The White House announced on Monday that there is no consensus in the Biden administration on whether COVID-19 was the result of a virus lab leak in China or the result of a jump from another species to humans.
The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report that the Department of Energy, one of several federal agencies in the intelligence community that has investigated the origins of the virus, had “little confidence” that the pandemic started when “a novel coronavirus broke out.” . .” “. . from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Some are trumpeting this as proof that the virus is a Chinese leak. But also other parts of the secret services Difference.
However, according to a 2021 declassified assessment by the Director of National Intelligence, there is consensus among agencies investigating the origins of COVID:
The first batch of COVID-19 cases emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The virus was not designed as a biological weapon and probably not genetically manipulated. Chinese officials knew nothing about the virus before the pandemic began. And no one can say with any certainty whether the virus was the result of animal-to-human transmission or a horribly unfortunate lab accident.
Was a lab worker accidentally infected in a high-security environment while collecting unknown animal samples? Or is it more likely that infection has occurred among the many people who have regular, natural contact with animals – hunters, farmers, traders?
Bottom line: We may never have a definitive answer to the origin of the virus. Beijing has (mostly) refused to cooperate with the global scientific community. It opposed information sharing and blamed other countries for the outbreak, including the United States.
As a normal old citizen, I can live with the uncertainty. We know that lab accidents happen from time to time because people and their safety systems are fallible. We also know that diseases can jump between animals and humans – plague, rabies, Lyme disease, West Nile virus to name a few.
I am still angry at how the administration under former President Trump botched its response to the disease, how some conservative ideologues continue to propagate false theories, reject proven science about the effectiveness of masks and vaccines, and how experts like Anthony Fauci have been more widely demonized about former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has devoted a long career to protecting the health and lives of his fellow Americans.
Experts have been warning for years that the world is ready for a new pandemic. In 2019, the U.S. intelligence community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment issued the following admonition: “The United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next influenza pandemic or large-scale outbreak of infectious diseases that could result in mass death and disability. the global economy, the pressure on international resources and the growing call for US support.”
Instead of a coordinated response, there was confusion and conflicting regulations, emboldened by a US president who took too long to admit the obvious, shot from the hip and seemed to see the pandemic as a personal enemy that were to be overcome with loud, nonsensical help. Taking advantage of scientific uncertainty about the new virus and fear of being seen as a failure, Trump muzzled and then tried to scapegoat the administration’s top scientists.
Have some health authorities overreacted? In hindsight yes, but not out of incompetence or malice.
Fauci, who has changed his mind about masks, likened fighting a new disease to “the fog of war.” In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last year, he explained his shift in perspective: “It was really the evolution of science.” When it became clear that there was no shortage of masks, that asymptomatic infections were common and that the virus Fauci spread inhaled particles or aerosols and urged people to cover their faces. So Republicans want to investigate him? Give me a chance.
These ongoing – and ridiculous – debates about masking are just another symptom of our political dysfunction. People without any scientific or medical background have chosen to be experts on whether masks and mask requirements are effective. Or, horror, an encroachment on American freedom. It cost then-President Trump seven months wearing a face mask in public, because masking was a sign of weakness in his distorted view.
Of course, masks are effective in preventing disease transmission. Would you choose to operate in an operating room full of bald doctors and nurses?
Last week, The New York Times columnist Bret Stephens stated that a new meta-study on masking concluded that “mask mandates were a bust…The mainstream experts and experts who supported mandates were wrong.” Masking, he admitted, should always be a personal choice, not an obligation.
Not so fast, my colleague Michael Hiltzik wrote, accusing Stephens of not actually reading the study he cited. “The two studies in the meta-analysis that actually measured the effect of mask requirements in the COVID-19 pandemic, from Bangladesh and Denmark,” Hiltzik wrote, “showed that mask requirements reduced infections and the spread of the virus – quite the contrary. a conclusion that they ‘did nothing’.”
On one thing we all agree (I pray) that vaccines are more effective than masks in preventing serious illness and death. But I dare say there is a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of people refusing to wear masks and those refusing to get vaccinated.
For the latter, especially if they’ve had COVID, their skepticism is at least partially supported by recent research. A meta-study published in The Lancet found that natural immunity can be just as protective as vaccines after COVID-19 infection. It took almost three years for the claim to be upheld, although it is still unclear how long the protection will last. (It will eventually wear off, so you’ll still need to get vaccinated.) Early on, experts rejected natural immunity because there was no solid evidence to support it. Now there is.
I will always trust health experts, vaccine developers and doctors more than politicians and right-wing cable hosts. When it comes to preventing and treating COVID, we didn’t know much before, and now we know a lot. That’s how science works, folks.
Source: LA Times
Roger Stone is an author and opinion journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He is known for his controversial and thought-provoking views on a variety of topics, and has a talent for engaging readers with his writing.
