It was more than “positing a theory”. It was spreading unproven bs and passing it off as already established fact. Case in point, the very next post after yours jumps from this low confidence assessment that it escaped lab containment to “manufactured virus” and “demanding accountability”.
I’ve always thought the idea of it being a weapon was preposterous. a)because we are well aware of this facility, it’s a civilian facility, and there is international collaboration into the research that goes on there. This wasn’t some top secret Chinese military lab. There are deadlier viruses out there being studied in labs right now, an engineered doomsday virus would surely be much deadlier. b)the release of this virus was a massive self-own on the part of the Chinese, if it was released intentionally (let’s say by a disgruntled lab worker), it would be more likely to be seen as an attack on China. It ended up being a global threat and impacting different nations in worse ways, but I don’t think any biological attack would be launched using your own people as the ground-zero/epicenter. It just isn’t rational. I always thought the idea of a poorly managed lab with workers not taking proper precautions was pretty likely. Or the idea of an infected lab animal ending up at one of those wet markets. Lab leak and wet market theories aren’t even necessarily mutually exclusive.
I agree with your third choice, accidental lab leak. Issue is China did nothing to assist with any investigation into this possibility, in fact they pretty much blocked efforts to do so.
Accidental lab leak seems possible, but like all claims, this one requires its own evidence. And this evidence hasn’t yet been given to us. On the flip side, non-governmental scientists have mostly been on the side of spillover, and they have shared their evidence. This evidence includes that 1) a large proportion of the earliest known cases were in people associated with the market, and 2) investigations turned up many illegal animals in the market, whose bodies tested positive for COVID viruses. Here’s another result to consider: one of the main arguments for a lab leak was the extremely quick transmission among humans, as if it were pre-adapted to that species. However, we later found that COVID was transmissible among many mammals, and sparked an very rapid epidemic among American white-tail deer. So lab tweaking clearly wasn’t necessary for a rapid takeoff. None of this is proof for natural spillover, or course, but neither have I seen a smoking gun for a lab leak either. And as rule, we humans seem to continually underestimate the power of evolution.
The idea of Covid as a bioweapon is both preposterous and seductive. It conjures up the image of something so toxic it kills directly, but it also passes from person to person. Preposterous but SyFy Channel stuff nonetheless.
If it did come from a Wuhan lab, dems would have to give credit to the 1st person who pointed the finger at China, Trump. Trump was the 1st to suggest it came from a lab in Wuhan; he even said it should be named after China. At the time, the liberals laughed at the idea but as more time has passed, that's the possible origination. The other reason why the dems want to bury it, is the US had their fingers in the goo too. The NIH actually contracted out to this lab to do work they aren't allowed to do here. What that work was is secret but if it ever got out what the NIH contracted out to this lab, it'll give guys like Fauci zero credibility.
Huh? I didn't even offer a position on the origin of the virus. I’m just pointing out to you how eager some are to run to certain narratives. I actually have always leaned towards lab leak and a shoddily secured lab, so if you think I’m set on another theory you are incorrect. But that isn’t the same thing as having the proof. I also don’t really think it matters much, big picture. Either way results in a sternly worded letter to China.
Umm… pretty sure everyone knew Wuhan China was the origin, nobody needed the idiot in chief calling it the “China flu” (not even correct type of virus) to be aware of that. The funny thing is before it hit the U.S. and was still believed isolated to China, the far right was overhyping the virus big time on social media (when they thought it strengthened Trumps hand). When it was apparent it was hitting the U.S. badly and might negatively impact Trump’s re-election, following Trumps lead they did an immediate 180 flip flop, downplaying the virus as “just a flu”. Propaganda tends to be… completely flexible to the facts like that. In addition you are obviously going down the “gain of function” rabbit hole, assuming this was “illegal” research. That is a dubious claim up for debate , but ignores the more obvious reason that research is carried out there. Not that it would be “illegal” to do elsewhere, but that the bat populations in question physically live in and are native to China. I’ve seen speculation these were “level 2” labs where they should have been “level 3” for this type research, that the lab itself was not proper. Not sure how much say we have in that, if true we obviously could have withheld funding until they raised their standards. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean anything different happens with COVID or that China would listen to our concerns. We don’t in fact know for certain it was a lab leak or that the host animal was a bat. But lab protocols in these “foreign” labs would at least be a legitimate thing we should look at on our end, regardless of China’s actions. The standards need to be more uniform, even in (if not especially in) 3rd world countries.
