Why? What would that change, apart from distracting everyone into another giant anti-china campaign? Would we solve covid if we knew how it came to be synthesized?
For one, we could take action to help prevent another Covid from happening.
It’s really not that hard to see how it could be useful to know about the origins of Covid. Really tired of people making it about racism (or whatever) against China. And I say that as a Chinese person.
How would we make sure another Covid couldn't happen if we knew that this one stems from a lab and was intentionally released? Do we ban the creation and release of highly contagious bio-weapons? We already have, haven't we?
Do we start a nuclear war to make sure China is no more and therefore they can't do it again (but anyone else could)?
I'm not suggesting there's no use in finding out how it came to be, but unless it was some guy eating a bat and we can all agree on not doing that anymore and create a bat police to enforce that, I don't see how knowing who did it would prevent anyone else from doing it.
Potentially for the same reason you'll usually have far-reaching amnesties after civil wars etc, if you want freedom going forward.
Doing an investigation to find "the real truth", which from what I gather in most threads here would be essentially "where did it come from and why was it the Wuhan lab that intentionally released it?", wouldn't really get us anywhere.
None of the large powers would cooperate if they felt threatened and there's nothing to win unless we believe that we automatically get a perfect cure if only we find the GPS coordinates where patient zero got infected. Would it? I don't think so.
I also believe that there's nothing we can do to stop another similar event by knowing where it came from. What's more relevant is how it spread so quickly around the globe, and as far as I understand, we have a pretty good understanding of that and it's mainly international air-plane travel. I don't think we'll see a lasting change in that regard, but maybe we will, and we will have fever-checks before boarding planes or non-regional trains.
> Doing an investigation to find "the real truth", which from what I gather in most threads here would be essentially "where did it come from and why was it the Wuhan lab that intentionally released it?", wouldn't really get us anywhere.
We shouldn't be conflating the result from a professional investigation with the prevalent popular opinion.
> I also believe that there's nothing we can do to stop another similar event by knowing where it came from.
Your viewpoint kind of hinges on this point and you haven't really supported it yet besides making the assertion. Why would we gain absolutely nothing from having more information about its origin, with respect to either dealing with current or future COVIDs? That conclusion seems very nonobvious to me.
> We shouldn't be conflating the result from a professional investigation with the prevalent popular opinion.
Maybe I'm too cynical, but professional investigations tend to be politically charged and popular opinion tends to be created by the same interests who create politics.
And it's not that we totally, absolutely wouldn't learn anything that would ever help us. It's just that we likely won't find a magic bullet (which would be worth a lot of trouble), but will probably create conditions where countries will cooperate less and mislead more the next time it happens. I mentioned amnesties previously, and I believe they work in a similar fashion. Hunt down the evil-doers who lost a civil war, if you want to remain in a perpetual state of civil war. Don't do it if you want to return to some kind of normalcy and peace.
But China is already uncooperative wrt investigations. That’s probably the main reason why so many people want an ivestigation. It just looks extremely shady.
So, what I don’t understand is how accepting uncooperativeness is going to make them more cooperative in the future. I see how it would work with a group of individuals. But we’re at a different level of abstraction here, dealing with federal governments.
I would actually like to know exactly why I had to stay locked in my house for a couple of months while nice military men were out on the streets with big guns.
You might make a case that it would actually help, or not. I don't know. I don't particularly care, not next to the huge magnitude of wanting the tiniest bit of truth and justice.
>>would actually like to know exactly why I had to stay locked in my house for a couple of months while nice military men were out on the streets with big guns.
Well even if it was a lab leak. A response to a pandemic with totalitarian lock down using the military is something you need to address with your government
That is NOT a proper response to a illness for any nation claiming to value individual rights and individual liberty
First and foremost I am opposed to any use of the military on the citizens of their own nation. That in itself IMO should be considered off limits. A nations military has the primary purpose to eliminate or destroy the nations enemies, if the military is being used on the citizens that means the citizens have become the enemy...
Can you imagine saying, we don't care what happened at chernobyl because it's anti russian.
Where does this weird narrative come from? The idea that properly investigating an event that completely shook the world to its core is somehow "insensitive".
I mean, let's just not investigate anything where we might not like the answer... Is that really a legitimate strategy in your mind.
there was already an investigation, and it's pretty clear that any further investigation would involve threats to china. It's not about 'sensitivity'. We can just assume that the virus was leaked from the lab, unless the chinese prove otherwise. What does that change?
I remember when HN was full of intelligent, well thought out discourse. More and more lately, we’ve been seeing people like the poster I’m replying to. I hope the mods get it under control.
What would it change? How about knowledge that could help prevent a future pandemic and the deaths of millions of people? Why do I even have to make this statement?
