New WHO chief scientist backs China fact-finding mission to examine COVID origin
New WHO chief scientist backs China fact-finding mission to examine COVID origin
Infectious diseases expert Jeremy Farrar has himself been at the center of the debate over the mysterious origins of COVID, which first broke out in China in late 2019.
Ignore the experts who were saying for years that viral spillover was inevitable if we continue deforestation. It must be the scheming orientals.
33No one disputes that this could be a transcendence issue, but China's continuous blocking any efforts that are not controlled by them makes any investigation suspect. The Chinese should have already hosted an investigation. This will have been presented to the initial who investigation. Any further investigations will have zero credibility.
9
I am in favor of a joint multilateral investigation into Ft Dietrick
27What ever happened to the mysterious Vaping disease in USA in 2019? Its like covid happened and then vape disease disappeared. Funny how people were dying of vape disease and Unknown respiratory disease was destroying Eldercare facilities in USA way before Covid was ever discovered in China but nobody is looking into those deaths or their origins.
21Unknown respiratory disease was destroying Eldercare facilities in USA way before Covid was ever discovered in China but nobody is looking into those deaths or their origins.
Of course they investigated it and the article you posted confirms that.
And this one does too: https://apnews.com/a7320c946aba47f494dc9a2f649bfad3
The Fairfax County Health Department put out a release on saying that they are investigating, one day before your article was posted.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/outbreak-investigation-assisted-living-facility-springfield
Update: July 29, 2019
No new cases of illness have occurred in Heatherwood since July 15, 2019. Results of earlier testing submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated rhinovirus, a virus that causes the common cold. The facility continues normal operations.
And about EVALI ("vaping disease")
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease/faq/index.html The CDC stopped reporting cases because there weren't many, but some states continued and EVALI can be troublesome since the symptoms are similar to COVID. It's suspected that EVALI is/was caused by vitamin E acetate, but there isn't enough evidence to know for sure.
https://www.rsna.org/news/2022/march/EVALI-Diagnosis
Also the COVID-19 outbreak was WAY bigger in scale so of course it's more interesting.
TL:DR: Both outbreaks were investigated.
6https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/outbreak-investigation-assisted-living-facility-springfield
Despite extensive testing of multiple specimens, no specific pathogen was identified as the cause of the outbreak
So it could have been covid or a precursor.
https://www.rsna.org/news/2022/march/EVALI-Diagnosis
"both EVALI and COVID-19 can manifest with similar clinical and imaging findings"
They literally just got a bunch of people who got sick asked if they vaped and decided it was vaping that got them sick after ruling out a few other possibilities. A percentage of the tiny sample showed no vitamin e acetate so that can't be the cause.
Vape usage hasn't slowed down yet all but EVALI disappeared? That's like if everyone kept using asbestos but asbestosis just disappeared. Occam's razor says EVALI was Covid before they knew what covid was.
7
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Whether it naturally sprang from animals at a Chinese wet market or was a deliberately engineered virus that leaked from a lab remains to this day a question shrouded in mystery, providing fertile ground for conspiracy theories.
In a surprise move, the new chief scientist at the World Health Organization backed a fact-finding mission to China despite his own doubts that COVID-19 escaped from an institute for virology in Wuhan.
In the FT interview, Farrar said he would be in favor of a fresh investigation into the origin of a microscopic virus that wreaked untold economic damage, brought the health system to the brink of collapse, and cost millions of lives around the world.
The WHO previously dispatched a team to investigate the origins, but the results published in early 2021 were tainted in the eyes of many as Beijing insisted in a joint effort that undermined confidence.
The study only served to confirm criticisms repeatedly leveled at the United Nations public health body and its top official, Tedros Ghebreyesus, that it bent over backwards to accommodate the Chinese regime.
In testimony presented before Congress last month, the lead author on a controversial “proximal origin” study rejected allegations from Republican lawmakers that he was unduly influenced by either Fauci or Farrar, then still the director of Wellcome Trust.
The original article contains 582 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
12I still don't get how the wet market theory is less racist than the escaped from a lab theory.
9Because one can be pinned down to government involvement, while the other can't.
It's the classic CCP defense: "We're not an authoritarian country, you're just racist!".
EDIT: not saying that it was or wasn't a lab leak, but as soon as the government shoots down the possibility with "you're racist", I immediately get suspicious. The same way that I get suspicious when Israel shoots down criticism with "you're just anti-Semitic". It's basically gaslighting with identity politics.
14It was never the theory that was racist, it was the amount of evidence behind it.
If "there's a virology lab there" was all the evidence you needed to assert it was a lab leak, chances are it's because you're racist. That's why early on, this theory was most popular with far-right reactionaries.
Meanwhile, what's been the origin story of every similar virus? Animal trade. That's why early on, this theory was most popular with actual scientists who were actually qualified to have an opinion.
9
Here's an article from the AP on how the WHO team had full access to everything they wanted to see during their visit to Wuhan.
You'll notice that link goes through the Wayback Machine, because the article now just says page unavailable.
Which is weird, because the search result clearly shows the text is still there.
Would "impartial" Western media really do that? Half-assedly delete the inconvenient truths that they themselves reported?
10The link you've provided seems to be broken
1
The headline would be unsurprising even if it ended at the word China.
2What
20Can somebody ban these tankies they're getting annoying
12The source of COVID is likely China’s $60 billion dollar+ fur industry, and that is the reason they don’t want anyone looking. I’d bet if they did analysis, ancestors of COVID are found in the bats in Suning County, which is fairly close to Wuhan and one of the largest fur markets on the planet. The raccoon dogs that were sold at the market in Wuhan were likely animals with poor fur coats (because they were sick) and sent to butcher rather than being skinned for their fur. China’s fur industry requires vast tracts of land clearance since one of the primary furs, which is mink are obligate carnivores, so they need a supply of meat. The land clearance forces the horseshoe bats to roost in the barns with the animals that include minks and raccoon dogs. It explains every aspect of that the lab leak theory fails to address, with the two lineages, the genetic clock starting in October, and even why it spilled over to people in the time period that it did
3The headline says "fact-finding mission to China" though.
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