China lab says conspiracy theories hurting efforts to curb virus

[snoop1130]

China lab says conspiracy theories hurting efforts to curb virus

David Stanway

 

A computer image created by Nexu Science Communication together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus which is the type of virus linked to COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus linked to the Wuhan outbreak, shared with Reuters on February 18, 2020. NEXU Science Communication/via REUTERS

 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - An outbreak of disinformation in China and elsewhere has hurt global efforts to combat the new coronavirus, said a specialist infectious disease lab located at the epicentre of the epidemic — and at the heart of a number of conspiracy theories.

 

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology said “internet rumours” had “received close attention from all walks of life” and “caused great harm to our research staff on the front line of scientific research”.

 

It said its staff had been working around the clock since the end of 2019 to trace the source of the coronavirus and improve detection rates, but the conspiracies had “seriously interfered” with their efforts.

 

The institute has been accused of “artificially synthesising” the coronavirus in one of its laboratories, it said. It also referred to other claims circulating online that the “patient zero” in the current outbreak was a graduate student from the institute, and that one of its researchers had also died after the virus “leaked”.

 

Conspiracy theories often prosper during epidemics, and have sprung up during recent outbreaks of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), avian flu and Ebola, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Sydney.

 

“If there is an infectious disease lab in a city where an outbreak starts, it usually gets the blame.”

 

Many of the rumours circulated domestically and overseas claim the coronavirus was engineered by local scientists and leaked, deliberately or by accident, in Wuhan where the virus was first detected and is the epicentre of the epidemic.

 

But another theory, debunked on Wednesday by the well-known rumour-busting website Snopes.com, connected the outbreak to the arrest last month of Harvard University professor Charles Lieber, who was accused of concealing ties with the Wuhan Institute of Technology.

 

The conspiracy theories have not stayed online. Republican Senator of Arkansas, Tom Cotton, told the Fox News channel this week that “we at least have to ask the question” whether the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab.

 

A team of 27 scientists published a statement in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday condemning the conspiracy theories, which “do nothing but create fear, rumours and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus.”

 

They said scientists from around the world “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife”. The current consensus is that it emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan that also sold exotic wild animal products.

 

China usually cracks down heavily on “rumours”, and it even arrested Li Wenliang, a doctor who first disclosed the existence of a SARS-like disease in Wuhan at the end of last year and subsequently became its most prominent casualty.

 

But it has been unable to silence the vast number of outlandish claims circulating on social media channels.

 

Shanghai government newspaper Liberation Daily has published a regular round-up of misinformation, including allegations that large numbers of infected patients are coming to the city for treatment, and a claim the virus can be cured by strong curry.

 

Misinformation also prospered during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-2003.

 

As well as conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus, rumours also spread across the country that frogs and newborn babies were suddenly speaking and giving advice about how to repel the disease, usually through firecrackers and incense sticks.

 

“Unfortunately it just seems to be that in addition to the epidemiological challenge we now also confront a simultaneous misinformation epidemic,” said Kamradt-Scott.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-20

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[rabas]

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology said “internet rumours” had “received close attention from all walks of life” and “caused great harm to our research staff on the front line of scientific research”.

Yet incredibly:

 

The Ministry of Science and Technology issued new rules over the weekend, requiring laboratories nationwide to boost their biosafety in a move that  experts said could fix chronic inadequate management issues during the campaign against the coronavirus. 

The guideline stressed the importance of strengthening the management of bio labs, especially on viruses, to ensure biosafety, ministry official Wu Yuanbin said on Saturday.

 

Some researchers discharge laboratory materials into the sewer after experiments without a specific biological disposal mechanism, Yang explained. 

 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1179747.shtml#.XknFGEy9bwI.twitter

Edited February 20, 2020 by rabas

[DrTuner]

That's easily corrected. Start releasing peer-verified (as in US CDC verified) information from China and take down the Great Firewall to share it. No? Tough.

[RichardColeman]

In all honesty , having a research lab investigating bat and animal viruses 280m away from the market where it all supposedly began is a bit of a coincidence !

[Pedrogaz]

13 hours ago, rabas said:

Yet incredibly:

 

The Ministry of Science and Technology issued new rules over the weekend, requiring laboratories nationwide to boost their biosafety in a move that  experts said could fix chronic inadequate management issues during the campaign against the coronavirus. 

The guideline stressed the importance of strengthening the management of bio labs, especially on viruses, to ensure biosafety, ministry official Wu Yuanbin said on Saturday.

 

Some researchers discharge laboratory materials into the sewer after experiments without a specific biological disposal mechanism, Yang explained. 

 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1179747.shtml#.XknFGEy9bwI.twitter

The Wuhan lab has an international classification meaning that it would not be able to discharge its waste into a sewer and retain its classification. Of course there maybe lab workers who would ignore the rules....or a malicious worker....or indeed a foreign agent as apparently this virus is widely available for research in international laboratories.

[rabas]

58 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

The Wuhan lab has an international classification meaning that it would not be able to discharge its waste into a sewer and retain its classification. Of course there maybe lab workers who would ignore the rules....or a malicious worker....or indeed a foreign agent as apparently this virus is widely available for research in international laboratories.

Agree that certification implies leaks should not happen when procedures are strictly followed. Saturday’s urgent CCP order to fix things, particularity for viral research, suggests all was not up to spec. Not too surprising considering China's rapid advancement. 

 

I too don't buy the bio-weapon idea. OTH, a lot of corona-virus research is done in these labs (see Chinese publications). so it's hard to discount an accidental leak. As for 'this' virus, it's not a single identity. The Chinese have led in bat virus research digging up 1000s of samples from caves searching for the origins of SARS2003. That's why we know the closest BatCoV to nCoV2019 comes from a cave 2000 miles from Wuhan.  And, Wuhan in rarely a source of new human viruses.

 

...or a malicious worker....or indeed a foreign agent as apparently this virus is widely available for research in international laboratories.

 

CIA! So you too are not free of conspiratorial thoughts.  To some extent, it's part of natural thought processes so we shouldn't scold people for thinking,

Edited February 21, 2020 by rabas

[URMySunshine]

Ignoring the stupid headline, this opinion piece is worrying but not surprising.It's informative for describing a number of ways the system will come under immense strain at one of the first hurdles, if public information campaigns are not timed properly or lack the right emphasis or magnitude.

 

Other stuff, such as their personal protective equipment training being cancelled due to a shortage of kits, underlines specific concerns about the supply chain, but also the fragile state of things at the best of times due to long term underfunding.

 

A public information campaign is urgently needed to tell people that all bar the very ill should access help from home, says an anonymous lead clinician
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/20/health-centre-coronavirus-information-help?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

An alarming increase in cases outside China now starting to look like lockdowns are probably the only way brutally to try and slow this damn vicious thing down and preserve health facilities as best they can. Now not a matter if if but when. 

 

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200220-sitrep-31-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=dfd11d24_2

 

 

[Bundooman]

In other words - 

China wants everyone else to shut up!

Then it can continue to quietly suppress the extent of this virus in China!

[zydeco]

On 2/20/2020 at 6:00 PM, snoop1130 said:

“If there is an infectious disease lab in a city where an outbreak starts, it usually gets the blame.”

How many cities are there with infectious disease labs and where an epidemic started?