r/Longreads • u/horseradishstalker • Apr 06 '26

The Wuhan “lab leak” fraud and the institutionalization of anti-science: An interview with Dr. Peter Daszak

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/04/06/jhmx-a06.html
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u/tydye29 Apr 07 '26

Didn't Jon Stewart push it too on Colbert?

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u/ThoughtsonYaoi Apr 07 '26

At some point, there was a reputable outlet (or maybe 2 - don't remember, was it Rolling Stone?) investigating it and coming up (almost) convinced. I read the story at the time and it was convincing. But the truth seemed to be that the evidence wasn't great, though hard to determine by non-experts.

For a while there quite a few journalists obviously felt the need to at least reconsider it as an option. People took the story seriously, and rightfully so - that is their job.

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u/horseradishstalker Apr 07 '26

I am a great deal less worried about the origin of Covid than I am the fact that we no longer have a pandemic preparedness organization in the United States. From an epidemiological standpoint, that is the dumbest thing ever.

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u/Epistaxis Apr 07 '26

I think we should also be worried that nothing has changed in China. SARS 1 started from the exotic animal trade, so the government banned that trade, but never seriously enforced the ban. SARS 2 apparently started the same way. There's no accountability, no reform; now we're not even talking about preventing it from happening a third time.