‘Magnificent falsehood’ to suggest Covid lab leak theory is dead

Suggestions that Covid came from a lab were treated like a wild conspiracy theory by ‘useful idiots’ who thought they knew better – until now.

There are a few self-delighted ABC types who should be issuing grovelling apologies right about now. These smug taxpayer-funded leftist propagandists who cheered on every irrational Covid-19 restriction also went out of their way to shut down and discredit anyone questioning the origins of the virus.

Initially, in the shock of a pandemic being declared, it was generally accepted that it had, like a number of previous pandemics, emerged from a Chinese wet market. The official narrative included tales of bat soup leading to the coronavirus jumping from animals to humans. But within weeks there were brave, curious scientists and pundits questioning this narrative.

For the pundits there was plenty of reason to doubt the official explanation, including little facts – like the wet market in Wuhan not selling bats. And then there was the pertinent detail about Wuhan being home to a massive lab that studied coronaviruses.

A worker at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Picture: Supplied

What are the chances that a coronavirus epidemic would begin in a city home to such a lab? But any suggestion that the Wuhan Institute of Virology may have been the source of the virus was treated like a wild conspiracy theory akin to claims that the moon landing was faked or that the earth is flat.

Journalists showed a remarkable lack of curiosity in following the biggest story in the world and allowed themselves, again and again, to be the useful idiots of the Chinese Communist Party and other powerful forces closer to home. They remained incurious even when a number of leading scientists spoke of the Covid-19 pathogen having a genetic sequence that had never been observed in a natural coronavirus. Instead of pursuing the story, they attacked the dissenting voices and sought to silence or discredit them.

Journalists have been useful idiots of the Chinese Communist Party. Picture: AFP

You see, the activist media could not allow the lab leak theory to be credible because it was floated by President Donald Trump in early 2020. From that moment it became imperative for the leftist media to mock the theory rather than investigate it.

On Sky News Australia, we explored this phenomenon in a 22-minute report called “Lab Leak Liars: How China and authorities deceived us”. It has been viewed about 700,000 times in the past week just on YouTube alone.

The US media were strongest in railing against the lab leak theory but there were also plenty of local examples.

Leading the charge in Australia was the ABC, with the likes of Paul Barry and the chronically wrong Norman Swan, along with the taxpayer funded The Conversation, which as late as August, 2022 published a piece with the headline “The Covid lab leak theory is dead”. Only the theory is not dead. The Conversation’s credibility, however, is terminal. Barry called the lab leak theory “crazy” and said: “How likely is it that the virus escaped from that Chinese lab? Well, in short, it’s not.”

The activist media railed against the lab leak theory. Picture: Getty

But late last month there was confirmation that the White House and key members of Congress had received intelligence reports from the US Energy Department concluding that Covid-19 most likely arose from a laboratory leak in Wuhan.

The reaction from the Chinese Communist Party was unbridled outrage. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused the US of political manipulation and said: “The conclusions they have reached have no credibility to speak of.”

Now, it’s true that the conclusion is not shared by every scientist or government body, but it is a magnificent falsehood to suggest – as the CCP, ABC and The Conversation have done – that the lab leak theory is dead or discredited. It was and remains the most likely explanation.

FBI director Christopher Wray has confirmed that has long been the opinion of the agency. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident,” he said. Wray also spoke of Beijing “doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate” investigations into the origins of the pandemic.

FBI Director Christopher Wray says the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident. Picture: AFP

In the US there is a renewed drive to find out why so many in the scientific community were complicit in trying to bury the theory. Senior Republican Jim Jordan is delving into Dr Anthony Fauci’s involvement. “I think it’s because they were doing gain of function research there. He (Fauci) didn’t want that out, and that was the narrative that everyone to the Left bought into – even though the facts and common sense, maybe most importantly, pointed to the lab leak theory,” he said.

This week the New York Post reported on the “deceptive” manner in which Fauci influenced the official narrative. And on Thursday former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr Robert Redfield testified that Fauci “sidelined” him because he believed the virus came from a lab. He also explained that it was clear a significant event happened in the Wuhan lab in September 2019. “They deleted the sequences, which is highly irregular, researchers don’t usually like to do that,” he said.

Far from being dead the lab leak theory is only now being properly probed.