CCP Lied About Covid Virus. Was COVID Created in a Lab?

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#2 above is indeed a good reason why we should not be flinging such a serious accusation (deliberate lab leak) without good evidence, apart from the general principle of "innocent until proven guilty."

The Department of Energy may have only “low confidence” in its assessment that COVID-19 likely originated in a lab, but Republicans long criticized for their openness to the idea are still celebrating the agency’s conclusion—so much so, in fact, that you might think the report was accompanied by a little vial labeled “Nov. 2019 Wuhan COVID Recipe—Do Not Remove!”

“There was always enormous evidence that the Wuhan coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan lab,” asserted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “I’m glad the Department of Energy recognizes this reality.” Sen. Tom Cotton—previously excoriated as a conspiracy theorist for voicing his belief that the virus originated in a lab—also took a victory lap. “The only conspiracy back in the early part of 2020 was a conspiracy of silence,” he told Fox News.

I wasn't sure where you were coming from.




The FBI recently (last few days) said they believed the lab leak was "Probable", btw.

I don't believe ANYONE here has suggested the lab leak was deliberate.
Sorry to harp on about it, but I have been misrepresented SO many times this last week in various threads.

I said it was a plausible possibility that C.C.P. did that to their own people based on past and current history. That was not an accusation but it damn sure was a suggestion. Experts should not bury their heads in the sand because their investigations might turn up something too horrible to think about. All possibilities of why this happened to need to be looked at. The C.C.P. are not American citizens, innocent until proven doesn't apply.

I was unsure if you were being sarcastic/ironic, originally.

You may recall, because that despicable Orange Man suggested it was the CCP that created the virus, the leftist narrative was altered to disagree.
"Anything/k Trump bad."
Dirty politics entered the fray once again.

You didn't think I would forget that, did you?
I have a long memory, at times.

The C.C.P. are not American citizens, innocent until proven doesn't apply.

What they are certainly guilty of is obscuring information - though motives for this can be various.

I think it is a lesson that we need mustn't loosen our standards (i.e. of transparency) when outsourcing.

Despite the long odds the lab leak theory proponents had a big advantage deliberate release theorists do not have. One of the political tribes agreed with it. They had media that kept on pushing.

What they are certainly guilty of is obscuring information - though motives for this can be various.

I think it is a lesson that we need mustn't loosen our standards (i.e. of transparency) when outsourcing.

CNN boss told staff to avoid reporting ‘Trump’ lab leak theory
4 hours ago

CNN’s former CEO Jeff Zucker told network staff to avoid touching the lab leak theory in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic because it was a “Trump talking point”, according to Fox News.

Dr. Fauci commissioned a scientific study that purported to debunk the hypothesis that Covid escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, according to emails released by House Republicans.

On Sunday, the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed that the nation’s leading epidemiologist in February 2020 directed and approved a paper titled, “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which he later cited to cast the lab-leak theory as a myth.

“New evidence released by the Select Subcommittee today suggests that Dr. Fauci ‘prompted’ the drafting of a publication that would ‘disprove’ the lab leak theory, the authors of this paper skewed available evidence to achieve that goal, and Dr. Jeremy Farrar went uncredited despite significant involvement,” a memo from the committee read.

On February 1, 2020, Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Francis Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, held a call with several scientists to discuss the origins of the virus. A group of evolutionary virologists on the call informed Fauci and Collins that Covid may have stemmed from a lab accident and may have been genetically engineered, according to the memo.

Three days later, four of the experts who attended that meeting drafted a research document, which was forwarded to Fauci upon completion for editing and approval. The paper, later published in Nature Medicine, argued that Covid had “mutations” that supported the explanation that it had been transmitted to humans from animals.

One of the four authors, Dr. Kristin Andersen, admits in a cover email sent to Nature that Fauci “prompted” the paper’s drafting in order to “disprove” the lab-leak theory.

“There has been a lot of speculation, fear-mongering, and conspiracies put forward in this space. [This paper was] Prompted by Jeremy Farrah [sic], Tony Fauci, and Francis Collins,” Andersen wrote in the email, released Sunday by the House committee.

In April, 2020, Fauci addressed reporters at a White House press conference alongside former president Trump, pointing to the paper as justification for his belief that the lab-leak theory was a far-fetched conspiracy. Fauci did not acknowledge his own role in commissioning the paper and feigned ignorance as to the identities of its authors.

“There was a study recently where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences … in bats as they evolve and the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human,” Fauci said at the time.

“So, the paper will be available. I don’t have the authors right now, but we can make it available to you,” he said.

Fauci told National Geographic a month later that Covid “could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.”

Flash forward to November 2022, when Fauci, who had announced his retirement from government, said on CBS’s Face the Nation that he remained convinced that the virus emerged naturally, claiming the evidence backing that theory was “quite strong.” During that media appearance, Fauci lectured that officials must ensure that future probes into Covid’s source are not politically motivated

[url=https://news.yahoo.com/fauci-prompted-scientific-paper-purporting-210709941.html]

Flash forward to November 2022, when Fauci, who had announced his retirement from government, said on CBS’s Face the Nation that he remained convinced that the virus emerged naturally, claiming the evidence backing that theory was “quite strong.” During that media appearance, Fauci lectured that officials must ensure that future probes into Covid’s source are not politically motivated

The House voted unanimously Friday on a bill ordering the declassification of intelligence about the origins of COVID-19 in China, sending the bill to President Biden's desk.

The bill, which already passed the Senate, would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify any information about links between the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the controversial viral research laboratory in the city where the SARS-CoV-2 virus first emerged. The vote in the House was 419 to 0.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not directly answer whether the president would sign the legislation, saying, "We're taking a look at the bill."

The Senate passed the GOP-crafted bill by unanimous consent last week. The bill was introduced by GOP Sens. Josh Hawley and Mike Braun.

The issue of the origin of the coronavirus has become fiercely politicized on Capitol Hill, with many Republicans using the increased consideration of the lab leak theory to criticize Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for his support of the theory that the virus emerged in a Wuhan market where live animals were sold.

"Now the American people will be able to see what their government knows about COVID origins — and those who lied about it can be held accountable," Hawley tweeted after the bill passed Friday. "Next stop for my COVID origins bill, Joe Biden's desk. Sign it."

Democrats also expressed support for releasing information related to origins of the leak, as evidenced by their lack of objections in the House and Senate.

"Understanding the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic is important to help prevent a future pandemic," Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz, a doctor and ranking member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said in a statement after the bill's passage.