Covid Origins: Progress or Orchestrated Next-Stage Deceitful Narrative?

Lab origins, once derided, is now increasingly accepted, so now a major goal of the establishment is to focus blame on China so US institutions are not scrutinized and dangerous lab work continues.

Michael Shellenberger, the lead writer on a story (with Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag) citing US government sources that the index cases of Covid worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology asks in an interview on “Rising” why the US government would withhold info about lab origins of Covid.

The answer is obvious: If the global public had understood that Covid had lab origin early in the pandemic, there would have been an overwhelming global movement to halt such work and hold officials accountable.

By disinforming the public, the officials and proxy scientists and media hindered most people from seeing the reality. The constant stream of stories about pangolins and raccoon dogs had the effect of delaying a moment of reckoning for as long as possible.

So that when some bit of truth comes out, it's not as earth-shattering.

This was similar to false claims that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had in fact been found after the Iraq invasion in 2003. By confusing enough of the public at different times, muddying the waters, these stories in both cases hinder a crystalizing “Storming of the Bastille” moment.

So disinformation goes through different phases, as with stages of a rocket. Effectively, a chimera over time, fusing the competing, seemingly contradictory goals of the establishment.

To prevent a wave of public scrutiny at the beginning of the pandemic, it was necessary to pretend Covid could not have lab origin. But that story couldn’t be maintained forever, so now the focus is on blaming the Wuhan Institute of Virology and letting others, especially US institutions, off the hook as much as possible.

And of course, that’s another motive for much of the US establishment to dismiss lab origin: It at least shares responsibility. Prof. Richard Ebright:

Prof. Francis Boyle recently argued that there was an effective effort to coverup origins by both the US and Chinese governments.

Dr. Meryl Nass charges:

The Shellenberger-Taibbi-Gutentag story is being driven, like the recent Sunday Times piece, by anonymous US government sources. They are being depicted as intrepid whistleblowers in the recent interview with Shellenberger, but this is clearly part of a long-term operation.

Starting in 2021, the Wall Street Journal in “Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate On Covid-19 Origin” citing an “undisclosed U.S. intelligence report” attempted to pin virtually all the blame on China. (See my piece from 2021: “Crucial Points on Pandemic Origins Debate.”) This was put out just as Biden called on the “intelligence agencies” to assess the origins of Covid and began the mainstream collapse of the dominant (and absurd) Daszak narrative which very few in liberal or mainstream circles questioned in 2020.

Legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley earlier this year and signed by Biden, the so-called “COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023” codified the pin-it-on-the-WIV agenda:

This completely comports with the reporting by Shellenberger and company. Their big scoop was naming the Chinese researchers who were the alleged index cases. But that’s exactly what the legislation called for. So, this isn’t a maverick whistleblower driving this story. This is at least part of officialdom.

As previously reported, Hawley and others have completely falsified this legislation to the US public — he loudly claimed “my bill which will declassify all of the information the federal government has on Covid origins” when it clearly only targets the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Thus it is possible US agencies could have information on some other source for the outbreak (or possibly even information exonerating the WIV) and would not declassify it, much less release it.

Similarly, the Washington Post’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning science journalist Mark Johnson falsely reported on March 10: “In a rare show of bipartisanship near the third anniversary of the pandemic, the House voted unanimously Friday to declassify all US intelligence information on the origins of the coronavirus.” See from March “Lies About Covid Origins Are Accelerating” (I wrote a letter to the Post to correct the record which they did not publish.)

Regardless, the 90 days are up on Sunday.

So, the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, will presumably put out something by that time. This all seems quite orchestrated, though it may possible that these recent reports are an attempt to mold what she puts out.

She and China's CDC Director George Gao discussed censoring a lab leak at Event 201 “table top” or “war games” in Oct. 2019:

US Secretary of State Blinken is scheduled to be in China on Sunday and Monday. Haines and Blinken were both at WestExec. There is clearly a high level of orchestration going on.

There are two strands of the US establishment on this issue:

1. Continue and accelerate the creation of deadly pathogens (effectively biowarfare).

2. Demonize China (and possibly others) for doing the same.

Part of goal number 2 is to blame China for Covid. Alone. Without sufficient examination of US institutional culpability.

The first strand is personified in people like Fauci and Peter Daszak.

The second strand is personified in many who want to target China.

Some combine both strands, like Jamie Metzl of the Atlantic Council, who was a source for the recent piece by Shellenberger and company.

While the recent Sunday Times piece, as previously reported, makes no mention of USAID, and indeed, falsely claims that its PREDICT program was run by EcoHealth Alliance, the Shellenberger piece makes the briefest mention of USAID.

I recently questioned the State Department about USAID funding of dangerous lab work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — for the third time — and again, there were no straight answers. At all.

Former State Department official David Feith actually stated in Congressional testimony earlier this year: “some colleagues who warned against highlighting China’s gain-of-function research, lest it draw attention to the U.S. government’s own role in such research and otherwise open a ‘Pandora’s Box.’”

Much of the current narrative seems driven by a series of Muddy Waters reports overseen by Robert Kadlec now working out of the Senate. Whitney Webb early on in the pandemic called him “Head of the Hydra”. He was Director for Biodefense and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. And he was in charge of “Warp Speed” under Donald Trump.

Also at this time, US Right to Know has put out tiny bits of documents they finally got after years of struggle from the State Department: “State Department cables: Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted classified research.” But even these documents are highly redacted. So there’s ample reason to suspect that the US government is cherry picking information to put forward a narrative that casts itself in best possible light.

While the recent reports focus on WIV scientists “who had developed COVID-19-like illnesses in November 2019” — Rossana Segreto notably asks:

Rand Paul also just stepped up activity. It’s possible he’s posturing here, but it’s possible that he is part of a push to get the DNI to release more information.

The limitation of the declassification and the brazen falsification about it, have to raise the issue of whether with WIV is being framed. Or if there is some sort of joint disinformation project by the US and Chinese establishments.

Alexis Baden-Mayer charges:

For more, see my piece from March: