Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

If the next pandemic hits when a Democrat is POTUS, we'll have MAGAs out there intentionally trying to get it to pwn the libs.

 

My good sir!

Country over party it will be!

 

Again,

wuhan leak - Google Search

 

Nicholson Baker.

January 2021.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html

 

As I said, these are the kind of stories being knocked down at the time.

Tom Cotton.

Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins (Published 2020)

The rumor appeared shortly after the new coronavirus struck China and spread almost as quickly: that the outbreak now afflicting people around the world had been manufactured by the Chinese government.

The conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists. But it has gained an audience with the help of well-connected critics of the Chinese government such as Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist. And on Sunday, it got its biggest public boost yet.

Speaking on Fox News, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, raised the possibility that the virus had originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak.

“We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there,” the senator said, “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, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all.”

Mr. Cotton later walked back the idea that the coronavirus was a Chinese bioweapon run amok.

 

also,

 

hmmm

FBI director endorses theory Covid-19 virus may have leaked from Chinese lab

Christopher Wray, the FBI director, has weighed in on the debate over the origins of the Covid-19 virus, using an appearance on Fox News to endorse the theory that the virus potentially originated from a leak in a Chinese laboratory.

“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News’ Brett Baier, adding that the assessment was based on research the agency’s analysts, including scientists, had conducted and that “our work related to this continues”.

Wray’s high-profile public comment highlights the divide within the US intelligence community about the origins of the pandemic, with some federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, concluding that the Covid-19 virus likely originated from a lab leak in China, while others have concluded that it first spread from infected animals to humans.

Wray’s public endorsement of the lab leak theory runs counter to the conclusions of several prominent scientific studies, as well as the assessments of some other US intelligence agencies. Wray did not explain the evidence that had informed the FBI’s conclusion. “There’s not a whole lot of details I can share that aren’t classified,” he said.

 

China scoffs at FBI claim that Wuhan lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic

 

Part of the problem is the lack of information both early in the pandemic and continuing to date, caused by China's reflexive withholding of information about anything that makes China look bad on the world stage. I really don't care how hard China scoffs unless they want to put out solid scientific information to back up their contention, which may not be accurate even now.

The Tom Cotton/Steve Bannon story highlighted above is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about. One, we lack the data to really come to a firm conclusion as to the origin of Covid. Two, given the Trump Administration's endless bullshit and gaslighting, it became difficult to accept explanations that supported his political assertions. Wray coming out to support the lab theory in this moment makes his assertion somewhat suspect given any number of instances of FBI support of Trump and of footdragging on their part regarding investigation of his circle, and Wray's announcement that they have evidence for the lab theory that he is not at liberty to disclose may well be true but it remains unsupported.

Certainly this is politics affecting what should be a matter of science coming to the best available conclusion based on the known facts - but many of the facts are disputed by both sides, and given the massive politicization of the subject you can find experts who are all in for either theory. We may well never know the root cause definitively.

 

The obvious question in response to Wray's statement he has evidence he can't disclose is "did you disclose it to the other agencies who disagree with your agency's conclusion?," followed by, "if not, why not?" or "if so, why do you think they continue to disagree with your agency?" Not that that would happen on Fox, but it's pretty basic stuff.

 

I stand by what I wrote. To pretend rigor has accompanied all points of view all along is silly. A journalist at the LA Times can call the lab leak hypothesis a "zombie theory" - and get away with it - because it is acceptable to consider the lab leak a made-up conspiracy.