US senator plays the fool on Coronavirus: Republican Tom Cotton shows himself up by promoting a discredited conspiracy theory about the new virus

South China Morning Post ^ | 02/10/2020 | Alex Lo

[SeekAndFind]

Paranoia and fear about an epidemic are often worse than the disease itself. If you want to get a taste of the insanity provoked by the new coronavirus, look no further than US Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

As I discussed on Sunday, there has been a conspiracy theory circulating in social media and fringe media groups in the United States claiming the virus was bioengineered as a weapon by the Chinese but was accidentally leaked into the population.

This is because the epicentre of the outbreak is near the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is certified to handle the world’s deadliest viruses.

But it is a complete falsehood. Why? The genome of the virus has been decoded and published. Scientists who have looked at the results have no doubt it is a naturally evolving virus. But while it may be false, the theory is not fringe any more because Cotton is actively promoting it.

This has prompted a rebuttal from Chinese ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai.

“This will create panic,” he said. “It will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus.”

The senator has been on a tear since January, calling for all Americans to leave China, a ban to prevent Chinese nationals from entering the US and a “Manhattan Project-level effort to create a vaccine”, a reference to the secret project that produced the world’s first atomic bombs.

But to date, there has not been a single death related to the new virus in the US.

Cotton has hit back on Twitter: “Here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory: Fact: China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market.”

That was the initial suspicion, but it is now being questioned, partly due to an updated analysis, published in The Lancet on January 24, by a team of Chinese researchers from state-run institutions.

Cotton goes on: “Fact: super-lab is just a few miles from that market[.] Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you & fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.”

Leaving aside his absurd logic, the Wuhan institute is actually open to qualified outsiders, Americans no less.

The lab has close institutional ties with the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and was partly built by French engineers.

Senator Cotton, stop making a fool of yourself.

[BrexitBen]

Consider the source of this story ?

Senator Cotton must be right-on-the-money.

[tomkat]

South China Morning Post

Incredulity, anyone ?   :-)

[Mr. K]

This reads like a Chinese propaganda piece.

[sauropod]

That struck me also.

[billyboy15]

When you are over the target.......

[FreeReign]

Scientists who have looked at the results have no doubt it is a naturally evolving virus.

Are those the same "scientists" who believe in AGW?

[null and void]

South China Morning Post

To be wildly promoted by CNN and it's ilk, anything to curry favor with their Chinese masters...

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[Tenacious 1]

Correct me if I am wrong. Isn’t the Chinese origin of this virus the same place that SARS and the Bird Flu started?

[DOC44]

somebody at the lab left the virus door open....either by accident or on purpose. Never let a disaster go to waste.

[Bitman]

Leaving aside his absurd logic, the Wuhan institute is actually open to qualified outsiders, Americans no less.

IOW... They have a public rest room in the building.

[Zhang Fei]

Alex Lo is the paper’s Communist Party mouthpiece. If Xi Jinping made Swedish China’s official language, Lo would be singing the praises of this move in his very next column.

[Gene Eric]

Nothing to see here...

[mass55th]

"Senator Cotton must be right-on-the-money."

He probably is. When the news first showed up on FR, I pegged it as having been manufactured in a Chinese lab. Cotton is no different than a lot of people who choose not to be naive when it comes to the Chi-Coms.

[Lying Dog Faced Pony Soldier]

When you’re catching flak, you’re over the target.

[Lying Dog Faced Pony Soldier]

If you can’t trust the Chinese government, who can you trust?

[9YearLurker]

Yep. I am not a bug fan of Cotton, but hhe appears to havve done a little truth-tellingg here.

[stanne]

Lest anyone imagine sen cotton is a slouch:

The honorable Sen Cotton:
Attended Harvard undergrad where wrote for the Crimson offering dissenting conservative views

He then gray from Harvard Law

He joined the USArmy, turning down a JAG post opting to be in the infantry after 9/11- because of 9/11

...he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and earned a Ranger Tab, Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and Iraq Campaign Medal.[11][14][15]

He served as congressman then was elected to the senate

His father was a district supervisor in the Arkansas Health Department.

[Tejas Rob]

Chi-Com party propaganda.

[Kirkwood]

What prevents a naturally-evolving virus from being experimentally tested and released by a virology institute? Nothing. Just because a virus’s genome may be known, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t being used or released by humans.