This one is probably going to disappoint everyone.
If you’re hoping I’ll say that I believe Barack Obama and Anthony Fauci created COVID-19 as a bio-weapon in the Wuhan lab in coordination with Bill Gates and the Clinton Foundation and released it upon the world on purpose, you’re going to be disappointed.
If you’re hoping I’ll say that I believe this virus naturally evolved in bats, possibly jumped to another animal, a pangolin, perhaps, before jumping to humans and was initially spread at the Wuhan wet market, you’re going to be disappointed.
The first claim is ludicrous, and the second simply has no proof. It’s a best guess, and nothing more. It is based on the fact that viruses have spread that way before, and by applying Occam’s Razor, so say a lot of scientists. But when all the facts are laid out, that’s not necessarily the most likely scenario.
If you’re hoping I’ll say, “Check out this film, ‘Plandemic!’ It will open your eyes and help you see the truth!” You’re going to be disappointed. That film is a propaganda piece designed to look like journalism featuring a discredited, disgruntled former bottom-of-the-food-chain subordinate of Dr. Anthony Fauci. She faked some research, and when she was caught, she stole all of the records of her crime from the lab she worked in. That’s why she went to jail. She claims she was held without charges. There were charges. You can find this easily with a simple Google search.
Okay, so, let’s look at the bare facts:
The Wuhan Center For Disease Control and Prevention is less than 300 yards from the Chinese wet market commonly blamed for the initial outbreak of the disease we now call COVID-19. It is adjacent to the Union Hospital, the site where the first group of doctors got infected.
The — ahem — “conspiracy theory” that the virus came from this lab originated in a paper from the South China University of Technology. This paper, written by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, alleges that the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats.
The Chinese government buried this report, but it was seen by some people before it was buried, so we know what’s in it. We know that the principal investigator was involved in a project generating a chimeric virus using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system and reporting the potentiality for human spread. It was noted there was concern at the time that it might escape.
We know that genome sequences from the first patients were either 96% or 89% identical to the bat CoV ZC45 they were working with in the lab.
We know that the only native bats are found roughly 600 miles away from the Wuhan wet market, and that the probability of bats flying that far is minimal, at best.
We know that one of the researchers described quarantining himself for two weeks after coming into direct contact with bat blood. And we know that same man also quarantined himself after a bat pissed on him.
We know that the United States Government was knowingly funding gain of function research on bat corona viruses in that lab in the past. We know that the Obama administration prohibited funding of that type of research in 2014, correctly recognizing it as risky, reckless, and unnecessary, no matter the intentions.
Gain of function research, if you don’t know, as I didn’t before I began my own research into this, is experimentation on viruses to try to encourage them to develop abilities they don’t currently have. Abilities such as jumping species, or becoming more deadly. This type of research could be used to create a bio-weapon, sure. But in this case the research was officially to keep tabs on the bat corona viruses, find out what would cause them to do that, and make sure we’re prepared in that eventuality, to get a head start on the thing.
To be clear, the United States Government ceased funding for that project, but funds did continue to flow into that laboratory for other research. That in no way means that the lab ceased gain of function research. It only means the US stopped providing funding for it.
We know that in 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing warned of safety concerns in the high-containment laboratory.
I’ve read a couple papers from virologists explaining why they think the virus developed naturally, and I’ve read a paper claiming that the virus is man-made. The evidence that the virus is man-made is a strange, out of place furin cleavage site in the RNA sequence. This can occur when the virus is intentionally cut and a new sequence is inserted. The paper asserting that the virus was created in a lab point to this as evidence. The papers claiming it is natural point to the fact that this can occur naturally, and has occurred naturally in several ancestors of the current virus. But it does not appear in any near relatives. So it is curious, but it’s not proof.
The proponents of the virus being natural initially claimed that the new sequence came from a pangolin. They later realized an error, it doesn’t match a pangolin after all, and they have not identified what animal it could have come from. To be honest, I followed the information as best as I could, but most of this is pretty far over my head. So let me give them the benefit of the doubt and say there is no evidence that this was created in that lab — but there’s also no evidence it wasn’t.
What bothers me the most is that top epidemiologists are very emphatic that it didn’t come from the lab. That, in itself, is suspicious to me. Scientists generally approach things from a position of neutrality and gather evidence. The assertion that it absolutely definitely did not come from the lab when there is literally no proof either way that they can produce to back up that claim sets off alarm bells for me.
To be clear, I don’t think this was created on purpose as a bio-weapon. Nobody would use a Coronavirus for that. They’d be working with Ebola or something equally terrifying. I’m not convinced for sure that this wasn’t created for research and accidentally leaked. But let’s assume it wasn’t. Let’s assume it’s natural. Doesn’t it still make more sense that it naturally evolved from a bat to a human from an accident in that lab, and not from 600 miles away in the bats’ natural habitat?
These are the top people in the field, these scientists. It’s a small group of people. Lying about the origin won’t change the outcome, it won’t hurt more people, it won’t prolong finding a vaccine or a treatment. But it will cover their asses, absolve them and their respected colleagues from blame. I saw one respected epidemiologist insisting that no matching virus existed in that lab. How would he know that? The lab is in China, the country with, arguably, the most secretive government in the world. We don’t honestly know, except for the people who do.
When I look at all of this information, Occam’s Razor tells me the virus probably came out of this lab. And unless or until they can produce proof that it came from elsewhere, that’s what I’m going to continue to believe, because it is absolutely the most likely scenario.
The fact that Trump also believes the virus came from a lab is unfortunate. Trump, as almost everyone knows, is a pathological liar. But Trump is also a brainless human-parrot who will repeat anything he hears that suits his narrative. So, you can’t discount something just because he says it. Sometimes he parrots smart people. His opinion is irrelevant when it comes to whether something is true or false.
