Lab Theory: Plausible or not?
- Pierre
- Aug 9, 2021
- 4 min read
No, this is not an endorsement of Alex Jones or any other whack conspiracy theorist. However, this is a warning. A warning to our readers. Journalists are humans too and make mistakes, they also happen to be biased and often make irrational judgments based on their emotions and their perspective of the world. And nothing proves this more than the Wuhan Lab Leak, when journalists slammed it in early 2020 as a fringe right wing populist conspiracy theory. After all, the sources for these claims were essentially listed as fraudulent and false(i.e: Alex Jones, Donald Trump, etc…Just to name a few). But in recent times, the possibility of a Lab Leak grows more and more plausible. Is the theory of a lab leak possible? And if so, why did the media slam this theory as completely absurd?
Source: Microscope World
Many have speculated that Covid-19 originated from the wet markets of Wuhan, China. After all, it would make sense that the virus could've been a disease originating from an animal (such as Swine Flu, etc...) originating from the vast array of exotic animals in the market, notably, as scientists would conclude, pangolins and/or bats. It doesn’t help that Sars-Cov, Covid-19’s younger sibling was also found to originate within bat populations in southern China. However, suspicions were raised of a possible lab leak from the very beginning. The Wuhan Institute of Virology was located just a couple of kilometres away from the wet market, and had been known to experiment with novel corona viruses in the name of gain-of-function research, a research framework which aimed at manufacturing more dangerous “versions” of pre-existing corona viruses in the goal of studying them to be able to understand how to better defend humanity from them.
Source: Wikimedia
The first to call the shots was a group named DRASTIC(Decentralized Radial Autonomous Search Team Investigating Covid-19) and their leader, “Seeker”, a man supposedly residing in East India. Through investigating and scarrowing the depths of the web, he uncovered a master’s thesis written by a Chinese Doctor which stated the finding of 6 patients infected with a “pneumonia like” disease which, oddly, had similar symptoms to Covid-19, in 2012. These 6 patients were miners from a mine in Yunnan, the same mine where researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have collected samples for research.
Source: Wikimedia
Furthermore, the strain found in the abandoned cave, BtCov/4991, was discovered to be only a fragment of SARS-Cov-2:RaTG13, a bat coronavirus genetically close to Covid-19. This discovery was made by Rossana Segreto, a research student, while using an online genetic tool called BLAST, developed by NCBI. This proves to some extent that researchers at the WIH had some knowledge on Covid-19 prior to the pandemic and had done research on it, while not complete proof of a lab leak, it does validate to some extent the theory and opens the door to the possibility of such an event.
Source: Wikimedia
Many people blame the politicization of such events, detractors willing to use the scapegoat of China to their political advantage and self-interests. It doesn’t help that these claims were made in a way which assumed immediately that to be the only hypothesis for the epidemic. As mentioned, this was used as a scapegoat to lure the citizenry into solely blaming the Chinese Government, through old McCarthyian tactics of communist scare mongering, instead of blaming the US government for its lack of action and its rather weak enforcement of covid and quarantine procedures. Many of these claims were made by Republicans, which, in order to compensate for their lack of good governance, turnt their heads towards China and started pointing fingers. Despite this only being a theory and not the full origin story, many Republicans are still savoring to this day for such theories to be proven at any costs.
Source: Washington Post
Furthermore, this wasn’t helped by the fact that President Trump, someone who is known for not always being in line with the truth claiming that he knew of the origins of the virus being synthetic, but refused to elaborate further under the guise of confidentiality. Ron DeSantis is an example of a politician who endorsed the idea of a lab leak. A staunch Republican and pro Trump supporter, the governor of California has endorsed the theory completely while completely ignoring mask mandates and, even to this day, still affirms that “parents know what’s best for their kids”. Currently, Florida leads the USA in covid cases, accounting for ¼ of all Covid cases in the nation. Politicians like DeSantis muddy the waters further by posing themselves as knowledgeable about the situation without actually taking the measures to stop such events on the basis that it wasn’t “their” fault. Thus, making them less trustworthy to the eyes of the people, the media, and even scientists(scientists such Yuri Deigin, who, in his path to debunk the lab theory, found it to be logical and rational).
Source: Wikimedia
As it stands today, we are not yet sure of which theory is most likely the correct one. What we do know however, is that these revelations have raised eyebrows, not only within national governments(Joe Biden launched an official intelligence investigation into the matter), but within international organizations as well. The WHO called for an investigation, with even the general director concluding that ruling out a lab leak as false was “premature”. This was done after a lack of data, protected by the Chinese government under the guise of “privacy”, was needed to conclude the origin of the virus.
Source: Newsweek
From these demands of investigation from different institutions and government administrations, the Chinese government held its position firmly, with the vice minister of the NCH (National Health Commission) stating that “it is impossible for us to accept such an origin-tracing plan.” and that the theory “runs counter to common sense and science.” This does raise some eyebrows on why the Chinese government is so defensive on this issue, considering that investigating all possibilities is necessary to prevent such events from reoccurring. Alas, the answer still remains blurry, and it will probably stay that way for a very long time.
Source: Lonely Planet
While we might never know the true source of Covid-19 for months or years to come, the unveiling of certain, once perceived false, claims is definitely an eye-opener and definitely not something to look over. Furthermore, as the virus continues to mutate, we must ask ourselves if biological phenomena should be left to the authority of scientists instead of politicians, who each have their own personal goals to fulfill, with the resolution of the issue itself only second to their agenda.
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