[Banyonite]

> That's why when consensus exists about something, you should respect it. There is quite a large consensus about this one.

Respecting a consensus is reasonable. That having been said, I would be interested to hear what the virologists to whom you refer think about Ralph Baric's work. Ralph Baric is a very well-known virologist specializing in corona virology. His group synthesized quite a few SARS-CoV variants, a number of years before SARS-CoV-2 made its appearance. While there's no proof that SARS-CoV-2 was created in a lab, there are quite a few studies describing the synthesis of different SARS-CoV variants, some quite dangerous.

From one of many papers on which he was a co-author (https://www.pnas.org/content/113/11/3048.full):

"Using the SARS-CoV infectious clone as a template (7), we designed and synthesized a full-length infectious clone of WIV1-CoV consisting of six plasmids that could be enzymatically cut, ligated together, and electroporated into cells to rescue replication competent progeny virions (Fig. S1A). In addition to the full-length clone, we also produced WIV1-CoV chimeric virus that replaced the SARS spike with the WIV1 spike within the mouse-adapted backbone (WIV1-MA15, Fig. S1B)"

EDIT: jeduehr, given your background in virology, I would be interested in any technical critique you may have regarding the Yuri Deigin article referenced in my post below.

[jeduehr]

It's important to understand the distinction between chimeric and mosaic viruses.

Baric makes Chimeras. CoV-2 in comparison to the other closely related viruses in nature, is a mosaic. Lots of little changes all over the genome, not big copy and pastes.

See here for more detail on that distinction: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/gk6y95/-/fqpbagf

[jeduehr]

Hi, I made a response to the Deigin medium post in your original context. Sorry I don't have time to go more in depth, that thing is a beast. But he makes a few fundamental mistakes that tear at his core argument that I think are sufficient to show he doesn't really know what he's talking about in this arena.

[jeduehr]

Wow I also describe elsewhere how his understanding of the CGGCGG codon usage is truly flawed. It looks like these codons weren't actually there in the earliest sequences of the pandemic, but evolved over time as the virus adapted to us as a host. Really not the smoking gun he thinks it is. If you wanna see what I mean, just search this page for "CGGCGG"