The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The AP drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings, and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known — in the first weeks of the outbreak — and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing.

Crucial initial efforts were hindered by bureaucrats in Wuhan trying to avoid blame who misled the central government; the central government, which silenced Chinese scientists and subjected visiting U.N. officials to stage-managed tours; and the World Health Organization itself, which may have compromised early opportunities to gather critical information, according to internal materials obtained by AP.

  • Heresy_generator@kbin.social
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    8 months ago

    It’s not a biological warfare lab, it’s a research lab and having a coronavirus research lab in the place where coronaviruses originate is the most obvious fucking thing in the world.

    I imagine you must think all of the earthquake research labs in California cause earthquakes. And Japan’s tsunami research labs cause tsunamis. And the Ebola research labs in Africa cause Ebola.

    • stembolts@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      I can’t tell if you’re right because you are not telling me what I should think, what if I have a thought? Will it hurt? I prefer when the people on TV tell me who to be afraid of, what is this new type of thinking? It’s scary. /s