Posted on 04/30/2020 8:13:39 AM PDT by SJackson
Suddenly, skepticism is no longer "crackpot."
In February the Daily Kos, an influential left-wing website, denounced "a whole parade of right-wing hand-waving that includes not just Republican Rep. Tom Cotton claiming that COVID-19 was cooked up in a Chinese bio lab." Likewise, The Guardian reported that Dr. Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance in the United States, an organization that researches emerging diseases, said: "Conspiracy theories circulating on social media claim the coronavirus was artificially manufactured in a lab conducting bioweapons research. They are 'crackpot theories that need to be addressed, but in the age of social media it is just impossible.'"
The Chinese government claimed that the COVID-19 originated at a Wuhan food marketplace where live animals are sold. But Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., thought otherwise. Cotton said: "We don't know where it originated, but we do know that we have to get to the bottom of that. We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China's only biosafety level-four superlaboratory that researches human infectious diseases. Now, we don't have evidence that this disease originated there, but because of China's duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says."
Rutgers University chemical biology professor Richard Ebright dismisses the idea that the virus was a product of a laboratory. Ebright said, "There's absolutely nothing in the genome sequence of this virus that indicates the virus was engineered." But Ebright, according to the Asia Times, also said he "could not rule out the possibility that the unfolding pandemic could be the result of a 'lab incident.'" Bear in mind, Cotton did not claim the virus was manufactured in a Wuhan lab, let alone that the virus is a product of biological warfare. He speculated that the virus might have accidentally escaped from the lab.
The virus-might-have-escaped theory suddenly became less crackpot when The Washington Post recently published an opinion piece called "State Department Cables Warned of Safety Issues at Wuhan Lab Studying Bat Coronaviruses." American experts who visited two virology labs in Wuhan in 2018 were shocked at the lack of security and appropriate protocols to prevent a virus from escaping. The piece said: "What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable ... also warns that the lab's work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic."
As to China's official story that the virus started at a so-called wet market that sold bats, The Washington Post wrote: "As many have pointed out, there is no evidence that the virus now plaguing the world was engineered; scientists largely agree it came from animals. But that is not the same as saying it didn't come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals, said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley. ...
"The Chinese government's original story — that the virus emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan — is shaky. Research by Chinese experts published in the (British medical journal) Lancet in January showed the first known patient, identified on Dec. 1, had no connection to the market, nor did more than one-third of the cases in the first large cluster. Also, the market didn't sell bats."
It is maddening that there is so much about this virus that we do not know. We are uncertain of its origin. We are uncertain about its lethality. We don't know whether one develops an immunity after infection and survival. We don't know how many have or have had the virus and have recovered. We don't know how many have the virus and are asymptomatic. There are still questions about whether after one can get the virus, survive and get it again.
We do know that the disease does not discriminate against Republicans or Democrats. Nor does the disease care whether theories about its origin came from the right-wing "crackpots" or left-wing Trump haters. This is a political year. And President Donald Trump and his supporters are so despised by Democrats and their media enablers that many reflexively wrote off conservative skepticism about the official Chinese government story on the origin of the coronavirus. But suddenly, the skepticism is no longer "crackpot."
It was always “plausible.” The MSM just thinks that if it poo-poos subject “X”, “X” suddenly becomes “implausible.”
If there’s real evidence for the lab theory, it needs to go public — hopefully here on FR first.
If you take a look at the pictures from the Wuhan lab’s official website, it would be astonishing if viruses had *not* escaped from the lab:
http://english.whiov.cas.cn/ne/201806/t20180604_193863.html
Note the simple surgical mask, and the lack of protective clothing, as well as the containment door that is ajar.
Isn’t it interesting that whenever anything comes up to cast China in a bad light, the left IMMEDIATELY jumps to China’s defense.
If there was a lab studying ebola viruses in Wyoming, and suddenly there was an ebola outbreak in Cheyenne, then it wouldn’t be an implausible conspiracy that there was a link, but everyone’s default assumption.
The only difference here is that the natural point of origin for these SARS-type coronaviruses is not a continent across the ocean from Wuhan, but within China itself. So at least there is a possibility the outbreak happened naturally. Still, the idea that there is a link with the lab remains just as plausible.
Or it was published by the French five years ago before it actually happened because their containment procedures were noted to be so bad.
Little bit late for it to be published here first, the French scooped us.
The Term “Conspiracy Theory” — an Invention of the CIA
(excerpt)
Having read JFK and the Unspeakable several years ago, I’ve been thinking about assassinations for quite a while and I’ve seen how “conspiracy theory” is used to shut off debate, to signal that we’re entering “the unspeakable” zone. So I began to wonder if the use of the term Conspiracy Theory might be a conspiracy itself.
I am reminded of the AXIS germ warfare operation that planned to release “THE PLAGUE” on specific cities in the USA. The Japanese with their Balloons and the Germans with their rockets. It would have been devastating but the war ended with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Middle eastern friends of those powers still have the inclination.
It has already gone public days ago.
An article published by I believe the daily Mail has many details
And another....
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211257/Wuhan-lab-performing-experiments-bats-coronavirus-caves.html
I have always believed this was a bio weapon.
Not surprised at all.
It's not direct evidence, but my understanding that after funding the lab with millions during the Obama years, the US raised concerns about poor/dangerous controls at Wuhan. Yes, it was announced as bat research. If Asia Times is credible, it was an outsourcing of research made necessary by a moritorium put on researching bio weapons in the US due to security concerns in 2014. Outsourcing in 2015 by a Dr Anthony Fauci. My guess this is accidental. Definitive evidence will likely be impossible to obtain. The real question, why the h*ll were we funding research of potential bio weapons in China because Congress banned such research in the US. How stupid are some of our leaders. I'm not an FDR fan, but he had the common sense not to outsource nuclear research to Germany in the years we weren't involved in the war.
You're right. One difference, we'd blame it on a restaurant chain not a wet market. And depending on the political climate, aka who was in the White House, the media would willingly cover it up
From my earlier post......
There is total justification for American researchers co operating with Chinese bat researchers. America has been suffering from bat caused disease for 75 years or so. Such cooperation is not only not a crime, it is required to learn about bats as a disease vector
Although this article describes the bat/rabies problem in New York, it is prevalent in many other states. The truth is, the Americans with bat disease expertise had a duty to collaborate with others studying bats as a disease vector, especially those with large diseased bat populations.
Below are excerpts from one article. There are many other such articles.
Bat Rabies
“Rabies virus infection in bats was first recognized in the US in 1953, and the first rabid bat was identified in New York State in 1956. Since then, the disease has been identified in each of New York’s nine species of insectivorous bats and is widely distributed geographically within the state. Bats and rabid bats can be found in every corner of New York State, from Manhattan to the most remote area of the Adirondacks.
Among bats encountered by people and pets that are submitted to the rabies laboratory for testing, about 3% are found to be rabid. Among normally behaving bats collected in their natural habitats, a fraction of 1% are rabid. Outbreaks of rabies in bat populations have not been observed, and finding one rabid bat in a colony of bats is not evidence of greater prevalence of rabies in that population.
Rabies infection in bats is similar to the disease in other mammals. It is characterized by a variable incubation period that can be months long, a clinical period of about a week with behavioral changes and progressive paralysis leading to death, and the capacity to transmit the virus by bites inflicted during the clinical period.”
https://www.wadsworth.org/programs/id/rabies/history
As a cave explorer, we were warned to avoid direct contact to bats that are found in almost all local caves we frequented. Bats also live in people’s attics. Recall the phrase “bats in his belfry”.
Bat disease study is a legitimate function of the CDC
Given all of the misinformation, obfuscation, and outright lies that we have been shovel-fed from so many "experts" trotted out by both the media and the government, why the hell should we believe what yet one more expert tells us?
At this point, I have next to no faith in the ability OR intent of either the media or the government to tell the truth.
I don’t necessarily disagree with that, I would prefer the research be done here if funded by the US government. I don’t think we (not the government) know the exact nature of the cooperation. But it has been reported it was reduced do to poor controls at Wuhan. And several sources suggest the beginning of “cooperation” in 2015 was the result of a banning by Congress of certain research relation to bio weapons. I think research on bats and the many diseases they carry is sensible. But the legislation this “cooperation” barred related to flu, MERS, SARS, both corona virus’ I believe, and anything which could cause a pandemic. Given the nature of China’s “cooperation”, I think it’s clear this research would be better done in the US.
Virtually EVERY “right-wing conspiracy” over past 4 years has been ACCURATE. THe framing of Michael Flyn by the FBI is just the latest “conspiracy” to be confirmed.”Right-wing conspiracies” are 10 time more accurate than ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN,MSNBC, CNBC, will ever be.
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