[Vox] [wuhan] many believe conspiracy theory about a lab

But ultimately, it's based on old data, data in which the US intel agencies have already gone through and provided their assessments that I have summarized (the declassified summary is here). I see the article as more of a storytelling piece that lays out "evidences" without telling us (it wouldn't be telling a good story otherwise) what the confidence level is for those pieces of evidence. So what's the confidence level? We can infer from the IC assessment - probably low (lab incident) to non-existence (bioweapon or engineered virus).

What is this old data? Basically, data that was already publicly known at a high level. See the link below with a few examples. These were released on 1/15/21 by the State Dept, five days before the eventual transfer of presidential power, so you might want to be a bit wary of these "facts." Nevertheless, this old data later became part of the overall US government assessments. Many of these "facts" never came to fruition, such as the first and most powerful claim below, which references the three scientists becoming sick with coronavirus symptoms before the first identified case of the outbreak. That was never established and verified.

So, while I enjoy a good piece even if it focuses solely on one perspective, ultimately I don't see anythign new here.


https://2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-activity-at-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology/index.html

Illnesses inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV):

• The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses. This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was “zero infection” among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.

Research at the WIV:

• Starting in at least 2016 – and with no indication of a stop prior to the COVID-19 outbreak – WIV researchers conducted experiments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar). The WIV became a focal point for international coronavirus research after the 2003 SARS outbreak and has since studied animals including mice, bats, and pangolins.

Secret military activity at the WIV:

• Secrecy and non-disclosure are standard practice for Beijing. For many years the United States has publicly raised concerns about China’s past biological weapons work, which Beijing has neither documented nor demonstrably eliminated, despite its clear obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.

​

 

"namely, the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was created by humans in a laboratory"

A reminder of the US IC assessment (summary):

• The US intel agencies are divided on whether the virus spread naturally or accidentally leaked from a lab, but both possibilities are deem plausible.
  
• The US intel agencies have ruled out the possibility that the virus was developed as a biological weapon.
• The US intel agencies have ruled out the possibility that the virus was genetically engineered.

Some people still often confuse a lab accident (the "lab leak" that is deem plausible) with the virus being created by human (ruled out as a possibility by the US IC).

 

Did the virus come from a bat in a wet market? Because that's the government/media/intel agency story that we were told to believe, otherwise we were branded crazy conspiracy theorists. Stop trying to move the goalposts with the misdirection on whether it was a bioweapon or genetically engineered. We were lied to for years and people lost their jobs and business, children lost years of quality education, and family members couldn't be with their dying relatives. And all of this kicked off trillions in money printing which has created a step change higher in the cost of almost everything -- hugely negatively impacting the quality of life of the poor. The impact was devastating. And the government lied and lied and lied.

 

DNI declassified this doc saying the same thing.
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/docu...logy-and-the-Origins-of-COVID-19-20230623.pdf

All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection.

• The National Intelligence Council and four other IC agencies assess that the initial human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was caused by natural exposure to an infected animal that carried SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, a virus that probably would be more than 99 percent similar to SARSCoV-2.
• The Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assess that a laboratory-associated incident was the most likely cause of the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2, although for different reasons.
• The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting.
• Almost all IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered. Most agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not laboratory-adapted; some are unable to make a determination. All IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon.