So your/their assertion is that the ‘lab leak’ claims were always a reasonable exploration of the possible origins of COVID-19 (i.e. not a conspiracy theory)? If that’s the claim, then the timeline I’d like to see is how the lab leak claims were being promoted at this time and what evidence was presented to support the claims to show that they weren’t just baseless accusations.
“The deadly animal-borne coronavirus spreading globally may have originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, said an Israeli biological warfare analyst.”
Fox News, April 20
“There is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China’s attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China’s government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News.”
The Wash Times article now has a ‘retraction notice’ of sorts, saying that it’s clearly was not a biological weapons program. But that is the atmosphere within which Andersen et al were operating when they wrote the paper. The Fox News article is more reasonable, but vastly overstates the ‘confidence’ in the lab leak theory. To this day, evidence of the lab leak has not been released, and people just hang their hats on “well, we can’t rule it out conclusively”. It has never been the favored hypothesis among experts.
So your/their assertion is that the ‘lab leak’ claims were always a reasonable exploration of the possible origins of COVID-19 (i.e. not a conspiracy theory)?
The assertion is that they believed that at the time internally.
It has never been the favored hypothesis among experts.
Because they thought that it was important that the experts get ahead of the science and take public positions that aren’t scientifically supported.
It was not favored because they believe it would damage “science” and relations with China.
So your/their assertion is that the ‘lab leak’ claims were always a reasonable exploration of the possible origins of COVID-19 (i.e. not a conspiracy theory)? If that’s the claim, then the timeline I’d like to see is how the lab leak claims were being promoted at this time and what evidence was presented to support the claims to show that they weren’t just baseless accusations.
Edit: I found a timeline of high-profile claims/accusations, published May 2020
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/10/a-timeline-of-the-covid-19-wuhan-lab-origin-theory/?sh=7032a6705aba
Edit2: Some specific date:
Washington Times, Jan 26
“The deadly animal-borne coronavirus spreading globally may have originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, said an Israeli biological warfare analyst.”
Fox News, April 20
“There is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China’s attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China’s government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News.”
The Wash Times article now has a ‘retraction notice’ of sorts, saying that it’s clearly was not a biological weapons program. But that is the atmosphere within which Andersen et al were operating when they wrote the paper. The Fox News article is more reasonable, but vastly overstates the ‘confidence’ in the lab leak theory. To this day, evidence of the lab leak has not been released, and people just hang their hats on “well, we can’t rule it out conclusively”. It has never been the favored hypothesis among experts.
The assertion is that they believed that at the time internally.
Because they thought that it was important that the experts get ahead of the science and take public positions that aren’t scientifically supported.
It was not favored because they believe it would damage “science” and relations with China.