wuhan(1,2), it is possible that an animal source was present at this location. Given the similarity of SARS-CoV-2 to bat SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses(2), it is likely that bats serve as reservoir hosts for its progenitor. Although RaTG13, sampled from a Rhinolophus affinis bat1, is ~96% identical overall to SARS-CoV-2, its spike diverges in the RBD, which suggests that it may not bind efficiently to human ACE2(7) (Fig. 1a).

Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) illegally imported into Guangdong province contain coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2(21). Although the RaTG13 bat virus remains the closest to SARS-CoV-2 across the genome(1) , some pangolin coronaviruses exhibit strong similarity to SARS-CoV-2 in the RBD, including all six key RBD residues21 (Fig. 1). This clearly shows that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein optimized for binding to human-like ACE2 is the result of natural selection.

Neither the bat betacoronaviruses nor the pangolin betacoronaviruses sampled thus far have polybasic cleavage sites. Although no animal coronavirus has been identified that is sufficiently similar to have served as the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity of coronaviruses in bats and other species is massively undersampled. Mutations, insertions and deletions can occur near the S1–S2 junction of coronaviruses(22), which shows that the polybasic cleavage site can arise by a natural evolutionary process. For a precursor virus to acquire both the polybasic cleavage site and mutations in the spike protein suitable for binding to human ACE2, an animal host would probably have to have a high population density (to allow natural selection to proceed efficiently) and an ACE2-encoding gene that is similar to the human ortholog.

2. Natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer
It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring the genomic features described above through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission. Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it(1,2).

All SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced so far have the genomic features described above and are thus derived from a common ancestor that had them too. The presence in pangolins of an RBD very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2 means that we can infer this was also probably in the virus that jumped to humans. This leaves the insertion of polybasic cleavage site to occur during human-to-human transmission.

Estimates of the timing of the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 made with current sequence data point to emergence of the virus in late November 2019 to early December 2019(23), compatible with the earliest retrospectively confirmed cases(24). Hence, this scenario presumes a period of unrecognized transmission in humans between the initial zoonotic event and the acquisition of the polybasic cleavage site. Sufficient opportunity could have arisen if there had been many prior zoonotic events that produced short chains of human-to-human transmission over an extended period. This is essentially the situation for MERS-CoV, for which all human cases are the result of repeated jumps of the virus from dromedary camels, producing single infections or short transmission chains that eventually resolve, with no adaptation to sustained transmission(25).

Studies of banked human samples could provide information on whether such cryptic spread has occurred. Retrospective serological studies could also be informative, and a few such studies have been conducted showing low-level exposures to SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses in certain areas of China(26). Critically, however, these studies could not have distinguished whether exposures were due to prior infections with SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 or other SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses. Further serological studies should be conducted to determine the extent of prior human exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

3. Selection during passage
Basic research involving passage of bat SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses in cell culture and/or animal models has been ongoing for many years in biosafety level 2 laboratories across the world27, and there are documented instances of laboratory escapes of SARS-CoV28. We must therefore examine the possibility of an inadvertent laboratory release of SARS-CoV-2.

In theory, it is possible that SARS-CoV-2 acquired RBD mutations (Fig. 1a) during adaptation to passage in cell culture, as has been observed in studies of SARS-CoV11. The finding of SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses from pangolins with nearly identical RBDs, however, provides a much stronger and more parsimonious explanation of how SARS-CoV-2 acquired these via recombination or mutation19.

The acquisition of both the polybasic cleavage site and predicted O-linked glycans also argues against culture-based scenarios. New polybasic cleavage sites have been observed only after prolonged passage of low-pathogenicity avian influenza virus in vitro or in vivo(17). Furthermore, a hypothetical generation of SARS-CoV-2 by cell culture or animal passage would have required prior isolation of a progenitor virus with very high genetic similarity, which has not been described. Subsequent generation of a polybasic cleavage site would have then required repeated passage in cell culture or animals with ACE2 receptors similar to those of humans, but such work has also not previously been described. Finally, the generation of the predicted O-linked glycans is also unlikely to have occurred due to cell-culture passage, as such features suggest the involvement of an immune system(18).

[iceman]

I read this morning that running at full steam that Sioux Falls plant produces 130 million servings of pork products a week. That place is like a portal to another gruesome dimension. Has to be completely horrifying in there on a good day.

[Ottime]

He is still testing positive, but can he still spread the virus?

Not while in lockdown.

Someone should give false positive tests to dear leaders so he stays in his room for the next year.

[Buster Highmen]

My Qanon friend has been talking about the Chinese lab/Gates Foundation angle since January. Not much new except it's escaped the Qanon lab and is now infecting other platforms.