It now looks like Politifact (May 17) is backing down in their belief that the lab leak hypothesis is false. They previously wrote, "The claim is inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire!"
This fact check was based on a Tucker Carlson (Sep 15, 2020) interview with a Dr. Li-Meng Yan and the following statement by the doctor, "This virus, COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 virus, actually is not from nature. It is a man-made virus created in the lab."
Now Dr. Li-Meng Yan also argued that the virus was intentionally leaked (if you click on the Tucker Carlson link, you can view the comment starting at the 5:20 mark). I'll be honest, I don't know if I believe that claim. Would China really leak a deadly virus into one of their own cities first? Why not leak it elsewhere? To me, that just indicates her obvious bias versus a purely scientific review.
Anyways, here is Politifacts correction:
Editor’s note, May 17, 2021: When this fact-check was first published in September 2020, PolitiFact’s sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more widely disputed. For that reason, we are removing this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review. Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in dispute. The original fact-check in its entirety is preserved below for transparency and archival purposes.
That's embarrassing.
Also, on the lab leak front, the LA Times (May 13) reported on the fact that 18 scientists recently asked that researches dig more into this idea:
Anyways, here is Politifacts correction:
Editor’s note, May 17, 2021: When this fact-check was first published in September 2020, PolitiFact’s sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more widely disputed. For that reason, we are removing this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review. Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in dispute. The original fact-check in its entirety is preserved below for transparency and archival purposes.
That's embarrassing.
Also, on the lab leak front, the LA Times (May 13) reported on the fact that 18 scientists recently asked that researches dig more into this idea:
“We believe this question deserves a fair and thorough science-based investigation, and that any subsequent judgment should be made on the data available,” said Dr. David Relman, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University who helped pen the letter.
The article mentions the following about the World Health Organization report that was put out by the WHO and China in regards to the potential origins of the virus:
After considering information, data and samples presented by the Chinese members of the team, the authors concluded the likelihood that the virus jumped from a source animal to an intermediary species and then to humans was “likely to very likely,” while an introduction due to an accidental laboratory leak was deemed “extremely unlikely.”
Other potential pathways the investigators considered were a direct jump from animal to human without an intermediate host (“possible to likely”) and transmission from the surface of frozen food products (“possible”).
What do I notice? The likelihood that the virus came from frozen food is possible. Wouldn't that imply that there is a possibility that the virus did not originate in China? And yet the lab leak hypothesis is listed as extremely unlikely. Well, I guess that is why this report was a joint report with China.
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