Coronavirus began 'as an accident' in Chinese lab, says former MI6 boss

Coronavirus began 'as an accident' in Chinese lab, says former MI6 boss(telegraph.co.uk)

6 points by sha1 6 years ago

This is the guy who was head of MI6 when they had damning evidence that Saddam had WMDs and we know how that turned out.

Now he read a paper and his credentials are used to 'spread the word' again.

Apparently they think it works every time.

In the meantime the virus has been under extraordinary genetic scrutiny and everyone else think that it looks perfectly natural.

miles 6 years ago | |

Thanks for the heads up. Seems like something TFA should mention:

MI6 stood by bogus intelligence until after Iraq invasion https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/06/mi6-stood-by...

Spy chief did not tell Blair about lies of key source https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/spy-chief-did-not-tell-bl...

onei 6 years ago |

The paper by itself is questionable. It's apparently peer reviewed, but no journal is willing to publish it for now. One author asked for their name to be removed while others reviewers have dismissed its authenticity.

It comes across as six of one and half a dozen of another. Either way, it's politically controversial if it's remotely true.

sha1 6 years ago | |

Sources?

quotz 6 years ago |

I wonder whether Facebook would censor this as it goes against WHO guidelines, while its also published by a credible news source

samizdis 6 years ago | |

I would hesitate nowadays to call the UK's Telegraph titles (Daily and Sunday) credible news sources; both have been going downhill since their acquisition in 2004 by the Barclay Brothers. Many fine journalists felt their standards so compromised under the Barclay regime that they quit. One prominent resignation was that of Peter Oborne in 2015; see his personal statement [1] and BBC article [2].

(Disclosure: I was a journalist for the Telegraph Group for seven years until 2001, when I left to take a senior position at an online financial news and share-trading start-up. I remain in contact with many former colleagues from the Telegraph and other Fleet Street titles.]

[1] Why I have resigned from the Telegraph

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/why-i-have-...

[2] Daily Telegraph's Peter Oborne resigns over HSBC coverage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31510152

lbeltrame 6 years ago | |

I've read the article and the linked papers, and IMO this stems from a huge misunderstanding on what "insert" is, given inserts in DNA and RNA sequences can occur with replication errors and then can be kept due to selective pressure. So, that can't prove or disprove what this person is saying.

The part with the "previous version" of the paper is also fishy, given that it is not shown.