World Health Organization Director Thinks COVID Leaked From Wuhan Lab
A new story from the Daily Mail reports that World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus privately admits that he believes that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
Tedros apparently made the remarks to a prominent European politician that a "catastrophic accident" was the "most likely explanation" for the beginning of the pandemic.
The WHO in early 2021 started an investigation into the origins of the pandemic, which concluded that the lab leak hypothesis was "extremely unlikely." However, the researcher who led that investigation claimed that China "pressured" the team to "dismiss" the lab leak theory.
Scientific journal The Lancet attempted an investigation, which was disbanded over conflicts of interest. Eco Health Alliance head Peter Daszak failed to disclose his close ties to the Wuhan lab, resulting in criticism of the committee's objectivity.
While privately Tedros is now seemingly admitting that the lab leak is the most likely origin, the official position of the WHO is that "all hypothesis" are still possible.
It's extremely unlikely that they will ever change their official, public statements given China's importance to the organization.
In early 2020, for example, China contributed an additional $30 million to the WHO in what was described as a "political power move" to "boost its superficial credentials."
The true origins of the pandemic are obviously an extremely important issue not just for China and the WHO, but the global political landscape. Beyond officially determining where the virus came from, if it is conclusively determined to have resulted from a lab leak, it would be a crushing blow to "experts" like Dr. Anthony Fauci who tried repeatedly to shut down the theory.
"The science" has been repeatedly referenced by media outlets, public health authorities and politicians as an immutable set of beliefs that are unassailable and infallible.
If a deadly global pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of millions of people, destroyed economies, increased poverty and furthered educational deterioration started in a research lab, it could mark a devastating shift in the public's view of "science."
What's most infuriating about Tedros finally (and privately) giving credence to the lab leak is that for much of 2020, proponents of the hypothesis were decried as "conspiracy theorists."
The Washington Post famously published an article calling it a "debunked" conspiracy theory and were forced to issue a humiliating correction afterwards.
Media outlets like the Post never had any justification to call the lab leak a "debunked" conspiracy, but it's obvious they felt safe in describing at as such because it was promoted by the wrong people. Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator, had advanced the hypothesis, therefore it must be "debunked" because Cotton belongs to the wrong ideology.
That myopic, politically motivated thinking has been a common function of most major media outlets who are often desperate to declare their allegiance to the correct set of approved liberal opinions.
Social media companies like Facebook used the media and WHO as authoritative sources of information and as a result, banned users from even discussing the lab leak.
Only in mid-2021 did Facebook reverse course after admitting it was not "debunked."
This story contains all the infuriating elements of COVID discussion - "experts" lying to the public and bowing to political pressure from China, a fake consensus of opinion created by the media, and social media outlets protecting "science" by censoring opposing viewpoints.
While China's opposition to an actual investigation will likely prevent any conclusive findings, it's notable that the head of the WHO admits privately that the "conspiracy theorists" were probably right all along.