This is why I avoid political news

Feb 17, 2020, 11:18 AM

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/coronavirus-tom-cotton-china.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

First off, he didn't say it was a biological weapon run amok. He said it may have escaped from a lab. That's all. They study bats and coronavirus in Chinese labs. Chinese labs have a history of leaking out SARS, and almost started another outbreak of SARS after the first one when it leaked from a lab. They stopped it with only a few infections of lab workers.

Second, if the virus started in this market, as China suggests, it would not be too difficult to go over there and test the animals in THAT market. This obvious move was never done. They SHOULD have closed the market, made the vendors leave every single animal there, and systematically test them starting with the most likely candidates. To date no exact replica of this virus has been found in any animal. In theory, there is an exact replica of the original strain in that market, before they closed it and the animals "vanished".

Third, the only comprehensive study of the first 41 known cases of the disease indicates patient zero had NO CONTACT with the seafood market. 10 DAYS later, there are 3 more infections. Only one of those had contact with the seafood market. Then another 4 days go by with no further infections. Then most of the subsequent cases have contact with the seafood market. But again, the first patient had NO CONTACT with the seafood market. 10 days go by before any other patients appear. Then those 3 cases...2 of them ALSO had no contact with the seafood market.

Fourth, information about the virus was initially suppressed by the Chinese government. The numbers released were deflated. Yet the Chinese reaction to the disease was disproportionate to the announced number of cases and deaths.

While the theory that this is a biological weapon release, or a population control measure, or whatever other dingbat theories are out there, what Senator Cotton is concerned about is valid. To date, China has handled this very similarly to how they handled SARS (early on at least):

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/asia/13doctor.html

China Bars U.S. Trip for Doctor Who Exposed SARS Cover-Up

Jiang Yanyong rose to international prominence in 2003, when he disclosed that at least 100 people were being treated in Beijing hospitals for SARS.

And they have had SARS infect lab workers even after SARS officially ended:
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2004/05/ill-chinese-lab-workers-didnt-handle-sars-virus

Ill Chinese lab workers didn't handle SARS virus

(CIDRAP News) ? Neither of two researchers who apparently contracted SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in a virology laboratory in Beijing worked directly with the SARS virus, which complicates the problem of determining how they acquired it, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Imagine that. A doctor gave an early warning about SARS when it first appeared and he was silenced. Two Chinese lab workers catch it several years later and no one knows how they got it because they allegedly didn't work with SARS in the lab, even though it was there.

It is not a crazy conspiracy theory to think this may have accidentally escaped from a lab. Perhaps one studying bats. Crazy is the theory it was biologically engineered, and released to control the Chinese population, or as a biological weapon. But it's NOT crazy to refuse to believe Chinese news about viruses. History has so far repeated itself, and once again China has shown they can not be trusted. It's not a crazy theory to think this was totally natural too. Although the earliest cases seem to indicate this did NOT start in that seafood market. And that's what's so great about totalitarian regimes. We will likely never know.

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If you're saying CNN and New York Times and whatnot are too overtly political and trend too far left, yeah, I would agree. They do, and they need to regain their equilibrium and get back to as much middle-of-the-road NPR/BBC-type reporting as possible and stop their editorializing. I don't wanna see talking heads, I want facts.

That said, even CNN loathes and despises Beijing and isn't exactly buddies with Xi. In fact this was their front page AS WE SPEAK, in fact:
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/02/asia/xinjiang-china-karakax-document-intl-hnk/

China’s Xinjiang records revealed: Uyghurs thrown into detention for growing beards or bearing too many children, leaked Chinese document shows

Government records reveal for the first time the criteria by which Uyghurs are judged and detained in mass internment camps

It's a pretty brutal expose on what the ethnic Chinese are doing to re-program Muslims for being, you know, Muslim.

I agree that the questions you're asking need answering and China is hardly being forthcoming because, of course, The State Can Do No Wrong, but how is that any different than the utter shielding from accountability Fox News and the so-called "conservative media" do for Trump? They've effectively become exactly the same kind of State TV you're bitterly decrying from China...which is exactly why Trump feels free to do whatever he wants...whenever he wants, and there really seems no bottom to how low he feels empowered to go.

So you're mad the press dismisses Tom Cotton? Well...he earned it. Because when Tom Cotton - himself guilty of massive and habitual distortion - starts repeating master Machiovellian Steve Bannon's talking points, the legit press - sorry, mainstream media is conditioned to just go click, because if Bannnon's lips are moving, 95% of the time he's lying through his teeth.

Boy who cried wolf, you know?

This is why I avoid political news

Tom Cotton's a hysterical wingnut.

It's a big distinction. There's no indication this is a

Re: It's a big distinction. There's no indication this is a

It hasn't been debunked.

Don't bother

Re: This is why I avoid political news

This is quite the damning commentary on the media:

Re: This is quite the damning commentary on the media:

I’m confused. You are the one saying that a US Senator is just a puppet

They put words in his mouth.

Re: They put words in his mouth.

Swine flu sucked. Early on a lot of people had complication

gain of function virus research has been going on for years

That Tom Cotton... sharp as a husk.***

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