Ok, just to establish a little credibility, here’s the article I alluded to before where my collaborators and I genetically modified a mouse to overexpress IGF-1 in cardiac and skeletal muscle.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10544175/
I did a little more work in this area but then moved on to the MD part of my training (too much politics in basic science for me). So if you look you might find some more articles from cardiac electrophysiology, what I do now...
As for the Covid question, I haven’t researched what evidence exists for the virus being engineered, intentionally released or anything else. My statement was simply that if you have the genomic sequence of the versions of the virus that exist “in the wild” and compare them to the genomic sequence of the first version detected in humans, it should be possible to identify sequences that look “engineered” if that was done. RC is correct that you can make such engineering difficult to detect, but the following would be some potential clues:
*** the total number of base pairs that deviate in the human variant vs the closest wild type variant (indicating a rate of change greater than would be expected naturally)
*** concentration of base pair changes that resemble “editing” upstream or downstream of a key sequence (think splicing where something you wanted to change was present)
*** base pair sequence changes that are “convenient” for genetic engineering (such as adding or deleting restriction enzyme binding sites or sequences that assist in using other techniques)
Since the genomic sequence for the human infecting variant is published, it’s been scrutinized by scientists from all over the world with all possible political affiliations. If there were a “smoking gun” indicating intentional construction and release, I think it would be revealed by now.
I do think it is clear that Covid-19 was infecting thousands of people in Wuhan and creating a medical crisis there long before China acknowledged this. Hubris and a desire to avoid public embarrassment delayed admission and made it easier for travelers to spread the virus elsewhere. I do not think the WHO will have adequate site access or the political will to identify whether corona viruses were being actively studied / manipulated in Wuhan by a state sponsored facility. For me, the WHO investigation is politically expedient theater. Any evidence that remains will be what has been left for them to find. Ultimately, as others have stated, economics will dictate the near term political response to this mess by western powers (ie essentially nothing will happen). I think the best we can do in this situation is to get as close to 100 percent vaccination ASAP before new variants appear and allow Covid to become a never ending mess (Carlos has covered this very clearly in his posts).
Frankly, I’d much rather talk about new cardiac EP technology if anyone is interested... We do have some cool new tech at work...