The origin story is paramount to preventing future outbreaks and to the loss of, and disruption to, our way of life. The US took the same position on combating terrorism when it rooted out Al-Qaeda. To stop future loss of life, the root cause needs to be identified and dealt with. I vehemently disagree with the assessment that the origin is not instrumental to the defense of future outbreaks.
No it is not, because it is undisputed that viruses can evolve to infect humans.
If we had 100% solid proof SARS-COV-2 originated in a lab, it would not change our approach to detecting or mitigating future outbreaks. We always have to prepare for either.
It’s not like it never occurred to anyone before that dangerous infectious agents could escape a lab. It was a well-known possibility and was incorporated into U.S. federal pandemic preparedness planning since at least the George W Bush administration.
An accidental leak from a lab must still be detected, and once detected, public health measures initiated. The procedures are the same as for a natural origin.
The fundamental lesson from COVID-19 is that we cannot let our guard down. The Trump administration did in many ways, and so were not able to detect or respond fast enough.
So what you’re saying is we should be more concerned with defense and accept that viruses will be engineered. I don’t disagree with this line of thinking but I also believe we must be on the offensive too. We can’t just accept that labs will build viruses.
Rubbish. The response would not be to increase surveillance near labs. It would be to float a moratorium on GoF research and to increase biosafety at labs. Much of the work being done at the WIV was carried out at BSL-2, which is absolutely shocking.
It seems like you are using the US War on Terror as a good example? It didn’t stop the loss of life, it just changed the arena. Orders of magnitudes more people died as a result of that than from the attack that spawned it.
