Posted on 02/13/2020 9:31:19 AM PST by 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.
Sum Ting Wong?
Sounds like a Baghdad Bob moment. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
Let’s just assume Sen. Cotton is right. What would the temperature in Hell need to be before anyone associated with the Chinese communist government would confirm it?
South China Morning Post is Hong Kong’s newspaper of record, owned by Alibaba Group. Do I need to connect the last two dots?
Discredited? Debunked? You mean like the Hunter Biden Ukraine investigation, that never actually took place?
It also has close ties to Harvard, but those were not "official."
Harvard Professor Charged With Hiding Ties and Receiving Payment From Chinese Government.
Funny how the South China Morning Post didn't mention those ties. Also see the Department of Justice item about Lieber and two Chinese nationals: Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases.
Yanqing Ye, 29
A Chinese national, she was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye is currently in China.Zaosong Zheng, 30According to the indictment, Ye is a Lieutenant of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On her J-1 visa application, Ye falsely identified herself as a “student” and lied about her ongoing military service at the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), a top military academy directed by the CCP. It is further alleged that while studying at Boston University’s (BU) Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering from October 2017 to April 2019, Ye continued to work as a PLA Lieutenant completing numerous assignments from PLA officers such as conducting research, assessing U.S. military websites and sending U.S. documents and information to China.
A Chinese national, he was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China. On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements. He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.In August 2018, Zheng entered the United States on a J-1 visa and conducted cancer-cell research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston from Sept. 4, 2018, to Dec. 9, 2019. It is alleged that on Dec. 9, 2019, Zheng stole 21 vials of biological research and attempted to smuggle them out of the United States aboard a flight destined for China. Federal officers at Logan Airport discovered the vials hidden in a sock inside one of Zheng’s bags, and not properly packaged. It is alleged that initially, Zheng lied to officers about the contents of his luggage, but later admitted he had stolen the vials from a lab at Beth Israel. Zheng stated that he intended to bring the vials to China to use them to conduct research in his own laboratory and publish the results under his own name.
“Discredited”
“absurd logic”
WHAT? Hasn’t the writer encountered the word “debunked”?
Because honesty and transparency are the very first words that come to mind whenever I think of the Chinese Communist Party!!
Do I need the tag?
I think Cotton is likely correct, despite Chicom propaganda denials.
Yes, it is. Their security practices at the lab are deficient unless they are using the local population as test subjects.
With over 350,000 Chinese in our country serving their Communist government, it’s about time for a little xenophobia.
The South China Morning Post, a long-time publication from Hong Kong, is now owned by Jack Ma of Alibaba fame. Ma is a communist party member and an apologist for the Chinese government. Since he took over they only publish in English. The SCMP is marginally more open than the government owned media publications on Mainland China, but everything they publish has the approval of government censors. They sell communist China to the world.
Scientists who have looked at the results have no doubt it is a naturally evolving virus.
—
Link please.
I haven’t heard any scientists say that there is “no doubt it is natural”.
Link please.
Don’t read the comments section....it is like going to Democratic Underground.
About what I thought - thank you.
There are 2 separate issues:
1) was it bioengineered - IOW man made or synthetic. The answer from all the labs & institutes involved in genome sequencing of the virus is, No.
2) Could the Chinese have been working with the virus in their lab and it accidently escaped through human error of some sort...absolutely Yes.
Great meme, but don’t you think it’s time to add some new material to your vast comedic repertoire?
Meanwhile, I've taken to adding an introductory comment in blockquote t the top of the ping...
Interesting screen name. What inspired you?
Someone over on FB posted a meme showing Hong Kong as late as December with thousands of protestors in the streets, and now with this coronavirus, those same streets are empty.
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