zlacker

>>ruarai+(OP)
Most of the media coverage and consensus, from the Washington Post to Nature, seems to be that:

- the lab escape theory has been thoroughly debunked by science

- the WHO investigation put the final nails in the coffin of this theory

- therefore, lab escape continues to be a fringe conspiracy theory at best

- coverage of the lab escape theory is politically motivated rather than scientifically motivated

- continued coverage is largely a combination of irresponsible journalism, disinformation and anti-China political propaganda

Does the USA Today article indicate a shift in this perspective, or is it just an outlier? Has something changed, for example new information coming to light?

>>musica+722
The Washington Post has already shifted:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-...

It's less what new information has come to light, and more what hasn't. For MERS and for the original SARS, the proximal animal hosts were identified within about a year. For SARS-CoV-2, we haven't found that yet. (See my comment history if you're thinking pangolins; they're pretty much abandoned.)

So a year later, despite the considerable effort spent looking for evidence of natural zoonotic origin, we still have nothing. We also have no evidence of lab origin, but that investigation has been thoroughly obstructed--for example, the WIV's private database of viruses went offline in September 2019, and any reporter who approaches the mine where SARS-CoV-2's nearest known relative (RaTG13) was discovered gets turned away by Chinese police.