Another blow to the Covid-19 lab leak theory

 

A paper, described in the Daily Mail, indicates that the virus that became Covid-19 might not have come from China. It might have started in Laos.

Pretty clearly, it was carried by bats. Now, that doesn't completely rule out the lab leak, because the lab might have had bats with the virus. Maybe they even researched those viruses. Maybe they even engineered them for gain-of-function.

But it's a lot more likely that the bats or another animal infected by the bats ended up in a Wuhan market. 

I saw that with low confidence. About the same confidence as the reports touted as "proving" the lab leak theory by gullible and conspiracy-theory-prone Republican conservative MAGA nuts.

Covid origin FINALLY revealed in bombshell study...and it might not have been China after all

"Dr Joel Wertheim, a top infectious disease expert and senior co-author of the study, said: 'At the start of the Covid pandemic, people worried the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too vast for a natural origin.

'This paper shows that it isn't unusual.'

The UC San Diego team notes that four live animal markets in Wuhan were selling species known to be susceptible to bat viruses in late 2019 — the clearest evidence yet that one of them may have been the 'epicenter' of the initial human outbreak.

But while the academics argue in favor of a natural origin for Covid, the paper cannot rule out a potential lab leak."

So, lab-leak enthusiasts, don't count your chickens. Or maybe you should, because they might have bird flu. Something that the Republican idiots running their government sh*tshow have cut funding for research and development on bird flu vaccines.

And that's just plain stupid.