Let's play a game. We'll ask "Is SARS-COV-2 a Chinese bioweapon?"
First, we'll ask a scientist. The scientist might say something like "Well there isn't an established scientific consensus. The possibility exists, but such viruses do naturally appear and that's the most probable explanation."
Next, we'll ask an intelligence officer. The intelligence officer will say "Without question. There's a clearly established pattern: China secretly bribed the head of Harvard's chemistry department, Dr. Lieber, and we assume other academics. Chinese agents were working for him disguised as grad students and we caught one of them smuggling virus specimens out of the country. We have caught other Chinese researchers smuggling pandemic-grade viruses both into and out of the United States. China lied about the outbreak, used their mouthpieces to falsely downplay the danger, and closed Wuhan off to internal Chinese travel while allowing foreign travel. They then refused our inspectors admission and destroyed all evidence while running active disinformation campaigns to manipulate world and U.S. opinion. Whether the virus was developed as a weapon or not, we have complete confidence that it was used as a weapon, just as we can be confident that a hammer found in a man's skull was so used."
We are and have been at war with China.
(BTW this is why nobody wants scientists to run their country)
Whether the virus was developed as a weapon or not, we have complete confidence that it was used as a weapon
This is your straw man. Good job hiding it.
No one is arguing that China was innocent and did nothing wrong. What's being argued is whether this was intended as a weapon and intentionally released. Which, despite all the conspiracy theories, there isn't actually any evidence of that being the case.
Did they respond in a way that did maximum damage to everyone except them? Absolutely.
But that's not the same as releasing an engineered bioweapon and you know it.
I'm saying that "This is a Chinese bioweapon" and "This is an engineered virus that escaped a lab and then the Chinese decided to use it to cause as much damage as possible once they realized they couldn't contain it" are two distinctly different statements and anyone trying to conflate the two is either stupid or intentionally dishonest.
Ah, I understand, you're trying to make the point that "That hammer that China used to cave in the guy's skull wasn't designed to be a weapon."
That's an utterly worthless distinction. See original post.
BTW engineering viruses for gain-of-function is completely indistinguishable from creating a bioweapon; they are literally exactly the same thing except using different words. So your point is even more pointless.
Let's play a game. We'll ask "Is SARS-COV-2 a Chinese bioweapon?"
First, we'll ask a scientist. The scientist might say something like "Well there isn't an established scientific consensus. The possibility exists, but such viruses do naturally appear and that's the most probable explanation."
Next, we'll ask an intelligence officer. The intelligence officer will say "Without question. There's a clearly established pattern: China secretly bribed the head of Harvard's chemistry department, Dr. Lieber, and we assume other academics. Chinese agents were working for him disguised as grad students and we caught one of them smuggling virus specimens out of the country. We have caught other Chinese researchers smuggling pandemic-grade viruses both into and out of the United States. China lied about the outbreak, used their mouthpieces to falsely downplay the danger, and closed Wuhan off to internal Chinese travel while allowing foreign travel. They then refused our inspectors admission and destroyed all evidence while running active disinformation campaigns to manipulate world and U.S. opinion. Whether the virus was developed as a weapon or not, we have complete confidence that it was used as a weapon, just as we can be confident that a hammer found in a man's skull was so used."
We are and have been at war with China.
(BTW this is why nobody wants scientists to run their country)
well put
This is your straw man. Good job hiding it.
No one is arguing that China was innocent and did nothing wrong. What's being argued is whether this was intended as a weapon and intentionally released. Which, despite all the conspiracy theories, there isn't actually any evidence of that being the case.
Did they respond in a way that did maximum damage to everyone except them? Absolutely.
But that's not the same as releasing an engineered bioweapon and you know it.
I get that you have a smarmy tone but I don't understand what you're actually trying to say. Could you please write this again more clearly?
I'm saying that "This is a Chinese bioweapon" and "This is an engineered virus that escaped a lab and then the Chinese decided to use it to cause as much damage as possible once they realized they couldn't contain it" are two distinctly different statements and anyone trying to conflate the two is either stupid or intentionally dishonest.
Ah, I understand, you're trying to make the point that "That hammer that China used to cave in the guy's skull wasn't designed to be a weapon."
That's an utterly worthless distinction. See original post.
BTW engineering viruses for gain-of-function is completely indistinguishable from creating a bioweapon; they are literally exactly the same thing except using different words. So your point is even more pointless.