[philjohn]

I read spillover a few years ago, which is all about zoonotic crossover events, would recommend it, even if it is a bit dry in parts.

The problem is, as an expansionist species we're naturally going to encroach on natural reservoirs for pathogens.

The smoking gun of people working at the virology institute may yet turn out to be nothing more than a red herring, if they live and work in the epicentre of where the outbreak started, it only stands to reason they'd also run the risk of catching it.

[RV86]

I wanted to add -- the two most compelling pieces of information I've seen that make the lab accident theory more plausible to me are: 1) The verified existence of the bat-originating corona virus that killed 3 miners with Pneumonia some years ago being housed/researched in the WIV 2) David Baltimore of Cal Tech's remark ""When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus. These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2"

[philjohn]

But then again other people have explained the furin cleavage site exists in other beta coronaviruses - so making a definitive "smoking gun" statement without further research seems premature.

[RV86]

Thanks for the recommendation. I will check this out asap!

To return the favor, I recommend checking out the Lapham's Quarterly issue on "Epidemic" that collected historical writings across many instances of widespread plague and disease.