Those of you who have been reading this blog may remember I’ve written about the virus from Wuhan a number of times. On the basis of earlier evidence, I concluded that Covid‑19 likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Those posts can be found by clicking here, here, and here).

As a rule, scientists examine all pertinent information available, and, because I once was a
scientist, I now report that an article in the November 18, 2021 issue of Science, a prestigious
journal, leans in the other direction. It argues that the virus jumped from infected raccoon dogs to
humans. (here).

The origin of Covid-19 is of obvious interest because it ignited a catastrophic pandemic.
Accurate numbers are difficult to find, but it’s been estimated that by the end of October 2021, the
virus had killed nearly 750,000 people in this country alone (See here), our part of this world-wide tragedy

In the Science article mentioned above, Michael Worobey argues that the man originally
considered to be the “first case” of Covid-19 was not actually the original human infected, but
rather that it was a female seafood vendor at the Huanan Market. I won’t go into all of his
arguments (they have a number of turns), but he mentions that SARS-related coronaviruses were
found in raccoon dogs during the SARS outbreak, that the Huanan Market had raccoon dogs
caged there, and that a good number of the early hospitalized COVID-19 cases (but not the
majority) were associated with this market.

According to press reports, expert virologists are split on whether this new analysis swings the
balance, a number of them saying the arguments do not convince them of the virus’s origin. But
one, Peter Daszak reportedly is convinced by Worobey’s analysis. Perhaps Daszak’s opinion
should be taken with a grain of salt, because he, as I’ve mentioned earlier (read here), clearly
has a vested interest in this issue.

Not surprisingly, this issue has worked its way into politics as Garry Kasparov, the former
long-time world chess champion and current Putin antagonist, wrote in The Wall Street
Journal of November 18, 2021. (here)

Putting ideology and politics ahead of reason is as dangerous as putting them ahead of justice.
Mr. Trump and his administration used the possibility that Covid-19 originated in a Wuhan
laboratory to bash China and deflect attention from his administration’s catastrophic pandemic
response. . .

The left’s reaction to Mr. Trump’s rhetoric was instructive. Anyone who mentioned the lab-leak
theory was assailed as pro-Trump. Social-media companies removed posts mentioning it. By
January 2021, it was obvious that shutting down debate was the true antiscience position. (My
emphasis) Invaluable months were lost, time the Chinese Communist Party used to destroy data
and spread disinformation about the virus’s origins. We may never know the truth, but we do
know there was a coverup.

To my way of thinking, people don’t cover up things that don’t need covering up.