Intelligence officials and disease experts are shooting down Trump's claim that the US has good reas
Source: Business Insider
Intelligence officials and disease experts are shooting down Trump's claim that the US has good reason to believe the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab
Ashley Collman 7 hours ago
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had seen evidence that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a research lab in Wuhan, China, but is "not allowed to tell anyone" what it is.
A few hours later, The Washington Post published a report citing intelligence officials and disease experts that contradicted this claim.
The Post's sources said there's no evidence connecting the outbreak to the lab, and that the lab accident theory is possible but not likely.
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had seen evidence that shows the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, but US intelligence sources and disease experts seem to be contradicting this claim.
At Thursday's White House daily coronavirus press briefing, Trump said US authorities were looking into the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has previously conducted extensive research on coronaviruses that originate in bats...................................
When a reporter asked him if he had seen "anything that gives you a high degree of confidence" that the coronavirus originated in this lab, Trump said: "Yes I have," but added he's "not allowed to tell" anyone about the intelligence.....................
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-coronavirus-wuhan-lab-claim-intelligence-disease-experts-contradict-report-2020-5
https://i.insider.com/5eabfeeb578532638c117775?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp
wuhan institute of virology
President Trump has been pushing a theory that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, pictured above on April 17, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)The President has the absolute authority to declassify material and he has done so in the past, even outing an Israeli asset.
To now claim that he's "not allowed to tell" is pure BS.
AZ8theist
(5,493 posts)WORTHLESS. VILE. IMBECILIC SUB-HUMAN ASSHOLE.
(I hope I covered all the bases.....feel free to pile on!!)
mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)AZ8theist
(5,493 posts)AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)this article in Nature Magazine lays out the possibility of an "inadvertent laboratory release" of the virus WITHOUT the virus being genetically manipulated within the lab:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
...
3. Selection during passage
Basic research involving passage of bat SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses in cell culture and/or animal models has been ongoing for many years in biosafety level 2 laboratories across the world27, and there are documented instances of laboratory escapes of SARS-CoV28. We must therefore examine the possibility of an inadvertent laboratory release of SARS-CoV-2.
...
State the Obvious
(842 posts)When Trump feels cornered, he resorts to lies, misinformation and half-truths and any other deception he can manufacture. That might have worked before, but it doesn't anymore.... we now know how he works and how he spins the narrative.
CBS This Morning reported "President Trump has said that he has seen credible evidence that the virus originated in a lab." A reporter afterwards replied...
...to talk about a lab DOESN'T necessarily mean manmade. It could have been studied (as would have been appropriate) in China to STUDY avian viruses. BUT.....that DOESN'T MEAN IT WAS MANMADE.
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Trump's vague messages are always an attempt to dismember the truth.We know that now, don't we?
AZ8theist
(5,493 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)He's literally looking for any excuse to pin the blame on them. Thank god people are seeing past his madness.
State the Obvious
(842 posts).... in his attempts to mangle the truth.
We are on to you, Donald!
Initech
(100,102 posts)Let's hope that we don't go there before November 3rd.
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)instead of Americans traveling there for business because our job creators decided to create jobs in China for lower wages.
Ford_Prefect
(7,919 posts)Although he does take advice from known Russian agents.
William Seger
(10,779 posts)... and they've been colluding again lately, so that's my guess.
JCMach1
(27,572 posts)or, whoever told him anyway... Could actually be Fauci as he has been heavily involved in the kind of research that may have caused the issue here...
AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)"This is no nefarious secret program in an underground military bunker. The Wuhan lab received funding, mostly for virus discovery, in part from a ten-year, $200 million international program called PREDICT, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other countries. Similar work, funded in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has been carried out in dozens of labs throughout the world. Some of this research involves taking deadly viruses and enhancing their ability to spread quickly through a populationresearch that took place over the objections of hundreds of scientists, who have warned for years of the program's potential to cause a pandemic."
DrToast
(6,414 posts)But Trump is lying that he has seen proof.
JCMach1
(27,572 posts)Not the usual intelligence channels...
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)I have known Dr. Anthony Fauci for over thirty years, going back to what we called the trench warfare of AIDS. Your comments display a staggering recklessness, and are ignorant, poorly-informed and have no basis in reality or fact. Tony is not now, nor has he ever been involved in the kind of bio-weapon research you reference. Never. That would be an anathema to his conscience.
It's easy to smear someone you don't know to score cheap political talking points. However you have chosen the wrong man to smear. Before you engage in false, hollow, rumor-mongering and the character assassination of a great man, who has dedicated his entire life to the safety and integrity of public health, and whose reputation is not in dispute, I suggest you do your research.
JCMach1
(27,572 posts)That article explains Fauci's involvement
I am.just presenting the information, yet you are attacking me personally.
Not cool
AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)Last edited Sat May 2, 2020, 04:18 PM - Edit history (3)
calling for more guidance, and the reasoning has nothing to do with "bio-weapon research" :
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2017/12/feds-lift-gain-function-research-pause-offer-guidance
...
In light of controversial research on H5N1 viruses in 2012, the Obama administration in 2014 announced a pause of federally funded GOF research and asked a government advisory group to reevaluate federal GOF funding policies and put together recommendations to help officials make their decisions.
The expert group, called the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), commissioned a 1,000-page risk-benefit assessment to help them make their final guidance, which they finalized in June 2016, along with an ethics white paper. As part of the process, the NSABB held two National Academies symposia on GOF issues.
...
displacedtexan
(15,696 posts)Truly heavy sigh.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)truthisfreedom
(23,155 posts)That researchers accidentally released a coronavirus they found in bats.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)...that the Chinese reactivated the live markets that were the actual source of this virus because of Trumps tariffs cutting off the supply of US-grown pork in the Chinese marketplace.