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There probably were conspiracy theorists doing just that. But there were also articles like the one by Jim Geraghty (https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coro

There probably were conspiracy theorists doing just that. But there were also articles like the one by Jim Geraghty (https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-china-trail-leading-back-to-wuhan-labs/ https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-china-tra...). Compare what he wrote to what is in the recent Atlantic article. Geraghty: > And none of the above is definitive proof that COVID-19 originated from a bat at either the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Definitive proof would require much broader access to information about what happened in those facilities in the time period before the epidemic in the city. > But it is a remarkable coincidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was researching Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses in bats before the pandemic outbreak, and that in the month when Wuhan doctors were treating the first patients of COVID-19, the institute announced in a hiring notice that “a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified.” And the fact that the Chinese government spent six weeks insisting that COVID-19 could not be spread from person to person means that its denials about Wuhan laboratories cannot be accepted without independent verification. Engber: > Arguments in favor of the “lab-leak hypothesis” remain grounded, as they ever were, in the mere and highly suspicious fact that a coronavirus likely borne by bats, likely from a cave in southwest China, emerged 18 months ago, quite suddenly, in a city very far from southwest China—where researchers had assembled an archive of cave-bat-borne coronaviruses. As Geraghty recounts yesterday (https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/even-xavier-becerra-jumps-on-the-lab-leak-bandwagon/ https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/even-xavier-...), many in the media, rather than assessing the facts themselves, just resulted to name calling against a conservative-leaning but measured writer. I also haven't seen Geraghty (and again, other more measured writers) claim to have definitive proof of the lab-leak theory (as some conspiracy theorists might claim), only that it is a possibility that shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. It is illogical, irresponsible and unscientific to say "well, this theory was picked up by racists, therefore we should dismiss it" rather than evaluating a possibility on it's own merits.

bingbong70 5y ago
I do find it interesting that the idea of a foreign country dropping covid in China is not even considered. It's not even considered by the people who are aware of the history of mass anti-Sino biological warfare that took place around WW2 and the decades after.
- jkingsbery 5y ago
  As the Geraghty article I cited mentions, the Wuhan Institute of Virology leak theory has at best circumstantial evidence, and very well might not be true. And in any case, the claim is not that it was intentional. While not impossible, there is currently zero evidence today that the virus came from anywhere else. There is zero evidence of any cases anywhere before those in China (indeed, before those in Wuhan). China is not known for having lax border crossings, making smuggling in vials unlikely. Wuhan is not close to a border, if someone came to Wuhan already infected, there would be a trail of infected people from the border to Wuhan, or other people would have been infected on a plane if a human carrier brought it in. If someone brought it in during the World Military Games as you seem to think in other posts, the timeline doesn't make sense, since the first cases of COVID weren't for at least a month after, in November (and besides the possible cases by the people who work at WIV, most cases started in December). Your hypothesis does not fit the data. So I ask you: what evidence, even circumstantial, do you have for making the claim you do?
  - bingbong70 5y ago
    My understanding is a few labs, including one in North Carolina, were working on this virus and shared samples with labs around the world. Unfortunately, these viruses are now easy enough for a small team anywhere in the world to create with the widely available tools....transporting a payload across borders is trivially easy. Motives... the Chinese have no incentive to maliciously release a virus in their own country during an event that is tied to national pride and acts as a showcase of Chinese domestic development in Wuhan. The western warhawks on the other hand have a tremendous interest in obstructing any Chinese military cooperation with its peers. The potential motives seem quite clear...with the nice side effect of disrupting Chinese trade as the world recoils from a new downside risk of globalization. The US and its allies have a long history of biological warfare against economic competitors. Even the Japanese bio-warfare campaign in WW2 China was supported, partially funded, and fully pardoned by the US/UK...people and history books tend to forget/omit that Imperial Japan received all of its oil and much of its supplies from the US. These supplies being cutoff (aka treaty violation) without FDR's/Churchill's knowledge are what resulted in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During periods of uncertainty, it's good to remember that America's left hand doesn't always know what its right hand is doing... and vice versa. I tend to think history is in the process of rhyming again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_Ei_1644 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_Ei_1644 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaimingjie_germ_weapon_attack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaimingjie_germ_weapon_attac...

bingbong70 5y ago

I do find it interesting that the idea of a foreign country dropping covid in China is not even considered. It's not even considered by the people who are aware of the history of mass anti-Sino biological warfare that took place around WW2 and the decades after.

jkingsbery 5y ago
As the Geraghty article I cited mentions, the Wuhan Institute of Virology leak theory has at best circumstantial evidence, and very well might not be true. And in any case, the claim is not that it was intentional. While not impossible, there is currently zero evidence today that the virus came from anywhere else. There is zero evidence of any cases anywhere before those in China (indeed, before those in Wuhan). China is not known for having lax border crossings, making smuggling in vials unlikely. Wuhan is not close to a border, if someone came to Wuhan already infected, there would be a trail of infected people from the border to Wuhan, or other people would have been infected on a plane if a human carrier brought it in. If someone brought it in during the World Military Games as you seem to think in other posts, the timeline doesn't make sense, since the first cases of COVID weren't for at least a month after, in November (and besides the possible cases by the people who work at WIV, most cases started in December). Your hypothesis does not fit the data. So I ask you: what evidence, even circumstantial, do you have for making the claim you do?
- bingbong70 5y ago
  My understanding is a few labs, including one in North Carolina, were working on this virus and shared samples with labs around the world. Unfortunately, these viruses are now easy enough for a small team anywhere in the world to create with the widely available tools....transporting a payload across borders is trivially easy. Motives... the Chinese have no incentive to maliciously release a virus in their own country during an event that is tied to national pride and acts as a showcase of Chinese domestic development in Wuhan. The western warhawks on the other hand have a tremendous interest in obstructing any Chinese military cooperation with its peers. The potential motives seem quite clear...with the nice side effect of disrupting Chinese trade as the world recoils from a new downside risk of globalization. The US and its allies have a long history of biological warfare against economic competitors. Even the Japanese bio-warfare campaign in WW2 China was supported, partially funded, and fully pardoned by the US/UK...people and history books tend to forget/omit that Imperial Japan received all of its oil and much of its supplies from the US. These supplies being cutoff (aka treaty violation) without FDR's/Churchill's knowledge are what resulted in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During periods of uncertainty, it's good to remember that America's left hand doesn't always know what its right hand is doing... and vice versa. I tend to think history is in the process of rhyming again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_Ei_1644 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_Ei_1644 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaimingjie_germ_weapon_attack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaimingjie_germ_weapon_attac...