MintPress’s Alan Macleod traces the newfound love for the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis among previously war-skeptical thinkers who understood Russiagate, showing how extremely thin “evidence” along with an about-face among the dutiful media to shift the primary enemy focus to China rather than Russia have fooled otherwise careful thinkers. [https://www.mintpressnews.com/why-liberals-suddenly-love-lab-leak-theory/277882/]
In May 2021, two articles served to bring the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis from the domain of Steve Bannon to a more general audience. One was the Nicholas Wade article carried by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists), and the other was a {Wall Street Journal article reporting that several Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) workers had flu-like symptoms for which they sought treatment in November 2019. The Wade article is full of holes, and the WSJ article is based entirely on the worst kind of source: the anonymous intelligence community.
Nicholas Wade is known for his 2014 book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, in which he divides humanity into three broad groups: Africans, Caucasians, and East Asians. He argues that “the rise of the West” was possible due to genes. He spoke of the evolution of the physique of Eskimos to match their cold environment and of Tibetans’ ability to live at high altitudes, observing their genetic character. He also wrote that “The adaptation of Jews to capitalism is another such evolutionary process.”
His article pointed to the WIV’s proximity to the first known area of outbreak. But Wuhan’s population of 11 million exceeds that of New York City. It is a major trade and transportation hub. And it is because similar outbreaks have occurred in the general region that the WIV was built in Wuhan. Although Wuhan is not near the Yunnan caves of bat coronavirus fame, neither is Guangdong, site of the 2000 outbreak of SARS.
The part of Wade’s article that uses the most scientific language is the furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2. But he is incorrect that furin cleavage sites are particularly unique to SARS-CoV-2. They exist also in MERS-CoV and several endemic human betacoronaviruses. [https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/]
