Me, imagining how it went at the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the WHO mission to find out the source of the Coronavirus.
WHO team (to Wuhan Lab rep): We're not here to investigate your laboratory, but just to ask you a question: did you have a leak of any virus from here?Wuhan Lab rep: No.WHO: Sure?Wuhan Lab rep: Yes. We checked and we found no evidence of a leak.WHO: Oh, that's okay then. Lunch, anyone?
Many many science type folks remain unconvinced by the Chinese denials. Why wouldn't they be, when China has hidden information from the beginning and took so long to prepare for the WHO mission. Doing a bang-up cleaning job, making sure you've cleared out all the evidence can be so very time consuming.
Perhaps the biggest red flag is that the WHO Mission report, which has to be cleared by China, was so adamant to say a leak was "extremely unlikely", when they didn't even investigate the Wuhan Lab! Or any others.
Finding the source of the virus remains important, if only to direct future research into coronaviruses.
Snip, with my highlighting:
Proponents of the idea that the virus may have leaked from a lab, especially the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China where SARS viruses were studied, have been active this year since a World Health Organization team issued a report claiming that such a leak was extremely unlikely, even though the mission never investigated any Chinese labs. The team did visit the Wuhan lab, but did not investigate it. A lab investigation was never part of their mandate. The report, produced in a mission with Chinese scientists, drew extensive criticism from the U.S. government and others that the Chinese government had not cooperated fully and had limited the international scientists' access to information. [Read on...]
