Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care in November 2019

Edit: I wrote more about this here if anyone wants more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27268101

The past few weeks, all the above parties did a complete about-face, with no apology. Vox silently edited one of its March 2020 articles "debunking" claims that Covid-19 originated in a lab leak https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1396769717805780994 . The fact that the mainstream media can so effectively censor a theory against the prescribed narrative is extremely harmful to our democracy.

It makes you question what other narratives being pushed today are similarly misguided.

'Because justice, moral high ground and emotions are important to people, and people elect governments'

From a meta "gain of function" POV, China has gained from the pandemic. It has kick started its economy with months of head start, while all of the BRIC and western competition have suffered through the pandemic.

China hasn't lost a single opportunity to let it be known that the superiority of their governance methods and ideology has a hand in how well they've handled the pandemic. Their main competition: US (in front) and India (much behind) have particularly suffered and been the subject of ridicule among the Chinese.

The winds of change are heralded in by emotion and perception. Being able to associate the grief of millions to a single regime is the kind of weapon that itching to be wielded. (to a lesser degree the democrats already wielded it in ousting Trump)

It can permanently damage the credibility of mainstream media organizations and social media giants. It can breed nationalism and anti-PRC sentiment. It can legitimize scepticism towards empirical science and make heterodox/conspiratorial ideas harder to dismiss. It can be used to break the break the stranglehold of elite media/universities as unquestionable source of truth.

Whether the outcomes are to our liking is secondary. The answer to the question if the issue is worth pursuing is a resounding YES !

There is nothing insulating HN from being a home for some particular conspiracy theory anymore than other sites. The willingness of some comments in this thread to just absolutely push the 'lab' narrative despite admitting the lack of evidence is deeply troubling.

Probably because the very self-assure ''debunking'' of lab-origin was pushed so hard in so much of the media for the past year.

a report that is highly circumstantial but implies a certain inference

from a foreign intelligence agency that says it 'needs further investigation'

provided to a historically right wing publication

when in contrast the people who do this for a living have consistently had exactly the same line: we need to investigate the cause, the evidence we have suggests one thing, and this theory that keeps getting pushed is scientifically without evidence

Because it validates a certain worldview. "I need things to be this way, or else the universe is wrong."

In China, "hospital care" might just mean the clinics at the hospital. Even in the west, I know family doctor units that are based at the hospital and that's where you'd go for regular stuff.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

An organization with a few thousands staffers? Sure. (800k out of 300M Americans would be ~0.3% per year.)

This is a silly assertion. Precautions are taken against the viruses being studied in the labs themselves - gloves, hoods, special suits if you're working with something like Ebola - but when you go to the cafeteria or visit someone's office, it's unlikely people were masking or distancing etc. pre-COVID.

Colds/flus likely spread like they do at any other workplace.

The US had sponsored virus research in Wuhan's lab possibly including "gain of function". If COVID leaked from that lab it could make the US culpable as well.

Everyone commenting on this post is acting immediately as if this report is 100% true, but the reality is that we know very little about the report.