The Liberal Narrative And The Wuhan Lab Leak Theory
A virus doesn’t care about your ego. If you were wrong and refuse to admit it, we all know you’re full of crap and you’re only damaging your own reputation.
-Jim Treacher
If it turns out that the Covid pandemic was caused by a leak from a lab in Wuhan, China, it will rank among the greatest scientific scandals in history: dangerous research, possibly involving ethically dubious techniques that make viruses more dangerous, carried out in a poorly safeguarded facility, thuggishly covered up by a regime more interested in propaganda than human life, catastrophic for the entire world.
But this possible scandal, which is as yet unproved, obscures an actual scandal, which remains to be digested.
I mean the long refusal by too many media gatekeepers (social as well as mainstream) to take the lab-leak theory seriously.
-Bret Stephens 
In January 2020, the Washington Post wrote a story headlined, “Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research.”
This piece correctly refuted the claim that the virus was deliberately manufactured as a biological weapon. It did not distinguish the (highly unlikely) bioweapon theory from the related, more plausible theory that the disease escaped from the Wuhan lab without ever having been intended as a weapon.
More damagingly, this story treated the Wuhan lab’s security as essentially impregnable...
-Jonathan Chait
In February, Senator Tom Cotton appeared on television to raise questions about what China was hiding. Cotton kept his exact accusation vague, perhaps deliberately.
“We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there,” he said of the Wuhan lab, “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.”...
The New York Times labeled Cotton’s remarks a “conspiracy theory.” The Washington Post’s account was headlined, “Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.”
The Post quoted an expert denying the virus “was a deliberately released bioweapon,” but Cotton hadn’t said that.
-Jonathan Chait
Is there something in the California water that makes Silicon Valley’s censorious dweebs so damned shameless?
On Wednesday, Facebook revised its policy of banning posts suggesting the coronavirus was man-made — because the COVID situation is, er, “evolving,” as a spokesman told Politico.
Gee, thanks. The flip-flop comes more than a year after the social-media giant banned a well-reasoned Post opinion column by China scholar Steven Mosher that speculated about a potential lab leak.
-Sohrab Ahmari
The Washington Post issued a correction 15 months after alleging Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was peddling a "debunked" "conspiracy theory" about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Much of the media last year was quick to dismiss the possibility that the virus stemmed from a leak from the Wuhan Virology Lab in China, a theory that was promoted by top Republicans including Cotton and then-President Trump and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Over the weekend, however, the Post revised the February 2020 report which had the headline, "Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked."
-Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Liberal, Government, Incompetence, Science, Narrative, Oops, Lie, Healthcare
Molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright on Wednesday posted a letter from the National Institute of Health (NIH) showing that an NIH grant did fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, contrary to what Dr. Anthony Fauci had testified to the Senate.
Fauci testified to Senators at a hearing in May that the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”...
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, “gain-of-function” research is research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease.
Ebright tweeted that in the letter, the NIH “corrects untruthful assertions by NIH Director Collins and NIAID Director Fauci that NIH had not funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.”
US Government Paid For Gain of Function Research at Wuhan...
Dr. Fauci and others claimed under oath the NIH didn’t fund gain of research function in the Wuhan Lab. Now the obvious is confirmed: they did.
Liberal, Racism, Narrative, Oops, Press, Lie, Healthcare, Media, Censorship
A top editor at the New York Times instructed Times staffers not to investigate the origins of COVID-19, two Times employees confirmed today.
‘In early 2020,’ a veteran Times employee tells me, ‘I suggested to a senior editor at the paper that we investigate the origins of COVID-19. I was told it was dangerous to run a piece about the origins of the coronavirus. There was resistance to running anything that could suggest that [COVID-19 was manmade or had leaked accidentally from a lab].’...
Yet the Times, according to two well-placed sources, refused to investigate the biggest story of our time. Instead, senior editors are alleged to have suppressed efforts to probe the virus’s origins, and the Times led the charge to dismiss any questioning of the WHO’s now-discredited line as conspiracist or even ‘racist’.
NYT: Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Is Fringe, Tin Foil Hat...
Instead of doing what journalists are supposed to do - ask questions - the Times led the charge in stigmatizing debate about COVID-19’s origins as a ‘fringe theory’.
Alexandra Stevenson, the Times’s Hong Kong reporter, called it ‘the kind of conspiracy once reserved for tinfoil hatters’.
It was revealed earlier this year that Peter Daszak – a British scientist with long-standing links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – had secretly orchestrated a landmark statement in The Lancet in February 2020 which attacked 'conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin'.
It was Daszak who organized the letter in The Lancet from February 2020 dismissing as “misinformation” claims that the virus may have originated from the Wuhan Virology Lab.
The letter created the illusion of consensus, which internet companies proceeded to enforce through censorship, and the media reinforced by constantly interviewing Daszak himself.
-Arthur Bloom
What does it say about the state of our media and social media that one man can so wrongly shape a narrative?
-Arthur Bloom
Liberal, Fraud, Science, Narrative, Oops, Lie
The Lancet medical journal has bowed to pressure over its heavily-criticised coverage of the disputed origins of the Covid pandemic by publishing an 'alternative view' from 16 scientists – calling for an 'objective, open and transparent debate' about whether the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
It was revealed earlier this year that Peter Daszak – a British scientist with long-standing links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – had secretly orchestrated a landmark statement in The Lancet in February 2020 which attacked 'conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin'.
The now-infamous letter, signed by 27 leading public health experts, said they stood together to 'strongly condemn' the theories which they said 'do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice'.
Liberal, Science, Narrative
The two most significant articles promoting the “natural origins” theory for the COVID-19 outbreak originated from scientists who were part of a response team of “experts” brought in by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM), in response to a request from a White House official.
These influential articles were used extensively by media organizations to push the natural origins theory, while simultaneously deriding alternative theories—including that of a possible lab leak—as conspiracy theories.
The articles appear to have been part of a coordinated effort originating from a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference organized by Dr. Anthony Fauci...
Following the officials’ conversations, public discussion of the source possibly being a lab leak was actively suppressed by social media platforms, health officials, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The first article, designed more as an open letter to the public, was published on Feb. 19, 2020, and signed by a number of scientists.
Now, The Lancet has agreed to publish an alternative commentary which discusses the possibility that laboratory research might have played a role in the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It also directly confronts the efforts of science journals to stifle debate by labelling such theories as 'misinformation'.
-Glen Owen and Stephen Adams
In the Trump years, “liberalism made a sort of cult out of science, expertise, the university system, executive-branch ‘norms,’ the ‘intelligence community,’ the State Department, NGOs, the legacy news media and the hierarchy of credentialed achievement in general.”
But if the once-suppressed lab-leak theory proves true, it will “start to dawn on people that our mistake was not insufficient reverence for scientists, or inadequate respect for expertise, or not enough censorship on Facebook. It was a failure to think critically about all of the above.”
-NY Post Editorial Board
Liberal, Science, Narrative
The two most significant articles promoting the “natural origins” theory for the COVID-19 outbreak originated from scientists who were part of a response team of “experts” brought in by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine (NASEM), in response to a request from a White House official.
These influential articles were used extensively by media organizations to push the natural origins theory, while simultaneously deriding alternative theories—including that of a possible lab leak—as conspiracy theories.
The articles appear to have been part of a coordinated effort originating from a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference organized by Dr. Anthony Fauci...
Following the officials’ conversations, public discussion of the source possibly being a lab leak was actively suppressed by social media platforms, health officials, and the World Health Organization (WHO). The first article, designed more as an open letter to the public, was published on Feb. 19, 2020, and signed by a number of scientists.
Washington Post, Feb 2020
Dispatch From The Party Of Science
Washington Post: Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Sunday repeated a debunked conspiracy theory about coronavirus and Chinese bioresearch.
-Paulina Firozi
The Narrative From NPR, April 2020...
Virus researchers say there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else.
A New York Times science and health reporter tweeted Wednesday the "lab leak" coronavirus theory had "racist roots" and was not "plausible."
Apoorva Mandavilli, who covers coronavirus stories for the newspaper, tweeted, "Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here."
NPR: Lab Leak Theory "Debunked"
Consensus: "Scientists Worldwide Agree"
Apr 2020
Figure 1: Scientists Worldwide Agree - This is what Settled Science looks like you dumb right-winger.
Scientists dismiss the idea that the coronavirus pandemic was caused by the accident in a lab. They believe the close interactions of people with wildlife worldwide are a far more likely culprit.
From the beginning of the coronavirus, scientists worldwide agree that the virus occurred naturally - that it made its way from animal to a human like SARS and MERS did.
Vox, March 2020: "A Dangerous Conspiracy Theory"...
Meanwhile, in some right-wing news outlets and on social media, a dangerous conspiracy theory about the origin of the health crisis won’t die.
There are two main versions of the rumor, and they have one common thread: that the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, originated in a level 4 (the highest biosafety level) research laboratory in Wuhan.
Now that the coronavirus origin lab-leak theory is gaining credibility, members of the “follow the science” crowd are finally admitting they chose not to cover – or in some cases actively “debunked” – the theory because former President Donald Trump pushed it.
-Brianna Lyman
Liberal, Science, Narrative, Oops
According to the Wall Street Journal, a prestigious U.S. laboratory concluded as far back as May of 2020 that the lab-leak theory was “plausible” and “deserving of further investigation.”
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducted one of the first studies on the origins of the coronavirus and their conclusions were used by the state department in their early January 2021 paper that summarized what was known about the origin of the virus at that time.
Vox Backpedals Furiously
May 2021: The lab leak theory, previously used by self-righteous liberals to mock "anti-science" conservatives, gains acceptance as a viable explanation.
The Washington Post: Finally Debunking Themselves...
"Earlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) regarding the origins of the coronavirus. The term 'debunked' and The Post’s use of ‘conspiracy theory’ have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus.
Washington Post Flubs The Most Important Story Of Our Lifetime...
But it’s okay, because Tom Cotton is a Republican and therefore an enemy of the Washington Post.
They’ll grudgingly admit they might not have been 100% accurate or honest about the most important story of our lifetime, but they won’t give those dirty Republicans the satisfaction of a clear and unequivocal retraction.
And none of their colleagues will call them out on it, because they all want to work at WaPo someday.
Then they wonder why we don’t trust them.
Liberals Constructed and Enforced A Narrative That Fell Apart...
But the overall shape of the media narrative was clear.
On one side were experts at places like the World Health Organization: knowledgeable, incorruptible, authoritative, noble.
On the other were a bunch of right-wing yahoos pushing a risible fantasy with xenophobic overtones in order to deflect attention from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the crisis.
Yet it was also a narrative with holes larger than Donald Trump’s mouth.
In reaction to the fool Trump, liberalism made a sort of cult out of science, expertise, the university system, executive-branch “norms,” the “intelligence community,” the State Department, NGOs, the legacy news media, and the hierarchy of credentialed achievement in general.
Death Threats From Fellow Scientists...
In a CNN interview on March 26, Dr. Redfield, the former CDC director under Trump, made a candid admission: “I am of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory, you know, escaped.”
Redfield added that he believed the release was an accident, not an intentional act. In his view, nothing that happened since his first calls with Dr. Gao changed a simple fact: The WIV needed to be ruled out as a source, and it hadn’t been.
After the interview aired, death threats flooded his inbox. The vitriol came not just from strangers who thought he was being racially insensitive but also from prominent scientists, some of whom used to be his friends.
Government, Incompetence, Politics, Healthcare
A report in Vanity Fair details actions by some members of the U.S. State Department to block efforts to investigate the origins of the coronavirus because the inquiry could open “a can of worms.”
An internal memo sent to department heads by Thomas DiNanno, former acting assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance, warned “not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19.”
The “can of worms” in question was the extensive funding by the U.S. government into the Wuhan Virology Lab’s “gain-of-function” virus research. It’s unclear whether DiNanno was concerned that an investigation would uncover evidence of a lab leak or the extent to which the U.S. was funding dangerous research.
"Mr. Ridley notes that the question of Covid’s origin has "mostly been tackled by people outside the mainstream scientific establishment." People inside not only have been “disappointingly incurious” but have tried to shut down the inquiry "to protect the reputation of science as an institution."
The most obvious reason for this resistance: If Covid leaked from a lab, and especially if it developed there, "science finds itself in the dock."
Liberal, Science, Narrative, Oops, Ignorance
President Joe Biden’s administration reportedly terminated an investigation launched by the State Department under Mike Pompeo into the possibility of the COVID pandemic originating from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
According to CNN, the investigation by the State Department’s Arms Control and Verification Bureau was focused on examining if China’s biological weapons program could have had a "greater role in the pandemic’s origin in Wuhan."
If COVID-19 did leak from that Wuhan lab, Thomas Frank thunders at The Guardian, “we may very well see the expert-worshiping values of modern liberalism go up in a fireball of public anger.”
In the Trump years, “liberalism made a sort of cult out of science, expertise, the university system, executive-branch ‘norms,’ the ‘intelligence community,’ the State Department, NGOs, the legacy news media and the hierarchy of credentialed achievement in general.”
But if the once-suppressed lab-leak theory proves true, it will “start to dawn on people that our mistake was not insufficient reverence for scientists, or inadequate respect for expertise, or not enough censorship on Facebook. It was a failure to think critically about all of the above.”
-NY Post Editorial Board
A virus doesn’t care about your ego. If you were wrong and refuse to admit it, we all know you’re full of crap and you’re only damaging your own reputation.
-Jim Treacher