Of Course: Energy Dept Concludes Covid Likely Was Result of Wuhan Lab Leak
To understand that a Wuhan lab leak was the most likely scenario you had to ignore the mainstream U.S. media, read Leslie Eastman at Legal Insurrection, and just use common sense.
Leslie Eastman is on vacation emptying Puerto Rico of its rum stockpiles. It’s days like this I wish she were here.
The reason is that Leslie has been courageous, precise, and determined for almost three years in writing about the Wuhan lab leak theory. She never advocated for one theory or another, but documented facts and studies that ran contrary to the media narrative, which was that the virus developed naturally in a wet market in Wuhan. Leslie’s coverage of the origin and other issues surrounding the virus and pandemic spans hundreds of posts dating back to January 2020.
Her first post on January 10, 2020, ominously noting, China Struggles to Deal With New Pneumonia-Like Illness. Less than two weeks later, Leslie wrote, CDC expected to announce first US case of “Wuhan Virus” as outbreak spreads. The rest, as they say, is history.
Part of that history was the Chinese government’s attempt to stifle discussion about the origin of the virus, declaring through its proxy the WHO, that even to mention “Wuhan” in connection with “virus” was racist. The term Wuhan Coronavirus, commonly used in the mainstream media, disappeared almost overnight in the media and elsewhere, including campuses. So thorough was the linguistic manipulation, even Grammerly got into the act.
Those in the media have been the ones calling it "the Wuhan virus/coronavirus" for weeks, so I guess they were being racist/bigoted this whole time. pic.twitter.com/ibogMw3rK0
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 9, 2020
There was nothing racist about identifying the city (Wuhan is not a race or ethnicity) where the virus started, as was common with diseases. But the Chinese government’s attempt to absolve itself of responsibility manipulated very willing liberal westerners, who gladly took up the cause of refusing to identify even the city where the outbreak took place.
I documented this language manipulation in If you claim that calling it ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ is racist, you are part of the cover-up (March 30, 2020):
The Chinese government caused this worldwide pandemic. It started in Wuhan. It should have stopped in Wuhan, but the Chinese government covered up, lied, and destroyed evidence.
How various countries responded is not the problem. The Chinese government threw the world overboard, and now is claiming the world should have known how to swim better.
The Chinese government now is deep into a disinformation campaign denying that this all started in Wuhan. A key component of that campaign is controlling the language used to describe the pandemic, stripping it of its connection to Wuhan and China, mandating that only generic terminology is used. Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats and media spread claims that the virus either started in the U.S. or was planted in Wuhan by the U.S.
So if you claim that calling it Wuhan coronavirus is racist, you are part of the cover-up. Speaking the truth is not the problem, covering up the truth is the problem.
That post, which was absolutely correct and has withstood the test of time, was one of the items used by student activists at Cornell Law School against me in June 2020 when they organized an ultimately-failed boycott of my course.
From early on, Leslie noted dissident views, including how Wuhan Virus Watch: Whistleblower doctor dies of disease (February 7, 2020). She reported what most U.S. media ignored or marginalized, how Chinese university researchers believe virus may originate from government laboratory (February 16, 2020):
While most early reports indicated a market close to Wuhan was the source of the original COVID-19 infections, there was skepticism about this theory.
Sen. Tom Cotton suggested that Chinese officials misled the public on the origins of the novel coronavirus that has killed at least 362 people and infected more than 17,400 others, saying it may have originated in a “superlaboratory.” ….
If the market was not the source of the pathogen, what was? Researchers at the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology now conclude that the coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan….
The full report is here, including this conclusion:
In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories. Regulations may be taken to relocate these laboratories far away from city center and other densely populated places.
If you read Legal Insurrection, you would have known about this Chinese university study. (Yes, we archived it, so the link to the report still works.) Leslie later reported how China Destroyed Evidence of Wuhan Coronavirus in December (March 20, 2020). Something was not right when it came to the origin. The Chinese government was covering up, and liberal media and activists in the West were complicit.
So this is all a long wind-up to a Wall Street Journal report today that will not surprise Legal Insurrection readers, Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says:
The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.
The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research….
The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.
The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
The evidence is not conclusive because there has been a three-year cover-up by the Chinese government. The proof to a reasonable degree of certainly may never be found because it’s been destroyed. Here is where U.S. agencies stand on the issue.
The current breakdown of the 8 IC agencies on #OriginOfCovid:
4 – natural origin, low confidence
2 – don't know (CIA + another agency)
1 – lab origin, low confidence (DoE)
1 – lab origin, moderate confidence (FBI)Glad to hear some agencies are still investigating.
— Alina Chan (@Ayjchan) February 26, 2023
Nate Silver is shocked, shocked, that there was a cover up, though he blames the scientists not the media.
Welp. The behavior of a certain cadre of scientists who used every trick in the book to suppress discussion of this issue is something I'll never forget. A huge disservice to science and public health. They should be profoundly embarrassed.https://t.co/nZqzjrvo8F
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 26, 2023
The depth of media connivance was on par with other media malfeasance, and many scientists were not much better:
Hey New York Times, it is probably time to update this story from 2020 about @TomCottonAR. You denounced him for suggesting the virus came from a lab in Wuhan. pic.twitter.com/s3gRO0VOJY
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 26, 2023
Social media platforms then censored the lab leak theory based on official opinion, allowing the fake zoonotic theory (eg pangolins) to spread. In other words, social media censorship caused disinformation by suppressing legitimate inquiry and viewpoints.
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) January 16, 2022
It’s clear that the scientists who claimed in Lancet, on Feb 19, 2020, “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” were misrepresenting their unfounded opinion as a scientific fact. pic.twitter.com/vm0KcYpiTW
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 26, 2023
On Feb. 17, 2020 @nytimes & @washingtonpost ran nearly identical stories calling lab leak a “fringe” idea and “conspiracy theory”. https://t.co/G4OoYg5LVP
— Ashley Rindsberg (@AshleyRindsberg) February 26, 2023
Time to once again shame everyone who lied and tried to shut this discussion down!
A thread:https://t.co/S1szBIOml7
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) February 26, 2023
To understand that a Wuhan lab leak was the most likely scenario you had to ignore the mainstream U.S. media, read Leslie Eastman at Legal Insurrection, and just use common sense:
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Comments
My question is when did the Department of Energy get an “intelligence agency” as part of its mission?
When did the DoE become responsible for Covid virus inquiries and why?
I was going to say something like they were the only Dept with competent employees, then remembered that Sam Brinton worked there.
Right. My first reaction was, why the hell does the Department of Energy get to have any official opinion at all? Then I read here that DOE “oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.” Great, one more swampishly depressing fact I wish I had never learned.
On day one, when they assumed authority over nuke facilities. Comes with the territory, unfortunately.
Drip, drip, drip. The dam is starting to leak.
Will they ever give us something close to the real story?
I suspect this is coming out now so they can start to sell the idea of arming Taiwan like we are arming Ukraine.
This is to stir up support among the more liberal wing, the rest of us already knew the CCP was bad news.
Remembering back to being ridiculed and laughed at by so many people that now deny they did exactly that.
Most likely the CCP blew it and then covered up to shield their wrongs and save face. But did the CCP act intentionally and releasing it because of you know who, and the changing dynamic occurring internationally? It it surreal this is actually a question, but it’s the CCP, after all.
Of course, the wrongs of the health activists that enabled all of this should also face the music.
Wish there was a way to edit, at least until someone responds.
I don’t think it was on purpose. China is just sloppy at bio-safety.
They’ve had lab leaks before of other viruses from their labs. (SARS being the most recent)
The Wuhan lab that is the possible ground zero of Covid-19 before all the Covid stuff had been cited by the Chinese government for being deficient in bio-safety areas. The same Chinese state media reported the lab workers at the Wuhan lab were sloppy when handling bats. This was the Chinese talking about their own lab before Covid-19! Xi Jinping wants China to accelerate it’s first biosecurity law which would outline policies for handling dangerous pathogens.
So I’d bet some worker was sloppy, got infected, and started the ball rolling. The CCP to save face because they can never admit they’ve done anything wrong put the blame on the wet market.
I thought so too, until I learned that the CCP suddenly started stocking up on PCR tests in May of 2019. At the very least, they anticipated that something would leak.
While there is no conclusive evidence that the release was intentional, they did leave international air travel untouched while locking down their domestic travel to and from Wuhan which shows they intentionally spread it so that they would not be the only ones negatively affected.
Yeah I sincerely doubt the release was intentional. However, once it was released the CCP actions/inactions were absolutely intentional. Lack of reporting to other other Nations, concealment of data, refusal of meaningful cooperation, allowed international travel, tried to buy out commercial PPE stocks and so on.
They may not have deliberately released it but once it was released they sure as heck exploited the release to minimize damage to themselves while maximizing damage to others. Not the actions of a responsible Nation.
I am not sure whether the CCP released it intentionally in 2019, or whether they were designing the virus for release later in 2020, and it got away from them early.
They did much worse than simply covering up what they did. They guaranteed that it would spread worldwide through the air travel system when they locked down all of their domestic flights but left all international travel untouched.
another tally mark on the side of conspiracy theorists….
I am starting to think that even the wackiest of conspiracy theories may be right on a lot more than I want to believe.
China virus
President Trump
Nothin’ to see here folks; move along!
It’s come to this: name a statement by the federal government that you believe?
I can’t think of one anymore.
“We will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Pretty sure that one’s carved in stone.
The USA is not innocent. Wuhan’s research was financed, at least in part by Fauci. They wouldn’t have been able to mutate correctly, if it wasn’t for the help of Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. The virus contains the intellectual property of over 200 patents filed in the USA.
Was it an accident? Within a few months of the outbreak, the virus was premeditated by 3 conferences that specifically targets a novel corona virus: Rwanda (vaccine passports), Brazil (inaccurate death predictions), and New York (control of the media). All three conferences were funded in part by Bill Gates who made billions of dollars from the vaccines which have never passed a single test required by law.
The Energy Dept? Why are they issuing their opinion on this issue? Maybe now the FDA or CDC could start reporting the national oil inventory reports since the Energy Dept doesn’t have time to ever get those numbers right either.
The virus that did affect most of us was the spineless just swallowing the heaping helping of fear porn salad.
It doesn’t matter a lick what government tells us, what matters is what we do with that information and sadly, Americans en masse showed their sheep side.
We are not what we once were. We are far too respectable to cause a ruckus.
No different that in the past. There were plenty of us who refused to comply and we are now free from the worry that we’ve been poisoned… this time. Refusing to comply was all we had and losing your livelihoods when burdened with mortgages, wives and children was not an easy decision for most people. Today, they are the angriest of all. People are still people and about 90% of the people still demand that someone tell them what to do. That has always been the problem.
I can vouch that even before talk about lock downs and vaccines, when LI came out for a meet-and-greet in Century City in early Feb 2020, Leslie was right on. We discussed this for maybe 15 minutes and several of the issues we talked about were already being memory holed regarding the Wuhan lab involvement. Neither of us trusted WHO and I was more cynical about CDC but everything we talked about not only turned out to be true but proved to be worse. Then the lockdowns and vax mandates arrived.
This entire episode smelled like a stinking pile right from the beginning. We didn’t need ALL of the facts to figure that out right from the beginning.
Anybody with half a brain knew it was a China lab leak. The real question is why the USA was complicit in covering it up. RFK junior’s Fauci book is interesting. Hunter Biden, Russia Collusion, COVID policy… It is so pathetic and defeatist to gloat when these tired old lies finally tumble on exhausted legs when it no longer matters. Big deal! The damage is done and no one will be held accountable. Time to move on to the next bread and circus.
“The real question is why the USA was complicit in covering it up.”
It’s not a hard question.
It’s because the man responsible for funding the creation of the virus just happened also to be the point man charged with driving the national narrative.
I think the “national narrative” was to get rid of Trump and exposing Fauci might have upset that apple cart.
Our government is either incompetent or entirely corrupt. Choose your answer carefully.
Embrace the power of “and.”
The legacy media and the Demiocrats simply avoided the truth like the proverbial plague
Fauci’s stonewalling on this issue now is totally devoid of any credibility
Of course it originated in the lab. Gain of function happened right here in Obama’s USA, at Chapel Hell in 2014. Reported on in Nature Medicine, (a British med journal) Jan, 2015. It was then taken back to Wuhan where is was grown and strengthened for the timed “leak” in Dec;, 2019 All the money and time wasted on this is disingenuous, if not criminal.
What is next? COVID-24, just in time for the election?
The whole COVID-19 episode has the feel of a dry run – a virus of minimal lethality used to test a concept of releasing a pandemic virus to get real data on what would happen and test various control concepts, which also helped get rid of the Trump presidency. But it did release into the wild a coronavirus with a furin cleavage site in its spike, and that code could migrate into other coronavirus spikes by recombination. If that code ever gets into MERS, which circulates in some animals in Saudi Arabia, that could produce a real pandemic that has lethality exceeding 10%. Bird flu could produce a real pandemic it it ever becomes human transmissible, which could occur naturally, but natural evolution is unpredictable. Much better to engineer something that appears to be plausibly natural.
The single best work on this reprehensible situation simply because it was first published in September 2021 and based on accumulated knowledge supported by 1100 footnotes is “Covid 19 and the Global Predators” by Peter and Ginger Breggin.
Anyone who has read this breathtaking analysis and followed the agonizingly slow seepage of facts since the inception of this debacle can appreciate the determined investigation of Leslie Eastman.
And, it’s not too late to read the book now because the whole Covid project is a harbinger of greater atrocities to come. It may be quelled for a time, but the template is in place for future use and it’s damn scary.
the stunning thing in all of this is the powers that be managed to cripple the us economy and effectively compel a huge chunk of the us population to submit to an “experimental” vaccine whose potential health hazards were dismissed/ignored and may take years / decades to manifest in otherwise healthy americans–in short, they poisoned a huge chunk of our countrymen–and though the particulars were obvious both now and at the time, the perpetrators realized huge profits and continue to enjoy their liberty
lord
Fauci didn’t just quash the lab leak theory in the US. He has very long tentacles.
A story in the UK Express from 2 weeks ago by Angus Dalgleish:
‘Knew Covid had been engineered to make it infectious to humans but were told to shut-up’.
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1729287/covid-19-infection-china-cover-up-conspiracy-USA-wuhan-laboratory-man-made-virus-weapon
Social Media was also complicit. I was placed in FB jail for posting excellent article by Nicholas Wade on Covid origins in a conservative FB group in May 2021.
We all knew this so its the usual distraction.
This “investigation” must be the longest in history to conclude what even every non-“expert” knew from logic and common sense. It underscores just how useless the ruling caste is. Now what needs investigation is how anyone thought giving US taxpayer dollars to a Chinese (enemy) virology lab was a good idea. There’s a question no worthless member of the ruling caste ever wants answered.