That aspect of it... being openly acknowledged now at the end of a long delay... is all theater.
It looks like Biden first tried to cover it up... and in result trapped himself into exposing it more...
The fact of it was plainly obvious back in February, long before the CCP figured out what was going on in Wuhan (as the lab and local officials tried to cover it up) and long before the CCP began working on crafting a narrative to support their cover-ups.
Its is obvious that, yes, the virus came from the Wuhan lab... and was engineered with "gain of function" research, as the pairings of sequences that it has are not credibly enabled in any other way... and include the routine "fingerprints" of genetic manipulation. There is ample evidence both that the virus was engineered... and, separately, that it could not credibly have had natural origins. It is both "not natural" and "artificial". But, that has all been known to a certainty... since February. From then... just follow the spin machine and see how it operates ?
It's also pretty clear that the evidence in hand prior to February shows its origin in transmission came from the lab... while the "counters" to that depend on the lab NOT failing in sustaining sufficient standards to prevent it, when it is very clear the lab routinely failed to maintain proper standards. That's obvious even in the CCP's own touting of the lab and its functions... prior to the virus escaping. It's known collectors visiting bat caves did not use proper protocols, were not properly protected, a known that some researchers were bitten by animals, etc., a known that research protocols were violated, and that workers with access to dangerous materials did not have required skills or training... with animal control being only one obvious hole in the protective function of following proper protocols.
There is more, from there, that is more speculative, but for which there is evidence: the link to the wet market probably tied to a trade in live animals being used in research at the lab... with the potential that trade flowed both ways... with research animals not being disposed of properly, but being subject to re-cycling back to the wet market for a bit of pocket money. The lab's own animal handlers probably the early conduit, as exposed to both research animals, the market, and those researchers who would have been first to become infected... in November... for which there is also clear and credible evidence.
But, again, all long known...
What it suggests, and my opinion, again, since February 2020, and not new... is that the virus did come from, was engineered and escaped from, the Wuhan lab. My opinion is that it was probably not a deliberate release, but an accidental release... first infecting lab workers, and spread by them to the population.
The problem, from there, has nothing to do with the origins... but is all and only about the nature of the decisions made in addressing it... after it was known that the virus had escaped...
And, those decisions... nothing at all to do with the origins... have everything to do with what China decided to do to use the virus as a weapon... only after it was made known what the impact of the virus having escaped the lab would be... on China ?
There are other useful questions that need to be asked... such as, what functions did gain of function research seek to subject to "gain"... and why ? And, there, it becomes important to ask questions about Fauci's role in funding work in Wuhan... in violation of U.S. law... his lying about it... and the nature of the linkages between U.S. and Canadian labs and Wuhan. As also, the role the WHO (and CDC, etc.) played in advancing policy that China preferred, deliberately enabling rather than preventing the spread of the problem... and why official health policy deliberately suppressed the advancement of treatments known to work to prevent the virus spreading, or limiting the mortality rates.
It is a known that, faced with the problem of the virus (it having escaped from the lab) China made the decision not to respond by being open about it... or seeking help in preventing its spread... but, faced with the consequences at home, instead made the decision to use the virus as a weapon... to enable its spread outside of China (including by influencing global health policy choices to enable the spread)... in order to prevent China being uniquely disadvantaged by it.
That decision, being both obvious, in hind-sight, and known, now... is China's real problem... with the ongoing effort to cover up the virus origins... now only amplifying the future impacts of China's other bad choices...
China's choice to weaponize the virus, and how it did so... not the focus of the public debate, now... as the prior effort made in fostering the suppression of the virus origin story has only now begun to unwind. But, that ongoing effort in suppression and denial only reinforces the understanding that world leaders have, and bring to the table, now, when considering how best to address that problem with policy change... to contain that risk in the future.
China's leaders made bad choices... exposing everyone to greater risk... and making many of China's former friends into enemies. When China decided to cross lines from "competition" to bio-warfare... it tipped the scales in many other things, too... where "tipping points" were already topical.
The WHO says "172,242,495 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3,709,397 deaths"... others say the
COVID-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally... roughly 10% of the deaths caused by WWII. and the WHO warns that the pandemic is "far from over"... as new variants continue to emerge... some of which may escape vaccine coverage. "It could have been far worse" is obviously true... but "far worse" was avoided only at enormous cost... that being the point of China's choices... intending to impose that cost on others.
China's own effort to "sustain advantage" at others cost... will do more to destroy China's "advantage" than any enemy ever could. But, it is not just China (or the CCP) that is indicted in result... but the entire system of "globalization" that enabled this event. The "wisdom" of those enabling such policies now thoroughly discredited... most of the world now left aghast they have been empowered in enabling any of this... only now... as the risks come into sharper focus only when realized. I've warned, for years, that systems based on mercantilism are "fragile"... inevitably doomed to fail. What we're seeing, now, is only an early first proof of that... in an instance, of an accident enabled by incompetence ... along with a snapshot in that first microsecond of time... when the vase first begins to hit the floor... even while many still think it might simply bounce.
No difference between capitalists, communists and kings... other than who gets to be king... leaves only one viable option to choose instead of them: The only system NOT based in the amoral materialism of capitalists and communists (and most kings)... is free markets... where the moral principles of freedom outweigh the materialistic values of amoral actors. |
