Corona Virus

[Bazile]

This virus originated in China

Do we actually know what caused it , for certain ?

[bhg481]

iluvmargie - where do you draw the line as cruel? Is it alright to kill insects? bacteria? or just things which make a noise when you kill them. Because they don't move around the planet, does that make plants less relevant than mammals?

[Spicerack]

Amazing post, jim. (don't thank me, it wasn't meant to be complimentary)

[Spicerack]

I don't think we know for certain, Bazile.

[jim360]

Thanks, Spicey.

No, but, seriously. This one originated in China, there's no doubt about that. But there's plenty about the way humans work with animals across the world that leaves much to be desired and raises the chances of this happening. Don't forget, for example, that the Spanish Flu, which remains modern history's worst pandemic, came from the US (or possibly Europe).

[ichkeria]

Re the eating of live animals that isn’t really the preserve of the Chinese.
As for bats, wasn’t it our own dear Ozzie Osborne ...

[Spicerack]

I think it was an army base in America. (Spanish Flu)
I agree one shouldn't blame China (the country) or the unfortunate people who live there.
But the CCP who lied about Covid for at least 6 weeks, ably assisted by the WHO, deserve plenty of blame for this virus spreading around the world.

[youngmafbog]

No one can trust anything coming out of China.

Stop buying their products where you can) then maybe there will be enough of an uprising to bring down the terrible Chinese Government.

Your first post did come across as very shifting the blame from china to the UK jim. Glad you corrected it.

[pixie374]

Ymb, we were well aware of it before we let it into the country. Wherever it originated, we didn't prevent it coming here, either.

[royfromaus]

Why is Gromit going around this site posting spurious nonsense and not posting a link?

[jim360]

I'd suggest that would have been a deliberate misreading, frankly. The point was clearly not that the virus came from somewhere outside China (which is clear misinformation, and I absolutely agree that the CCP etc shouldn't be trusted on such matters), but that we can't only focus on *this* virus if we're wanting to reduce the risk from future viruses.

[naomi24]

//it doesn't quite do to blame China for it without looking at our own behaviour.//

Yes … it does do to blame China. No ifs and buts.

[jim360]

A wonderful return to form, I see.

This crisis originated in China. It would be naive in the extreme to believe that the next one will, and that there is nothing about our* own practices that increases the risk of animal-human pathogen transmission.

*our, as in humanity in general. No nation has a monopoly on bad hygiene and animal welfare.

[youngmafbog]

No, really not deliberate misreading. Your post reads like you are trying to pass blame on to the UK. Your subsequent posts do clarify what you meant though.

[Zacs-Master]

Doesn’t it just highlight the fragility of ‘civilisation’?

[naomi24]

Jim, //A wonderful return to form, I see. //

If that's to me what are you talking about?

[jim360]

Well, whatever. I'd like to think that maybe you should at least have paused for thought before realising that the answer to "is that really what he meant?" was "no".

[ToraToraTora]

//"Why is Gromit going around this site posting spurious nonsense and not posting a link? "// - that's what he does, have you only just spotted that?

[naomi24]

Why would I, Jim? It's not the first time you've appeared to let China off the hook.

And actually, I would like an answer to my question. 'Well whatever' doesn't do it.

[naomi24]

As TTT says, Gromit is renowned for posting spurious nonsense without links.

[jim360]

One source for Gromit's point might be the observation that some of the first cases of Covid-19 were from patients nowhere near Wuhan's infamous seafood market, including the first known case. That basically means that, while there's no doubt of the country of origin, China's still too big a country to narrow it down to city yet. Nor even the animal of origin: Bat or Pangolin? It may be that we never really know who patient zero was and how they got it. But, as a point of clarity, Gromit wasn't implicating anywhere other than China.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext#%20