Detecting the next pandemic

[Bootstrap]

In the Fauci thread, I mentioned that Congress does have an important oversight role for the labs that track new diseases that might cause pandemics.

Most pandemics are caused by zoonotic diseases - diseases that animals have, to which they are generally fairly well adapted, that humans are not adapted to. That's why we get so sick. Most of this "spillover" from animals to humans happens in a few places: Southern China and Southeast Asia, Central and West Africa, South Asia, and parts of Latin America.

In some cases, specialized laboratories conduct experiments that adapt viruses to laboratory animals, such as mice, or otherwise alter pathogens to better understand how they spread, cause disease, or respond to vaccines and treatments.

This is where real oversight is needed - it's important to avoid doing anything that might accidentally increase the risk that these diseases will spread to humans.

And here’s the uncomfortable reality: many of the places where these viruses emerge do not have governments with the same level of transparency, biosafety culture, or regulatory oversight that Americans would expect. If we want to be prepared for pandemics, we really do need to do this kind of research. But this means Congress has a responsibility to ensure that U.S. funding is tied to rigorous safety standards, transparency, and accountability.

So far, I don't see Congress doing that.

[JohnH]

Well, except the last pandemic wasn't caused by zoonotic diseases, but rather was caused by idiotic research in a lab that was trying to come up with a super-virus in the name of doing research into the next zoonotic-caused pandemic.

Do you have a good solution for that problem?

[Bootstrap]

Well, except the last pandemic wasn't caused by zoonotic diseases, but rather was caused by idiotic research in a lab that was trying to come up with a super-virus in the name of doing research into the next zoonotic-caused pandemic.

Do you have a good solution for that problem?

First off, your claim is not necessarily true - most scientists would still say it is less likely than other theories of how it began. But regardless, this is precisely the kind of oversight that is needed, making sure research is done safely with enough transparency. And so far, I don't see Congress taking measures to put that in place.

We can try to fix the blame or we can try to fix the problem. For the past, it may be too late to know for sure what happened.

[Valerie]

Well, except the last pandemic wasn't caused by zoonotic diseases, but rather was caused by idiotic research in a lab that was trying to come up with a super-virus in the name of doing research into the next zoonotic-caused pandemic.

Do you have a good solution for that problem?

That just so happened to be in an election year.

[JohnH]

First off, your claim is not necessarily true - most scientists would still say it is less likely than other theories of how it began.

Obviously there isn't a consensus for the origins of it for sure, but a preponderance of evidence is that COVID-19 has signs of being man-made, although it may have been a result of experiments with originally zoonotic viruses.

But regardless, this is precisely the kind of oversight that is needed, making sure research is done safely with enough transparency. And so far, I don't see Congress taking measures to put that in place.

Did this oversight not exist in 2019 and prior? As I recall, there were a great deal of "experts", bureaucracies, grants, and funding for these sort of things. We still got COVID-19 despite all of that. I don't trust the people who created a problem to be able to make it not happen the next time.

We can try to fix the blame or we can try to fix the problem. For the past, it may be too late to know for sure what happened.

Fixing blame is actually pretty important. Part of the problem was the whole scheme of "trust science" and "trust the experts", when in reality such people were simply focused on renewing their grant funding, funding expensive programs, and enhancing their own careers.

Moreover, I don't see why this has to be something the U.S. government does at all. The world got along just fine for thousands of years without people like Dr. Fauci running their mad-scientist labs where they experimented with infesting beagles with flies and grafting aborted-baby scalps to rats.

[Grace]

Obviously there isn't a consensus for the origins of it for sure, but a preponderance of evidence is that COVID-19 has signs of being man-made, although it may have been a result of experiments with originally zoonotic viruses.



Did this oversight not exist in 2019 and prior? As I recall, there were a great deal of "experts", bureaucracies, grants, and funding for these sort of things. We still got COVID-19 despite all of that. I don't trust the people who created a problem to be able to make it not happen the next time.



Fixing blame is actually pretty important. Part of the problem was the whole scheme of "trust science" and "trust the experts", when in reality such people were simply focused on renewing their grant funding, funding expensive programs, and enhancing their own careers.

Moreover, I don't see why this has to be something the U.S. government does at all. The world got along just fine for thousands of years without people like Dr. Fauci running their mad-scientist labs where they experimented with infesting beagles with flies and grafting aborted-baby scalps to rats.

Agreed. All it takes is a mad scientist like Fauci and a complicit government. People in general no longer trust the scientists like Fauci and complicit government leaders. During Covid the government shut down doctors and meds that actually reduced Covid, such as Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, and Monoclonal antibodies. Doctors were using Monoclonal antibodies with covid patients and having great results, until the Biden administration started controlling them. The problem was that these medications weren’t expensive and didn’t garner great profits.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/07/19/this ... hat-wrong/

[Soloist]

I view monoclonal treatments as suspect as some of them depended on grafting fresh fetal thymus on mice.

In a way, the majority of monoclonal treatments depend entirely on the early research with mice monoclonal therapies and then further through grafting.
All of them of course use hek-293 so… when condemning a man for doing the research but then endorsing the product…

[Grace]

I view monoclonal treatments as suspect as some of them depended on grafting fresh fetal thymus on mice.

In a way, the majority of monoclonal treatments depend entirely on the early research with mice monoclonal therapies and then further through grafting.
All of them of course use hek-293 so… when condemning a man for doing the research but then endorsing the product…

I was unaware of that information and if that is true, I wouldn't endorse it. However, we all know that people like Fauci and the Biden administration didn't care a whit about the unborn, so using embryotic cells from unborn babies, wasn't the reason monoclonal antibodies were halted as treatment for Covid. There was too much money to be made from the more expensive treatments.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Obviously there isn't a consensus for the origins of it for sure, but a preponderance of evidence is that COVID-19 has signs of being man-made, although it may have been a result of experiments with originally zoonotic viruses.



Did this oversight not exist in 2019 and prior? As I recall, there were a great deal of "experts", bureaucracies, grants, and funding for these sort of things. We still got COVID-19 despite all of that. I don't trust the people who created a problem to be able to make it not happen the next time.

Fixing blame is actually pretty important. Part of the problem was the whole scheme of "trust science" and "trust the experts", when in reality such people were simply focused on renewing their grant funding, funding expensive programs, and enhancing their own careers.

Moreover, I don't see why this has to be something the U.S. government does at all. The world got along just fine for thousands of years without people like Dr. Fauci running their mad-scientist labs where they experimented with infesting beagles with flies and grafting aborted-baby scalps to rats.

Agreed. All it takes is a mad scientist like Fauci and a complicit government. People in general no longer trust the scientists like Fauci and complicit government leaders. During Covid the government shut down doctors and meds that actually reduced Covid, such as Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, and Monoclonal antibodies. Doctors were using Monoclonal antibodies with covid patients and having great results, until the Biden administration started controlling them. The problem was that these medications weren’t expensive and didn’t garner great profits.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/07/19/this ... hat-wrong/

I can’t responsibly let this be said without challenging this. Ivermectin, in particular, is not effective in treating COVID, full stop. Well run double blind studies show little or no effect.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2115869#

I just hope you never get sick, and opt for social media or politically based treatment. The results could be catastrophic.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Well, except the last pandemic wasn't caused by zoonotic diseases, but rather was caused by idiotic research in a lab that was trying to come up with a super-virus in the name of doing research into the next zoonotic-caused pandemic.

Do you have a good solution for that problem?

Limit pathological virus research as smallpox has been limited. The Chinese in particular will never agree to that.