The “Lab Leak” is back in the news again, it seems. You know, the “right-wing conspiracy theory with no evidence”? Yes, that one. Even more odd, the “racist conspiracy theory” is now being floated by no less than a high-ranking Chinese official.
The top Chinese official who led Beijing’s COVID-19 response admits he can’t rule out that the deadly virus leaked from a lab.
“You can always suspect anything. That’s science,” Dr. George Fu Gao, who was China’s equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci, told the BBC when asked about the ongoing theory about his own nation’s scientists.
“Don’t rule out anything,” he told the podcast “Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin.”
Hey, hear that Siouxsie Wiles? Shaun Hendy? Ashley Bloomfield? Science means that you should never rule out anything, out of hand.
Oh, I forgot: you lot don’t do science. You only deal in The Science™.
But the very fact that a Chinese official is even vaguely countenancing the Lab Leak theory is a stunning development.
The scientist’s admission, no matter how vague, is stunning given how forcefully Beijing has always denied the possibility that researchers at the now-notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology may have leaked the virus while working on similar bat diseases.
At the time, China called it “a lie created by anti-China forces,” even blaming the US for its origins.
The CCP, though, is nothing if not capable of turning on a dime and pretending that the exact opposite of what they said for years has always been true. Witness the way public posters denouncing the evil of having more than one child have suddenly been replaced with posters proclaiming the virtues of having multiple children.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia, as it were.
In fact, the Chinese Communist Party took the theory seriously, Gao admitted for the first time.
“The government organized something” to investigate, he said. “That lab was double-checked by the experts in the field.”
Gao, who was head of China’s Centre for Disease Control, could only say that he “heard” the lab was given the all-clear, without revealing how certain he is.
“I think their conclusion is that they are following all the protocols. They haven’t found [any] wrongdoing,” he suggested.
The lab’s head researcher, Shi Zhengli — dubbed “bat woman” — […] feared there may have been “a sample in her lab that she did not know of, but has a virus, contaminated something, and got out,” Wang said.
However, Shi claims to have ruled out those fears, and that there is “zero chance” she would hide it, Wang told the podcast.
Because, as we all know, China never, ever, lies about disease outbreaks.
It’s beyond belief that Gao has made an off-the-cuff slip. His statements must be considered the official word of the Chinese regime.
Which begs the question: what’s China’s game, here?
If you take note of what Gao is saying, he’s only paying lip service to the possibility of a lab leak, before categorically ruling it out. “Trust us: we wouldn’t lie!”
The other possibility is that revelations of something much worse than an accidental leak are looming, and Beijing is trying to get ahead of the game.
Because, rule of thumb: whatever Beijing says, assume the opposite is true.
Meanwhile, the “conspiracy theory” is growing closer and closer to conspiracy fact.
In February, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the bureau “has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”
Last month, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe called it “the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.”
New York Post
The only explanation credibly supported by intelligence, science and common sense?
No wonder the Podium of Truth told you it was a conspiracy theory.