The Illuminati and other Conspiracy Theories thread

[TexRex]

To think that, in this day and age and as ubiquitous as they are, drones are actually fodder for conspiracy theorists.

 

[Dotini]

An unexplained mystery has come into wider notoriety.

FAA probes clusters of mysterious drones flying over Colorado

Keith Coffman
3 MIN READ

DENVER (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into nighttime sightings of unidentified drones flying in formation over rural northeastern Colorado and southwest Nebraska over the last two weeks, the agency said on Tuesday.

The cluster of drones, technically known as unmanned aircraft systems, have been spotted in at least four counties in Colorado, garnering national media attention.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement emailed to Reuters that “multiple FAA divisions and government agencies are investigating these reports,” adding that the agency does not comment on the details of its open investigations.

No private companies nor government agencies have claimed the drones.

The Phillips County, Colorado Sheriff’s Office said in a Dec. 20 Facebook post it was investigating “multiple reports of drone sightings in the county over the last week.”

On that day, deputies from Phillips and Yuma counties “tracked over 16 drones between the two counties. We believe that the drones, though startling, are not malicious in nature.”

Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliot said in a phone interview that the drones with blinking lights are flying in square grid patterns nearly every night between 5 and 10 p.m., and appear to be widening their path.


“They now have moved into Morgan County (Colorado) and have been spotted in Perkins County, Nebraska,” he said.

Elliot said he had spoken to FAA investigators about whether the agency could determine if the aircraft were being used to map the area for possible oil and gas exploration purposes.

Wyatt Harman, who chased the drones when they flew over his Washington County, Colorado, property, told NBC’s Today show on Tuesday that seeing the mysterious aircraft was “unnerving.”

“They can sit there and hover,” Harman said. “They can descend very fast. They can take off very fast.”

U.S. Senator Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican and a member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation and Space, said in a Tuesday statement that he had been in contact with the FAA.

“I’m encouraged that they’ve opened a full investigation to learn the source and purpose of the drones,” said Gardner, who is from Yuma County.

Last week, the FAA proposed requiring nearly all drones operating in U.S. airspace to be remotely tracked, a move which Sheriff Elliot said he would welcome.

“I could put all this to rest if whomever is doing this would come forward and identify themselves,” Elliot said.

Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Richard Chang

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ous-drones-flying-over-colorado-idUSKBN1YZ1G0

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...o-nebraska-unleashes-origin-theories-n1108941

Then we have another shot, supposedly chasing the drones.

Here all the lights are at ground level, nothing at all unusual is shown. Supposedly Wyatt followed these lights for 15 minutes up to 70 mph. Was he just chasing distant lights?

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/my...er-colorado-and-nebraska-chasing-venus.11048/

EDIT:
Curiously, the drones are operating only a few miles from F.E. Warren Air Force Base's intercontinental ballistic missile fields.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...rre-drone-mystery-unfolding-in-rural-colorado

 

[TenEightyOne]

An unexplained mystery has come into wider notoriety.

The last big drone story to get international attention was, as we all surely recall, the recurring Gatwick drone incidents. At the time we were assured that US and Israeli technology was being hastily acquired by the British to intercept and down these drones. That begs an obvious question: given that the Colorado drones seem to be appearing most nights and in a known area (if a wide area) why hasn't one been brought down for examination? They presumably have to recharge somehwere - why aren't they being tracked?

All very peculiar.

 

[Dotini]

why hasn't one been brought down for examination? They presumably have to recharge somehwere - why aren't they being tracked?

Easy answer to that particular question: Gatwick drones endangered routine air traffic operations, while Colorado drones merely irritate farmers in flyover country. No obvious harm is being done. The locals are forbidden by law enforcement to shoot at them. The craft are hard to track, as they apparently turn off their lights before departing the area.

I'm monitoring reddit off and on, and hear completely unverified reports from locals that large trucks are said to be loitering mysteriously in the area. The locals are variously reporting red, white, yellow, green and blue lights, some flashing rapidly, some steady. Some of the craft are reported to hover for several hours (all night) in one spot. Some locals report the craft are silent, others report a soft whirring noise. The craft are thought to be over 6' in diameter, and over 55lbs in weight.

Edit:
More from locals on reddit:
- Have now been seen south of Denver
- 8+ hour flight time, Programmable to run grid patterns, 800km+ Range, Remote start, VTOL
- numbers 20-30
- thought to be US gov't military tests
- potential for face recognition, armament
- numerous private militias are said to be operating in Colorado foothills

Actual cellphone footage of Colorado drone

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/31/drone-video-yuma-county-colorado/

 

[Dotini]

Formations of drones are now being seen in the Denver suburbs, sometimes hovering over homes. They are now said to be up to 10' in length.
No authority of any kind, whether local, state or national, has investigated or even said much about them, so the "the government" is assumed to be responsible for them.

See video embedded in link.
https://kdvr.com/2020/01/06/large-drone-sightings-reported-in-castle-rock-parker-fort-collins/

add'l news links
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/01/04/colorado-nebraska-drones-pkg-vpx.hln
Here it is suggested the objects could be satellites.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/fbi-investigating-mysterious-drones-over-colorado/
These reporters suggest the FBI, FAA and Air Force are investigating, and want citizens to report mysterious box trailers with antennae seen in the vastly expanded sightings area to be reported to authorities.




6 hours ago


8 hours ago

 

[Touring Mars]

My guess is a government/military testing program for new communications networks. Ultimately, drones could replace satellites - drones are far cheaper and could be deployed in vast numbers, and are easily repaired or replaced. Satellites are a relatively old technology and are susceptible to a range of hazards, from natural to manmade e.g. cyber attack. They also (obviously) have predictable orbits and are thus easy to physically track and target, albeit relatively safe from physical attack thanks to being in space... but still, the idea of replacing satellite technology with swarms of drones whose flight patterns could be made virtually impossible to predict or know is appealing. All of this is no doubt being tested as we speak, and could have huge implications for national security.

 

[Dotini]

Expert says drones not his, and not strictly legal.

News Channel Nebraska spoke to Paul Pitsky. He is the vice president of US Federal Operations for Dedrone - A company that specializes in drone detection and airspace security. He says the situation is unusual.


"It certainly seems odd in general," Pitsky said. "As a Part 107 pilot, you're not supposed to be flying at night. So you're already taking the first step into some activity that's maybe not authorized at this time. That would already sound some sort of alarm bell to me that somebody's doing something they're not supposed to be doing."


Part 107 refers to the FAA's rule of piloting a small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS).


Dedrone does have a partnership with Francis E. Warren Air Force Base just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming to test some of this technology. According to their website, the military installation is home to the 90th Missile Wing and oversees the country’s ICBM’s in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming. Pitsky says the drones are not theirs.


"I can tell you from Dedrone's perspective, we are not involved in the situation," Pitsky said.


The U.S. Air Force has also previously denied involvement with the drones.

https://www.newschannelnebraska.com...es-sightings-in-west-nebraska-still-a-mystery

video linked


11 hours ago

Source suggest secret USAF counter drone program to protect Minuteman ICBM silos in the area.
https://www.daily-news-media.com/co...tecting-nuclear-silos-as-new-footage-emerges/

Drones now a problem for local airports, as locals shine lasers at anything flying, including medical helicopters.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Expert says drones not his, and not strictly legal.

That depends on whose drones they are.

Source suggest secret USAF counter drone program to protect Minuteman ICBM silos in the area.

That's quite a crap secret.

Drones now a problem for local airports, as locals shine lasers at anything flying, including medical helicopters.

If the drones are being operated correctly then they're not a problem for local airports or air traffic at all. As far as I'm aware there haven't been any airport/aircraft incident reports and there are no NOTAMs in place for Kansas airspace in respect of any drone hazard.

It sounds like the locals are the problem if they're shining lasers at aircraft.

 

[Dotini]

In breaking news, it is said one of the drones has crashed due to high winds overnight. Locals are reporting this as overheard on multiple police scanners.

 

[baldgye]

That's quite a crap secret.

Shhhhh!

 

[Dotini]

The mystery drones are now being seen over towns and cities.

https://kdvr.com/2020/01/06/large-drone-sightings-reported-in-castle-rock-parker-fort-collins/


Closed door meeting among full range of authorities at all levels. Video embedded.
The FAA has refused to identify the objects as drones. This makes me wonder if this mystery shouldn't be classified as UAP/UFO?

https://www.9news.com/article/news/...eting/73-059fd156-ec27-4a36-8bb6-717b2e70d5c6

Video seems evidence of drone engine and propellers.
https://www.wowt.com/content/news/C...non-spotted-in-Saunders-County-566798651.html

 

[Dotini]

The Colorado state owned Pilatus PC-12 has joined the search for the mystery drones.

NWCG.GOV
The Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control's PC-12 MMA.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...for-mystery-drones-over-colorado-and-nebraska



Pilot says drone nearly ran into Flight for Life helicopter

The medical helicopter was on its way to Fort Morgan, an area where mystery drones have been spotted in recent weeks

https://www.9news.com/article/news/...opter/73-405c5291-d80e-4314-ab5d-ddf1b7bcef20

 

[Dotini]

At last, plausible explanations who, how and why.
https://gazette.com/military/colora...cle_c8d375be-2e6f-11ea-85b7-2335e1d42476.html

https://kdvr.com/2020/01/09/mysteri...chnology-is-being-tested-over-eastern-plains/

 

[Rallywagon]

Mind putting a bit of a synopsis under each of those links? The first is likely going to give people a blocked message if they've already visited the site 3 times and both sites are absolute garbage for ads. I couldn't even get to the content of the second link, it just kept throwing ads over the screen.

 

[Dotini]

Mind putting a bit of a synopsis under each of those links? The first is likely going to give people a blocked message if they've already visited the site 3 times and both sites are absolute garbage for ads. I couldn't even get to the content of the second link, it just kept throwing ads over the screen.

My iMac doesn't work at all like your device, it seems. But I'm happy to copy and paste the content for you.

The mysterious drone swarms spotted over Colorado that have vexed the governor, law enforcement and residents might not be so mysterious after all.

While no one has taken responsibility, and even the Federal Aviation Administration has claimed ignorance, the answer could be a secretive Air Force program intended to keep prying eyes away from nuclear missile silos.

15 agencies not responsible for mysterious drones in Colorado


Air Force Global Strike Command, which is based in Louisiana, has confirmed that it conducts counterdrone exercises out of F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, where it is based.

The command oversees underground Minuteman silos spread across northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska, the area where the drones have been spotted nightly the past two weeks.

The Air Force isn’t claiming ownership of the drones, but neither is it denying it.

F.E. Warren didn’t respond to an emailed question Friday on whether its counterdrone effort had anything to do with the recent sightings.

A Federal Aviation Administration map of the region where the drones have been spotted — Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and Yuma counties — is pocked with red dots of where drones are forbidden, restricted airspace presumably above missile silos.

The Air Force counterdrone program at Warren, which includes extensive testing of civilian drones, relies on innovative technology including Dedrone, a system developed in Europe that detects and tracks small civilian drones using the radio signals they require for control.

Mystery drone sightings continue in Colorado, into Nebraska
Run by the 90th Security Support Squadron at Warren, the counterdrone program is one of several across the Defense Department to take aim at the unmanned aircraft. For the nation’s missile troops, the camera carried by small drones present a threat because they could give an adversary clues on how to attack intercontinental ballistic missile, a key component of American power.

The 90th Missile Wing has a military police unit equipped with helicopters to protect missile silos from threats on the ground. The Warren counterdrone program focuses on the small, commercially available drones that can be purchased on Amazon for as little as $50.

New Air Force medal gives credit to drone troops, sheds light on secretive mission
In a news release, the Air Force said the commercial drones “provide a realistic training environment.”

Lisa Meserve, who handles federal sales for Dedrone, said her company is working with private companies and government organizations including the Air Force to detect drone flights. The firm has worked with F.E. Warren since an initial contract in 2017.

While Meserve couldn’t say where the drones in northeastern Colorado came from, she said the Air Force is fond of testing F.E. Warren’s drone-detecting capabilities.

“They fly drones against what they have all the time,” she said.

The Phillips County Sheriff’s Office first reported drone sightings on Dec. 20, noting that as many as 16 drones had been spotted in Phillips and Yuma counties. The location of the drones alone was enough to prompt suspicion. The two counties combined have just over 14,000 residents and aren’t known for having a large contingent of drone enthusiasts.

“We believe that the drones, though startling, are not malicious in nature,” the Phillips County sheriff said on Facebook. “The Sheriff’s Office is following up on leads and communications with state and federal agencies to pinpoint the exact nature to their activities.”

The drone sightings have made national news, with networks and newspapers delving into the mystery.

Federal agencies from the FAA to the Colorado Springs-based North American Aerospace Defense Command have denied involvement. But some drone incidents in Colorado have had military roots, including one in 2015 in which a wayward drone from Fort Carson landed in a downtown Colorado Springs yard.

In 2017, a drone used in an Army training exercise in Arizona rode jet stream winds and was found in the foothills west of Denver.

Small drones have also wound up as battlefield weapons in recent years, with the Islamic State using some small drones to drop hand grenades on foes.

Countering drone threats means quickly adjusting to the new technologies rapidly entering the drone market.

“It certainly gets more difficult by the day to solve,” Dedrone’s Meserve said.

The Air Force is fielding a growing array of counterdrone weapons intended for use on overseas battlefields, including a new truck-mounted laser delivered in October by Raytheon.

“Five years ago, few people worried about the drone threat,” Roy Azevedo, president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, said in a news release. “Now, we hear about attacks or incursions all the time. Our customers saw this coming and asked us to develop a ready-now counter-(drone) capability.”

Counterdrone efforts won’t be limited to F.E. Warren for long.

The Air Force and other military branches are examining wider efforts to protect bases from drones. And Colorado Springs bases, including Schriever Air Force Base and Peterson Air Force Base, where airmen control the nation’s constellation of military satellites, would be high on the Pentagon’s counterdrone priority list.

https://gazette.com/military/colora...cle_c8d375be-2e6f-11ea-85b7-2335e1d42476.html

DENVER -- Colorado's drone mystery continues and descriptions of drone sightings on the eastern Plains are offering a few clues about what may be occurring.

Some have described the drones as having rotors. Others say they resemble small planes. Both may be correct. There are multi-rotor drones and fixed-wing drones.

"An aircraft like this (fixed wing) can fly for three to four hours with the same battery. A multi-rotor can only for about 30 minutes," explained Eric Frew, a professor in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado Boulder.

CU Boulder is at the cutting edge of research into drone swarming technology, which is what we may be seeing out on the eastern Plains.

"It sounds like they're using similar types of software and similar types of algorithms," Frew said.

Swarming is the ability to fly several dozen drones with just one pilot, and CU Boulder was one of the first entities in the country to receive a waiver from the FAA to do it legally.

"Having one pilot command three drones is no less safe than one pilot commanding one," said Frew.

Students at the University of Colorado Boulder are testing drone swarming technology to improve search and rescues. Swarms of drones could help teams more quickly find lost hikers or someone buried in an avalanche.

The university has also looked at how drone swarms could be used to track wildlife.

Swarming could explain why folks on the eastern Plains are seeing so many drones, but there is no large gathering of pilots.

"The thing I find most surprising is the night-time flying. Why at night? I think it implies they don't want to be seen. I think it's just because they don't have permission to fly 20 at once and they want to try it out," said Frew.

However, the mystery of who is doing it and why they are flying swarms of drones at night remains a mystery.

"I'm hoping we as a community will help solve this problem and citizens will see we care about answering these questions too. The people flying these drones are giving us a bad name," said Frew.

https://kdvr.com/2020/01/09/mysteri...chnology-is-being-tested-over-eastern-plains/

 

[Dotini]

Authorities seem to have dropped the search for the big truck with antennae, and generally clammed up, having zero success in solving the mystery. I hate to say it, but this is starting to look more and more like a UAP/UFO flap. If more positive identification of the phenomena is not forthcoming in a reasonable amount of time, I will be forced to move it another thread.


Business Insider, December 30, 2019, with USAF image. Click to enlarge.

All white, fixed-wing plane without any letter/number identification was posted on Facebook first week of January 2020.

This was Denver’s Channel 7 (ABC) image from a “private strategy meeting” about the mystery drones on Monday morning, January 6, 2020, by the FBI, FAA, AFOSI, U. S. Army, Homeland Security and sheriffs and other law enforcement. The public was not welcome.

Afterward that same day, the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office in Holyoke, Colorado, posted this statement on Facebook that included asking for public help to look for “the command vehicle” that could be controlling all the drone flights. The January 6, 2020, FB post also said, “We are looking for a closed box trailer with antennas or a large van that does not belong in the area,” and the Sheriff’s Office phone number was given for the public to use “if you see anything that resembles this description.” The drone phenomena is definitely violating an FAA rule that a permit is required to fly drones at night.

After the private meeting in the morning on January 6, 2020, that evening Colorado sent up a high-tech surveillance plane known as a Multi-Mission Aircraft (MMA) that is normally used to track wildfires and has special cameras and sensors to see through smoke. ABC News reported that, “The MMA flew a spaghetti-like pattern above northeast Colorado for nearly five hours” on that January 6th night, but still no answers discovered in the drone mystery. See Websites below.



Why Did Phillips County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office Pull Back Its Search Alert for Drone “Command Vehicle”?

For reasons unknown, Colorado’s Phillips County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, January 8, 2020 (above FB post), pulled back its own alert only two days before about searching for a drone “Command Vehicle.”

On January 8th, The Denver Post reported about the rescinding:

Lincoln County sheriff’s Capt. Michael Yowell said Wednesday that the topic of “command vehicles” was discussed at Monday’s (Jan. 6, 2020) meeting as sheriffs compared notes about various reports they’d received.

“It was brought up that someone has got to be controlling these drones,” Yowell said.

But he said he can’t speak to what the task force decided to pursue, because after the initial general meeting, members of the newly formed task force stayed in the room while the rest of attendees left. The Phillips County Sheriff’s Office is not part of the task force.

Ian Gregor, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said Wednesday that authorities have still not figured out the source of the drones.

“We are still working together to try to determine what exactly it is that people are reporting seeing, and if it’s drones, who the operator is,” he said.

Google markers show evolution from mid-December 2019 to first week of January 2020 of mysterious, still-unidentified drone-like aerial objects that continue to fly over northeastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska. Many authorities say they are baffled, but the silence of the Dept. of Defense about what could be a security threat implies that DoD and related agencies might know more about the drone mystery. Map by NightDrones.net

Current map of some 400 LGM-30 Minuteman III American nuclear missiles distributed in underground silos at Francis E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, Montana; and Minot AFB in Minot, North Dakota. Map source Wikipedia.

 

[Dotini]

Despite a full month of investigation by no fewer than 77 agencies, the Colorado mystery drone problem remains unsolved.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-t...e-swarms-lingering-near-nuclear-missile-silos

A generation ago, UFOs having near-identical operating characteristics were repeatedly seen over the Warren, Malmstrom and Minot ICBM fields, sometimes disabling as many as 10 missiles at a time. The only thing those UFOs did differently was sometimes operate at very high speed, which the current ones do not do.

After disclosures in 2017, 2018 and 2019 by the Pentagon that UFOs are real, seen by fighter pilots by eyeball, on gun camera and radar and are unsolved problems, a new lid of secrecy has been clamped down on the issue on the basis that further revelation of UFO secrets represent "an exceptionally grave threat to US national security".

 

[TVR27]

Pareidolia from Mars.

Dragonfly.

 

[TenEightyOne]

A generation ago, UFOs having near-identical operating characteristics were repeatedly seen over the Warren, Malmstrom and Minot ICBM fields, sometimes disabling as many as 10 missiles at a time.

UFOs were disabling the missiles? I'm going to regret this... but do explain.

 

[baldgye]

Authorities seem to have dropped the search for the big truck with antennae, and generally clammed up, having zero success in solving the mystery. I hate to say it, but this is starting to look more and more like a UAP/UFO flap. If more positive identification of the phenomena is not forthcoming in a reasonable amount of time, I will be forced to move it another thread.

Wait, doesn't this 'cover up' make it more of a conspiracy and thus perfect for this thread?

 

[Dotini]

UFOs were disabling the missiles? I'm going to regret this... but do explain.

Please see reply by PM.

 

[baldgye]

Please see reply by PM.

The Illuminati and other Conspiracy Theories thread strikes again!

 

[Dotini]

Wait, doesn't this 'cover up' make it more of a conspiracy and thus perfect for this thread?

That is a good question. Below is latest info I've found on the question of Colorado mystery drones.

https://kdvr.com/2020/01/24/problem...ut-northeastern-colorado-drone-investigation/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elaine-chao-drones-unidentified-colorado-nebraska-185006691.html

When the mystery touches on the question of UFOs, it touches - perhaps - one the most profound questions confronting humanity. We have addressed it in several threads, Aliens, UAP/UFO, God, and Conspiracy. Generally, the forum has responded very negatively if at all. I have come to the conclusion that this forum is not a good place to discuss these questions, so I'm going to try to taper off and "stifle myself", as Archie Bunker used to say. Please help me by refraining from asking me any more questions on any of these topics.

 

[baldgye]

When the mystery touches on the question of UFOs, it touches - perhaps - one the most profound questions confronting humanity.

“...what’s that in the sky?”

Aliens, UAP/UFO, God...

...oh

 

[Dotini]

Not that it's going to make much difference in the long run, but it's looking increasingly like China is vastly underreporting infections and deaths in the ongoing nCoV breakout. Probably the number of infected is greater by an order of magnitude. Crematoria are said to be operating around the clock. Many people are dying of viral pneumonia without ever being tested for the virus. These notions are not my own. They are being expressed by numerous observers on the scene at the epicenter, and by doctors and other experts I've seen interviewed on the business networks I've been monitoring for days. Eventually the reality whatever it really is will emerge as more open and honest regimes cope with breakouts in their own countries.

 

[Dotini]

https://harvardtothebighouse.com/20...e-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/

 

[Touring Mars]

There's quite a lot to unpack in that, but I've already come across a lot of the linked material in there.

One key piece, however, which argues that the virus is 'engineered' has since retracted the claim - the comments section is particularly useful.

For me, there are two main questions:

1) Is Covid-19 a man-made virus? The answer is an almost certain no. And even if it were, there's no reason to believe that there are not or will not be similarly dangerous coronaviruses that are 100% natural. Evolution is a bitch.

...and

2) Is the narrative about the outbreak beginning from an animal market true? My guess is very likely not. I'm not a great believer in coincidences, and the fact that China's only BSL-4 lab is just 20 miles from where the outbreak was first identified is enough to ring a major alarm bell for me. That this lab is known to host current and on-going research into lethal new strains of coronavirus that affect humans is also something of a major coincidence.

I've only ever seen a BSL-3 lab - I personally work(ed) in a BSL-2 lab (despite working on live, human Zika virus... it only requires a BSL-2 lab), but colleagues of mine have worked in BSL-4 labs in the US, and the security is absolutely crazy (as it should be). But, even a BSL-4 lab isn't fool-proof. I'm sad to say that I've seen with my own eyes just how dangerously incompetent some people can be - indeed, 'incompetent' is not even the right word... more like 'dangerously lazy', almost to the point of criminal negligence. And I've only ever worked in one virology lab...

The conclusions thus far seem to be: the assertion that the virus (Covid-19) is manmade is almost certainly false, but it is also probably not true that the outbreak is entirely 'natural' - and a leak of the virus from a nearby virology facility is very high indeed.

 

[Dotini]

There's quite a lot to unpack in that, but I've already come across a lot of the linked material in there.

One key piece, however, which argues that the virus is 'engineered' has since retracted the claim - the comments section is particularly useful.

For me, there are two main questions:

1) Is Covid-19 a man-made virus? The answer is an almost certain no. And even if it were, there's no reason to believe that there are not or will not be similarly dangerous coronaviruses that are 100% natural. Evolution is a bitch.

...and

2) Is the narrative about the outbreak beginning from an animal market true? My guess is very likely not. I'm not a great believer in coincidences, and the fact that China's only BSL-4 lab is just 20 miles from where the outbreak was first identified is enough to ring a major alarm bell for me. That this lab is known to host current and on-going research into lethal new strains of coronavirus that affect humans is also something of a major coincidence.

I've only ever seen a BSL-3 lab - I personally work(ed) in a BSL-2 lab (despite working on live, human Zika virus... it only requires a BSL-2 lab), but colleagues of mine have worked in BSL-4 labs in the US, and the security is absolutely crazy (as it should be). But, even a BSL-4 lab isn't fool-proof. I'm sad to say that I've seen with my own eyes just how dangerously incompetent some people can be - indeed, 'incompetent' is not even the right word... more like 'dangerously lazy', almost to the point of criminal negligence. And I've only ever worked in one virology lab...

The conclusions thus far seem to be: the assertion that the virus (Covid-19) is manmade is almost certainly false, but it is also probably not true that the outbreak is entirely 'natural' - and a leak of the virus from a nearby virology facility is very high indeed.

Okay. But would you care to remark on the suggestion that the strain prefers East Asians?

 

[Touring Mars]

Okay. But would you care to remark on the suggestion that the strain prefers East Asians?

As you allude to in your earlier post on the subject, there may well be some evidence that specific populations are more susceptible to this virus than others, but it would be safe to say that the jury is still out on that. As with most things associated with this outbreak, it is arguably too early to say.

 

[Rallywagon]

https://harvardtothebighouse.com/20...e-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/

"Simply and horribly, this is likely to become another Chernobyl or Fukushima – a catastrophic illustration of mankind’s hubris and intransigence clashing with Nature, as fate again reaps a once unimaginably tragic toll."
Wow.... did you write this? The hyperbolic word smithing is on a other level.
Not the first time this theory have been bounced around after it was released that Wuhan had a biochemical research facility less than 3 miles from the claimed epicenter. I find it to be a very plausible scenario to be sure.

Edit, is it 20 miles away? I must be on some old news, I thought I remembered reading the lab was a lot closer to the market than that. Then again, I have heard recently that a lot of experts are beginning to doubt that it came from the market to begin with.