Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
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The World Economic Forum warned it might take years to produce and distribute a coronavirus vaccine around the world even if it were ready in the most optimistic realistic timeline. Then why are they complaining about China and Russia already putting their vaccines into production before Phase 3 is done? India is producing Oxford's vaccine before Phase 3 is completed and not as much criticism. They even had a scenario for a US vaccine alone and how long it would take to distribute among Americans could take years because the US will only be able to produce around 30 million in the beginning then later only 60 million doses a year. And the US is doing everything they were criticizing China on who they speculate on who gets the vaccine first there. Look at how long the world would have to wait listening to them.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
That's why it's a joke when they say they believe in democratic principles.

No kidding. All the talk about "fake news undermining democracy", yet how many outlets already publicized her initial claims?
There is another factor at work though, tabloid journalism used to be ignored, now it seems to be more popular than ever. Maybe a case of market forces?

Is Guo Wengui the new Li Hongzhi? Is FLG falling out of favour with Intelligence services?
 

vesicles

Colonel

The central theme of this article is that this virus is very similar to something else, so it's man-made. Then this virus is very different than other coronaviruses, so it's man-made. It's very confusing as to what their logic is...

I have some expertise on the so-called "rare codons", discussed in their article. Firstly, a bit of background. We all know that proteins are the work horses of biological systems. Protein amino acid sequences are encoded by DNA/RNA. Within a genome, a 3-base pair DNA sequence is called a codon and encodes an amino acid. However, this correlation is not unique. Many times, multiple kinds of 3-base pair DNA sequences can encode the same amino acid. Hypothetically, a DNA codon of "ABC" encodes an amino acid of alanine. Another DNA sequence of "XYZ" can also encode alanine. Then "DHK" combination can also encode alanine. So the amino acid alanine has 3 codes: ABC, XYZ and DHK. In the natural biological world, the chances of these 3 codes are not equal. Again hypothetically, in 60% of living species, you will find the combination of ABC coding alanine. In 39% of living species, you will find XYZ coding alanine. Only in 1% of living beings, you will see DHK coding alanine. This "DHK" is then considered as a "rare codon".

"rare codons" are usually used by cells to suppress/limit the production of certain proteins. DNA is translated to RNA, then to proteins, by a complex machinery. This process of called transcription/translation. When you have "common codons", commonly found machines can be used to finish this process. When you have "rare codons", cells typically have very limited machinery that can recognize these weird DNA sequences, thus making the DNA-RNA-protein process more difficult. It's like someone writes a book using Hebrew. How many people can read Hebrew? How do you expect your book to be popular when no one knows what you are saying? This is what "rare codons" are. We hate "rare codons" in research because these weird sequences make every step of any experiment slow and difficult. Like every other profession, time is money. We need things to move along fast to produce data fast, so that we can publish and get funding. This is why there is a whole industry out there that aims to help researchers to convert all their natural "rare codons" to common codons. This is called codon optimization.

Now, this article actually says that they found a lot of "rare codons" coding the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Normally, this is actually a sign that no one has messed with it. As I mentioned above, researchers hate "rare codons". Whenever we want to work on a genome, we actually want to change them to common codons, as in "codon optimization". Companies charge us money to do that. But now, the authors of this article actually claim that these "rare codons" are evidence of human involvement??? This makes no sense whatsoever. Why would anyone use these weird DNA sequences on purpose, when they can easily use the common ones to achieve the same results (making the exact same proteins), but faster and cheaper? This article has no real evidence at all. Just speculations after speculations after speculations. No wonder they couldn't get it published anywhere. I would reject it outright if I were asked to review the manuscript.
 
Last edited:

localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
The central theme of this article is that this virus is very similar to something else, so it's man-made. Then this virus is very different than other coronaviruses, so it's man-made. It's very confusing as to what their logic is...

I have some expertise on the so-called "rare codons", discussed in their article. Firstly, a bit of background. We all know that proteins are the work horses of biological systems. Protein amino acid sequences are encoded by DNA/RNA. Within a genome, a 3-base pair DNA sequence is called a codon and encodes an amino acid. However, this correlation is not unique. Many times, multiple kinds of 3-base pair DNA sequences can encode the same amino acid. Hypothetically, a DNA codon of "ABC" encodes an amino acid of alanine. Another DNA sequence of "XYZ" can also encode alanine. Then "DHK" combination can also encode alanine. So the amino acid alanine has 3 codes: ABC, XYZ and DHK. In the natural biological world, the chances of these 3 codes are not equal. Again hypothetically, in 60% of living species, you will find the combination of ABC coding alanine. In 39% of living species, you will find XYZ coding alanine. Only in 1% of living beings, you will see DHK coding alanine. This "DHK" is then considered as a "rare codon".

"rare codons" are usually used by cells to suppress/limit the production of certain proteins. DNA is translated to RNA, then to proteins, by a complex machinery. This process of called transcription/translation. When you have "common codons", commonly found machines can be used to finish this process. When you have "rare codons", cells typically have very limited machinery that can recognize these weird DNA sequences, thus making the DNA-RNA-protein process more difficult. It's like someone writes a book using Hebrew. How many people can read Hebrew? How do you expect your book to be popular when no one knows what you are saying? This is what "rare codons" are. We hate "rare codons" in research because these weird sequences make every step of any experiment slow and difficult. Like every other profession, time is money. We need things to move along fast to produce data fast, so that we can publish and get funding. This is why there is a whole industry out there that aims to help researchers to convert all their natural "rare codons" to common codons. This is called codon optimization.

Now, this article actually says that they found a lot of "rare codons" coding the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Normally, this is actually a sign that no one has messed with it. As I mentioned above, researchers hate "rare codons". Whenever we want to work on a genome, we actually want to change them to common codons, as in "codon optimization". Companies charge us money to do that. But now, the authors of this article actually claim that these "rare codons" are evidence of human involvement??? This makes no sense whatsoever. Why would anyone use these weird DNA sequences on purpose, when they can easily use the common ones to achieve the same results (making the exact same proteins), but faster and cheaper? This article has no real evidence at all. Just speculations after speculations after speculations. No wonder they couldn't get it published anywhere. I would reject it outright if I were asked to review the manuscript.


Also the co-authors were made up.
 

supercat

Major
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The World Economic Forum warned it might take years to produce and distribute a coronavirus vaccine around the world even if it were ready in the most optimistic realistic timeline. Then why are they complaining about China and Russia already putting their vaccines into production before Phase 3 is done? India is producing Oxford's vaccine before Phase 3 is completed and not as much criticism. They even had a scenario for a US vaccine alone and how long it would take to distribute among Americans could take years because the US will only be able to produce around 30 million in the beginning then later only 60 million doses a year. And the US is doing everything they were criticizing China on who they speculate on who gets the vaccine first there. Look at how long the world would have to wait listening to them.
The situation is a little bit different between China and Russia. While Russia had given vaccines to some people before phase 3 formerly started, China's phase 3 has already started for 3 months when they gave the vaccines to additional people. So for China, it's like expanding the scope of the phase 3 trial, except additional participants of the trial are not subject to the randomized, double-blind rule.

As for the so called "Yan Report", it was a farce. It's a reflection of some Trump supporters, such Bannon's desperation. They are really clutching at straws at this point. Below is a tweet by Kristian G. Andersen, the author who wrote the paper that debunked the "lab-origin" theory as early as March:
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
The situation is a little bit different between China and Russia. While Russia had given vaccines to some people before phase 3 formerly started, China's phase 3 has already started for 3 months when they gave the vaccines to additional people. So for China, it's like expanding the scope of the phase 3 trial, except additional participants of the trial are not subject to the randomized, double-blind rule.

As for the so called "Yan Report", it was a farce. It's a reflection of some Trump supporters, such Bannon's desperation. They are really clutching at straws at this point. Below is a tweet by Kristian G. Andersen, the author who wrote the paper that debunked the "lab-origin" theory as early as March:


Yes I understand that but when the US is now caught in their own scandals regarding everything COVID-19 that they've always been accusing China, who knows what unethical actions are happening in regards to their side when developing their vaccines. I saw on TV a report on most of the vaccines being developed by Western companies aren't being independently reviewed and all the results we're hearing are coming out of their PR departments. If I were to think like them in scrutinizing China, "What are they hiding to not having an independent party examine their work?" Are they not as harsh on India for doing the same thing because it's their vaccine that India is mass producing before Phase Three is completed? And their companies have a profit motivation too.
 

SAC

Junior Member
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
Registered Member
Interesting to look at the percentages of cases/deaths/tests for countries with a population over 25 Million (arbitrarily selected). We can see many developed countries not fairing so well, and many developing countries appearing to handling the pandemic reasonably well. Ordered by Deaths/1M pop. Note - it is not known how reliable each country's data is. Source -
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.
No:CountryTot Cases/Deaths/Tests/Population
1M pop1M pop1M pop
1
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22,511939108,632
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2
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13,139647230,050
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3
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20,77163068,668
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4
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5,565613301,952
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5
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20,603608284,746
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6
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4,822590166,183
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7
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5,27055711,961
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8
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6,200475153,129
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9
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14,44046063,678
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10
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4,90628343,548
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11
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10,98926466,613
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12
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13,00726835,956
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13
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3,696243168,059
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14
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7,50020448,830
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15
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7,436131286,054
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16
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9,378125168,013
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World3,858121.3
 

SAC

Junior Member
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
Registered Member
Cont.
No:CountryTot Cases/Deaths/Tests/Population
1M pop1M pop1M pop
World3,858121.3
17
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3,183113173,627
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18
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3,50686104,758
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19
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3,8067844,085
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20
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3,7056043,797
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21
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2,0246080,894
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22
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988551,314
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23
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2,4874662,045
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24
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2,5144429,126
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25
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1,11237
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26
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994372,758
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27
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8493410,203
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28
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1,04933280,640
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29
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2,0862910,808
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30
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1,3692913,783
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31
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30719
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32
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6719
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33
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2,2321865,614
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34
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761165,585
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35
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1,9941329,826
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36
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1,4711241,046
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37
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674129,349
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38
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6051213,976
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39
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573910,088
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40
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1,463914,578
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SAC

Junior Member
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41
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57082,354
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42
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442742,745
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43
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27352,315
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44
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72255,519
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45
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310443,668
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46
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11141,994
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47
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593111,1631,439,323,776
48
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1163
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49
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19113,775
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50
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11419,538
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51
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500.810,728
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52
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710.83,518
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53
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110.410,348
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54
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80.3
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