My position is that sometimes we get lied to.
Sometimes public perception is manipulated.
This was published today, timely, the information came from FOIA requests. It's pretty self explanatory.
Sure seems like sometimes government funded organizations and scientists intentionally mislead the public regarding pandemics
https://usrtk.org/biohazards-blog/e...ts-statement-on-natural-origin-of-sars-cov-2/
Posted on
November 18, 2020 by
Sainath Suryanarayanan
Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a
statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has
received millions of dollars of
U.S. taxpayer funding to
genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the
Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the
Lancet statement, and that he intended it to
“not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person” but rather to be seen as
“simply a letter from leading scientists”. Daszak wrote that he wanted “
to avoid the appearance of a political statement”.
The scientists’ letter appeared in
The Lancet on February 18, just one week after the World Health Organization announced that the disease caused by the novel coronavirus would be named COVID-19.
The 27 authors “strongly condemn[ed] conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” and reported that scientists from multiple countries “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife.” The letter included no scientific references to refute a lab-origin theory of the virus. One scientist, Linda Saif, asked via email whether it would be useful
“to add just one or 2 statements in support of why nCOV is not a lab generated virus and is naturally occuring? Seems critical to scientifically refute such claims!” Daszak responded, “
I think we should probably stick to a broad statement.”
Growing calls to investigate the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a potential source of SARS-CoV-2 have led to
increased scrutiny of EcoHealth Alliance. The emails show how members of EcoHealth Alliance played an early role in framing questions about possible lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 as “crackpot theories that need to be addressed,” as
Daszak told The Guardian.
Although the phrase “EcoHealth Alliance” appeared only once in
The Lancet statement, in association with co-author Daszak, several other co-authors also have direct ties to the group that were not disclosed as conflicts of interest. Rita Colwell and James Hughes are
members of the Board of Directors of EcoHealth Alliance,
William Karesh is the group’s Executive Vice President for Health and Policy, and
Hume Field is Science and Policy Advisor.
The statement’s authors also claimed that the “rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins.” Today, however,
little is known about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and investigations into its origins by
the World Health Organization and
The Lancet COVID-19 commission have been
shrouded in secrecy and mired by
conflicts of interests.
Peter Daszak, Rita Colwell, and
The Lancet Editor Richard Horton did not provide comments in response to our requests for this story.
For more information:
A link to the entire batch of EcoHealth Alliance emails can be found here:
EcoHealth Alliance emails: University of Maryland (466 pages)
U.S. Right to Know is posting documents obtained through public freedom of information (FOI) requests for
our Biohazards investigation in our post:
FOI documents on origins of SARS-CoV-2, hazards of gain-of-function research and biosafety labs.
Sad.
