On September 27, Australia's Science Tips website reported that the latest research by researchers in France and Laos showed that the coronavirus closest to the new coronavirus was found in a bat in Laos, with a similarity of 96.8%.
Mark Eliot, co-corresponding author of the study and head of the field of pathogen discovery at the Institut Pasteur in France, said the newly discovered virus is the coronavirus that is by far the closest to the ancestor of the new coronavirus.
That is, the RaTG13 virus previously discovered in China can no longer be considered the closest ancestor of the new coronavirus.
Brother Circle believes that this is a big step towards the truth of the origin of the epidemic, although scientific traceability is still a long way to go.
Can this major discovery put an end to the "Wuhan laboratory leak theory"? Definitely not! Because as long as there is one percent uncertainty, the players who trace the politicization will be 100 percent involved in it, trying to continuously push up the cost of China's "self-innocence". As Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hirzick put it, "the 'lab leak theory' was never empirical, just speculative" and "it was driven by ideology, not science, from the beginning."
There is no cost to American rumors and lies? Not necessarily. From the credibility of the country to the small source of personal wealth, I am afraid that it is difficult to escape the influence.
Yu Maochun and the "Chinese Biological Weapons Theory" that almost came out
The liar's dead pig is not afraid of boiling water, but it is very likely. However, whether the dead pig is afraid of being hot or not, the circle brother is going to be hot - uncovering the process of making lies.
In June, an open letter from former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Ford exposing the U.S. Department of State's Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Agency (AVC) concocted and disseminated the "laboratory leak" theory:
In early December 2020, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State di Nanno and adviser Asher in charge of AVC reported to Ford that the AVC had come up with a "scientific thesis" that the coronavirus was a biological weapons agent deliberately released by the Chinese government to deal with the world after vaccinating Chinese. Ford asked the duo to summon experts in the biological sciences and intelligence to professionally evaluate the assertion.
However, instead of conducting the expert assessment as required, Dinanno and Asher directly investigated the "biological weapons doctrine" and continued to promote the thesis to the various departments of the State Department, encouraging the State Department to issue a public statement and take diplomatic action in this regard. Later, Dinanno explained to Ford that the AVC spread the thesis at the behest of Yu Maochun of the State Council's Policy Planning Office. Yu Maochun said that this was the intention of Secretary of State Pompeo and asked him not to mention it to Ford.
On January 4-6, 2021, Ford emailed the two several times to remind the two that the allegation was alarming and that scientists must be organized to carefully evaluate it, and that documents be sent to participants before the meeting. On January 7, AVC organized an expert meeting, but did not send relevant documents to the participants in advance. However, the participating experts pointed out the key mistakes on the spot. On January 8, Ford sent an email to a number of senior State Department officials to brief them on the meeting, pointing out that there was a problem with the AVC assertion and should not become the official position of the U.S. State Department, and reminding relevant colleagues to use the thesis cautiously.
According to Ford's deduction, it is precisely for this reason that the top level of the State Council did not mention the "biological weapons theory" in the "Fact Sheet: Activities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology" published on January 15, but instead put forward the speculative claim of "laboratory accidental leakage theory".
A good one "retreats to second"!
Credible inference: America's rulers need lies more
Brother Circle remembers that Biden did not support anti-intellectualism before he entered the White House.
Now, the Biden administration's basis for so-called "traceability investigation" stems in large part from an open letter published in the journal Science by 18 scientists in May this year. The open letter calls for a new independent investigation into all possible origins of the new coronavirus, including an independent scientific assessment of the potential for laboratory leaks and mishandling by experimenters to release the virus.
Recently, the leader of the open letter, the Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a senior researcher at the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation, was interviewed by Stanford Magazine to the effect that he only called for a fair investigation of the two theories of the origin of the new crown virus, and the open letter could not be used as a basis for "laboratory leak theory".
A passage from Ryleman's interview attracted special attention from the circle brothers.
Mr. Rheelman said Democratic policymakers had previously (before entering the White House) largely avoided any lab-related theories of origin. But he found that democrats had also noticed the open letter this time and began to say, "Well, maybe there's something here." ”
On July 14, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee held a hearing on the origins of the coronavirus and how to investigate the epidemic. I was one of the witnesses. The other three witnesses spoke only about the natural origin of zoonotic diseases. In the end, about 95% of the questions were asked to me because everyone wanted to talk about the plausibility of that alternative hypothesis. Democrats are just as interested in it as Republicans. In fact, they all agree that this is an issue that must be solved. ”
Ignoring the theory of natural origins is disproportionately focused on the "laboratory leak theory." Obviously, for some American politicians, the true origin of the new crown virus is not really important. "Virus tracing" is only part of its strategy to systematically suppress China while covering up its own stain.
As Graham Perry, a British human rights lawyer and arbitration expert, put it, "Over the past four or five decades, the relative power between China and the United States has allowed the United States to constantly contain and harm China in global affairs... It's all about causing damage to China. ”
In the interview, Mr. Rheelman also said he believes the United States should first show humility and acknowledge its past laboratory accidents and dangerous scientific research in order to get China into the "investigation."
Brother Circle wants to say that this is at least too naïve. How can American politicians open their own "Pandora's Box" for scientific traceability! Compared with rumors and lies, the harm of self-exposure may be much greater.
Anti-"laboratory leak theory" scientists are in a bad position
Scientists can't stop American politicians from lying. Not only that.
While the US political circles continue to politicize the origin of the virus and vigorously exaggerate the "Wuhan laboratory leak theory", those scientists who publish scientific research results or statements and express opposition to the theory have been suppressed and attacked.
Among them, the most well-known is Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Due to its unwillingness to cooperate with the Trump administration's epidemic prevention policy and the "traceability of the virus" to China during the epidemic, the US Republican Party has a deep grudge against it and has recently continued to threaten to turn over old accounts.
On July 15, Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee collectively sent a letter to Collins and Fauci, directors of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to pressure them to provide all documents and correspondence between the NIH, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the Eco-Health Alliance, as well as documents and correspondence from the U.S. government's inspection of the Wuhan Virus Institute through the Eco-Health Alliance.
At a hearing in the U.S. Senate on July 20, Republican Senator Rand Paul once again lashed out at Fauci, accusing Fauci of "lying" to Congress about the NIH-funded "functional enhancement" experiment at the Wuhan Virus Institute, saying that Fauci "tried to cover up responsibility for causing 4 million people around the world to die from the pandemic" and threatening to hold him criminally responsible.
Recently, a group of House Republicans called on U.S. House Speaker Pelosi to instruct the Judiciary Committee to summon a number of public health officials, including Fauci, to obtain "answers" to the origin of the new crown virus.
In addition to Fauci, many outspoken scientists have been suppressed and attacked:
Christian G. Hans Christian Andersen, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Scripps Institute in the United States, was forced to withdraw from Twitter in June this year because of the insistence that the new crown virus has no trace of human modification and suffered online violence, and "changed his mouth" to say that he recognized the "laboratory leak theory".
Susan Weiss, who works for the Center for The Study of Coronavirus and Emerging Pathogens at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said in an article last February that there is no reliable evidence to support that the new coronavirus originated in the laboratory, and it is more likely that it is transmitted to humans through intermediate hosts from bats in nature. Weiss was subsequently harassed by phone calls and private messages.
Brother Circle feels that this reality in the United States is sad but not strange.
The American writer Isaac Asimov once said: "In the United States, there has always been a cult of ignorance. Anti-intellectualism is a thread that has long entrenched our political and cultural lives, and behind it is the misconception that democracy means 'my ignorance is as good as your intellect'. ”
In such an United States, politicians' suppression, smear, and politicization of the origin of the virus have made the American people, who are already keen to challenge their intellect, increasingly distrusted in science.
Text/Sound of rain
Manga/Chisato
Editor-in-charge/ Lin Feng, Yamaba
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Source: Broken Circle