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by adrianb 1888 days ago
Was it a natural origin? We need to understand how bats came into contact with an intermediary species, how that came into contact with humans, how to minimize risks in the future.

Was it a lab leak? We need to know if safety protocols were followed and to develop better protocols if needed.

By your logic, we would never investigate any accident. Why look into the cause of a fire, it won't help bring back the victims or restore the damage. We should only look into how the response of the firefighters could've been better? No. We should look into both.

We even investigate every single airplane incident even if there were no victims and develop new safety protocols around them.

2 comments

We should probably just assume that both of the potential causes are likely to happen in future and work on reducing their probability regardless of which one caused COVID-19.
>By your logic, we would never investigate any accident.

Where would you pull this from? You seem needlessly pointed in your reply here. I'm simply of the opinion that understanding the origin isn't all that useful.

Do you really think wuhan labs haven't revisited their safety protocols after being suspected of cv19 leaks? You seem to be of the impression that only if we prove the origin would any of those precautions be taken and that's simply not true, those precautions and revisiting procedures happened a long time ago.

Do you trust Boeing to revise their airplane safety systems after a crash? They surely will do an internal review and make changes.

Or do you appoint an independent investigator that issues mandatory changes and evaluates how they're implemented?

I do not trust China to revise their safety systems OR to follow the mandatory changes recommended by an independent investigator, making this entire conversation a wholly moot point.
Except the safety protocols would apply to similar labs worldwide. It's just a coincidence this started in China, a leak could happen anywhere.