I served it's purpose perfectly! It allowed China to pretend that an investigation was done.
Pandemic starting at the doorstep of a lab (that is not located in remotely close proximity to the Yunnan caves where the previous SARS viruses were originating from)
Previous SARS virus outbreaks (SARS1 and MERS) had zoonotic reservoirs identified in months with dramatically fewer resources, but coincidentally, with vast resources and global efforts, no zoonotic reservoir identified for this virus.
Previous SARS virus outbreaks showed a gradual evolution of a virus to progressively becoming more infectious to humans, and equivalent genetic changes in the virus that can be traced. This one started out as highly infectious, and until several months in, mutations weren't very significant.
The Chinese Communist Party (not China, not the Chinese people, but the CCP) has expended far more energy suppressing research and scientific access than any form of investigation into the origins of the virus.
The CCP deliberately suppressed and arrested doctors publicly talking about the virus early on.
Edit:
Forgot to add that there is a direct paper trail (publicly available on data.gov) of grant documents which specify that the funding will be used in WIV for research of bat coronaviruses with (and I quote from the paper) "humanized mice". Humanized mice, in this context, are mice genetically engineered to have human ACE2 receptors lining their respiratory tissue. In what was the most infuriating moment of public testimony I have ever seen, Dr. Fauci argues that infecting humanized mice with animal viruses (resulting in animal viruses that can more easily infect humans) is NOT gain of function research. He was playing an obvious semantic game, where his definition of GOF is the far narrower concept of making an existing human infecting virus more infectious..... Seriously, I was a big fan of the guy until that single bit of testimony. Now i know he's a lying bureaucrat more than he is a scientist.
https://reporter.nih.gov/search/xQW6UJmWfUuOV01ntGvLwQ/proje...
Both of these statements are so inaccurate. It took many years before scientists were certain what the reservoir was for SARS, and there were already different lineages of the virus at the Wuhan market!
You are mad at the CCP for putting out misleading information. You are guilty of the same thing!
My heuristic is, whenever I encounter these labels, it's the moment I stop reading. They signal the end of productive conversation, anything surrounding them can be ignored.
I'm not saying that this means it was definitely a lab leak. It absolutely doesn't, without further evidence, but discounting it completely, especially given how suspicious the CCP acted around it (why wait an entire year before letting the WHO investigate and then only for a few hours? why silence scientists and doctors?), is equally silly.
There's no evidence it was a lab leak, there's no evidence that it wasn't either. There's some circumstantial data to suggest that the CCP isn't a trustworthy source. That's all we know.
Yes its silly to assume that it was a lab leak. But its also silly to assume that it wasn't. We don't know what it was.
>Stop trying to play pretend and believe the truth.
Just like Bush and his Dubya Em Deez, right? The other side is always brainwashed, and your side always "knows the truth"
Why don't you go use that power of yours to go do something helpful?
Of course the dude had concerns, anyone with half a brain would explore all of the possible origins and theories. But the lab leak theory is just that - one theory that could explain the situation at hand.
The problem is that too many people have put far too much stock in the lab leak theory to the point that it's being treated as the most likely source of origin, but that's just not what the evidence says.
I don't even subscribe to Facebook or Twitter by choice. I definitely wouldn't subscribe to imprisonment by choice, haha. If you're concerned about these platforms controlling their content privately, don't use them.
If you think the U.S. is above unlawfully detaining a doctor, then I've got sad news for you.
The us does do this and has large and growing domestic opposition movements.
Born 12 October 1985 Beizhen, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China
Died 7 February 2020 (aged 34) Wuhan, Hubei, China
Cause of death COVID-19
Yes, all of that suspicious propaganda about the Chinese government's treatment of dissidents. The decoration came after his death at 34 years old.
> He died from the disease on 7 February 2020, at age 34.[8][9] A subsequent Chinese official inquiry exonerated him, and the Communist Party of China formally offered a "solemn apology" to his family and revoked the admonishment of him.
On the ground, the news of the virus was first supressed by local officials, allowing lots of people to attempt a "escape" from wuhan, when they got informed by relatives that something was up. When the pot boiled over, the bejing government stepped in and "walled" in wuhan. But they told that first and acted later, allowing thousands to "escape" ( they boasted about this on social media, thats how we know) and they escaped into lots of other countries - because while national flights were cancelled, international flights were still allowed.
This thing has been a lecture in disastrous disaster management - nothing more, nothing less. Its proof that totalitarian states even suck at the one thing they claim to be good at- being totalitarian.
Depending on what you think about the virtues of government, that's something between a pretty good thing or the worst horror you can imagine.
But like others, I have strong suspicions. It starts by an improbable coincidence (pandemic starting at the doorstep of a lab). The Chinese have acted guilty from the outset, by lying about the virus, arresting doctors, not allowing any investigation, and pushing crazy alternative theories.