[Feolkin]

Look, when most virologists/epidemiogists look at this "evidence" and consider it too flimsy and flawed, then I wonder why people here are so eager to jump on it as "I'm not a biologist, covid19 is so unusual, it's obviously man-made". HN is embarrassing right now.

[JohnStrangeII]

The same happened with HIV, these kind of conspiracy theories are inevitable. People always want to blame someone, even when there is overwhelming evidence that a natural catastrophe occurred. Remember the Italian seismologists who got sued because they didn't predict an earthquake?

Fact is that if the virus escaped a lab, the incident could have occurred in any other lab, too. It likely evolved naturally, though, and another fact is that it could have occurred naturally in many places in the world - e.g. in the Middle East or in Africa -, and a more dangerous virus could evolve in many regions of the world at any time.

Many people just don't want to accept this, especially those who reacted in the wrong way to the pandemic initially. It's always easier to blame someone else.

[tim333]

The HIV conspiracy theories were kind of silly though and they were able to trace the source to chimpanzees. Things seem different with covid.

[john4534243]

Its not just non-biologists opinion. Its the opinion of nobel laurates https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23877141 . It is embarrassing for chinas ccp.

[Barrin92]

Luc Montagnier has gone completely nuts long ago. He's on several occassions proclaimed that DNA can teleport, that autism isn't real or caused by vaccines and joined anti-vaxxing movements and supported homeopathy, and the idea that water has memory, among other things.