R&I NV — World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus, sit in a car arriving at Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, February 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
Some of us are COVID-origin hipsters, I guess; we were into the lab-leak theory before it went mainstream.
I’m glad Donald G. McNeil Jr., the prize-winning former science reporter for the New York Times, has concluded that, “the argument that [SARS-CoV-2] could have leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology or a sister lab in Wuhan has become considerably stronger than it was a year ago, when the screaming was so loud that it drowned out serious discussion.”
I’m glad that 18 scientists have written to Science magazine that, “We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data.”
I’m glad that the Washington Post editorial board declared yesterday, “If the laboratory leak theory is wrong, China could easily clarify the situation by being more open and transparent. Instead, it acts as if there is something to hide.”
I’m even sort of glad that Matt Yglesias saluted New York magazine, declaring that publication “brought the lab leak hypothesis into the mainstream,” because he acknowledges “the insta-consensus on Twitter and among media fact-check columnists never reflected a real consensus among practicing scientists who seem to me to mostly just really not know.”
Back when this pandemic began, I was like most people; I thought the virus most likely jumped from an animal at a wet market, because virologists had been warning about this sort of scenario for years.
Back on April 3, National Review published what turned into one of the most-read articles I’ve ever written, “The Trail Leading Back to the Wuhan Labs.” It started as a simple project: going through all of the claims one of the YouTube videos alleging the pandemic was the result of a lab accident, and seeing what could be independently verified. As it turned out, quite a bit could be verified:
The Wuhan Institute of Virology was indeed studying novel coronaviruses found in bats, as was the Wuhan Centers for Disease Control.
Continued
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-taboo-on-the-covid-lab-leak-theory-lifts/?fb_news_token=N5TlK5l6UMfht9efswKh5A%3D%3D.7xVpgNINtYtS5QEH9WMMmU%2FuiyO4f%2B9W%2FTOrQmJwBwxyKe%2BZgsThXSCbdkhFzJNQeBGMIcUFrh59T3rxz07uFyrgS%2By%2FiEXHFW%2FhMZfg6X7PssU68VYxBpmmIu2Ojv4EXiTfjMfiW%2BjHAMpGuY3gtKkrX5%2BmwKiY%2BJbCV3WAoBMKgjo%2BEpScwXQMSkhlEf8I4ujOGAt2OJh%2BFy62Ott1IZwwR9bEJoxct30xdcNivtycFTFAnrQiSmEe3TE0ZfoKA7LbiBSKlRrTlKJ9KpRlzmsF%2Fu%2Bh%2F49FRpFvi8vqpTyoRM%2FKkFsyjmd9mr8SVq84wYEaBSFFGyTc%2Bny0zHnPA9phj3HOfUpmjvYyEGWWPoVTKTjJCu9jnfFAz%2Fcc9D2YwCL4BzW6NouhASLVGrRowgxZdVSz6aJJUpSrwveT7t9C36mbQMjbk8TTwUIKKrL%2FKS20AQqNUK8cscVQIU9TxLKyZgmU43NxJ5wOC9%2FayNSlQqtIbiroSU1NaxmGDPsr%2FQ%2BH9ISO8j6c0REEJbnb2ri3FCdrlzQPCNgj3vFewF360EpJxDaKBdNP10G%2B0JRLcjissJzTntnPNFEm1ckZ7n%2FzINMppUEnNagU0cnPPCu1v7oSzWCPT1eRf1IrDEIYQLidHyFXaow4IXdr8IEQ4wPNS%2Brz53kZm0vO4pia9SzWMZ0jdPyEs24YQNFm2nZ42V19CkfeH4lwfz%2FX%2FKeEjJmRKuhahGISWZALHdqT4OHmCHrQqRKVfmd%2FwyaFicpVrmhhQ8cr8KbfY17AoLz6Lw%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR0whFhoJa7kPzHz1BOAJIsiamO8wvWcMj6GpXA89sVxK3U5OahcUBIMU1c
Gellieman