4 ms·

Did it actually steer toward things that mattered though? I think politicizing rational inquiry, especially when China did a lot to help the virus leave its bo

Did it actually steer toward things that mattered though? I think politicizing rational inquiry, especially when China did a lot to help the virus leave its borders, was equivalent to trying to deflect, and just added more obfuscation to a meaningful dialogue about what we should do and what we should learn.

XorNot 5y ago
The inquiry wasn't political until Trump made it political...as a tool to distract from his ongoing desire to ignore the pandemic as an issue. In 2020 the questions people wanted answers to were "what was the government doing" and "when was relief coming" and "we need masks and ventilators are you going to distribute them". The only people who seemed to think the answer to all those questions was "well firstly we need to consider if this is China's fault..." was the White House.
- BobbyJo 5y ago
  It wasn't just the White House though. The whole reason there is this resurgence of the issue 18 months after the fact is that all of the people asking the question who weren't Donald Trump crazy, were treated like they were. I genuinely worry about all the people that believed it was a conspiracy theory, and still think they are on team science. They aren't.
  - XorNot 5y ago
    It is a conspiracy theory, because there's no evidence beyond allegations of conspiracy that this is what happened. It keeps being asked for the same reason that 9/11 truthers came into existence: because the idea that bad things can happen randomly to good people is a more scary idea then the one that bad things happen because someone planned for them to. "It escaped from a lab" is an appealing idea because the very next conclusion will be "there should be no more virus labs!". Zoological origins, like SARS, or Swine Flu before it, offers no solutions - it's an ongoing problem.

4 ms·

Did it actually steer toward things that mattered though? I think politicizing rational inquiry, especially when China did a lot to help the virus leave its bo

by BobbyJo 5y ago

XorNot 5y ago
The inquiry wasn't political until Trump made it political...as a tool to distract from his ongoing desire to ignore the pandemic as an issue. In 2020 the questions people wanted answers to were "what was the government doing" and "when was relief coming" and "we need masks and ventilators are you going to distribute them". The only people who seemed to think the answer to all those questions was "well firstly we need to consider if this is China's fault..." was the White House.
- BobbyJo 5y ago
  It wasn't just the White House though. The whole reason there is this resurgence of the issue 18 months after the fact is that all of the people asking the question who weren't Donald Trump crazy, were treated like they were. I genuinely worry about all the people that believed it was a conspiracy theory, and still think they are on team science. They aren't.
  - XorNot 5y ago
    It is a conspiracy theory, because there's no evidence beyond allegations of conspiracy that this is what happened. It keeps being asked for the same reason that 9/11 truthers came into existence: because the idea that bad things can happen randomly to good people is a more scary idea then the one that bad things happen because someone planned for them to. "It escaped from a lab" is an appealing idea because the very next conclusion will be "there should be no more virus labs!". Zoological origins, like SARS, or Swine Flu before it, offers no solutions - it's an ongoing problem.