Here's an opinion piece that summarizes some of the evidence about the cover up on the possibility, perhaps probability, of a Lab leak. A number of high-ranking US scientists were discussing the lab leak theory as possible or likely and then came out strongly against the possibility in scientific journals. They also discussed destroying emails and one guy bought a burner phone.
We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives
We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story. And as for that Wuhan laboratory’s research, the details that have since emerged show that safety precautions may have been terrifyingly lax.
The same dangerous mistakes. The same lack of candor.
www.nytimes.com
My question is why would a group of scientists shut down an important scientific question. If it was a lab leak, we need to know, even if just to focus future efforts on improving lab safety.
I can see a few possibilities:
1. Avoid taking the focus off the efforts to save people with anger at China or science generally. That's probably the most generous theory.
2. Avoid exposing their role in the pandemic. Some of these scientists were responsible for funding some of the research in the labs.
3. Avoid upsetting China or the US. Maybe. That doesn't seem like a scientist call as much as their political bosses call. But Trump wasn't too shy about calling it the China virus. Maybe attributing it to China lab practices vs their penchant for shopping near live animals was a bridge too far for Trump. But why would the German and British Prime Ministers participate in the cover-up? Do they care enough about China to not want to upset them or do they care about the US.
I'm not sure what to think. It sounds like a cover-up and I don't like being duped. The effects of painting anyone who considered the lab leak theory as a kook bleed on to this day even as the evidence mounts. At the same time, many of those scientists saved a lot of lives during the Covid effort.
www.espn.com
