Neil deGrasse Tyson had a good point the other day. When the day comes that a CV -19 vaccine becomes available ... what will the nutey anti-vaxers decide to do?
Ummm so this morning there is this newsbit: US eliminated key China-based public health position ahead of coronavirus outbreak: report https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...d-public-health-position-ahead-of-coronavirus The Trump administration moved to eliminate a position at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) based in China that some experts now say could have led to earlier knowledge of the coronavirus outbreak...................
To follow up on this, it seems the main points he's making are: 1) Weak binding to multiple receptors signify multiple coming waves as the virus mutates ("pinballing"). 2) Insertions from HIV indicate engineering 3) Splicing of the spike protein from SARS with the replicase from bat SARS-like coronavirus. Let me know if I missed any. Regarding point 1, it's very common for a protein to show weak affinity for multiple other proteins (known as promiscuity). I'd be surprised if you couldn't make the same statement about any other virus. Moreover, it's irrelevant. A virus doesn't need to mutate to target a different receptor to come back as a second wave, it just needs to mutate to no longer be recognized by your antibodies. There could be multiple waves of this virus, but the weak affinity for multiple receptors isn't particularly ominous. For point 2, I addressed earlier that there aren't actually insertions from HIV, but I'll just add that the type of engineering he's suggesting just isn't how biology works. It's common to splice together two proteins or large (>50 amino acids) domains, but inserting ~5 amino acids would never work. They need the context of the neighboring residues to orient them in the right structure. I couldn't find a source that he's referring to for the third point. I'd have to know which exact strains he's referring to and see how close the homology is. However even assuming it's true, there's a less sinister explanation: the more potent spike protein and replicase were both present in a common ancestor. Finally, I'd rather focus on ideas than dwell on his qualifications, but it's worth pointing out that he's being quite ingenuous about his affiliations. Harvard and MIT have continuing education programs that are open to pretty much anyone who is willing to write a check and aren't taught at anywhere near the level as the undergrad or graduate courses. They seem to be a favorite way for cranks to buy legitimacy.
I did get that impression from his website. Thank you for confirming. For what it's worth I'm now getting forwards from mom who say China did this on purpose
Because their market is controlled and monitored like the US market is. Why with all this FEAR, the US market is same as 2019? Cause they don't want the rich to panic and margin calls, as lots of debt is backed by stock. or they don't want people to think they lose 50% of paper wealth.
So if I follow you pointy-foil-hat types correctly, (global exporter) China invented a method to destroy the world market to which it exports, and tested it by chopping out their own legs first. Or was it that (largest U.S. debt-holder) China wanted to destroy the U.S. taxpayer, and tested it by chopping out their own legs first? I get it. I get it. Makes perfect sense.
If I think about it too much it doesn't make sense. But China is well known for cutting off their nose to spite their face.