"The Wuhan lab leak is a conspiracy theory"

A remarkable attack on sense-making is happening, right before our very eyes.

In March last year, there were some reports from some (mainly conservative) media outlets that the coronavirus “may have originated in a lab” or even still, it could have been made as some sort of bioweapon. Despite it being clear that Wuhan was home to the country’s first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory, and that China is governed by a regime that has a somewhat cavalier attitude to the truth, the story pretty much became persona non grata in the eyes of much of the press. 

CNN said that misinformation around the virus is still king and that “nearly 30% in the US believe a coronavirus theory that's almost certainly not true”. The Guardian published an opinion piece called “Ignore the conspiracy theories: scientists know Covid-19 wasn't created in a lab” by some guy called Peter Daszak (keep that name in your head) and repeatedly pushed that this was just some “crackpot far-right Bannon-Trump-backed theory”.

But it wasn’t really a conspiracy theory was it? On the 26th May this year, President Joe Biden said that he has ordered the intelligence community to “redouble” its efforts to find out the virus’ origin and report back in 90 days. This includes getting intelligence to explore the possibility of a laboratory accident in China.

In response, Facebook told Politico recently in light of the order that it would no longer take down posts claiming that Covid-19 was man-made or manufactured. Posts aside, that a tech giant can censor facts at a whim, effectively switching them on or off, sets a very dangerous precedent. Think about that for a minute.

There is a camp of people interested in this story who knew that something was up right at the beginning. They were able to put down their partisan beliefs for just a moment and keep up to date with outlets covering the lab-leak such as Fox News’ Tucker Carson, War Room Pandemic with Steve Bannon and Raheem J. Kassam, the Federalist, the Epoch Times, independent journalists and even YouTubers. To followers of these, the news that it’s taken this long for Biden to investigate is the story. 

Last February, US senator Tom Cotton said: “We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all.” 

The liberal leaning, corporate press was infuriated. An offended Vanity Fair said that Cotton had “amplified” a conspiracy theory “on a massively influential national media platform”. MSNBC said it was “veiled threats” which “really aren't helping”. The Washington Post said it was a “fringe theory” that was already debunked. 

Even recently, the New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli doubled down. In a deleted tweet, she said that “someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not here”. So an investigative journalist, whose work has not only been focused on medical science but on the actual pandemic, is telling you that this entirely plausible theory is racist. The tweet has since been deleted. But the fact that she did it in the first place, tells you a lot about this journalist and her work. 

With that in mind, right now America’s Dr and Director of U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr Anthony Fauci is being raked over the coals over some questionable links to commissioned gain of function research.  This means research which alters an organism or disease in a way that increases pathogenesis, transmissibility or host range ie. making viruses much more dangerous. 

Lat May, Mother Jones said that “conspiracy theories have undermined the real debate about the facilities that handle the world’s deadliest pathogens.

Fox News reports that Fauci now admits that $600K went to a group called EcoHealth Alliance, which then paid the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study the risk that bat coronaviruses could infect humans, before the pandemic. He had denied any funding NIH fudning earlier in the month in a heated senate hearing with senator Rand Paul. 

Oh and EcoHealth Alliance is run by Peter Daszak (remember him?), who was also coincidentally a member of the WHO team, who - yes, you guessed it, all but dismissed a theory that the virus came from a laboratory in China in February.

It’s unclear why so many outlets push so many stories as a conspiracy theory. It’s true that nothing has been proven yet. Though I imagine at one point in time, journalists would have beaten each other up to get the scoop on this. So what makes these times so different? Maybe the Guardian just doesn’t want to upset the Communist Party of China. Perhaps the New York Times genuinely believes any other narrative than a zoonose hopped from a tasty pangolin is racist.  

Though, luckily its veteran British scientific reporter Nicholas Wade published a long read on the subject called “Origin of Covid — Following the Clues”. Wade’s damning analysis of the origins of COVID pointed in one direction only. Note that it was published on open platform Medium, and not the New York Times.

But if you can, put ideology to one side, and direct yourself towards those who have proven themselves on this story to have had a fair assessment of the facts. Many publications are trying to redeem themselves. But those who have displayed an absolute contempt for the truth, who continue to dismiss without any curiosity, do not deserve your trust. They botched the biggest story of all time. Remember that. 

END NOTE Despite being a reporter, I struggled to find some of the links to conservative media for this article as Google makes it difficult. I heavily recommend the Duck Duck Go browser.