Why are they trying so hard again and again to convince the public that Covid-19 was zoonotic and not a lab leak? What is the ulterior motive or expediency here?
I have tried to rebut several times on my blog those claims of zoonotic origin! However, almost every other months or so a new "scientific" study in support of zoonotic origin is published.
Are they trying to protect Anthony Fauci and the US Health & Human Services Department, CDC, and NIH? Are they trying to protect the medical and scientific research community at large, because if it was a lab leak this would certainly have some severe consequences (e.g. think of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, liabilities, reputation)?
At least two inconvenient facts are:
- The Communist Party of China was not exactly cooperative in the investigations of the origin. That by itself is a very huge red flag (no pun intended)! Worse, the communists tried to cover up the outbreak!
- For an alleged zoonotic SARS-CoV-2 virus it was right from the beginning extremely infectious to humans and equipped with a well designed target specific to humans. Design by nature or the result of e.g. human gain of function research? Like gain of function research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology paid for by U.S. taxpayers and ordered by the National Institutes of Health in circumvention of U.S. regulations?
If it was a lab leak, then the next question would be was it an unintended human accident or intentional? If it was intentional, more pressing pertinent questions arise.
The latest PNAS article on this subject clearly violated the principle of absence of evidence is not evidence of absence (think of the Black Swan). Thus, it has more than the appearance of pseudoscience or of a fallacy!
It is a fallacy in so far as lab leaks of pathogens causing a major outbreak of a disease have so far not been recorded in public anywhere in the world. Have such leaks occurred in the past somewhere (e.g. behind an iron curtain), we don't know. Can or could have such a lab leak have happened, of course!
"The acrimonious debate over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic flared up again this week with a report from an expert panel concluding that SARS-CoV-2 likely spread naturally in a zoonotic jump from an animal to humans—without help from a lab. ...
The task force’s literature analysis was a good idea, says Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who has pushed for more investigations of the lab-leak hypothesis. But he says the zoonosis proponents haven’t provided much new data. “What we’ve seen is mostly reanalysis and reinterpretation of existing evidence.” ...
The PNAS authors say their literature search revealed “considerable scientific peer-reviewed evidence” that SARS-CoV-2 moved from bats to other wildlife, then to people in the wildlife trade, finally causing an outbreak at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. In contrast, they say, relatively few peer-reviewed studies back the lab-leak idea ..."
The PNAS authors say their literature search revealed “considerable scientific peer-reviewed evidence” that SARS-CoV-2 moved from bats to other wildlife, then to people in the wildlife trade, finally causing an outbreak at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. In contrast, they say, relatively few peer-reviewed studies back the lab-leak idea ..."
From the abstract:
"COVID-19 is the latest zoonotic RNA virus epidemic of concern. ... We review major RNA virus outbreaks since 1967 to identify common features and opportunities to prevent emergence, including ancestral viral origins in birds, bats, and other mammals; animal reservoirs and intermediate hosts; and pathways for zoonotic spillover and community spread, leading to local, regional, or international outbreaks. The increasing scientific evidence concerning the origins of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is most consistent with a zoonotic origin and a spillover pathway from wildlife to people via wildlife farming and the wildlife trade. We apply what we know about these outbreaks to identify relevant, feasible, and implementable interventions. ..."
Evidence suggests pandemic came from nature, not a lab, panel says New report takes sides in debate over COVID-19’s origins
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