The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace COVID-19's origins, despite publicly declaring support for an open scientific inquiry, an AP investigation finds.
The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.
The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.
The investigation drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing.
Well those pushing that theory weren’t basing it off of true suspicion and thorough research that ended when this possible nexus was closed off and from that they deduced that the likely vector of the virus was behind authoritarian informational blockades.
They said, “well china! They probably did it on purpose!” That was the extent of it. And anyone that searched “wuhan infectious disease lab” found one…and that was it. A conspiracy theory is born. You throw enough stones, ones liable to hit something.
I mean it was a biolab studying coronaviruses RIGHT NEXT to ground zero for a coronavirus. Sure some conspiracy nuts took it further, but come on, thats like being found holding a bloody knife right next to a crime scene where someone was stabbed
BEIJING (AP) — The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.
The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found.
The investigation drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing.
But perhaps local officials simply feared for their jobs, with memories of firings after the 2003 SARS outbreak still vivid, said Ray Yip, the founding head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outpost in China.
In early February 2020, some of the West’s leading scientists, headed by Dr. Jeremy Farrar, then at Britain’s Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, banded together to assess the origins of the virus in calls, a Slack channel and emails.
Liang is an epidemiologist close to top Chinese officials and China’s Foreign Ministry who is widely seen as pushing the party line, not science-backed policies, according to nine people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified to speak on a sensitive subject.
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What chem trails and Trump and it was a weapon intentionally used? I don't think so.
They know the origin, they likely weren't doing things properly and would rather not admit fault. That's not really what conspiracy theorists were saying.