• With the Branch COVIDians holding fast against the lab leak evidence and in favor of the “wet market” hypothesis for the origins of the Wuhan flu, here is some news that isn’t getting much coverage in the mainstream media:
Wuhan market samples fail to shed further light on COVID origins
Samples collected at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic are of limited value for pinpointing which animal species — if any — infected people at the market, according to a new analysis.
Two previous analyses of the data described genetic material from various wild animals, suggesting it was possible that these animals could have passed the virus to people at the market. The new analysis attempts to identify the specific animal responsible for the spillover — but comes up empty.
“I would basically describe this as a negative result,” says Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington.
• As a number of people have observed, it appears the French-looking John Kerry found those old Vietnam medals he tossed away back in 197o after all, just in time for King Charles’s coronation (plus savor the CNN cutline about “diversity”).
• It is not a noble thing to celebrate the misfortunes of others, but in the case of the smug, know-it-all tech bros of Silicon Valley one is tempted to call this next item the Feel Good Story of the Day:
Tech Workers Aren’t as Rich as They Used to Be
For years, tech jobs were a ticket to riches. Much of that wealth has evaporated along with tech companies’ boom-time gains. . .
The [market] rout has wiped out a big chunk of the wealth employees had planned to tap for big-ticket expenses such as houses and college tuition. It has frozen the initial public offerings business, putting startup employees’ windfall hopes on hold indefinitely. And it has cost hundreds of thousands of tech workers their jobs. . .
Samantha Voigt took a software engineering job at Square, now known as Block, in 2017 after graduating from college. . . Ms. Voigt, 27, paid off her student loans and bought a car in cash. She maxed out her 401(k) and socked $500,000 away in a brokerage account. She easily covered twice-weekly therapy sessions and costly visits to the hair salon every few months. When she felt burned out by the pandemic, she took a year off from work.
In a group chat with about a dozen friends mostly in the tech industry, people would share stories of elaborate trips to Japan and second homes near Lake Tahoe. “I used to be able to kind of spend whatever, and it would be fine,” Ms. Voigt said. “Now I’m having to think about it a lot more.”
Welcome back to the real world, where real people don’t get to take a year off from work because they are “burned out” in their 20s.
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