The New York Times: We were deceived about the Wuhan lab leak theory
Who is this “we” who were deceived?
And who was doing the deceiving?
Here’s the article, which doesn’t exactly answer those questions but seems to be saying that the “we” who were deceived included the well-meaning media and everyone else except a few science-hating right wingers, and that those doing the deceiving were some scientists:
Take the case of EcoHealth, that nonprofit organization that many of the scientists leaped to defend. When Wuhan experienced an outbreak of a novel coronavirus related to ones found in bats and researchers soon noticed the pathogen had the same rare genetic feature that the EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan researchers had proposed inserting into bat coronaviruses, you would think EcoHealth would sound the alarm far and wide. It did not. Were it not for public records requests, leaks and subpoenas, the world might never have learned about the troubling similarities between what could easily have been going on inside the lab and what was spreading through the city.
a March 2020 paper in the journal Nature Medicine, which was written by five prominent scientists and declared that no “laboratory-based scenario” for the pandemic virus was plausible. But we later learned through congressional subpoenas of their Slack conversations that while the scientists publicly said the scenario was implausible, privately many of its authors considered the scenario to be not just plausible but likely. One of the authors of that paper, the evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen, wrote in the Slack messages, “The lab escape version of this is so friggin’ likely to have happened because they were already doing this type of work and the molecular data is fully consistent with that scenario.”
Spooked, the authors reached out for advice to Jeremy Farrar, now the chief scientist at the World Health Organization. In his book, Farrar reveals he acquired a burner phone and arranged meetings for them with high-ranking officials, including Francis Collins, then the director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Documents obtained through public records requests by the nonprofit U.S. Right to Know show that the scientists ultimately decided to move ahead with a paper on the topic.
Operating behind the scenes, Farrar reviewed their draft and suggested to the authors that they rule out the lab leak even more directly. They complied.
The author of the Times article, Zeynep Tufekci, seems to have been motivated to write it in order to warn that scientists are engaged in something similar to what started it all in Wuhan, and under conditions of insufficient safety precautions as well:
Researchers, many of whom work or have worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (yes, the same institution), describe taking samples of viruses found in bats (yes, the same animal) and experimenting to see if they could infect human cells and pose a pandemic risk.
Here’s another statement in the piece:
And as for that Wuhan laboratory’s research, the details that have since emerged show that safety precautions might have been terrifyingly lax.
I became curious to see what I had written early on about the lab leak theory, and I found this from April 15, 2020. That was actually extremely early, and here’s a quote from Jonathan Turley in that post of mine :
The Washington Post reported that embassy officials in January 2018 alerted U.S. officials of serious problems in the lab which was conducting risky research on bats, the very source of COVID-19.
So, what is this bit about how “the details that have since emerged show that safety precautions might have been terrifyingly lax”? That already was known two years prior to COVID, and known by the WaPo by April of 2020. And yet the lab leak theory continued to be written about as though it was the province of far-right lunatics who hated science and scientists and Chinese people. I don’t think the MSM was duped; I think it was cooperative.
I’m not the least bit anti-science, but as early as April 2020 I knew that the lab leak theory was highly plausible, and so did many people such as Jonathan Turley. I’m now going to reproduce that post I wrote in April of 2020 in its entirety; everything from here on is from that post. It shows how easy it was to not be deceived, even way back then. So journalists have no excuse:
You may have noticed that I haven’t written much if at all about COVID-19’s origins, despite having written a ton about the disease. Was it from a wet market? Was it from a lab? My opinion was that it was 50/50 and that we just didn’t know, so I didn’t want to waste much verbiage on it.
But now I’m leaning towards the lab theory.
Here’s Jonathan Turley on the subject:
When the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China, many people immediately raised the concern that it might have been the result of a lab release from a controversial Chinese the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab was working on coronavirus and had raised concerns over its containment protocols. Then there was the fact that China hid the outbreak, arrested top doctors, and buried research on its origins. However, a narrative quickly emerged in countering President Donald Trump’s references to the “China virus.” People, including members of Congress, who referred to the lab were ridiculed on CNN and other outlets as conspiracy theorists like Politifact declared the theory to be utterly baseless. For some of us, the overwhelming media narrative seemed odd and artificial. It would seem obvious that a lab working on viruses in this area would be an obvious possible source. Now, after weeks of chastising those who mentioned the lab theory, another cache of documents and information shows that there are ample reasons to be suspicious and that concerns were raised two years ago within the State Department.
The Washington Post reported that embassy officials in January 2018 alerted U.S. officials of serious problems in the lab which was conducting risky research on bats, the very source of COVIT-19. The United Kingdom has issued a statement that they are seriously considering the lab as a possible source.
Apparently the lab was already flagged as being lax about safety, raising obvious concerns. And if you think about it, China has been lax about safety regarding its manufacture of drugs, as the recurrent recalls of blood pressure medications for contaminants indicate. Please note that in that article, datelined September 2019, it quotes Trump as “calling on US industries to manufacture here at home, instead of outsourcing to China.”
Prescient, that.
More from Turley:
The point is not that this proves that the virus originated in the lab. Rather, my interest is the overwhelming media narrative that emerged to deny that this was a credible potential source. That narrative emerged around the time that the media was hammering Trump for his use of “China virus” and “Wuhan virus.” That criticism was enhanced by the argument that the virus developed naturally. That could still be the case but it never seemed rational to me to discount the lab theory.
What is most amazing is that, if the Chinese allowed this virus to escape and then arrested doctors raising the alarm over the spread, it would be one of the greatest stories of our lifetime: a world pandemic caused by human error. Millions have been infected and thousands have died. If the cause was negligence by a totalitarian nation (that ignored warnings and punished doctors), this would be a story of the century. Suddenly magazines care saying that they are now thinking about the “unthinkable.” Yet, it was never truly unthinkable was it?
It was only “unthinkable” when it served their purposes to brand it that, as part of their “Trump and the right are racist xenophobes and crazy people” narrative. The evidence must be getting very strong for them to begin to abandon that stance now.
I agree with Turley that “it would be one of the greatest stories of our lifetime” if the escaped-from-lab theory turns out to be true. And I don’t mean “great” as in “wonderful” – I mean “great” as in “enormous, compelling, transformative.” I use the latter word because I believe this entire COVID-19 episode is going to change the standing of China in the world, and already has begun to do so. No wonder China was so keen to cover it up from the start.
Another “now it can be told” from a legacy media trying to escape accountability for its acting as state-sponsored propaganda.
They chose to be stenographers instead of reporters. They don’t know get to pretend they are the victims.
I think at least part of that media cooperation can be explained by simple human nature. People, and this includes people in the media, are far more willing to believe an idea if it neatly confirms their biases, and are also far more likely to dismiss any contravening evidence or skeptisism of said idea. Feeling like you have the moral high ground feels pretty good. Being self righteous feels good. Believing that those on your side are the good and wise people and those on the other side or deeply ignorant and hateful people makes the world make sense. Why trouble yourself exploring any other possibilities or explanations? Why be skeptical when all those supposedly good and smart people are telling you that anything that goes against the narrative must be just a conspiracy theory concocted by those ignorant bad people. Also, since all your peers are going along with it, why risk ostracization? That would take bravery and cost reputation. It’s easier to just go along and not think too deeply about it. After all, the smart and good people are in charge.
Nonapod:
Add to those “goods” is the “fact” that those “others” that question the “good” are Nazis.
Confirmation bias and self interest. It’s always good to destroy Nazis.
The good old Bernie Madoff defense: “I’ve been deceived and shocked as much as all of your are!”
I can see good reason for the government being very slow to say they thought it was leaked from the lab in Wuhan; wars can start over that sort of thing.
The attempts to cancel and suppress and censor people saying true things is the problem and there was no good reason for that.
The thing that I am still the most angry about with regard to the Covidiocy is how the Establishment Media organs went about doing their level best to scare the population out of their ever-loving minds, and gave a megaphone to the nastiest, bossiest, lockdown-and-vaxx-crazy male and female Karens, to include those in government and those who were merely freelance busybodies. They gave the sloppy tongue-bath to Fauci and Birx, too. They also ignored the example provided by the passengers of the Diamond Princess, and later by Sweden, and none of them ever wondered why the emergency Covid hospitals and the military hospital ships were all but empty, or why local authorities weren’t burying dead homeless in trench graves. Nope, it was all panic, all the time, and readily-available and cheap treatments like ivermectin was sneered at as being horsepaste.
So they can write all the ‘now it can be told’ stories they want. I just want to know why you weren’t writing them then.
I cannot recall the exact ‘where and when’ for this, but I do recall seeing a video making the rounds on line when the covid panic was first cathing fire. The wet market was being touted as the likely source, and the video featured a series of Chinese eating some truly disgusting things. There was a one-armed man eating a live frog. There was an old woman reaching into a bush, pulling out a bird’s nest, and chomping down the featherless hatchlings live. There were some clips of strange, unrecognizable creatures squirming around in tanks, all for sale as food.
It’s almost as if someone had an agenda going.
JWM
Alex berenson justin hart jordan schachtel are far right, ok how about naomi wolf it really is a garbage paper
Farrar as part of the health trust was part of that wef wargame where they decided the lockdown strategy apriori along with john hopkins the cdc rockefeller university
Yes, and they were also deceived about Biden’s senility bwahahahaha
The attempts to cancel and suppress and censor people saying true things is the problem and there was no good reason for that.
Exactly. Or even people speculating on things that might be true. As in this case, and with election fraud, vaccine efficacy and safety, transgenders, etc., etc.
I found that out from michael senger a noted critic of the Middle Kingdom under xi among other interests
https://brownstone.org/articles/lockdown-advisor-jeremy-farrar-promoted-who-chief-scientist/
One if often left more ignorant reading the Times than one started or worse
Yep, we sure wuz…deceived
IOW, we were also VICTIMS—just like you…as the first commenter on this post says.
(Kind of reminds one of that steaming pile of “but the Germans were also victims of WWII” meme….)
And [slaps thigh] wouldn’t ye’ know it, they done deceived us again!
“Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act could end up costing taxpayers nearly $5 trillion, study says”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/bidens-inflation-reduction-act-could-end-costing-taxpayers-nearly-5-trillion
(Let’s see now…are they knaves or fools…?)
NYT is prone to two modes these days: 1) lying to you and 2) making excuses for lying to you.
Heads should roll; virtually if not actually.
There are obviously many negative fall outs from the Covid pandemic; not the least of which is near universal mistrust of government, science and media. Cornerstones of society took a big hit.
Well, the NYT is not claiming that they were lying, but that they were “decieved” by “prominent scientists”. Of course if they (and the rest of their ilk in the dinosaur media) really were the honest truth tellers that they purported themselves to be they may have done some actual investigative journamalizing rather than simply declaring anyone who displayed even the slightest bit of skepticism of that narrative to be racist right wing conspiracy theorists who didn’t believe in science, encouraging deplatforming and ruining lives. Instead they chose to perpetrate what turned out to be a completely false narrative for a very long time in hopes of getting that bad orange man out of office among other things. They can’t claim to be innocent babes in the woods on this.
I don’t have my references readily to hand but if someone looks back a few months before WuFlu was known to the public (summer/fall ’19), there were several stories about Chinese bio-scientists in Canada having to leave for China because of some nefarious lab procedure reason or another. I should look myself – I forget the details.
The longer story not for here, but I picked up “something” that was later known as Covid from a group of Chinese – some of whom were ill – at a hotel near DC the December before the word came out. By March, I had recovered and was able to get home within a week of the lock-downs hitting DC/Maryland. It was known to be a lab leak in late ’19 before that story upset the narrative early in ’20 – obviously for diverting blame in case the consequences were as bad as expected early on. The US and Canada were heavily involved with the Chinese biolabs. That story disappeared QUICK.
They covered for fidel stalin mao the ortegas the ayatollah arafat ho chi minh those are just some that come to mind
In this case the fired the lead science reporter nicholas wade who had doubts about that (redacted) story
“greatest story of our lifetime”. Well, there’s some competition for that moniker. The US electing a senile old man and then being governed by an unelected and unknown cabal of apparatchiks might be considered. Or most of the world elite’s indifference to the slaughter/torture/rape/mutilation of 1200 Jews would rate up there.
Not the Bee is not crying for the Times, and they have an interesting literary take on the situation.
https://notthebee.com/article/the-new-york-times-now-says-the-government-misled-them-about-the-covid-19-lab-leak
“The New York Times: We were deceived about the Wuhan lab leak theory”
No doubt just as the words “quite willingly” were omitted from that headline to deceive us!
Their lips are moving
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/on- … t-guidance
In a similar vein was how oxycodin largely pushed by purdue vouched for big law firms like eric holders covington and burling (peculiarly he was not a target of the settlement)
“WE WERE DECEIVED!!!….ABOUT EVERYTHING!!!!!”
(But Trump is still Hitler…)
Oh…and by the way, as stated above, it’s the NARRATIVE’S FAULT.
– – – – – – – – – –
OK, so they admit they “were deceived” about the origins of the virus.
BUT WHEN will they admit that they “were deceived” when they helped mightily to squelch (and ridicule) the use of hydrochloroquine (and zinc) and Ivermectin to combat Covid, not to mention the total denial and utter rejection of natural immunity (for those who contracted the virus).
To me those
deceptionsCROSS-THE-BOARD LIES were far and away worse than the one about the virus’s lab origins.These deceptions KILLED people, physically and emotionally, and wrecked who knows how many millions of lives.
Matt Taibbi accused those promoting the lab leak theory of “acting in terrible bad faith” essentially for their strident tone!
Reminds me of the proverbial 13-year-old kid who thinks the reality of their dishonest behavior is excused by your rudeness in the discovery of it!!
Had the wool pulled over their eyes, sure.
I wouldn’t put it past plausibility on a on purpose plot.
No thats probably zeynep (ht shes always wrong, summer winter and fall) about most everything like sasha monck the east german import and lockdown evangelist
The media seemed to be doing its utmost to terrify the populace. The newspaper headlines would not let a day go by without running a story about a “surge” here or a “spike” there. The AP was by far the worst. After they couldn’t scare the bejeebers out of you with tales of covid deaths, they would talk about covid hospitalizations, then covid cases and finally positive covid tests. Even though it was obviously trending downward, the media would find some way to keep it front and center. The thing I’ve been hearing for over a year now is “no matter how much you think you hate the media, it isn’t enough”. I can’t disagree or even say “you’re exaggerating”. They played their part in this atrocity.
I thought the lab leak was obvious from Day One.
* The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was the only Biosafety Level 4 lab in all of China.
* The WIV was doing research on bat coronaviruses.
* A chief researcher, Shi Zhengli, was even known as the Bat Lady.
* WIV was already known for lax practices.
* COVID supposedly started at a market only a mile or so from WIV.
* Chinese officials scrubbed the market and shared very little information on COVID.
What are the odds? Yes, it’s circumstantial, but overwhelmingly persuasive. Like Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide.”
It’s a real testament to the Orwellian Democrat/Deep State/Media/Science tyranny that we got lied to so thoroughly and successfully.
If Trump hadn’t won, the lies would have continued.
Imagine the stupidity and ignorance it takes to read the NY Times but worse you have to pay money for it.
Then again in the USSR people paid for Pravda and Trud and in Nazi Germany people paid for the The Volkischer Beobachter and Der Sturmer, so no end to human folly.
There are so many possible (I’d say rather likely) and rotten facets to this story.
1) Larger news media operations use confidential government sources for off the record information.
I recall when Paul Gigot was bragging that the WSJ had just scored some new confidential informants, some of whom were in the intelligence community. This was about 5 or 10 years into his stint as the new editor in chief for the opinion pages.
And I thought, how on earth do you evaluate what they are telling you? IC people invented disinformation (not exactly, but are perhaps the first to mass produce it). It is possible and maybe likely that the “knowledge” that these news people gather in this way, makes them less informed rather than more informed.
2) The US defense people (some secret, some not) were allied with the Chinese and the WIV in doing “gain of function” bioweapon research. We funded the WIV partly.
Congress banned gain of function research in US labs. So someone decides to do an end-run around the law. If we can’t do it, have the Chinese do it.
3) I would guess that the main reason that the safety aspects of the WIV were so lax was because the Chinese have a culture of being not so careful or even sloppy. But another reason might be because lots of safety protocols and hardware takes large amounts of time and money. I have some slight familiarity with the design and testing for nukes and the history of the safety involved. In the last few decades it has become an extremely slow process.
The US people involved in the alliance with WIV might have liked the idea that time and money could be saved. And who knows how much information was being accurately shared?
4) Of course, Trump hatred was all the motivation the media needed to accept the stories they wanted to hear.