First, it was supposedly a conspiracy theory.
Then, it was banned.
Finally, it was true.
The so-called “lab leak” theory of the origins of COVID-19 — the theory that COVID-19 originated in at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and then was unintentionally loosed — was always the most probable explanation for the outbreak of the deadly virus. After all, as Jon Stewart correctly joked in 2021, “‘Oh, my God, there’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China. What do we do?’ ‘Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab.’ The disease is the same name as the lab. That’s just a little too weird, don’t you think?”
But for well over a year, it was considered verboten to mention the lab leak theory. When Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posited the possibility of a lab leak in February 2020, he was roundly mocked by the media. The New York Times headlined, “Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins.” Scientific American headlined — in March 2022! — “The Lab-Leak Hypothesis Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth.” Facebook actively quashed attempts to disseminate the theory; Dr. Anthony Fauci went on national television and downplayed the theory.
Why?
Two reasons are obvious. The first: powerful institutions had a stake in downplaying the Chinese origins of the virus in order to shift blame to the rest of the world. Certainly, that was China’s game: In all likelihood, COVID-19 was spreading in China as early as October 2019, and the government covered it up for months. But that was also the game of the World Health Organization. Members of the American government like Fauci also had a stake in smothering questions about American funding for gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
Then there’s the second reason: all the wrong people were repeating the lab leak theory. As one of MSNBC’s resident hacks, Mehdi Hasan, admitted on Twitter, “The simple reason why so many people weren’t keen to discuss the ‘lab leak’ theory is because it was originally conflated by the right with ‘Chinese bio weapon’ conspiracies and continues to be conflated by the right with anti-Fauci conspiracies. Blame the conspiracy theorists.” As Nate Silver correctly noted, “The Bad People thought the lab leak might be true, therefore as journalists we couldn’t be expected to actually evaluate the evidence for it.”
Herein lies a lesson: A huge number of people have decided that there are a cadre of people who are so vile that any opinion they touch is immediately toxified beyond investigation. Claims are not to be evaluated on their own merits; instead, we can simply determine whether a claim ought to be supported based on those who posit it. This helps to explain why political crossover has become nearly impossible: We’re not judging the claims of our opponents; we’re judging each other. And this means that we can discard any argument simply by dint of the fact that we don’t like the person offering it.
Among members of the general population, this is a problem, but not a fundamental one. But among those who pose as “experts” — the people who are supposed to serve as guides for people who outsource their political information, from media to scientific institutions — it’s a fatal error. After all, experts are supposed to be impartial adjudicators of the evidence. That’s their entire job. We can evaluate on our own who we don’t like — but we often need help to determine whether an argument has merit or not. When experts become “just like us,” they undermine their raison d’etre.
And that’s precisely what happened with COVID-19. Whether it was ignoring the actual evidence regarding masks and mask mandates, the evidence regarding post-vaccination transmissibility or the evidence regarding the lab leak theory, experts decided that the wrong people had to be ignored. But they were wrong. And now they have no credibility left.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.
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Another reason for the downplay was the emphasis on treatment, not the cause. Big Pharma went warp speed on the money to be made. Pharma needed emergency authorization, with no lawsuit repercussions. Emergency use by definition meant no other treatment could be available and certainly not any off-label drugs that are available.
I’ve been writing a gardening blog for 5 years, with no ads and no links from social media. So, it’s not widely known, although I do have readers from around the world, and most from the U.S. In March of 2020, I published an article about starting vegetable seeds at home in order to decrease our exposure to the virus. It included a paragraph that theorized a possible Chinese lab leak as the origin of the pandemic, worded as gingerly as possible in order to avoid suspicion or animus.
Well, that article immediately received scores of views from China, when there was barely any activity from that country in the previous 2 years! I let the article stay posted, with occasional updates in the death tolls. After continued spikes of interest from China, I decided to remove the article from public view.
No matter how inconsequential you think your activities are, there are people watching. I wouldn’t trust China to do anything that doesn’t further their cause to dominate.
The balloon? Watching!
American farmland? Buying and spying!
Intellectual property? Stealing and using it against us!
Tik Tok? Never!
South American roads and ports? Building and taking over!
CCP law enforcement in American cities? How dare they?!
Fentanyl? Annually killing 100,000 Americans “in their prime”!
With China looming over our shoulder, we need a much stronger and wiser administration to protect our sovereignty. Unfortunately, we’ll never have that security with democrats in office.
Been planned since post 9/11 to date
Oh my gosh, my whole thoughts written so cogently. The sad part is… Covid is only one head of the snake that “blind hatred” has unleashed on our country. Because bad people attempt to exploit good people all the time… and when the “experts” give them cover they succeed.
Many of the far left zealots mistakenly want to be friends with the Communist Chinese, no matter how horribly the evil leaders of PRC behave. The Marxist Democrats would rather create dysfunction and division in our own country, to protect their unethical political power, than be honest and admit that the Chinese leaders are only out for themselves. Americans should accept the fact that China will do anything and everything to make PRC number one in the world, militarily and economically. It also doesn’t help that many American politicians have significant monetary investments in Communist China. The American public needs to wake up and appreciate the fact that China is our foe, not our ally.. One can’t make friends with a poisonous rattlesnake.
Good article but really it is only the summary of what we knew from the get go We also know that no one will be charged with crime Not China.WHO all the “experts” or Big pharma Sad fact is that an unimaginable amount of money has been made Probably not as good as war but close enough Nothing like human misery to make a buck
And Trump was right all along when he stated that Co-Vid probably escaped from a Wuhan Lab!
I had ments to a coworker,this was made in the lab in wuhan. He was dubious, and asked how I knew. I simply said, the main stream media and government official claimed that as disinformation. When they circle the wagons, they’re hiding the truth.
I AM SCIENCE. images.wsj.net/im-166455?width=620&size=1.5
Tribunals…then executions! This crime and its implementation dwarfs the Holocaust in its scope and costs. Defund and disband WHO and UN…
Unfortunately this is not news to a lot of us. I’m sure many of us believe that it was intentionally released!
Thanks to Dr. Fauci, Dr. Collins, the AMA, and several universities I no longer believe doctors will tell me the truth. The lying and corruption in Washington is just as bad as in a third world banana republic. It finally dawned on me who is the Deep State. The Deep State is composed of high level government bureaucrats in agencies that are seeking monies for their agencies. These high level government bureaucrats aligned themselves with the Democratic Party who always focuses on deficit spending thereby providing more funds to governmental agencies. I appreciate the Trump factor which openly identified those Representatives and Senators who were evil and corrupt. My eyes are now open and I am so dissatisfied with our leaders.
Nope. It was obviously intentional IMO. All the perps were ready to take advantage of it, and I very much doubt a single one of the insiders took the deadly “vaccines”. I believe the release command came from top Democrats–those who benefitted most. It seems obvious to me.
Mr. Shapiro is playing footsie with the real issue. Would be tyrants forever utilize war, pestilence, and hunger as their effective tools to instill fear in their targeted subjects. They have the first two energized and are quickly bringing the third to bear down upon us. We will make good headway in this battle when we correctly identify the heads of the snake including the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, World Economic Council, Bilderbergers, Bohemian Grove, etc. Most Americans have probably not even heard of them or know how they fit into the problem.
Pitting two different groups of Americans against each other only detracts us from going for the jugular.
Excellent article.
The CDC continues to lie about China Virus. Their recent report lies saying that the unvaccinated had highest death rates which we ALL know is a lie. In August and September 2022, CDC reported the Highest death rates came from Fully Vaccinated and NOT one single unvaccinated person died from China Virus during that time when the hospitals were all full from fully vaccinated.
Thereby, NATURAL IMMUNITY.
Natural immunity started 22 weeks after first case of China Virus.
To this day, natural immunity has surpassed any of those fully vaccinated.
Then amazingly, the NYT’s admits there is natural immunity. Even after if you got China Virus you were already immune to other variants of China Virus. DUH!
Remember how DICTATOR Beijing biden called us all murderers a few months ago by not getting vaccinated even if you are immune?
So, ALL the lies that continue to come from the White House, CDC and WHO (Wuhan Health Organization) that only is the Fascist liberals narrative and NOT the
TRUTH.
Including lying saying that the China Virus didn’t come from Wuhan, China which EVERYBODY knows it did.
So, the cover up by DICTATOR Beijing biden and his Fascist organizations continues since he bows down to Communist China.
Why else would DICTATOR Beijing biden want to sign an agreement with WHO (Wuhan Health Organization) to give them total CONTROL over our medical care.
So they can continue the LIE.
Anyone who was paying attention knew more than three years ago that Covid came from the Wuhan lab, was almost certainly released intentionally, and that “the authorities” have been doing nothing but lie to us since January 2020 – and they are still lying.
China has long ago become the most dangerous Nation since Nazi Germany. China does however keep the Ruskies dimly focused on doing their dirt to the rest of the world.