Conspiracy or Possibility?

A friend in the states told me about this article in the Washington Post that had been doing the rounds yesterday regarding the origins of the corona virus.

Now I don’t really do conspiracy theories to be honest but the article is plausible and believable and I can understand why Trump is banging on about it and many Americans are believing it. The article is well worth a read and highlights some interesting flags that were raised by the State Department back in 2018 onwards regarding the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.

“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” states the Jan. 19, 2018, cable, which was drafted by two officials from the embassy’s environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists.

This lab had been doing work on the corona virus and the link with bats finding that bats were the direct link with the original corona virus back in 2003. Findings included

“Most importantly,” the cable states, “the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified for SARS-coronavirus.

It has been noted that there is no evidence that the current virus killing so many people around the world is man made in any shape or form and the article is clear about that. What the US State Department raised was their concern that there was a public health risk from the research being undertaken by the lab. Where Trump has been talking about this, and which has angered many, is the fact that

the Chinese government’s original story — that the virus emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan — is shaky. Research by Chinese experts published in The Lancet in January showed the first known patient, identified on Dec. 1, had no connection to the market, nor did more than one-third of the cases in the first large cluster. Also, the market didn’t sell bats.

The Chinese Government has put a total lock down on the lab and any information about it, scientists in China must now get Government approval to print any reports or results from now on. The Chinese Government are also yet to provide the samples of the original patient infected by corona virus and the Doctor who tried to warn the world appears to have dropped off the face of the planet. The Washington Post are not saying this is a conspiracy theory but that questions need to be asked.

We know that since Trump started to spout his logic Chinese food and businesses in America have seen a downturn in business and even worse racist attacks. Now personally I am not one for conspiracy at all but this one will grow and grow. Trump will milk this for everything he can to stoke up fear of China and will China sit back and take it? Probably not. However, the story is worth a read and you can make up your own mind

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