Tipsheet

Biden Administration is Finding Lab Leak Theory as Credible as Natural Occurrence, But Don't Get Too Excited

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 17, 2021 4:45 PM

On Friday, CNN reported the welcoming news that "Senior Biden officials finding that Covid lab leak theory as credible as natural origins explanation," though the lengthy report was nevertheless very quick to downplay this revelation. 

For instance, early on the piece reads:

Still, more than halfway into President Joe Biden's renewed 90-day push to find answers, the intelligence community remains firmly divided over whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab or jumped naturally from animals to humans in the wild, multiple sources familiar with the probe told CNN.

Little new evidence has emerged to move the needle in one direction or another, these people said. But the fact that the lab leak theory is being seriously considered by top Biden officials is noteworthy and comes amid a growing openness to the idea even though most scientists who study coronaviruses and who have investigated the origins of the pandemic say the evidence strongly supports a natural origin.
Current intelligence reinforces the belief that the virus most likely originated naturally, from animal-human contact and was not deliberately engineered, the sources said. But that does not preclude the possibility that the virus was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats -- although many scientists familiar with the research say such a leak is unlikely.

CNN is less than forthcoming when it comes to naming these "scientists," rather they're mostly referred to as "sources."

Who is mentioned? Dr. Tedros with the World Health Organization (WHO), who it's unclear as to why the Biden administration thinks is somehow still credible. As CNN mentioned, and, as Spencer reported, Dr. Tedros actually acknowledged, finally, that ruling out the lab leak theory was "premature."

Well, it may be too little too late, as even CNN acknowledges:

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"For now, sources say, both theories lack definitive evidence, and officials say we may never know the truth."

"We're hoping to find a smoking gun, but it might not happen," [Director of National Intelligence Avril] Haines told Yahoo. 

CNN even mentions, without any pushback, China's take on this:

Also on Thursday, China's foreign ministry spokesperson released a statement saying that "since the beginning of the epidemic, China has taken a scientific, professional, serious and responsible attitude in tracing the origins of the virus."

...

For their part, scientists who have found strong genetic evidence that the virus came from an animal say they also would like access to what China knows about the beginnings of the pandemic, saying they can't make their case without access to early samples.

Not only does it appear that CNN favors the theory the virus occurred in nature, but the many contributors of this lengthy piece want to remind you of how President Donald Trump is a xenophobic racist:

For the better part of 2020, advocates for the lab leak theory had to fight against claims they were being xenophobic or racist —?in part thanks to anti-Chinese rhetoric from then-President Trump, who embraced the theory. An inquiry launched last fall by Trump's State Department, which sought to investigate whether China's biological weapons program could have had a greater role in the pandemic's origin in Wuhan, was shut down early on in the Biden administration.

This is consistent with the failure of action from key Democrats who would rather focus on blaming Trump than properly investigating origins as the virus, as I highlighted here in a VIP column. 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) who consistently and with evidence advocated for the lab leak theory, was also maligned. 

Months later, though, those who trashed his theory have now sought to cover it up once it gained traction, as Spencer highlighted when it comes to changed headlines from outlets such as The New York Times.

Despite how it appears CNN favors the theory that the virus came about naturally, even they have to acknowledge the existence of a POLITICO-Harvard poll, which, as I covered, now shows even a majority of Democrats favor the lab leak theory.

That being said, the CNN report fails to mention those scientific efforts of those who have spoken publicly in favor of the lab leak theory, such as NIH scientist Kristian Andersen, who wrote in an email to Dr. Anthony Fauci on January 31, 2020, that the virus looked to be "potentially engineered."

Also left out is a deep dive piece from science writer Nicholas Wade, who, in early May, laid out a massive amount of evidence as to how the virus could have been a lab leak in this Medium piece.

Further, this report does not make reference to Dr. Richard Ebright, an American molecular biologist, a Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers University, and the Laboratory Director of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology. He has been consistently forthcoming about how the lab leak theory should not have been written off.