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From a Lab or a Wet Market?
Sen. Tom Cotton has been beating the drum for months, stating that much information is known that suggests COVID-19 was leaked from a Chinese lab. Media outlets, such as CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times have attacked him for claiming that the Chinese were working on a bioweapon. He didn’t. Here are parts of what he actually said in an interview with Martha McCallum on “The Story”:
He also brought up the ‘questions’ surrounding the biosafety level 4 ‘super laboratory’ in Wuhan, the city where the virus is believed to have originated.
‘We know it didn’t originate in the Wuhan food market based on the study of Chinese scientists … I’m not saying where it started, I don’t know. We don’t know because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won’t open up to international experts,’ Cotton said. ‘That’s what we need to do so they can get to the bottom of where the virus originated and hopefully can effect a diagnostic test and vaccine for it.’
One biology professor also disagreed with Sen. Cotton:
Cotton also pushed back against critics, specifically Rutgers University chemical biology professor Richard Ebright, who said he found no indication in the genome sequence of the virus to indicate it was engineered.
‘Let’s take the professor,’ Cotton said. ‘He was …in fact today cited in the Asia Times saying that it was quite possible that it was a laboratory incident.’
I’m sick and tired of the political left not only defaming people they don’t like, but discrediting and misrepresenting their statements and intentions. Literally, when lives all over the world are being threatened by COVID-19, it is immoral and an act against humanity when people attack those who are fighting for the truth.
Sen. Cotton also had an impressive op-ed piece in the WSJ on the Chinese deceptions:
Beijing has claimed that the virus originated in a Wuhan ‘wet market,’ where wild animals were sold. But evidence to counter this theory emerged in January. Chinese researchers reported in the Lancet Jan. 24 that the first known cases had no contact with the market, and Chinese state media acknowledged the finding. There’s no evidence the market sold bats or pangolins, the animals from which the virus is thought to have jumped to humans. And the bat species that carries it isn’t found within 100 miles of Wuhan.
Finally, observe how balanced yet forceful Sen. Cotton has been in pressing this issue. He doesn’t claim to have the truth, but he believes no one has that. He doesn’t use hyperbole or attack individuals. His tone is firm and intense. He suggests many different ways the virus may have leaked but doesn’t profess to know the truth. He is calling for an investigation that many powerful people with their many agendas including industry, Congress, and other organizations intertwined with and benefiting from a relationship with China may prefer to ignore.
Of course, the Chinese continue to deny outsiders access to their facilities and to their data. They also deny several other facts about their role in this pandemic.
We must discover the Chinese role for a number of reasons. We already know they have lied to us in the past, but this time they put millions of lives at risk. The Chinese claim that they have detained “only” 1 million Uighurs in “education” camps but the estimate is likely closer to 3 million. That’s Three. Million. People. So the welfare of humanity is clearly not a priority to them.
We know that they are working to become the most powerful country in the world; they have said this publicly. We must have access to valid information.
We must stop doing deals with the Chinese.
We must do it for ourselves and for the world.
Published in Foreign Policy
Exactly. The headlines make you think Fauci hates Trump, but when you listen to what he actually says, he’s backing Trump up.
The MSM is pitiful . . .
We (the United States) led the way to drawing the CCP out of their box, it is time to stuff them back in for a time out. A decade or three to think about their bad behavior and convince the world they should be allowed to come out and play again. Xi has that righteous confidence that he has owned the soft, decadent United States. Remember the Japanese attitudes toward America leading up to Pearl Harbor. We are a most misunderestimated people.
Xi expects he has made us fearful with his threats, and that we will choose his proxies in the coming elections to free ourselves from our terrible, terrible fear. Xi is in for a very rough ride.
I sure would like to see him pay. Too bad they can’t vote him out. But I think that the truth may get through to his people, and they will not be happy about his lies.
He was facing a revolt when he did this. The citizens of Beijing were chanting “free speech” from their windows in response to the Hong Kong suppression. He is a cornered rat trying to mask his panic as strength. Give him a pass now and he will do even worse. Bloody the bully now and the mask of strength is shattered.
The CCP knows that American corporate media, academia, big tech, and politicians can be easily bought off. The CCP also knows that Leftists can easily be manipulated by saying “racist”. They know, because they have been doing it for years.
Strong evidence relates to the ChiComs asserting it was a US bioweapon:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/asia/coronavirus-china-conspiracy-theory.html
Seems consistent with the ChiComs thinking some evidence would contradict the theory that it was of natural origin and spread via the wet market.
Seems to be an official act as we have not seen those who advocated it put to death.
I don’t think it matters exactly where in China the virus came from. What matters is that they bungled containment, covered it up, and allowed the virus to spread all over the world out of sheer incompetence, duplicity, and neglect.
We engaged with them in trade hoping that it would liberalize them, but they have taken our money and used it for evil. I agree that we need to decouple from China.
By way of reparations we should nationalize all Chinese holdings in the US. I realize that might need a constitutional amendment to implement, but so be it.
Way out of my depth here, but I think this can be resolved by continued analysis of the virus. It does not have to remain in the realm of the theoretical.
I’m not sure that is true, @hoyacon. We will learn a lot of things about the virus over time as we study it, but we will never be able to go back to its original manifestation. I’ve heard that this information is important regarding a better understanding of it. Maybe someone, like @rodin or other “experts” on Ricochet (Jerry Giordano, where are you?) can share whether or not that would be valuable information. You pointed to a good question!
I think it has something to do with the “genome sequence” mentioned above, and the ability to tell from that whether it was manufactured. But I’m way in the realm of conjecture here and would be fine with correction.
This is a precisely logical, incisive article on a current controversial topic that is worthy of the high standards of Ricochet. Bravo you.
Perhaps I have underestimated the feminine mind when it comes to philosophical/analytical matters where men have traditionally predominated. Might have been just the glass ceiling, after all.
= = = = = = = =
Re second paragraph: Just teasing.
Thanks, @markcamp. I think.
You actually nailed me in many ways. I don’t often appreciate highly analytical and deeply philosophical ideas, all of which can be complex. I often don’t have the patience to get through many of them because it’s hard work, and especially when I’m not familiar with the jargon (of the math and the analytical), I’m not willing to put in the work. But for areas I love, I love to dive deep.
In this OP, maybe my writing was a fluke!
The wet market or lab argument shines a brighter light on the depths they will go to, in order to protect themselves. I do see your point, but to me its origins make a big difference: if it wasn’t the wet markets, as disgusting as they are, the vendors will suffer mightily if they are shut down as a result of a lie. If it was the labs, we have solid evidence of the carelessness and lack of security, and how those literally threaten the world’s safety. Just sayin’
Not your first fluke, though. I think you may be an outlier, Susan. That you don’t fit any known pattern.
I will keep trying to force you into some known pattern, and if I fail I will let you know, and will name the new genus Susanalia.
I cannot tell you how I would love to considered an outlier! It sounds so eccentric, so unique. You’ve made my day, Mark. Thanks.
It is being an outlier, eccentric, and unique that has made your day, Susan. I had nothing to do with it. I just calls ’em as I sees ’em.
It doesn’t have to be a manufactured virus to have originated in the Wuhan labs. My understanding is that they study viruses there – this could be a rare natural virus they were studying that got loose. They could have been studying the origin, concentrations, or mutations of this virus and somebody got lazy.
[Fully agreed, Susan — Kol HaKavod for posting. In the same vein, here’s what I posted on my LinkedIn profile about 48 hours ago…]
Note what’s said here about the reaction of the CCP regime to the virus, not just in Wuhan but across the PRC.
When I myself saw — from my beloved Tokyo abode in February — the extreme countermeasures the regime was taking, deliberately trashing a large percentage of their GDP, I realized that they *knew* that they were dealing with a virus that they themselves had intended for eventual deployment somewhere.
It just so happened that someone goofed — someone in one of the two Wuhan labs that had frenetically amassed/catalogued/analyzed well over 2,000 net-new bat coronavirus strains during the past several years (over a starting baseline of 2,000) — and, after heading home from work with traces of a virus on her, transmitted it to her boyfriend who himself then went to the wet market.
The point is, this pathogen — however naturally occurring, however free of human engineering — had been *sought*, it had been *selected* from among others also sought and collected, and it was subjected to *further* investigation.
And this added analysis was for purposes of later, plausible-deniability *use* of the pathogen (in Xinjiang?).
That’s why I fled Japan with a heavy heart in February — but didn’t find refuge for long.
[This is the article my post was referencing — yeah, I know it’s NRO, but it’s a compelling piece of writing all the same…]
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-kills-more-americans-in-one-month-than-the-flu-kills-in-one-year/
[Incidentally, my apologies but my iPhone isn’t playing nice with Ricochet’s link copy/paste/insert feature tonight for whatever reason…]
[As a last remark: Yes, I’ve said this previously here on Ricochet, but I’m going to take the liberty of reiterating my view that, even at such a relatively late point in the course of this crisis, the CCP regime cannot bring itself, in PR messaging terms, to conduct a “Modified Limited Hangout.” It’s not a trivial thing that the regime is unable to do this. It gives the game away that the bat coronavirus research underway at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and at the China CDC Wuhan branch lab was not being done strictly with a mandate to advance the frontiers of understanding of bat coronaviruses. If this crisis were simply all about overeager disease-fighting do-gooders with tragic gaps in their applied understanding of biohazard handling protocols — the Modified Limited Hangout that I speak of — then before now, this far into an ordeal of such magnitude, the CCP would have gone that explanatory route already, “face” issues notwithstanding. Indeed, the CCP would never have gone down the mid-March path at all of easily disproven, inflammatory, desperation-reeking insinuations that the US Army had brought the virus into China as a deliberate bioweapon release.]
It does matter, though, that we come to as much of a consensus as possible that it did come from Wuhan and it was spread by actions (or inactions) by China. If the last three months have shown anything, it’s that certain people and organizations in the U.S. are willing to bend over backwards to give China and its leadership the benefit of the doubt, while reflexively distrusting any statements made by U.S. officials. So far that has not gotten to the point of parroting the Chinese claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon of the U.S. military that was imported into China, but there’s no assurance that’s not something that might be brought into the conversation down the line, especially as we get closer to Election Day.
Pinning China down as the guilty party, and getting not just U.S. officials but those in Europe, Asia and elsewhere to join in on the condemnation, is important, since Xi and his people would like nothing more than to muddy the waters on the virus’ origin.
He may be right. Biden may win, and the Democrats may take the Senate.
The problem is they would reciprocate.
But you know what? Let ’em. If we’re going to bring factory jobs back and build new facilities here (or build factories in friendly countries) those factories would become empty and China would seize them anyway.
First, Toda Raba, @dannyalexander, for your kind words. Second, I’ve been following your “journey” of location and knowledge, and it is mind-boggling and frightening. I hadn’t heard a description of the transfer of the virus from the lab to the market. That is even more frightening. Somehow there must be a penalty so painful that China knows the horror of what they have done. I don’t expect them to feel any guilt but the response should be deeply painful. Thank you for your information. I hope things are working out in Boston. PM me if you wish.
Yes! We have to do all we can to nail this down! Thanks, @jon1979.
Hillsdale is offering an online symposium on the Coronavirus and Public Policy, featuring Senator Cotton as the first speaker. His topic is China and the Coronavirus. Sign up at the link.
We got that notice. Sounds like good presenters, including Tom Cotton. Thanks, @westernchauvinist.
Wow. This is exactly what I want to learn more about, especially Tom Cotton’s take on the issue. I haven’t done any Hillsdale courses before—anything I need to know before starting the signup process?
It’s a very user-friendly process. The link answers it all. It should be great, @theotherdiane.
OK, I’ve just signed up to receive an email when the course becomes available. I still have questions I hope you can answer! Do they limit the size of classes so I should watch closely for the followup email when the course opens? Is there enough discussion within their classes that having a Ricochet thread concurrent with the class would be redundant?
Since it’s online, it’s no limit. I doubt they’ll provide interaction between viewers and presenters; we’ll be in a watching mode. They may in fact post a video of it, so timing won’t matter. You could start a thread from something you heard on it, though. Most of their classes I’ve watched are videos, so there’s no interaction. They’ll let you know how to participate.