>So these spike proteins effectively targeting the human cells is a feat achievable only through the process of natural selection.<p>I'm calling BS on this. I know for a fact there is the capability to measure protein binding potential via simulation. That's the entire point behind such programs as Foldit, and the tools that it was assembled from.<p>Furthermore, while yes, one might start from the backbone of a virus already known to cause illness (cited as a reason it must be natural selection of course), the issue with that is that such an approach is easily recognized, and also bakes in all the existing medical treatments that are currently in existence for that backbone. Gain-of-function research is specifically tailored around inducing human compatibility in non-human compatible viroids in part to specifically create highly infectious agents we haven't had to deal with before. Research that was actively taking place in the Wuhan BSL-4 lab.<p>I offer the following as a convenient assemblage of resources pointing toward the conclusion that this virus has been the center of a hell of a lot of research effort in the recent past; and some other ancillary happenings in the world of higher ed.<p><a href="https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-technical-analysis-of-the-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/" rel="nofollow">https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-t...</a><p>The level of coincidence is striking me as too damn high. I've noticed most of the stuff pointed out in the above article, and to be frank, that not long after research was conducted on producing chimeric, highly infective strains, the next major pandemic just happens to spawn out of a region containing a BSL-4 isolation lab? Right next to a bunch of researchers who just happened to be notorious for participation in not just gain of function research, but also in isolating strains of human compatible coronaviruses endemic to bat populations?<p>If you can seriously read that article and then discount that constellation of coincidence as being uninvolved, I have a lighthouse in central Texas to sell you. Profitable and self-sustaining. Mariners basically fork over money and I'm just tired of raking it in.<p>That articles keep getting posted that this thing has to be natural, flies in the face of any semblance of sense.<p>EDIT: found an old thread on this very article. Now reading up on comments. Outlook may change. Learning things is fun.<p>Old thread:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22344022" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22344022</a><p>Looks like there are some analytical techniques that do suggest the thing is under some form of natural selection. I'm reading up on them now, trying to grok the math, but a lot of it seems to have a pretty heavy reliance on being able to trace things through lineages. Something I'd think you'd either have to have the all the data for the transitionary period for to get a truly accurate picture from, and that by the method itself is generally always an underestimate.<p>I'm slightly less gung-hi on the engineering at the moment until I've had enough time to absorb this, but the web of social interactions still rings to me as where there is smoke, there is fire. Therefore, I'm leaving my post largely unalteredfor posterity.