4 ms·

I think it would be fairly hard to erase the story entirely. Presumably there would be printed copies of The NY Times floating around still and it would be arch

I think it would be fairly hard to erase the story entirely. Presumably there would be printed copies of The NY Times floating around still and it would be archived somewhere online officially and unofficially. Links on social media that would now be broken. It would also be difficult to silence all of the NY Reporters and staff who would still be aware and remember the story. Not just the management who could conceivably be in on such a cover up, but the rank and file (Once enough people know about something the odds of keeping it quiet becomes exponentially harder). It is of course also possible it did and does exist in some form but has been suppressed to become less discoverable. But to what end? The questions are did the US and other countries know or suspect it was likely a lab leak. And if they intentionally chose to suppress that information, why? The most likely reason for suppressing the information at the time, would be one of two reasons: 1. It is unhelpful to blame another country and call them out for lying when we all need to work together to solve this pandemic. China had the most experience and knowledge of COVID-19 in those first months. 2. The US, through collaborative involvement, would have also been culpable. I think number one is most likely.

Fricken 2y ago
At that time I was just clicking around in the various virology lab public facing web pages, glancing over their various research projects, the funding sources, the names of the scientists involved, it was all there, super transparent and open. I was just following my curiosity at that point, I was not suspicious or skeptical. So I'm Canadian, and I recall reading something about Canadian and Chinese scientists moving back and forth between the Wuhan and Winnipeg labs. It was all very open and collaborative. Of course, some time later sensational and scandalous headlines blew up about Chinese spies all up in our high security bio-labs. So I would say that if it is a lab leak, then China is culpable, the US is culpable, and they're culpable because they trusted the good judgement of the international science community that decides how labs such as the one in Wuhan are run. All parties have incentives to manage the narrative.

Fricken 2y ago

At that time I was just clicking around in the various virology lab public facing web pages, glancing over their various research projects, the funding sources, the names of the scientists involved, it was all there, super transparent and open. I was just following my curiosity at that point, I was not suspicious or skeptical. So I'm Canadian, and I recall reading something about Canadian and Chinese scientists moving back and forth between the Wuhan and Winnipeg labs. It was all very open and collaborative. Of course, some time later sensational and scandalous headlines blew up about Chinese spies all up in our high security bio-labs. So I would say that if it is a lab leak, then China is culpable, the US is culpable, and they're culpable because they trusted the good judgement of the international science community that decides how labs such as the one in Wuhan are run. All parties have incentives to manage the narrative.