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Silence of the labs: How a censorship campaign failed to kill a COVID origin theory (thehill.com)

submitted 1 month ago by IndustryStandard to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This week, the Wall Street Journal released an alarming report on how the Biden administration may have suppressed dissenting views supporting the lab theory on the origin of the COVID-19 virus. Not only were the FBI and its top experts excluded from a critical briefing of President Biden, but government scientists were reportedly warned that they were “off the reservation” in supporting the lab theory.

The problem was that FBI researchers had concluded that the lab theory was the most credible explanation. But their lead researcher, Dr. Jason Bannan, was kept out of the key meeting, and their opposing research was discounted or ignored.

They were not alone. The Journal reported that Defense Department experts John Hardham, Robert Cutlip and Jean-Paul Chretien conducted a genomic analysis that found evidence of human manipulation of the virus. It also concluded that it was done using a specific technique developed by the Chinese at the Wuhan lab. They suggested that the Chinese appeared to have altered the “spike protein” that enables the virus to enter the human body in a “gain of function” operation.

They were reportedly told to stop sharing their work and warned that they had to effectively get with the team. Later, the three wrote an unclassified May 2020 paper that was prevented from being shown outside the medical intelligence center.

At the same time, letters and articles that dismissed the lab theory were organized for public consumption. The government worked with social media companies to censor those with opposing views.

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[+] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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[–] IndustryStandard -5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fauci started walking back his claims that the lab leak theory was false. Which is suspicious to say the least.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fauci started walking back his claims that the lab leak theory was false.

Did he though?

Fauci walked back calling it a conspiracy theory, not his claims that it was false. I think you know that which explains the "started", because you knew you were bullshitting.

Which is suspicious to say the least.

Is it though?

If this wasn't a conspiracy theory before, conspiracy theorists sure turned it into one.

[–] IndustryStandard -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That is a strawman and a lie.

https://youtu.be/AqYZw1TNFZ4?t=1m37s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you say so. It sounded to me like exactly what I said. The concept alone of a lab leak isn't a conspiracy theory, but it's grown from there into what is definitely a conspiracy theory. I hadn't recalled that Fauci actually stated it that clearly, so thanks for the reminder.

[–] IndustryStandard 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No Fauci clearly stated the lab leak was a conspiracy theory many times. For a more detailed explanation this video lays out the timeline.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fauci made the mistake of being nuanced with conspiracy theorists who are not interested in actually understanding anything. While it's not inherently a conspiracy theory to consider a lab link possible, it is absolutely a conspiracy theory to dismiss a scientific consensus that spans scientists from dozens of countries and across the political spectrum.

And yeah, you can find "scientists" who disagree, just like you can find scientists who think it was engineered by aliens. A handful of crackpots don't invalidate broad scientific consensus.

[–] IndustryStandard 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Fauci was never nuanced he outright dismissed it as a fake conspiracy theory. And social media censored any mention of it being lab created.

All media you have seen was about a wet market bat pangolin transmission. Anyone who said "Hey what is the Wuhan lab of Virology doing right at the origin of Covid' was dismissed as a conspiracy looney.

You are backtracking on years of government propaganda to pretend it was never their narrative.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The theory was downplayed from the start because it was unlikely, then later because evidence pointed another way. Maybe some did call or a conspiracy theory then too. In today's world it was a damn good bet that it would become one, so maybe they jumped the gun. It sure is one now.

Gosh, it's so sus that a virology lab in a location where a virus of concern is most commonly found was studying said virus. I mean what possible explanation could there be? It has to be a vast global conspiracy!

When you're down to the "wake up sheeple" arguments, it's pretty clear the discussion has run it's course.

[–] IndustryStandard 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can scream sheeple all you want but the fact is there was a clear cut easy explanation which was denied in favor of the wet market theory.

Conspiracy theories can turn out true. In this case it is clear the people you try to paint off as tinfoil hatters were right and you were wrong.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

What's not clear cut about the wet market theory? Do you know why native Americans were devastated by European diseases, while Europeans had no such problem with any native American diseases? It's because Europeans lived in crowded cities in close proximity to livestock. Almost every historical epidemic can be traced back to "wet market" theories. Viruses can swap genes and do so frequently when infections from different species come into contact - especially in crowded conditions where bodily fluids are present, like in a meat market.

If a conspiracy theory is true, it's just a conspiracy. What makes a conspiracy theory isn't the potential conspiracy, it's the insane lengths people will go to believe them. The simple explanation is the virus evolved in exactly the same ways other viruses have evolved throughout all of history.

There are far more detailed arguments that could be made but, frankly, I don't see the point. If you are interested in reality than the information is freely available. If not, then nothing I say will matter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

They were reportedly told to stop sharing their work and warned that they had to effectively get with the team. Later, the three wrote an unclassified May 2020 paper that was prevented from being shown outside the medical intelligence center.

This is under the orange bad's term. Why is it being mentioned in the middle of talking about suppression by the Biden admin? The timeline in this article is jumbled.

Some experts questioned the efficacy of surgical masks, the scientific support for the six-foot rule and the necessity of shutting down schools. The government has now admitted that many of these objections were valid and that it did not have hard science to support some of the policies. While other allies in the West did not shut down their schools, we never had any substantive debate due to the efforts of this alliance of academic, media and government figures.

I avoided covid for three and a half years by taking all of these things very seriously during the period before the vax. Even after, each time I had to fly due to illness of a family member, I wore two masks in the airport and on planes. I finally got it immediately after the first mass-event (a concert) where I didn't wear a mask. To me, that shows the efficacy of masking and distancing.

Did we need to shut down schools? I don't know. But I have zero doubt that masks and distancing were very good calls. Challenging them weakens the credibility of this article in my mind. Which sucks because I think coordinated suppression of information is bad. I hate that this article is so poorly conceived because I don't know what to take from it.

[–] rhacer -4 points 1 month ago

Anyone who paid attention to The Twitter Files instead of dismissing it as right-wing propaganda already suspected this type of behaviour.