It was an amusing period when all the mainstream media outlets attacked such discussions as racist and xenophobic and censorship platforms like YouTube banned it.
And then somehow noted scientists like Jon Stewart allowed for the discussion to be allowed.
This dilly dallying on the origins of Covid only shows the importance of free speech and the dangers of the mainstream media, Big Tech and their lies. Whether the real source is the Wuhan Lab is no longer relevant. Trying to force the discussion genie into the censorship bottle is the real story.
Unfortunately now they are pushing the Wuhan lab leak theory for different and nefarious purposes instead of the furtherment of medical research.
In our experience the weird lab origin controversy was broadly limited to the US and to a lesser extent the UK, and probably caused by your rather idiosyncratic politics at the moment. For most of the rest of the world it was never that big an issue, with expert opinion broadly saying that it was plausible but on balance of probabilities the virus's origin was probably zoonotic as with SARS-1.
It really didn't matter that much, beyond the discussion that if proven we should be improving lab security, but that sort of improvement should be happening anyway.
I suspect in the US & UK it was inflamed by two things:
1. A political desire from certain groups to blame China for the pandemic.
2. Some confusion and conflation early on between the lab leak hypothesis and the fringe conspiracy theory of COVID-19 as being a Chinese 'bioweapon'.
Whatever the cause, it wasn't a universal controversy.
This just reinforces my lack of faith in the "experts", and my belief that they are playing politicians. "We don't have a clue what's flying but listen to me because i'm a doctor" doesn't make sense to me.
> Lord Ridley told MPs: “I also think it’s more likely than not because we have to face the fact after two months we knew the origins of Sars, and after a couple of months we knew Mers was though through camels, but after two years we still haven't found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor, and that’s incredibly surprising.
There have been tons of threads about this so we are just rehashing the same info mostly but this was an interesting point I hadn’t heard of on previously considered.
The conclusion of the WHO, which essentially took China's word for it with no independent oversight or real investigation into the lab, and big organizations that proselytized the results of the "investigation" to justify accusations of conspiracy theory thinking, are irrelevant.
The WHO or any other "big organization" is as much an expert as anyone in the respective field. In fact the likelihood of political influence correcting scientific results is much higher, especially in the case of the WHO.
That does not mean that everything the WHO is false or a conspiracy. But it certainly should not be seen as a sole authority on anything really. And it also has the task to keep everyone at the table that trumps scientific accuracy. That is a compromise that is needed to keep nations cooperating.
One may note that, but you seem to imply that «big organization»s are authoritative. That is "not how it works". Entities have boundaries - in general "political", in terms of policies of caution towards other powers.
Edit: the article seems a valid journalistic effort, and - specifying just in case - is richer in information than just mentioning a couple of opinions.
The WHO has displayed in stunning detail, how they are incapable of independent thought and how they are utterly unwilling to challenge any of the Chinese government various blatant lies. I think at this stage they are just lackeys to China. I think Trump was right to cut their funding.
"We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic."
"A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city."
1cvmask|4 years ago
And then somehow noted scientists like Jon Stewart allowed for the discussion to be allowed.
This dilly dallying on the origins of Covid only shows the importance of free speech and the dangers of the mainstream media, Big Tech and their lies. Whether the real source is the Wuhan Lab is no longer relevant. Trying to force the discussion genie into the censorship bottle is the real story.
Unfortunately now they are pushing the Wuhan lab leak theory for different and nefarious purposes instead of the furtherment of medical research.
https://nypost.com/2021/09/16/jon-stewart-surprised-at-covid...
_djo_|4 years ago
It really didn't matter that much, beyond the discussion that if proven we should be improving lab security, but that sort of improvement should be happening anyway.
I suspect in the US & UK it was inflamed by two things: 1. A political desire from certain groups to blame China for the pandemic. 2. Some confusion and conflation early on between the lab leak hypothesis and the fringe conspiracy theory of COVID-19 as being a Chinese 'bioweapon'.
Whatever the cause, it wasn't a universal controversy.
FridayoLeary|4 years ago
ericmay|4 years ago
> Lord Ridley told MPs: “I also think it’s more likely than not because we have to face the fact after two months we knew the origins of Sars, and after a couple of months we knew Mers was though through camels, but after two years we still haven't found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor, and that’s incredibly surprising.
There have been tons of threads about this so we are just rehashing the same info mostly but this was an interesting point I hadn’t heard of on previously considered.
nradov|4 years ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2
gus_massa|4 years ago
defaultprimate|4 years ago
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj0016
raxxorrax|4 years ago
That does not mean that everything the WHO is false or a conspiracy. But it certainly should not be seen as a sole authority on anything really. And it also has the task to keep everyone at the table that trumps scientific accuracy. That is a compromise that is needed to keep nations cooperating.
mdp2021|4 years ago
Edit: the article seems a valid journalistic effort, and - specifying just in case - is richer in information than just mentioning a couple of opinions.
FridayoLeary|4 years ago
user-the-name|4 years ago
Whether or not she is right is one question, but the phrasing here is implying that there has been a change in opinion, which is not true.
drpgq|4 years ago
Markoff|4 years ago
"A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city."
user-the-name|4 years ago
djkivi|4 years ago
https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1396769717805780994
footlose_3815|4 years ago
[deleted]
HamburgerEmoji|4 years ago
[deleted]
Proven|4 years ago
[deleted]