I’ve been puzzling over this one quite a lot. There are two main theories for the origins of Sars-Cov-2. 1) It came from bats in Southern China known to carry coronaviruses probably via an intermediary animal. 2) It leaked accidentally from a lab in Wuhan where they were conducting risky gain-of-function experiments which were all about making coronaviruses more infectious to humans.
Neither theory has been proved. The fact is there is precious little evidence for the natural origin theory. Tens of thousands of animals have been tested to try to find an intermediary – none has been found. This does not disprove the theory. (You can’t prove a negative). But it is surprising. There is no hard evidence for the lab-leak theory. But there is a lot of circumstantial evidence. Not least – the epidemic kicked off a few Km from the Wuhan Institute of Virology where some of this dangerous work was being done. Initially a food market in Wuhan was identified as the source but that now seems not to be the case. This means that the epidemic of an infectious coronavirus (with a rather unusual genetic profile) kicked off a few Km from a lab where scientists were experimenting with these viruses – and hundreds of Km from where the coronavirus carrying bats actually live (and at a time when they were hibernating). Quite a coincidence. Another undeniable fact is that the Chinese authorities have engaged in a cover-up. A key virus database from the WIV lab disappeared from the Internet in September 2019; the first WHO mission to China was heavily controlled by the Chinese authorities; the WHO’s attempt to send a second and more robust mission has been refused by the Chinese authorities. Why run a cover-up if there is nothing to cover up?
There are of course many other points of circumstantial evidence which point towards there having been a lab-leak.
But the media is not asking any questions? Why? One reason of course relates to US politics. Trump championed the lab leak theory and the liberal statists had to push back against anything Trump said. Another – and more interesting one is that the trail leads back to the US state bureaucracy. It is highly likely that Covid-19 was accidentally but carelessly unleashed on the world by an unholy alliance of the Chinese state and the US liberal health bureaucracy who funded the research in Wuhan in violation of their own protocols. Finally – biotech is a huge and growing industry intimately linked with power, corporate profits and the surveillance state. Are they going to invite questioning of this industry? No. No wonder there is a media blackout.
This is an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Post – and in fact inspired me to write this post.