[OC] More Americans are believing COVID-19 originated from a lab in China. However, there is still no conclusive evidence to support one theory over another. The topic is highly politicizing both internally (US Political Parties) and externally (US-China relations).Submitted by Square_Tea4916 t3_11sthk3 in dataisbeautiful
Infernalism t1_jcfc5u1 wrote
Just out of sheer morbid curiosity, what sort of difference does it make at this point?
simpkill t1_jcfd9x4 wrote
I think it makes a difference if it was created in a lab because: Either proper safety protocols weren't followed, or, they weren't in place at all, or worse, someone intentionally released the virus. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever know for sure and I don't know what to believe.
bdubdub t1_jcfhlmv wrote
IIRC the theory isn't that it was created in a lab, just that it had been identified in the wild but was being researched in a lab and one of the researchers was careless and got exposed to it.
mynameismy111 t1_jcoe56c wrote
Unfortunately for that theory no, we do know
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715
We have actual research on the ground from the actual wet market it spread from
COVID-19 was some magic mutant only a lab could make, look at every variant since, that's what natural evolution looks like, it spreads mutates, jumps species
That this is still rocket science to the public after three years it's freaking insane
But if the public wants to believe whatever conspiracy theory they want than what's the worse could happen again
simpkill t1_jcoxlbj wrote
Well I think what keeps people unsure is articles like this:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/3/11/three-years-later-what-we-know-how-did-covid-19-start
And conspiracy theories aren't a problem. The government does and has conspired to cover things up. I'm not saying that is happening here, but I can't blame anyone for not trusting the authorities.
Square_Tea4916 OP t1_jcfdfhr wrote
If the "Lab Theory" is true, I'd like to know what happened leading to the millions of deaths around the world. There's 2 main avenues I can see:
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Accidental - Gap in Lab protocols caused a leak of the covid-19 virus as they were studying. This is the most likely (or would like to believe) scenario if you support the Lab theory.
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Intentional - Bad actors deliberately leaked the virus knowing the damage it could potentially cause. This has very dangerous implications.
Either way, it's in our very human nature to ask why and discover why something happened the way it happened in attempts to prevent or intervene in the future.
mynameismy111 t1_jcodk4p wrote
Unfortunately people will study conspiracy tv theories rather than actual scientific articles
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715
We know where it came from, the coronavirus (es) r among the most common natural pathogens and cross species contamination ( wet markets) encourage them to jump into new vectors and pandemic. It's been an obvious concern for decades, it happened before in China but everyone in the west forgot about. Therefore pandering them with creative lies works well on them.
PsychologicalDark398 t1_jcr1gdl wrote
Hmmm imo COVID fucked over China too( based on their economic performance right now and recent wave ) far too much for the 2nd option to even be considered but that doesn't mean lab leak theory is not possible. Not to mention how paranoid Xi was from 2020-2022 with his zero-COVID lockdowns and the recent massive waves there, which means he may have known something???.
Not to mention, Xi has been silently, suddenly caring about the the safety regulations of labs in China , something which they never bothered to do before. Maybe Xi knows something??? Why would he do this if he's so confident that it didn't come from a lab. Maybe because deep down he knows the Wuhan lab messed up???. Maybe???
ignigenaquintus t1_jcfjvoc wrote
It would be a good example of how dangerous any political narrative advocating for any form of censoring based on the official truth as per defined by the government truly is.
If in 2020 people claiming it could have come from a lab were accused of spreading misinformation (I wouldn’t have called it “the China virus” either way) and portrayed as conspiracy theorists, as I believe is the case, it also shows the terrible lack of responsibility and accountability of the mass media (not that social media is better).
I think the implications in regards of freedom of speech are obvious, as the excuse to use science as a new legitimate limitation of freedom of speech failed immediately even before this idea was proposed to the public opinion.
“Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), testified how science indicates COVID-19 infections were likely the result of an accidental lab leak in Wuhan. His conclusion is based on the biology of the virus itself and unusual actions in and around Wuhan in 2019, including gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Nicholas Wade—the former science and health editor at the New York Times, and former editor of Science and Nature—testified how Drs. Fauci and Collins used unverified data to dismiss the lab leak theory in favor of natural transmission.
Jamie Metzl testified how China’s government destroyed samples, hid records, imprisoned Chinese journalists, prevented Chinese scientists from saying or writing anything on pandemic origins without prior government approval, actively spread misinformation, and prevented an evidence-based investigation.
The mainstream media downplayed—and even denied—the scientific theory that COVID-19 emerged from the WIV.
Nicholas Wade testified about the campaign to discredit the lab leak theory. He pointed out that scientists kept in line with the natural origin camp led by Drs. Fauci and Collins because of their dependence on government grants and that the media failed to challenge the forced narrative.
All witnesses agreed that the possibility of COVID-19 originating from a lab is not a conspiracy theory.”
mynameismy111 t1_jcodvi6 wrote
"Fauci, mainstream" ah yes right wing buzzwords from those sooooooo concerned about COVID they blocked any efforts to fight the pandemic no matter how small.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715
We know how and where COVID-19 came from
Also.... Did China release new batches around the world for each new variant? Oh wait invisible data destroyed allegedly according to those with no political schemes
[deleted] t1_jcfiet8 wrote
[deleted]
Cold-Permission-5249 t1_jcfddbv wrote
Because if it was indeed a lab leak, the world could try to implement policies that stop something like this happening again before it starts. If it was from nature, there’s not much humans can do aside from having pandemic response policies.
mynameismy111 t1_jcof74c wrote
If? It's happened before
SARS was initially present in an as-yet unknown animal reservoir, perhaps bats, and was passed to civet cats, relatives of the mongoose. Evidence shows that as it circulated in the civet cats, it gained mutations that allowed it to cross over into humans in 2002-03. More than 8,000 people worldwide became sick with SARS and 774 died.
mynameismy111 t1_jcod8ot wrote
To test how malleable an undereducated public is to propaganda -the polling
To prevent or contain it happening again -the objective
RickDick-246 t1_jcff5sk wrote
To me it doesn’t make a difference. 1. I’m fairly left leaning and always likely was created in a lab. At the same time, countries are doing this type of research all the time and it could have been anyone who fucked up. And 2. Chinas mismanagement of Covid has been horrific no matter how it started. Potentially covering up the issue and then their 0 Covid policy was horrible for their citizens.
We all know the CCP is a dictatorship that treats their citizens like shit, allows genocide and spies on their own people. Whether or not Covid was created in a lab is a very small reason I look at chinas government as a bunch of douches.
mynameismy111 t1_jcofdt2 wrote
No, not a lab, it's been a threat and concern for decades cause it happened before
SARS was initially present in an as-yet unknown animal reservoir, perhaps bats, and was passed to civet cats, relatives of the mongoose. Evidence shows that as it circulated in the civet cats, it gained mutations that allowed it to cross over into humans in 2002-03. More than 8,000 people worldwide became sick with SARS and 774 died.
neurodiverseotter t1_jcg0pxz wrote
It's a question of ideology
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There is a link between a rise in pandemic events and global warming. "Proving" it was a lab accident can be used as an argument that global warming had nothing to do with it (and of course, doesn't exist at all)
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Blame: blaming a specific country could mean one could try to hold them liable for damages or at least set them in a bad diplomatic position. Plus when it's "man-made", it's easy to associate it with disliked people, like Fauci in the US pretending it was their personal fault. Holding individuals or institutions accountable/blaming them can also be a way to cope with loss.
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Shifting the narrative: after millions had died, the narrative that COVID wasn't dangerous couldn't be used any longer. By claiming OT was lab-grown, there was a new story, a new scandal that would overshadow the fact that a lot of politicians, including the POTUS did not act and people can pretend they either never underestimated it or they did so because "a natural virus wouldn't be that bad". These narratives don't necessarily have to be for the public but for some just for their own conscience.
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Theodicée: might be a bit abstract, but especially conservative americans are in the majority protestantic Christians believing in providence, i.e. that god makes all things natural come to pass. Meaning that a global pandemic would be gods will, meaning that the millions of americans who died would have been according to gods plan, maybe even as a punishment Not unlike the Great Plague in Europe was seen. A lab-grown virus produced by non-christians would be something god had no hand in, and it being "man made", would be a way out of the cognitive dissonance of god being good yet allowing bad things to happen to his devout followers.
Tl, dr: mostly it matters to blame others or explain how it could happen, also, of course as a political talking point.
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