USA Today proclaims, “Instagram removes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over false COVID-19 vaccine claims.” According to Instagram, owned by Mark Zuckerberg/ Facebook, Kennedy is a purveyor of false information because he shares “... claims that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured... The claim that the coronavirus was man-made or engineered has been debunked,”
In point of fact, the human origins of the coronavirus have NOT been debunked. Rather, alternate hypotheses positing a natural cause of the virus have been offered; this is NOT the same as debunking claims “... that the coronavirus was man-made or engineered“.
Here are some of the problems with the claim that there is no human origin for the virus.
First, debunking the claim of a human origin for the virus would require access to the raw research data; the Chinese government has staunchly denied access to this data. Instead, it has continued to provide only data that 1) backs its own claim of a natural origin for the outbreak and 2) shields it from any responsibility for the initial outbreak. The fact that the virus originated in the Wuhan province in close proximity to the only Chinese level 4 virology lab in the country, one that is known to carry out military biological weapons research and development, is well documented. Whether the coronavirus was developed as a weapon and released, a naturally occurring virus that was accidentally released from the lab, or a virus that has been around for thousands of years and only recently made a jump from animals to humans cannot be disproved without access to the raw data.
Second, the W.H.O. is the source of the research that 1) argues that the coronavirus CANNOT have been developed as a weapon and 2) argues that China is largely innocent with regard to its spread. This is problematic for at least a couple of reasons. First, as they have themselves admitted, they have been denied access to the raw data. Without that data, it is impossible to exonerate the Chinese military/government. Second, and almost importantly, the W.H.O. has been well-documented to essentially function as a mouthpiece, an apologist, for the Chinese government in its efforts to save face regarding its role in the release and spread of the coronavirus. The following is just a sample of the respected entities that have documented this symbiotic relationship between the W.H.O. and the Chinese government: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, Deutsche World, The Voice of America, Politico, Foreign Policy, the Brookings Institute, Institute Montaign, Bloomberg News, the Carnegie Endowment, the list goes in. ALL have documented the enormous, outsized influence exercised by China over the W.H.O. in general, and specifically as it applies to the coronavirus. A few months ago, our own State Department finally publicly acknowledged the probable role of China in the release and spread of the virus and the probability that it had been intended as a biological weapon. This aligns with conclusions drawn by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (associated with both Israeli intelligence and NATO) that there IS reason to suspect a Chinese government link to the virus, including the following:
“•scientific papers with incoherent data/findings
•unexplained gaps, inconsistencies, and contradictions
•meaningless and twisted chronologies
•illegitimate non-transparency
•elimination and distortion of records and databases
•obscuring and possible destruction of existing viruses (including the index virus) and genomic material
•pressure put on disobedient scientists, physicians, and officials
•disappearance of key persons
•expedient interchangeability between military/defense and civilian institutions (and other entities).”
Third, believing that the Chinese government has no culpability with regard to the coronavirus requires believing that they are, well, believable in the first place. The Chinese account regarding the origin of the coronavirus has changed several times. Initially, they claimed no knowledge of the virus, when, in fact, they spent the first few months doing everything in their power to prevent word of it getting out of China (just as they did with the SARS virus, which ALSO originated in China, a few years ago). Then they insisted that it must have found a way to jump from animals to humans. Then they alleged that, in fact, the virus was a bio weapon developed by the US and introduced into China via US service personnel who had been deliberately infected and then sent to China during a goodwill event.
Fourth, individuals associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the very lab believed by many to be the source of the virus, tried to get the word out to the rest of the world. They were shut down, imprisoned, eliminated by the Chinese government - but word still went out via dissident websites. Eventually, some were publicly acknowledged by more mainstream news sources, although the Chinese government and the W.H.O. have done what they can to play down their warnings.
If the Chinese government truly wants to prove their innocence, then they will make the raw data regarding the origin of the coronavirus available to be reviewed. Until then, the idea that the coronavirus, at worst, began as a bio weapon - an idea that I happen to share - at best was accidentally released from the lab, will continue to persist.
