Thanks, I appreciate it—I didn’t really understand the downvotes either, my beliefs don’t even seem particularly controversial (to me). Just that I think it’s really important to understand where COVID came from (and the lab leak theory should be taken seriously) and try to prevent something similar from happening in the future. I’m not much interested in blaming any particular person or group of people.
The word “disappointing” suggests that the action taken to suppress widespread concern (like overruling the intelligence analysts) are bad. Why wouldn’t you want to blame those who are responsible for the disappointing state of affairs?
Some people are invested emotionally, politically, and career-ally in said denial. I am curious how many of them will have the humility to admit they were wrong. Sadly, this has become my only metric for the quality of public servants: Can they admit it when they are wrong? Do they offer to change, or do they just blame others for their failures? I assume none of them have this capacity until I see it. The “lab leak” story will offer an opportunity for us to observe a large number of public servants either admit their mistakes … or not.
I think the framing of focusing on public servants is one about obscuring responsibility for people on forums like this who went along with the disinformation campaign to suppress the lab leak theory.
Spoiler: Less than 1% will admit they were wrong. Straight denial, reasoning that it doesn’t actually matter, or pretending they knew the whole time lab origin was possible are all preferable alternatives. Admitting you were wrong is career suicide.
The political investments in natural origin are strong. Trump claiming a Chinese lab was responsible automatically put a large chunk of Americans in the opposite camp. My interest in the topic actually started with reading up to confirm why he was wrong, only to find the Daszak-orchestrated Lancet letter that miscited numerous articles and the Proximal Origins paper that might be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. The Lancet letter’s declaration that “lab origin theories = racist” influenced discourse in a way that cannot be understated. It also seems many view more deadly viruses as an adjoining component of climate change: a notion that civilizing more square footage of earth means we are inevitably bound to suffer nature’s increasing wrath in the form of increasingly virulent, deadly pathogens.
The professional motivations are stark and gross. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Thoughts on the origin are frequently dismissed if you’re not a virologist. But all the money in virology is in gain of function. Oops!
I don’t get the downvotes, this post is just agreeing with the OP.
Thanks, I appreciate it—I didn’t really understand the downvotes either, my beliefs don’t even seem particularly controversial (to me). Just that I think it’s really important to understand where COVID came from (and the lab leak theory should be taken seriously) and try to prevent something similar from happening in the future. I’m not much interested in blaming any particular person or group of people.
The word “disappointing” suggests that the action taken to suppress widespread concern (like overruling the intelligence analysts) are bad. Why wouldn’t you want to blame those who are responsible for the disappointing state of affairs?
It’s a polarizing topic and some people seem to be emotionally attached to lab leak denial.
Some people are invested emotionally, politically, and career-ally in said denial. I am curious how many of them will have the humility to admit they were wrong. Sadly, this has become my only metric for the quality of public servants: Can they admit it when they are wrong? Do they offer to change, or do they just blame others for their failures? I assume none of them have this capacity until I see it. The “lab leak” story will offer an opportunity for us to observe a large number of public servants either admit their mistakes … or not.
I think the framing of focusing on public servants is one about obscuring responsibility for people on forums like this who went along with the disinformation campaign to suppress the lab leak theory.
Professionally?
Spoiler: Less than 1% will admit they were wrong. Straight denial, reasoning that it doesn’t actually matter, or pretending they knew the whole time lab origin was possible are all preferable alternatives. Admitting you were wrong is career suicide.
The political investments in natural origin are strong. Trump claiming a Chinese lab was responsible automatically put a large chunk of Americans in the opposite camp. My interest in the topic actually started with reading up to confirm why he was wrong, only to find the Daszak-orchestrated Lancet letter that miscited numerous articles and the Proximal Origins paper that might be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. The Lancet letter’s declaration that “lab origin theories = racist” influenced discourse in a way that cannot be understated. It also seems many view more deadly viruses as an adjoining component of climate change: a notion that civilizing more square footage of earth means we are inevitably bound to suffer nature’s increasing wrath in the form of increasingly virulent, deadly pathogens.
The professional motivations are stark and gross. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Thoughts on the origin are frequently dismissed if you’re not a virologist. But all the money in virology is in gain of function. Oops!