By: Dr. Austin Lin & Dr. Jianli Yang – Mar 22, 2022
Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine is commanding global attention. However, away from the current spotlight, another war, which will also bound to be consequential in shaping the future of the world order, is being fought quietly – simmering battles of narratives over the origins of COVID-19. On one side is a guerrilla team of mostly no-name sleuths plus a lonely postdoc; on the other is the peculiar but powerful alliance of the Western virology establishment and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In February 2022, four new preprints (non peer-reviewed articles) concerning COVID-19’s origin were released. Two preprints are from the virology establishment, totaling 150 pages and 47 coauthors, these figures meant to “shock and awe” the public with “analyses”. The publications were immediately followed up with a media blitz by a newly formed “virology-media-complex.” The New York Times shattered the glass by presenting it as a breaking news; this account was then obediently repeated by NPR, Nature, Vox, The Economist, etc. Virologists were quoted as saying that the papers had “cracked the case,” were “extraordinarily clear”, and had “settled” the controversy. The authors claimed to have narrowed down the origin to a single stall in the Huanan wet market in Wuhan in December 2019, backed by a picture of… [Continue Reading]
Source: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/03/22/the-war-of-narratives-over-the-origin-of-covid-19-and-our-virology-media-complex/