Your Opinion

[McBell]

There was no link to see what the actual study said, and the headline didn't match what was said in the article. Does the study conclude it may have been in the human population for "years"? Or just for some period of time (months, maybe?)

they have not finished the study

 

[Milton Platt]

they have not finished the study

Cool.....didn't see that.
I'll wait for a conclusion rather than speculate about time spans.

 

[gnomon]

How many people here like fishing?

 

[McBell]

How many people here like fishing?

Specify "here"

 

[gnomon]

Specify "here"

The bathtub.

 

[McBell]

The bathtub.

None of them.
Unless they wear hats.
Because everyone knows aliens hate the colour purple.

 

[gnomon]

None of them.
Unless they wear hats.
Because everyone knows aliens hate the colour purple.

They don't like Oprah?

Or was it the Joker?

 

[Revoltingest]

Do you believe them, or... ?
The COVID-19 Virus May Have Been in Humans For Years, Study Suggests

From the article....
"The study raises some interesting possibilities regarding the
origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests
the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human
populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic
that's now stopped the world in its tracks."

Based upon the portion I underlined, I"m in the <wait & see> camp.

 

[Shadow Link]

I've heard once that a virus can be carbon dated. Not sure if it is true or not, however, and the story told after that statement went something like this...

Imagine a truck load of different animals in cages that are stacked upon one another(not uncommon in Wuhan). The chickens known to have high immune systems are carrying the virus, below the chicken cage is a cage of ferrets(known to have weak immune systems). Chicken's poop into the ferret cage, a new strand develops from the ferrets being exposed, later gets into humans. The end.

 

[exchemist]

I've heard once that a virus can be carbon dated. Not sure if it is true or not, however, and the story told after that statement went something like this...

Imagine a truck load of different animals in cages that are stacked upon one another(not uncommon in Wuhan). The chickens known to have high immune systems are carrying the virus, below the chicken cage is a cage of ferrets(known to have weak immune systems). Chicken's poop into the ferret cage, a new strand develops from the ferrets being exposed, later gets into humans. The end.

A living organism, or a quasi-living one like a virus, cannot be carbon dated.

Carbon dating relies on the radioactive decay of C14 after biological processes have stopped. Up to that point, the organism is exchanging carbon with the atmosphere (or with other living systems that do so), and so the ratio of C12 to C14 stays constant. However, after biological processes have stopped, the C14 starts to decay away and so the ratio changes. The degree of deviation of this ratio from that in the atmosphere is what enables us to estimate the age of the specimen since the time it was last alive.

 

[exchemist]

There was no link to see what the actual study said, and the headline didn't match what was said in the article. Does the study conclude it may have been in the human population for "years"? Or just for some period of time (months, maybe?)

The way I read it, the article firstly dismisses the silly conspiracy theories about the virus being man-made and then advances two hypotheses for its natural origin: one being the one we all know about involving bats and pangolins, but also a second, by which it could have been latent in the human population and then become suddenly virulent due to a change. It did not offer a view on which of these two was more probable.

So I think its contribution is really to get this second hypothesis on the table for further study.

 

[nPeace]

From the article....
"The study raises some interesting possibilities regarding the
origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests
the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human
populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic
that's now stopped the world in its tracks."

Based upon the portion I underlined, I"m in the <wait & see> camp.

Good observation.

 

[nPeace]

I've heard once that a virus can be carbon dated. Not sure if it is true or not, however, and the story told after that statement went something like this...

Imagine a truck load of different animals in cages that are stacked upon one another(not uncommon in Wuhan). The chickens known to have high immune systems are carrying the virus, below the chicken cage is a cage of ferrets(known to have weak immune systems). Chicken's poop into the ferret cage, a new strand develops from the ferrets being exposed, later gets into humans. The end.

 

[Revoltingest]

Good observation.

Thanx!

 

[MNoBody]

belief is a product of ignorance
a best guess
nothing more
a gamble
it is a belief because the one with the belief doesn't know...if that one knew, they would not have to muck around with BS [Belief Systems]
alas the blind humans.... they know not what they do, they feel around with their hands and guess

 

[exchemist]

belief is a product of ignorance
a best guess
nothing more
a gamble
it is a belief because the one with the belief doesn't know...if that one knew, they would not have to muck around with BS [Belief Systems]
alas the blind humans.... they know not what they do, they feel around with their hands and guess

There is almost nothing we can ever know with absolute certainty. That being so, almost everything we do is based on belief. It seems to me the distinction to be made is not so much between "belief" and "knowledge", as between belief based on a strong evidence and belief based on little or no evidence.

 

[MNoBody]

There is almost nothing we can ever know with absolute certainty. That being so, almost everything we do is based on belief. It seems to me the distinction to be made is not so much between "belief" and "knowledge", as between belief based on a strong evidence and belief based on little or no evidence.

that's the big rub, isn't it....
educated guesses are better than complete shots in the dark, but again, is the basis really the conclusion....as court records show any legal student, interpretation is a big deal, and conclusions based on assumed "facts" which later get overturned and ruled as specious and irrelevant or misleading, show us that these matters are anything but simple, cut and dried easy...
thus open-mindedness and compassion become critical to any mutually beneficial progress

 

[Milton Platt]

The way I read it, the article firstly dismisses the silly conspiracy theories about the virus being man-made and then advances two hypotheses for its natural origin: one being the one we all know about involving bats and pangolins, but also a second, by which it could have been latent in the human population and then become suddenly virulent due to a change. It did not offer a view on which of these two was more probable.

So I think its contribution is really to get this second hypothesis on the table for further study.

Yes. I agree with your assessment of the article. It was just that I did not like the click bait headline which claimed "years" in human population. It may very well be that this is true, but The study did not give a stated length of time.....just "for some time".