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‘Said Metzl, “Had US government officials including Dr. Fauci stated from day one that a COVID-19 research-related origin was a very real possibility, and made

‘Said Metzl, “Had US government officials including Dr. Fauci stated from day one that a COVID-19 research-related origin was a very real possibility, and made clear that we had little idea what viruses were being held at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, what work was being done there, and who was doing that work, our national and global conversations would have been dramatically different. The time has come for a full accounting.”’ Seems doubtful that Daszak (and possibly Fauci) had little idea what was going on in that lab..

ajkjk 3y ago
Why?
- tim333 3y ago
  Re Daszak knowing what was going on, he was a main funder of the lab and a drinking buddy with Shi the head researcher there. He also wrote a proposal on inserting a cleavage site into a coronavirus in pretty much the way you would have to to make covid (defuse grant proposal which was leaked, not revealed voluntarily). Asked what was going on at WIV he's said stuff more like sorry I can't say as we have a confidentiality agreement rather than no idea.
- mandmandam 3y ago
  It would take a long-form article to clearly enumerate all of the reasons with citations, but long story short, the pair of them were caught lying over and over again the past few years. For example, Daszak's paper in the Lancet claiming the virus was almost certainly of natural origin was used as the basis for justifying the censorship of tens or hundreds of millions of posts. He failed to declare his conflict of interest, as did something like 25 out of the 26 other authors. This was a broad failure among academia and news, as his reasoning in the paper was specious. Fauci was caught telling fibs about his beliefs on natural origin as well, with a private position that it was quite likely. He also lied about funds sent to Wuhan, and the type of research they were doing.
scoofy 3y ago
Also... I mean, unless I've created a false memory, I specifically remember that the discussion at the time was about a the virus literally being a bio-weapon, and not actually the entirely plausible, accidental escape of a virus. I've always had a completely open mind about it, even if experts have repeatedly suggested that it's plausible, but unlikely. Those prattling on about how "people called us crazy" that it was a WIV lab leak seem to completely misremember what was actually being discussed in April-May of 2020, and also seem to be trying to score political points in American politics, when it seems very obvious that the CCP should take the lion's share of any blame regarding any lack of transparency.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- treis 3y ago
  The most popular human origin theory was a lab leak. It was easier to argue against the crazies claiming a bioweapon so that's what most did and that's what got the most press. But the primary human origin story was an accidental release.
  - qclibre23 3y ago
    Accidental release and bioweapons research are not incompatible.
    - btilly 3y ago
      Bioweapons research and got infected in a lab that was at BSL 2 ARE incompatible. If you expect it to be able to infect humans, you are going to take more precautions. The theory here is that they were doing research on animal models and didn't think that humans could catch it from mice. Therefore they took too few precautions, and it escaped through them.
- wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
  No you misremember. Here I was ridiculed. Specifically remember a columnist at Parool, a Dutch local newspaper, talking about it how he was pressured by colleagues days after just mentioning a column it might be from the Lab. There was a consensus in the West it didn't came from the Lab, and those who suggested otherwise were non-scientific lunatics.
startupsfail 3y ago
Trump was trying to play that “blame China” card. And was disclosing classified reports left and right. Fauci was not exactly on Trump’s side. And not playing the blame game was a good option back then. But, it’s not a good idea to reward Wuhan’s Institute type of research. And there should be some accountability in the end.
christkv 3y ago
In Daszak own words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AksKoMZon6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AksKoMZon6Y. At around 1h15m he answers a question about how they were doing gain of function research on SARS and SARS related virus with his colleagues in China (WIV). This guy then lead the sham "WHO" inspection of WIV. And Fauci funded him to work around the Obama prohibition on gain of function research.

ajkjk 3y ago

Why?

tim333 3y ago
Re Daszak knowing what was going on, he was a main funder of the lab and a drinking buddy with Shi the head researcher there. He also wrote a proposal on inserting a cleavage site into a coronavirus in pretty much the way you would have to to make covid (defuse grant proposal which was leaked, not revealed voluntarily). Asked what was going on at WIV he's said stuff more like sorry I can't say as we have a confidentiality agreement rather than no idea.
mandmandam 3y ago
It would take a long-form article to clearly enumerate all of the reasons with citations, but long story short, the pair of them were caught lying over and over again the past few years. For example, Daszak's paper in the Lancet claiming the virus was almost certainly of natural origin was used as the basis for justifying the censorship of tens or hundreds of millions of posts. He failed to declare his conflict of interest, as did something like 25 out of the 26 other authors. This was a broad failure among academia and news, as his reasoning in the paper was specious. Fauci was caught telling fibs about his beliefs on natural origin as well, with a private position that it was quite likely. He also lied about funds sent to Wuhan, and the type of research they were doing.

scoofy 3y ago

Also... I mean, unless I've created a false memory, I specifically remember that the discussion at the time was about a the virus literally being a bio-weapon, and not actually the entirely plausible, accidental escape of a virus. I've always had a completely open mind about it, even if experts have repeatedly suggested that it's plausible, but unlikely. Those prattling on about how "people called us crazy" that it was a WIV lab leak seem to completely misremember what was actually being discussed in April-May of 2020, and also seem to be trying to score political points in American politics, when it seems very obvious that the CCP should take the lion's share of any blame regarding any lack of transparency.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
treis 3y ago
The most popular human origin theory was a lab leak. It was easier to argue against the crazies claiming a bioweapon so that's what most did and that's what got the most press. But the primary human origin story was an accidental release.
- qclibre23 3y ago
  Accidental release and bioweapons research are not incompatible.
  - btilly 3y ago
    Bioweapons research and got infected in a lab that was at BSL 2 ARE incompatible. If you expect it to be able to infect humans, you are going to take more precautions. The theory here is that they were doing research on animal models and didn't think that humans could catch it from mice. Therefore they took too few precautions, and it escaped through them.
wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
No you misremember. Here I was ridiculed. Specifically remember a columnist at Parool, a Dutch local newspaper, talking about it how he was pressured by colleagues days after just mentioning a column it might be from the Lab. There was a consensus in the West it didn't came from the Lab, and those who suggested otherwise were non-scientific lunatics.

startupsfail 3y ago

Trump was trying to play that “blame China” card. And was disclosing classified reports left and right. Fauci was not exactly on Trump’s side. And not playing the blame game was a good option back then. But, it’s not a good idea to reward Wuhan’s Institute type of research. And there should be some accountability in the end.

christkv 3y ago

In Daszak own words https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AksKoMZon6Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AksKoMZon6Y. At around 1h15m he answers a question about how they were doing gain of function research on SARS and SARS related virus with his colleagues in China (WIV). This guy then lead the sham "WHO" inspection of WIV. And Fauci funded him to work around the Obama prohibition on gain of function research.