I do not for a second believe that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioweapon but that’s an idea I do not believe will be allowed to die. This morning I saw this study from Australia being cited as proof positive that it was, indeed, engineered in a Chinese lab.
I found the cited study interesting and informative and even suggestive but I still don’t think it proves the virus was intended as a weapon.
However, consider this. If the Chinese authorities had intended to conduct a probing attack, they could hardly have done better than SARS-CoV-2. We have revealed all of our weaknesses and weakened ourselves tremendously in the process.
Based on models so how could it possibly be correct? Snark aside, I think this pandemic has the real potential to make everyone in the world, including the US, more hostile towards China. If they intended to sabotage their own economy, it would be hard to find a better way. (I say potential and wont commit to it being definite as I think a lot of the wealthy in this country will still prioritize profits and their own wealth. Barring some government action a lot just arent leaving China.)
Steve
As an open society and with a dominant media presence worldwide, US weaknesses are an open book.
What surprises is how US strengths are so easily lost in the information overload. And who does perceive that in the data.
I wouldn’t be more hostile towards China—we should just be pragmatic about China. As long as the CCP remains in charge, the risks of China’s being a major trading partner with the U. S. are simply intolerably high. That is nothing that hasn’t been obvious for decades. It’s just that the risks are much more obvious now.
Much was made of a recent study that found that, if the U. S. had just locked down a few weeks earlier, tens of thousands of lives would have been saved. If we had not granted China MFN or allowed it to be admitted to the WTO, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved.
IMO the Wuhan lab was messing around with the virus to see what made it tick and to figure out what to do if it mutated in the wild into a monster. They made a monster and thanks to their sloppy protocols it got loose. Then the typical CYA of a tyrannical regime kicked in and rather than say ‘oops’ they tried to bury it, then when it was beyond burying they decided belatedly to make use of it. The fact they locked down internally but allowed people to travel internationally to me is an indication of attempted weaponization. Of course I could be very wrong but I don’t have a problem admitting error.
I don’t think there is any credible evidence this was a bioweapon. The experts in bioweapons technology have looked at it and the DNA doesn’t carry the hallmarks of genetic engineering.
The possibility that it escaped from a Wuhan lab is very real, however. That explanation cannot be ruled out by the evidence, but there doesn’t appear to be much if any direct evidence that would confirm that theory. And since the Chinese government is not cooperating and is inherently duplicitous, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know how, exactly, the virus initially spread and where it came from.
“If we had not granted China MFN or allowed it to be admitted to the WTO, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved.”
Since it was probably mostly spread by US tourists (Europeans too) visiting China I think the virus would have spread anyway. As noted epidemiologist David Henderson noted, travel restrictions dont work anyway. What might be true is that we wouldnt have so much of our manufacturing based in China. That manufacturing would probably be in Mexico, Vietnam, India or wherever, but maybe easier fo bus to work with than China.
Steve