The only implementation of fact checking I’ve seen which has yet to turn corrupt is Twitter’s Birdwatch which is a much better record than these journalistic organizations we call fact checkers who feel they should control truth.

Fortunately, reality allows for multiple inheritance, the Chinese state doesn't have to only be a fact-checking organization.

Easier for them, because they also have the authority to declare what is fact.

This was not just the Chinese state. Fauci said from day 1 that this was not a lab leak and anyone saying that should be discredited.

The comments I've found from Fauci about the lab leak theory are as follows:

> "If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,"

You also have to remember what else was going on around this time. Namely, that the president was claiming to have seen evidence that it was a man-made virus from the Chinese, and suggesting it was a weapon, calling it the "Kung Flu", the "Wuhan Flu", etc. There were significant sociological impacts from this, including a dramatic increase in violence against Asian-Americans.

Context matters.

Many reports show man made in lab is more likely now.

> Fauci said from day 1 that this was not a lab leak and anyone saying that should be discredited

Let's go straight to the source of that National Review article, the House Oversight Committee's 2022 letter to Secretary Becerra [1]. If wade through the innuendo in the letter, it's pretty clear that:

Dr. Kristen Anderson sent an email to Dr. Fauci expressing her worries about whether the furin cleavage site in SARS2 was naturally evolved or a product of genetic engineering. To address Anderson's concerns, Dr. Fauci organized an online meeting via Zoom with her and a group of other specialists, which successfully dispelled Anderson's fears.

The fact is, following the Zoom conference, Anderson, along with three other participants, authored a research paper on the origins of COVID-19 that was published in the prestigious journal, Nature, in March 2020. This paper was not directed or "commissioned" by either Fauci or Collins. While Anderson did share advance copies potentially with them and others for their remarks, a common academic convention, there wasn't any attribution given for their possible input. Suggesting that Anderson wrote the paper to advance Dr. Fauci's political agenda is just (yes) conspiratorial nonsense.

Republicans in general don't like China or the concept of expertise (almost entirely because the CCP has "Communist" in the name, and expert opinions tend to refute the majority of things Republicans fight for). Dunking on China is evergreen political fodder for the right, no matter how outlandish. In 2020, (and still today, as far as I've ever read), the preponderance of scientific evidence points to the origin of covid being zoonotic.

The atmosphere of speculation by politically-motivated buffoons didn't help clarify any of this, and continues to confuse people today.

[1] https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Lette...

How about the Russian disinformation campaign about Hunter's laptop and the government insistence that social media discredit and actively stop any spreading of the information. Dozens of intelligence agents said it was not credible and shouldn't be trusted. You know, the same laptop that was introduced into evidence today in Hunter's trial.