3 ms·

I remember when the previous President said he had evidence of a lab leak, but did not share it or have any corroboration from anyone else in the administration

I remember when the previous President said he had evidence of a lab leak, but did not share it or have any corroboration from anyone else in the administration. It was obvious at the time that it was a political tool to drive a nationalist sentiment. The issue is not that people wanted to investigate a lab leak, the issue was that people presented their lab leak theory as a fact. Believing in a theory without any evidence to support it falls pretty squarely in the conspiracy theory bucket. Honestly, I haven't seen anything change in substance in the meantime. It still is a suspicious coincidence, but we don't have any clear indication of what actually happened. What has changed in the reporting is that people are expressing concerns about the lab (clearly theories, not fact), which is completely natural. We should investigate it so we can better prevent, detect, and respond to future outbreaks. But let's not make premature judgements from a coincidence.

iammisc 5y ago
We have hospitalization records of lab staff, which Trump kne about and was later declassified. We have e-mail evidence of lab employees explicitly asking reporters not to report on the potential. And we have a novel virus that appeared centered around a biomedical research lab doing gain of function research on closely related viruses. Simply due to the level of accusation and its implications, the claim deserved investigation from day one not out of hand dismissal. Imagine if someone is found with a gun right next to a shooting scene, and everyone around you insisted that he certainly could not be the one who did any wrong because... racism or something. And then later on, you find that that guys friends spoke privately with the police and asked them not to conduct an investigation. Shouldn't that arouse suspicion in normal people?

iammisc 5y ago

We have hospitalization records of lab staff, which Trump kne about and was later declassified. We have e-mail evidence of lab employees explicitly asking reporters not to report on the potential. And we have a novel virus that appeared centered around a biomedical research lab doing gain of function research on closely related viruses. Simply due to the level of accusation and its implications, the claim deserved investigation from day one not out of hand dismissal. Imagine if someone is found with a gun right next to a shooting scene, and everyone around you insisted that he certainly could not be the one who did any wrong because... racism or something. And then later on, you find that that guys friends spoke privately with the police and asked them not to conduct an investigation. Shouldn't that arouse suspicion in normal people?