Alina Chan is one of the eighteen researchers who signed a letter to Science Magazine last month encouraging other scientists to consider the possibility that the coronavirus came from a lab. So, since everyone is now talking about that possibility, you might think she was ahead of the curve.
However, Chan confirmed that the reality of the situation is much worse. The truth is everyone was aware of that possibility, but only conservatives were talking about it because a lot of scientists put politics ahead of science.
As NBC News reports:
Alina Chan isn’t saying the coronavirus definitely leaked from a lab in China. What she is saying is what more scientists have grown comfortable discussing publicly: There’s no clear evidence either way.
…And while public discussion of a potential lab leak has shifted significantly in recent months, as more people pay attention to a theory that was originally promulgated by former President Donald Trump and his followers, the scientific evidence has remained unchanged, according to interviews with five virologists who have experience in microbiology, infectious disease ecology and viral evolution.
…Chan said there had been trepidation among some scientists about publicly discussing the lab leak hypothesis for fear that their words could be misconstrued or used to bolster racist rhetoric about how the coronavirus emerged. Trump fueled accusations that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research lab in the same city where the first Covid-19 cases were reported, was connected to the outbreak, and on numerous occasions called the pathogen the “Wuhan virus” or “kung flu.”
“At the time, it was scarier to be associated with Trump and to become a tool for racists, so people didn’t want to publicly call for an investigation into lab origins,” she said.
Know why people don’t trust the media and “the experts” anymore? Because they’re willing to lie, withhold information from the public and twist the facts for purely political reasons. There’s a great example of it right there in that NBC article where they falsely claim any of those comments was “racist rhetoric.” However, most people have long known that the mainstream media has been corrupted.
What will be a surprise to a lot of non-conservative people is that science has been corrupted in exactly the same way. A scientist who withholds information from the public for political reasons is not a trustworthy scientist. What you are seeing here is a great example of the sort of game scientists have been playing with global warming for a long time. It’s also ironic that the same people that will claim conservatives are “anti-science” will simply shrug their shoulders and go on when they hear this sort of thing from a scientist. It’s ironic because almost no one is actually “anti-science,” but an awful lot of people aren’t sure they can trust what scientists say about a wide variety of subjects, including vaccines, because they believe scientists aren’t shooting straight with them for political reasons.
This is just more confirmation that they’re right to wonder if they can trust what they’re hearing.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know. You can find him on Parler here and on Twitter here.
Don’t miss The Dan Bongino Show
