Doubts About The Origin Of Covid And What To Do About It
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a?mod=hp_lead_pos4
https://www.wsj.com/articles/common-sense-points-to-a-lab-leak-wuhan-institute-of-virology-lab-virus-research-china-lincoln-729ac1fb
The Covid-19 virus caused a major pandemic that affected the entire globe. It is estimated that the virus killed up to 7 million people, sickened many times more, and saddled thousands with a protracted sequela called “long Covid” which is a real syndrome whose etiology is uncertain at present.
Surely, we need to learn as much as we can about the manner in which this pandemic was handled by the world and how much we got right, and how much we got very wrong.
In the months since this pandemic began, my own thinking has evolved dramatically.
I was a firm believer in isolation, masks, and vaccines. I still embrace the latter, but readily acknowledge that mandating those who were already infected get vaccinated may not be substantiated by data (see second article). My guess is that the mRNA vaccines used in the western world saved thousands of lives particularly among the older population—like me. I got plenty sick with the virus, but I did recover. I am not so certain that I would have done so well without the initial vaccine and four boosters, however, had I been sick before I got all those shots, it is less clear that I needed them.
Regardless, there is a lot to learn from our response and what was effective and what was not. The biggest issue there is whether or not masks even mattered—N95 or otherwise. I really do understand those on the right who were irked at Dr. Fauci’s initial statements that masks weren’t needed after which he became a big proponent of mask mandates. It is still very unclear if masks matter and if they do, why don’t we use them every winter to curtail the damage produced by the flu and other respiratory viruses?
Today, though, I would like to focus on the great unanswered question about the pandemic. How did it start? (See third article by the great Peggy Noonan.)
There seems to be wide spread agreement that the first cases of Covid-19 occurred in Wuhan, China. At the outset, an open-air seafood “wet” market selling live animals was identified as the source of the outbreak. In this scenario, there was really nothing that could have been done to prevent the jumping of the animal virus to man. This always seemed strange to me as I would have thought this zoonotic transmission would have taken place long ago if bats, civets, or pangolins were the origins of the disease. The fact that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was right there and playing around with bat viruses has always been concerning to many of us. Now, finally, the Department of Energy thinks so, too (first article).
If the western medical establishment could get into the Wuhan Institute and study the genomes of its viral samples, particularly those from the earliest infected patients, the mystery could be solved. But China has thus far not permitted a thorough investigation of the lab or the patient samples and insists the virus did not originate in China, which is absurd.
If it turns out that the origins of Covid were really from a man-made source, then China should be brought to trial in the International Court or taken to task at the United Nations and pay reparations to the rest of the world.
And, if any NIH money flowed to the Wuhan Lab from which this pandemic might have started, the NIH needs a thorough vetting as well. Why were they funding research there when they know (or should have known) gain of function studies might be done?
There’s a lot China has to answer for and I doubt that it ever will, but surely, we can work as hard as possible to end the mystery of Covid’s origins and bring those responsible to justice.
I know. Fat chance. But we have to try.
