The Washington Post Editorial Board is gathering critical and positive reactions on social media after publishing an article on Friday asking for answers from China about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the article, the council writes that although scientists have theorized that the deadly virus has spread from animals like bats, the possibility of a laboratory accident or leak “must be investigated”.
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They referenced Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) research on bat coronavirus, noting that leader Dr. Shi Zhengli said the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus did not match the viruses his team had sampled.
“But that shouldn’t be the end of the story,” they wrote. “China actively covered up the early stages of the pandemic, hid the transmissibility of the virus from its own people and the world, and punished the doctors in Wuhan who expressed concern at this in late December 2019. President Xi Jinping did not alert the public at China or abroad by mid-January. “
The council noted that Chinese authorities have since perpetuated “a series of dubious theories” to suggest that the origin of the COVID-19 virus was not in China.
“Misinformation only increases suspicions that China is trying to distract or hide something,” said the council, adding that for investigators to discover the truth about whether or not there was a leak or laboratory accident, “transparency and data and sample verification. provenance “would be a necessity.
“But it was not released,” they added.
The council also pointed out that a critical bat-coronavirus database and a National Virus Resource Center database portal went offline – which Shi told the BBC for security reasons – and cited a claim by the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo that the U.S. government had reason to believe that “several researchers within the WIV became ill in the fall of 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with covid-19 and common seasonal diseases.”
“If the United States government has information to support this statement, it must disclose it, including the disqualification of any intelligence,” wrote the Editorial Board.
“We don’t 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 contain” , they said.
In response to the Washington Post article, Twitter users applauded and criticized the work.
“So stupid … @ PostOpinions,” wrote a user. “How do ‘journalists’ not see the contradiction in (a) telling us that China lies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and then (b) building a narrative based on Chinese sources? It was obvious [bio-attack] on Defender-Europe, and Wuhan was a Truman Show. “
“This seems to recapitulate the statements of DRASTIC uncritically, which seems to me to be a sloppy job”, a user declared. “And the ‘GOF’ work in question was largely to insert the peak sequences of new coronaviruses into a well-characterized strain – arguably safer than working with the virus itself.”
“It was fun to watch the laboratory’s hypothesis go from ‘disorderly conspiracy theory to the denial of science !!!’ for academics / traditional journalists asking the question, “a user tweeted.
“The blinding and [straight-up] The regime’s lies about the origins of COVID are justifiably successful in spreading questions about lab leaks, ” a user pointed.
A bus carrying members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic leaves the airport after arriving at an isolated section in the international landing area of Wuhan airport on January 14, 2021. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP via Getty Images)
“I have seen so many studies on Covid’s #disinformation that contained this as an item in their battery of disinformation. Serious question: will these studies have to be changed now that this is being released by major news outlets? one user commented.
“The‘ leak story of the Wuhan lab “is prominent [featured] in @ Wikipedia’s entry on „COVID-19 disinformation”, they continued. @washingtonpost spread disinformation or is it no longer considered “disinformation”? It seems a serious challenge for #disinfo research, no? “
“But the news side on WaPo still carefully ignores the issue,” a user said in response to the @WashPostPR account.
“Bravo, @washingtonpost! You nailed this editorial. Thanks,” another user exclaimed.
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“Finally asking the right questions,” one wrote.
The Washington Post’s previous coverage of China’s role in the pandemic was mixed.
A December article by columnist Marc Thiessen – who is also a contributor to Fox News – raised the question: “can we finally blame the Chinese communist regime for the 19 pandemic?”
Twitter users criticized Thiessen for asking, calling it “bullshit”.
The Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” political team wrote in a September article that President Trump’s attempt to shift “blame for the pandemic by redirecting anger to China” was an “old strategy”.
Notably and horribly, racially-motivated hate crimes against Asian Americans increased during the pandemic – a statistic that many argue was fueled by Trump’s rhetoric, coining terms like “Kung Flu” and “China Virus”.
For months, Republican lawmakers and then President Trump led the effort to hold China accountable for the devastating impact of the pandemic.
Alternatively, some Democrats, like then-candidate Joe Biden, rebuked the Trump administration – although it is notable that members of the Blue Dog Coalition introduced a bill aimed at preventing China from exploiting the pandemic.
On January 6, The Washington Post wrote that the policy itself was the real culprit, preventing attempts to get real answers, with Duke-NUS School of Medicine specialist zoonotic diseases, Wang Linfa, saying any progress would be much more difficult because “politics is ahead of science now.”
In January, a team of researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveled to Wuhan to start an investigation, visiting the Huanan Seafood Market and WIV.
The Trump administration sent a notice of withdrawal from the agency after criticism of the pandemic management, but Biden reversed the decision last month.
China is openly opposed to independent investigation, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has revived unsubstantiated calls for a WHO investigation into a U.S. military laboratory in Maryland.
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“If America respects the truth, open Ft. Detrick and make public more information about 200 or more biological laboratories outside the United States and allow the WHO group of experts to go to the United States to investigate the origins,” Hua said.
Last week, the United States reached a dismal milestone, exceeding 450,000 deaths from the virus over about a year.
To date, more than 2.3 million people have died worldwide from the COVID-19 virus, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
China has been accused of underreporting its case numbers.