You could replace WHO with a whole host of organizations.
UN, UNESCO … anything really.
The WHO has zero credibility, and it’s a shame more countries didn’t join Trump in walking away. I still remember that cringeworthy interview where someone pretended to have connection issues rather than answer a question about Taiwan.
Beijing in July rejected a WHO proposal for a renewed investigation into Covid’s origins, backed by the Biden administration, that would include lab audits
Lacking definitive answers, U.S. officials have suggested Mr. Biden may use the new intelligence report to frame new questions for Beijing. Many U.S. lawmakers also are pressing the issue and are calling for a 9-11 style commission.
But a senior Biden administration official acknowledged: “We don’t have a silver bullet to get China to open up.”
Strategically…maybe not having a clear answer right now is the best way forward at the moment - stretch out the process, exploit it as leverage against Beijing for their refusal to open up to comprehensive investigations with access to full records. Announce an even bigger 9-11 style commission into the Covid-19 origins.
Beijing doesn’t want anyone investigating the origins? Then investigate even harder.
Inconclusive Report
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/24/covid-origins-biden-intelligence-review/
The Wall Street Journal - August 24, 2021
The usual, China demanding people stop investigation into Wuhan Lab Leak while refusing to give up any data/info.
“A Guilty government says what?”
Well, that was all a bit of a Britney’s chuff, then, wasn’t it. I suppose it would have been very hard to prove conclusively that there was a lab leak, but you’d think at least some circumstantial evidence would point one way or the other. Has anyone seen this “summary report”? The article doesn’t provide a link.
China silencing any mention of the lab reminds me of the Grunka Lunkas at the Slurm Factory.
Can’t find the actual report, but based on its news, it does signal a few things:
Per Congressman Gallagher’s words, "What we cannot do is throw up our hands and shrug at more than 600,000 dead Americans, particularly since the IC probe confirms one thing: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States.”
Posting here as it could be linked to the Wuhan Lab – if China facilitated (not exactly modified, but fostered an environment in such a way that it achieves some result without leaving breadcrumbs for scientists to point to obvious manipulation) the virus might target certain genes/ethnicities more than others. Linking here in case more details come out later.
One UK doctor who promoted BGI’s test in an online video when it first became available said he would now advise women not to take the BGI test, due to privacy concerns.
"My personal view now would be to advise anybody not to use the BGI NIFTY test - not from a clinical point of view - but because the data from it might be misappropriated or used for reasons that neither the clinician nor the patient would ever have imagined," said Bryan Beattie, a fetal medicine consultant.
Reuters contacted Beattie and two other UK doctors who also promoted the test on BGI’s YouTube channels in 2014 for their reactions. The doctors said they were unaware of BGI’s military links. BGI said the doctors were not paid to participate and it had told them the videos were for educational and marketing purposes.
The NIFTY test captures more genetic information about the mother and the fetus than the results patients see, said Beattie, which has previously been reported by Reuters and BGI has confirmed.
“If you were able to link that to large numbers of patients in a foreign country, you would have a fairly good idea of their health profile over the next sort of 20 or 30 years,” said Beattie.
Intentional. Like I’ve been sayin’, its China’s retaliation for the Trade War.
If you haven’t seen this, it’ll tickle your fancy.
Maybe the Chinese were right? The U.S. is to blame…
The fact that the world is gearing up to counter China and deter potential massive scale military conflict, right after a deadly pandemic engulfs the whole world killing nearly 5 million people, gives a pretty good clue that the virus came from China and was probably intentionally released or intentionally allowed to spread.
I think the accidental release and pandemic is connected with China’s secrecy and uncooperative attitude , but not deliberate.
I was thinking more along the lines of…
Peter Daszak/Fauci handed them the hose.
If it was accidental it could have happened at any moment. Instead it happened at the height of Trade War tensions after a 1.5 year continuous escalation, and on the heels of the months long Hong Kong protests. Then look at China’s behavior - completely flipped their dialogue from soft to super aggressive.
Take note how China prepared to control the virus narrative as early as summer of 2019. The CCP had very little Twitter presence, suddenly hundreds of diplomats created new accounts in August, September, October, November 2019. This has been well documented. China then used these accounts to sew doubt and confusion about the virus.
I think it was deliberate. And I think it’s disgraceful how China has got away with it. But, I suppose while it’s just suspicion, countries can’t do much.
If the US gets proof, I wonder if Biden will actually retaliate. My guess is not. He won’t even retaliate against hackers …
Why would they infect their own country first ?
That simply doesn’t make any sense. The facts point to reckless research programs and an accidental release and then cover up.
Besides this is not the first lab escape , there have been a few verified SARS lab escapes previously (one in Taiwan also ). Those strains weren’t as infectious. This one was probably modified (either passively or actively ) to be adapted to human ACE2 receptor.
I also find it unlikely that the release was on purpose, considering the unpredictability of the spread, the impact on the economy, etc. Even with proper preparations in place, this seems to be a bit too hot to handle.
Maybe this is something worth watching, maybe not. The source has been around for a while and I guess is not some kind of propaganda popup, but not sure.
I saw that story on Facebook (of all places) last night, from the Science page where one of the studies is being published. I only looked into it briefly, but personally I don’t think the findings are all that meaningful, or consistent with the headline used in the article you posted.
At least some of the samples reportedly came from Oudomxay province in northern Laos – not too far at all from the mines in Mojiang in Yunnan province where SARS-CoV-2 or its precursor was supposedly isolated. There’s maybe 200–300 km between the two places.
As with southern Yunnan, that whole area of northern Laos is pretty mountainous and undeveloped (although China has been doing its bit in the last decade to deforest every hillside in return for infrastructural investment – I visited there in 2012 and 2015, and the difference was quite shocking). It’s not hard to believe that the two areas might have similar bat populations and similar bat microbiomes.
Moreover, the reported homology of ca. 95–96% really isn’t that high, i.e., it sounds higher than it really is when written into a news article for clicks. I don’t find it surprising for samples of the same genus and subgenus of coronaviruses, living on the same mammal, in essentially the same geographical area, to share >90% homology. You’d probably find similar levels of homology for whatever other arbitrary microorganism you wanted to sample, like E. coli in the human gut or Salmonella species on poultry farms.
I don’t see how it affects the lab leak hypothesis, anyway. My understanding of that is that the virus was isolated from some mine in Mojiang, taken back to Wuhan, probably worked on/“improved” a bit, then accidentally released to put us where we are now. Finding high levels of homology between SARS-CoV-2 and other bat coronaviruses from nearby isn’t very surprising at all. It definitely doesn’t “suggest the coronavirus did not originate in China”.
I’m curious what the authors of that article are actually suggesting as the origin though – that Laotian villagers contracted the virus in caves in Oudomxay/northern Laos, where it takes forever to get from one place to another by bus or boat, then it somehow got passed along silently until it emerged just outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology…? 
