Readers will be aware of the political efforts to assure the world that the COVID-19 pandemic had nothing whatever to do with the gain-of-function virus lab in Wuhan, the city in China where the disease originated.
Cornelius Hunter has a look at claims in Nature Medicine that the virus could not have been designed:
Tentative Language Turns to New-Found Confidence
But when we reach the Conclusions section this tentative language gives way to a new-found confidence: “the evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a purposefully manipulated virus,” and “we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”
Finally, all shadow of doubt is removed in the Abstract: “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” This claim is simply not substantiated by what they argue in the paper.
This wrapping of two weak, subjective, arguments with ersatz certainty and authority paves the way for a triumphant press release where Andersen announces, without justification, that “we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes.”
To summarize, the authors use a terrible design hypothesis, and make ever-escalating claims of certainty from two weak observations. The paper makes unscientific claims and should not have passed peer review.
Cornelius Hunter, “COVID-19 meets intelligent design” at Evolution News and Science Today (March 16, 2022)
It’s understandable that virologists are running for cover now. But turning a hapless science journal into a Trust the Science! journal is a pretty steep price to pay.
And few are fooled anymore anyway.
Meanwhile, as the Crazy winds down, typical fallout:
In the United States: Hey, the attorney general for Missouri is even trying to sue the virus lab in Wuhan. A lost cause, doubtless, but at least he isn’t suing people in Missouri for not being nuts.
And in Canada: Federal Vaccine Mandates Under Review, Says Chief Public Health Officer (= Reign of Terror crumbling);
Canada cancels pre-entry tests. The saner portion of the population has given up wearing masks in the teeth of the wind. We will eventually need to address the mental health issues of the rest but just for now … .
As the lawsuits start getting filed, it is becoming somewhat less safe to be running a Reign of Terror from a civil servant’s swivel chair:
The Justice Centre said their legal challenge to the B.C. government focuses on the violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, freedom of religion and conscience, and equality rights. The challenge also includes the violation of the right to informed consent, and violations of the privacy of health-care workers.