Maggie's Farm

Whatever happened to Latin, anyway. Oh, yeah. Dead language.

English is the most spoken language in the world, but most people do not speak English.

Language, speakers in millions

English, 1132
Mandarin, 1117
Hindi, 615
Spanish, 534
French, 280
Arabic, 274

Various languages have come and gone as the lingua franca (no pun intended, but the very term does encapsulate the point) in various parts of the world.


It's not primarily the language, but the overweening power of culture, with all that is good and all that is bad, that tends to subsume local cultures. Conservatives within those societies often see modernity as libertine and profligate, and as a threat to traditional mores.

English remains the primary language of science and diplomacy. However, many countries have strong cultures of their own. China and India both have very robust movie industries, so foreigners and aliens often speak Mandarin or Hindi with a perfect accent.

Regardless, languages, including English, will continue to evolve. Latin may be a dead language, but her children live on. (Not so much Akkadian, though.)

Mike Anderson: Ditto for that great (greatest) work of English literature, the King James Version of the Bible.

Certainly the King James translation of the Bible is one of the great accomplishments of the age. The King James Bible has had enormous influence over the English language and culture.

Science is hard. — Barbie

The genetic evidence indicates SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is not an engineered virus. See Andersen et al., The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine 2020.

The genetic evidence also indicates that the virus crossed over more than once, close in time and space, which is very unlikely for an accidental release. See Pekar et al, The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2, Science 2022: “all of the circumstantial evidence so far points to more than one zoonotic event occurring in Huanan market in Wuhan, China, likely during November–December 2019”.

Epidemiological evidence shows that there was more than one crossover event with their epicenter at the Huanan Market. See Worobey et al., The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, Science 2022.

Furthermore, other outbreaks, including SARS and avian flu, were found to have originated with wet markets that sold wildlife.


Because the author and his ilk conflate wet markets with wildlife markets. Most wet markets didn't sell wildlife, but the industry was poorly regulated, even after China banned the sale of wildlife in wet markets in response to the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak. More restrictions have been put in place since the 2020-2021 pandemic.

jm01: However the way the virus behaves strongly indicates an artificial origin.

It behaves as a novel coronavirus. It's the unfamiliarity of the human immune system that makes the virus dangerous.

jm01: The genetic sequence of the Covid 19 virus also contains several anomalous sequences which make sense if it were developed in a laboratory setting.

Anderson et al: "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus." Of course, Anderson et al. could be incorrect, but that would require looking at the study and seeing where they went wrong.

jm01: Dr Birx argues a Wuhan scientist could have easily walked out of the lab with it.

Sure, but the evidence indicates otherwise. You would have to assert that there were at least two lab leaks, of different strains, with both of them immediately going to the Huanan Market, rather than to the lunch counter down the street from the lab, or to their apartment complexes where the lab technicians live. Crossover events from animals is so typical, that it takes special pleading to continue to assert otherwise with regards to COVID.

Anon: If Zach is here pumping out pro-China propaganda who do you think he works for?

Hardly. China is an oppressive and sometimes brutal regime that has not fully cooperated in the investigation of the origins of COVID-19.

Anon: That is pretty much well known and acknowledged the real question is what it released intentionally and if it was is that war?

Yes, the virus originated in China, as do many other viruses, such as seasonal influenza. However, there is no evidence of an intentional release. China clearly knows that, once released, biological agents can't be predicted. Releasing it inside China, in a densely populated city, makes absolutely no sense.

Furthermore, there is nothing unusual about a zoonotic origin for viruses, and there have been two major outbreaks in the twenty years before COVID-19 that have been traced to zoonotic origins. Nor is it likely an accidental laboratory release. See citations above.

There will be other such outbreaks in the future. Nature can be brutal.

Anon: Unless you have over a billion people and would like to reduce that number by half.

China is facing a demographic problem of a shrinking population in the next generation. No self-inflicted biological warfare required. Fighting the pandemic has been very costly for China.

Anon: I think that the release of Covid was intentional.

The evidence supports a zoonotic event.

Anon: The Chinese performed a gain of function experiment with the virus (because the Chinese are animals) and the evidence of that is clear.

That isn't consistent with the studies noted above. The molecular evidence shows separate cross-species transmissions, indicating it was unlikely the virus circulated widely in humans before the outbreak. The epidemological evidence shows environmental samples were spatially associated with vendors selling live mammals.

Keep in mind that zoonotic origins are very common for respiratory viruses.

Anon: your hand picked studies

Citing scientific studies is a stronger argument than saying “Is not!” You could point out how the studies are in error.

jm01: Read the details about the furin cleavage site.

Furin cleavage sites have evolved independently several times in other coronaviruses. The evidence cited above indicates that the virus evolved in a non-bat animal before emerging in the wildlife trade at the Huanan Market.

Andersen et al: "the genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone."