Don't you do lab bitch work for a professor at your school?

Sadly, I decided I didn't want to be a doctor because I really liked my lab work for my M.S., so I got a job as a staff scientist in a cancer lab at a different medical school. Currently deciding if I want to get a Ph.D so I can run my own projects, or if I want to just make money. Going back to medical school for a research track isn't out of the question in 5+ years either. I'm in a lot of flux with where I want to be. Help, the uncertainty is drowning!

I definitely do some "bitch work" to maintain the lab. I do a lot of inventory, manage our rather large mouse colony, etc. etc., but I also have my own project.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Apr 4 2020 11:41am

That's a really good spot actually. I'd just say to be careful. A lot of cancer laboratories work with especially nasty substances for health over the long term.

My older brother is in law school now in his mid-30's, so I wouldn't completely rule out higher education again if the inspiration truly strikes you.

But in all honestly we both know a fair share more than the average person about molecular biology (PCR, blotting, etc).

The fact is that when China first found out about the disease, their doctors knew what to look for when they ran tests in hospitals (RTPCR and Northern Blotting). The only way that they would know what to look for on those tests for COVID-19 is if the Wuhan institute of virology gave them information that they'd already been working with for years. That combined with the COMPLETE cover up by the Chinese government screams treachery in my book.

Coronaviruses aren't a new area of study though, they're a big class of viruses known to animals and humans and are known to cause respiratory diseases. It's not surprising that they would have started their search with known respiratory disease classes when encountering a new respiratory disease, and from there since genotyping is such a routine endeavor it wouldn't have been hard to single out that it's a coronavirus since coronavirus is a broad category.

I mean, we obviously can't rule out an escaped bioterror weapon, but there's just nothing to suggest that right now.

Some scientists have looked and seen that COVID-19 contains a section similar to the same section of the HIV-1 genome called gag. That section in HIV-1 helps HIV-1 to have a high affinity in humans. If this section was not Zoonotic, it could very well have leaked from a lab.

Gag exists in some form in all retroviruses, but the actual sequence varies from strain to strain.

I'm not sure on the probability of such an event, but it could also be possible that antigenic shift happened in someone who was co-infected with HIV-1 at the same time as a Zoonotic form of COVID.

Yeah, like I said we cant rule it out but without a full analysis its not exactly likely. It seems much more likely that its a case of convergent evolution, if it increases affinity for humans then theres tremendous pressure to converge on that structure once its infecting humans.

Funny. Trump is even fucking up giving out checks. He won't deliver.

Hope you aren't counting on him to deliver.

This post was edited by Skinned on Apr 4 2020 07:18pm

I'm not in the mood for your shitty bait.

Kushner is in charge motherfucker. Introvert Trump.

Antisemite scum.