Another shoe has dropped in the on-going drama of the origins of COVID-19. For the last 18 months, Anthony Fauci has loudly and emphatically denied that the NIH ever funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He went so far as to describe those saying it did as liars. He even called out Senator Rand Paul for lying about the matter.
Except, oops, it all turned out to be true. In response to insistent, repeated demands from Congress, the NIH sent a letter admitting that the NIH had, in fact, given a grant to EcoHealth Alliance to fund research at Wuhan for gain-of-function research. The NIH was quick to point out that Fauci had been completely honest with Congress because, gee, he didn’t know what the researchers were doing. Sadly for Fauci, the principals are saying that, actually, they sent a full report about what was going on two years ago. The NIH also says that this research is unrelated to COVID-19 and that they know this because the genomes of the viruses involved were completely different. Independent experts agree.
So the origin of COVID-19 is still unknown but what is no longer in doubt is that almost everyone involved has been lying and is involved in a wide ranging cover-up. According to Vanity Fair, Gilles Demaneuf, a data scientist with the independent group DRASTIC that is investigating the origins of COVID-19, put it this way, “I cannot be sure that [COVID-19 originated from] a research-related accident or infection from a sampling trip. But I am 100% sure there was a massive cover-up.”
I’ve said before and it’s still true that I don’t have enough domain knowledge to make an informed judgment on the scientific evidence for the lab accident versus the zoonotic explanation for COVID-19. I do, however, have a modicum of common sense so I can recognize special pleading masquerading as science.
If the case for zoonotic origins is as strong as the partisans are insisting, why are they resisting investigating the matter? Why are they are loudly exclaiming that any alternative explanation is a conspiracy theory? Or—the sure sign that they have something to hide—why are they claiming that investigating the cause of COVID-19 is racist? Anyone with a modicum of scientific training, skepticism, or common sense knows instinctively that someone is trying to pull a fast one.