The mandate of the subcommittee was to investigate the origins of COVID-19, gain-of-function research, coronavirus-related government spending, and mask and vaccine mandates. Its report was released on Dec. 2, 2024: AFTER ACTION REVIEW OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward.
The most significant finding concerns the origin of SARS-CoV-2.
FINDING: SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident.
Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis. Since the Select Subcommittee commenced its work in February 2023, more and more senior intelligence officials, politicians, science editors, and scientists increasingly have endorsed the hypothesis that COVID-191 emerged as the result of a laboratory or research related accident.
... As Mr. Ratcliffe testified, the ledger on the side of lab leak is full of convincing evidence while the spillover side is nearly empty. Since January 2020, the body of evidence has only grown stronger in support of a lab leak theory.
This conclusion conflicts with the scientific consensus, which concludes that the virus originiated in the Wuhan market from infected animals. The most remarkable thing about the subcommittee's report is that it completely distorts (i.e. lies about) the science behind the investigation into the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The committee members have the right to form their own incorrect opinion but they do not have the right to lie about the science.
The Democrats on the subcommittee have released their own minority report: Partisan Probes Over Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness. Here's their conclusion on the origin of SARS-CoV-2.
That's better but it's still too wishy-washy. I don't know what's wrong with politicians in the United States but I hope Americans fix the problem as soon as possible. I think this is related to the view of many Americans (mostly Republicans) that the "elitest" views of college-educated experts living on the coasts must be wrong.
- The Emergence and Evolution of SARS-CoV-2
- The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence
- What we can and cannot learn from SARS-CoV-2 and animals in metagenomic samples from the Huanan market
- The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review
- A Critical Analysis of the Evidence for the SARS-CoV-2 Origin Hypotheses
- The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Lab Leak Mania
- Jerry Coyne changes his mind about the lab leak conspiracy theory and now rejects it
- David Gorski (Orac) dismantles Alina Chan's lab leak conspiracy theory
- Fauci claims (incorrectly) that the lab leak conspiracy theory is not a conspiracy theory
- The case for a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2
- Most scientists dismiss the lab leak conspiracy theory
- Real scientists discuss the lab leak conspiracy theory
"... and mask and vaccine mandates."
ReplyDeleteLarry, assuming a mandate is an official order or commission to do something,
I can imagine that 'mask mandates' exists, but is there any country in the world that had 'vaccine mandates' ? In our country vaccination is and has always been voluntary.
@gert korthof Many countries had some vaccine mandates. The most common were to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all health care workers. Some countries, including Canada mandated vaccinations for all federal employees. You also couldn't cross the border into Canada or the United States unless you were vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteSome international sports mandated vaccination (tennis?). We couldn't go into our local skating arena without showing proof of vaccination.
This is a disappointing development, to say the least. If this had happened in a nation where science literacy is at rock bottom, I would have understood. But USA, one of the most scientifically advanced nations in the world and a factory of Nobel winners in Science year after year, seriously?
ReplyDeleteMany scientists, including subject matter experts do believe that the virus leaked from the lab. It is ignorant or dishonest to malign this idea as 'a conspiracy theory'. The grain of truth in your characterization is that there was indeed a conspiracy to suppress this idea including from NIH officials and virologists with a direct interest in its suppression for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with common sense. The evidence of a conspiracy to suppress is abundant in the released communications of these NIH officials and virologists. Re the actual verifiable facts, they have been repeated ad nauseam, but to briefly recap them: Before the pandemic, scientists at Wuhan were producing per their publications or proposing to produce per their grant proposals new viruses with the exact characteristics of sars-cov-2 including by inserting a human codon-optimized furin cleavage site that does not exist in any other of the >1000 known sars-related coronaviruses into the exact position at which this site exists in sars-cov-2; that finding viral lineages in sampling done in january 2020 at the wuhan live animal market obviously cannot lead us to conclude that a virus which started spreading in humans likely in september-october 2019 originated in the market; that the work done at wiv was performed at inadequate bsl-2 biosafety conditions; and that the virus arose in the city containing the lab that solely among all labs in the whole world was producing or proposing to produce these exact type of virus, and far away from known animal reservoirs of said viruses.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous Let's see if I understand your argument. You say that the scientists at WIV intended to create "new viruses with the exact characteristics of sars-cov-2 including by inserting a human codon-optimized furin cleavage site that does not exist in any other of the >1000 known sars-related coronaviruses into the exact position at which this site exists in sars-cov-2."
ReplyDeleteYou have no evidence that this is true (creating viruses with the exact characteristics of SARS-CoV-2) and the scientists at WIV (and elsewhere) deny that it was ever their goal to create live viruses that could infect humans. You have no evidence that such viruses were ever created or even that an attempt was made. There are no credible scientists who claim the the furin cleavage site was designed; indeed, it's actually not very good and, furthermore, very similar sites have been found in the wild.
Thus, in order to maintain any kind of credibility you have to come up with a massive conspiracy theory involving all of the workers at WIV and many from outside the lab. It's the only way you could possibly account for the fact that these workers vehemently deny your accusations.
Yet you say that I am being ignorant or dishonest to label your accusations as a conspiracy theory.
Please explain.