The concept of the Burden of Proof exists for a reason, because anyone can make any claim and then point to "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" invoking the Argument from Ignorance where their claim is supposedly more credible until it has been disproved.
If you make the claim that the virus originated from a lab, then back it up by evidence. If you can't then the only thing that left is to believe in it or not. And that's where we enter the territory of religion.
That's what is called Shifting the Burden of Proof, and is usually considered a fallacy if it is meant to lend the original assertion more credibility.
It's like asking the defendant in a court of law to prove beyond any doubt that they didn't do what they're accused of.
That's called Proving a Negative. While not impossible a notoriously difficult task that philosophy, natural science, and jurisprudence agreed upon to be too prone to being abused towards a 'bad' outcome to be encouraged.
You don't think the fact they suppressed information isn't reason enough to believe they'd cover-up other things? I for one absolutely feel they not only wanted this to happen but did everything to ensure there was a cover-up. This is regime that will use it's own citizens as pawns without a second thought. They don't consider their own citizens as human beings and I have to assume they don't consider the rest of the world human.
This should be a wakeup call that we have to eliminate this communist danger fr
Personally, no I don't think that the fact they suppressed information is sufficient evidence towards this.
That's just the modus operandi of virtually any authoritarian or dictatorial regime that we've seen throughout history.
They want to maintain the strong-man image. So they tend not to admit anything bad happening under their watch, which would undermine the power they claim to have to keep their people safe from harm, trying to keep the facade of being infallible as long as possible (despite many peo
Something else to consider is that exactly the same thing happened during the first SARS outbreak in 2003. They kept on saying "Nope, no problem here" until it got so big that denial was no longer an option. And it's hardly just the Chinese who did it. Many leaders around the world downplayed and denied the issue for as long as possible. You know who they are.
Then, when you consider MERS as well, you realize that there is a history of corona viruses mutating in the wild and causing outbreaks in places with
"But when you believe that nobody saw it coming, it becomes easier to believe that there was some sort of human activity besides fucking around with bats and pangolins that caused it."
The problem with your argument is that scientists have been warning for years that gain-of-function research where a lab "helps" a virus infect human tissue could eventually lead to a global pandemic. It's more like scientists didn't want to hear: don't experiment with viruses that can cause global pandemics.
2014: "Although influenza virus has historically demonstrated the capacity to move across species, in this particular experiment, the GOF was the acquisition of mammalian transmissibility for a virus that previously lacked it." https://mbio.asm.org/content/5... [asm.org]
"'Gain of function' experiments involving the creation and manipulation of novel potential pandemic pathogens (PPPs) deserve ethical scrutiny regarding the acceptability of the risks of accidental or deliberate release and global spread." https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
2018: "This chapter makes the case against performing exceptionally dangerous gain-of-function experiments that are designed to create potentially pandemic and novel strains of influenza, for example, by enhancing the airborne transmissibility in mammals of highly virulent avian influenza strains." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
'No Evidence' says Xi (Score:2, Insightful)
No evidence at all, says Xi, vigorously brushing his hands together while standing on a particularly lumpy rug.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"
Pushing a counter-narrative doesn't change the reality!
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
If you make the claim that the virus originated from a lab, then back it up by evidence. If you can't then the only thing that left is to believe in it or not. And that's where we enter the territory of religion.
Re: (Score:-1)
Re: (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like asking the defendant in a court of law to prove beyond any doubt that they didn't do what they're accused of.
That's called Proving a Negative. While not impossible a notoriously difficult task that philosophy, natural science, and jurisprudence agreed upon to be too prone to being abused towards a 'bad' outcome to be encouraged.
At this point I
Re: (Score:0, Flamebait)
You don't think the fact they suppressed information isn't reason enough to believe they'd cover-up other things? I for one absolutely feel they not only wanted this to happen but did everything to ensure there was a cover-up. This is regime that will use it's own citizens as pawns without a second thought. They don't consider their own citizens as human beings and I have to assume they don't consider the rest of the world human.
This should be a wakeup call that we have to eliminate this communist danger fr
Re: (Score:4, Insightful)
That's just the modus operandi of virtually any authoritarian or dictatorial regime that we've seen throughout history.
They want to maintain the strong-man image. So they tend not to admit anything bad happening under their watch, which would undermine the power they claim to have to keep their people safe from harm, trying to keep the facade of being infallible as long as possible (despite many peo
Re: (Score:2)
Something else to consider is that exactly the same thing happened during the first SARS outbreak in 2003. They kept on saying "Nope, no problem here" until it got so big that denial was no longer an option. And it's hardly just the Chinese who did it. Many leaders around the world downplayed and denied the issue for as long as possible. You know who they are.
Then, when you consider MERS as well, you realize that there is a history of corona viruses mutating in the wild and causing outbreaks in places with
Re:'No Evidence' says Xi (Score:3)
"But when you believe that nobody saw it coming, it becomes easier to believe that there was some sort of human activity besides fucking around with bats and pangolins that caused it."
The problem with your argument is that scientists have been warning for years that gain-of-function research where a lab "helps" a virus infect human tissue could eventually lead to a global pandemic. It's more like scientists didn't want to hear: don't experiment with viruses that can cause global pandemics.
2014: "Although influenza virus has historically demonstrated the capacity to move across species, in this particular experiment, the GOF was the acquisition of mammalian transmissibility for a virus that previously lacked it."
https://mbio.asm.org/content/5... [asm.org]
"'Gain of function' experiments involving the creation and manipulation of novel potential pandemic pathogens (PPPs) deserve ethical scrutiny regarding the acceptability of the risks of accidental or deliberate release and global spread."
https://journals.plos.org/plos... [plos.org]
2018: "This chapter makes the case against performing exceptionally dangerous gain-of-function experiments that are designed to create potentially pandemic and novel strains of influenza, for example, by enhancing the airborne transmissibility in mammals of highly virulent avian influenza strains."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]