The Origins of COVID19
All has been revealed..
Right.. a bit of a clickbait here.
I first got interested in the origins of the virus both because of my own experience during the pandemic as well as an interest podcast I heard by the Intercept.
It found evidence that suggested the US food and drug administration (FDA) were sanctioning labs around the world to carry out research on virus’.
Yes, you guessed it - a lab in Wuhan was one of those labs.
The pandemic brought some interesting conspiracy theories though. From microchips in coronavirus to the "great economic reset", the theories were in the dozens. I'd post a link to some of these theories if it wasn't for the fact that I am on paper, an academic.
By far the one that has gained most traction is the "laboratory leak theory."
The theory goes a little like this. Instead of covid-19 coming from a naturally occurring spillover, covid-19 may have been the result of a laboratory leak either deliberately or accidentally. The theory does have some solid facts behind it. There is evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Viriology (WIN) was testing virus' including those in bats and it did indeed receive some funding from the US for something called “gain of function” research.
However, the question is - was covid-19 purposefully leaked?
Last month, a US intelligence report published finally came to a conclusion after months of investigating..
**drumroll**
It concluded that there was NO EVIDENCE to confirm that a leak did or did not occur. In other words and to quote, “Both a natural and laboratory associated origin remain plausible.
The report also looked into some of the cases of people in the lab who had been unwell in late 2019 when the outbreak started. It performed retrospective antibody analysis and found that those who were unwell were mildly unwell and not necessarily due to covid-19.
There are some concerning aspects though. The possibility of a leak remains and this is quite scary. The US government accountability office confirmed its funding of the WIV and commented that its research had:
"exceeded the safety threshold outlined in the 2016 award conditions."
Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) calling for China to release more data, it has largely remained silent. Unfortunately such reports are key moments for world powers to have jibes at one another and whilst the US claims that important research data was withheld from the WHO, we will never know who culpable.
What does China say on the issue?
Professor Gao who is the president of China's International Institute of Vaccine innovation commented "“You can always suspect anything. That’s science. Don’t rule out anything.” I mean he's right. Science deals in probabilities and to definitely say that something happened is incorrect.
Despite this, the overwhelming majority consisting of virologists, epidemiologists and infectious disease experts maintain that that the virus originally came from an animal host. The reasoning behind this is as follows:
1) The initial case distribution was around a wet animal market.
2) There were many animals from the wet market who were found to have had the virus in their blood at the time of the infection.
3) Patterns of mutations can tell us the change in host (animal - human) and this happened in two distinct points which were both tied to the wet market.
This is the data so far and I think for many, ends a long saga of conspiracy, suspicion and political "jabbing."
We would be interested to hear your thoughts on the issue? Purely academic ofcourse!
Until next time
Check us out on our various pages
Website: www.paretoeducation.co.uk
Instagram: www.instagram.com/pareto_ed
Twitter: www.twitter.com/pareto_ed
Youtube: https://bit.ly/3DPm23c
Email: paretopaeducation@gmail.com