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I can think of a few reasons why it was important to tackle misinformation around the lab leak hypothesis: * Racism. In the wake of COVID, xenophobic attacks i
by n4r9 2y ago
I can think of a few reasons why it was important to tackle misinformation around the lab leak hypothesis:
* Racism. In the wake of COVID, xenophobic attacks increased against Asian people - particularly the Chinese - in many countries including the US. The idea that the virus may have been created by people from China would only exacerbate this.
* Phobia of science. If virology labs are seen as a threat to society, they may well get less research funding and less entry to market. We see this in the EU where people are terrified of GMOs for largely misconceived reasons.
* General information quality and politicisation. The lab leak hypothesis is one of a great number of dubious conjectures and conspiracy theories that have their claws in political debate in the US. Other examples include climate denial, vaccines causing autism, the birther and truther conspiracies etc... . The collective consequence of this is a lot of wasted money, air time, and energy debunking increasingly bizarre and contrived claims, and a lot of political advantages gained by unscrupulous figures taking advantage of public gullibility.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- red_admiral 2y ago> Racism I haven't 100% fact-checked this, but I believe in late 2019 when the first claims started floating around that some new kind of SARS had started going around in China, a lot of people went around saying that's definitely not true and the only reason someone could be claiming this is to stir up racism against Asians.
- orwin 2y agoNo, people said it would not go outside of China, then that it wasn't _that_ dangerous, then when it decimated Bergame they said that it wouldn't stay for spring, then confinement, then mask are useless, then masks are ultra usefull. I also remember that getting vaccinated would kill me in less than 3 years, so far so good, only a few month to go.
- AnAaaaardvark 2y agoI agree, "racism" is often used as a scapegoat for the sake of diverting attention from certain details for the sake of reputation laundering. These organizations will stoop to any low because they could face jail time.
- tim333 2y agoI never quite got how it was racist to say it was a mistake at a cutting edge lab in China doing research that went wrong but not racist to say it happened in one of those filthy illegal Chinese wild animal markets.
- n4r9 2y agoIt's a good question. I think the fact that it's a state-funded institute lends credence to the idea that Chinese are collectively responsible. Also, it feeds into paranoias around secretive biological warfare and Chinese desire for world domination.