The Washington Post’s editorial board is gathering critical and positive reactions on social media after publishing an article on Friday asking for answers from China on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the piece, the council writes that although scientists theorize that the deadly virus has spread like bats from animals, the possibility of a laboratory accident or leak should be “investigated.”
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They refer to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)’s research on coronaviruses from bats, and note that dr. Shi Zhengli said the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus did not match viruses sampled by her team.
“But that should not be the end of the story,” they wrote. ‘China has actively covered up the early stages of the pandemic, hiding the virus from its own people and the world and punishing Wuhan doctors who expressed concern about it at the end of December 2019. President Xi Jinping addressed the public in China not warned. or abroad until mid-January. “
The board pointed out that Chinese officials have since pursued a number of dubious theories to indicate that the origin of the COVID-19 virus was not in China.
“The disinformation only raises the suspicion that China is trying to divert attention or hide something,” the council said, adding that investigators should discover the truth as to whether there was a leak or laboratory accident, “transparency and verification of data and sample origin “would be a necessity.
“But it’s not coming,” they added.
The board also stressed that a critical bat coronavirus database and a portal of National Virus Resource Center databases had both gone offline – which Shi told the BBC for security reasons – and had the claim of the former foreign minister business, Mike Pompeo, called The U.S. government had reason to believe that ‘several researchers in the HIV became ill in the fall of 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms similar to both covid-19 and common seasonal diseases. ‘
“If the U.S. government has information to substantiate the statement, it must disclose it, including the statement of any intelligence,” the editors wrote.
“We do not know where the pandemic started. But an important step in finding the answer is to examine all the relevant databases and laboratory records, including those at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and elsewhere, and the clues they may have. contains, “they said. said.
In response to The Washington Post’s article, Twitter users both praised the work and panned it out.
“So dom … @ PostOpinions,” wrote one user. “How can ‘journalists’ not see the contradiction of (a) telling China 24/7, and then (b) constructing a story based on Chinese sources? That was obvious. [bio-attack] on Defender-Europe, and Wuhan was a Truman Show. ‘
“DRASTIC’s allegations seem to be uncritically summed up, which seems to me to be sloppy work,” a user said. “And the ‘GOF’ work in question has largely added the peak sequences of new coronaviruses into a well-characterized strain – probably safer than working the new virus itself.”
“It was nice to see how the laboratory’s hypothesis came from ‘qualified conspiracy theory of science !!!’ to mainstream academics / journalists who ask the question: ‘a user tweeted.
“The obscure and [straight-up] lies from the regime over COVID’s origins rightly succeed in informing questions about laboratory leaks, ” pointed out a user.
A bus carrying members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic leaves the airport after their arrival at a cordoned off section in the international arrival area at Wuhan airport on January 14, 2021 (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP via Getty Images)
“I’ve seen so many studies on Covid #disinformation that contain it as one item in their disinformation battery. Serious question: will these studies need to be modified now that they are shared by major news agencies? #Infodemic,” a user commented.
‘The’ Wuhan lab leak story ‘is prominent [featured] on @Wikipedia’s post about “COVID-19 wrong information,” they continue. @washingtonpost dissemination of incorrect information or is it no longer considered ‘incorrect information’? This seems to be a serious challenge for #disinfo research, no? ‘
“But the news office at WaPo still ignores the subject in a meticulous manner,” said a user in response to the @WashPostPR account.
“Bravo, @washingtonpost! You nailed it in this editorial. Thank you,” called another user.
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“Finally ask the right questions,” wrote one.
The Washington Post reported earlier on China’s role in the pandemic.
A December piece by columnist Marc Thiessen – who is also a contributor to Fox News – asked the question: “can we finally blame the Chinese communist regime for the covid-19 pandemic?”
Twitter users criticized Thiessen for even asking: call it ‘drives’.
The Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” political team wrote in an article in September that President Trump’s attempt to “shift the blame for the pandemic by redirecting anger to China” was an “old strategy”.
Strikingly and horribly, racially motivated hate crimes against Asian Americans rose during the pandemic – a statistic that many believe fueled Trump’s rhetoric, which coined terms such as the ‘Kung Flu’ and ‘China Virus’.
Republican lawmakers and then-President Trump have been at the forefront of efforts for months to hold China accountable for the devastating impact of the pandemic.
Alternatively, some Democrats, such as then-candidate Joe Biden, have reprimanded the Trump administration – although it is noteworthy that those in the Blue Dog Coalition have introduced a bill aimed at stopping China from exploiting the pandemic.
On January 6, The Washington Post wrote that politics itself was the real guilty attempt to get real answers, with Duke-NUS Medical School zoonotic disease expert Wang Linfa saying any progress would be much more difficult because ‘politics precedes science. now. ‘
In January, a team of researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveled to Wuhan to launch an investigation and visit the Huanan Seafood Market and the WIV.
The Trump administration has filed a withdrawal notice with the agency following criticism over the handling of the pandemic, but Biden reversed the decision last month.
China is openly opposed to the independent investigation, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has revived unfounded calls for a WHO investigation into a U.S. military laboratory in Maryland.
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“If America respects the truth, please open Ft. Detrick and disclose more information about the 200 or more bio-laboratories outside the U.S., and allow the WHO expert group to go to the U.S. to investigate the origin,” Hua said.
Last week, the U.S. reached a bad milestone, surpassing 450,000 deaths from the virus over the course of about a year.
To date, more than 2.3 million people worldwide have died from the COVID-19 virus, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
China is accused of not underreporting its case numbers.