COVID-19 Pandemic
Fig. 1. Photograph by author, November 8, 2022.
No later than Monday, and perhaps sooner, America’s director of National Intelligence must, by law, “declassify” and make public all “information relating to the origins of Covid-19”. . . .
Public Law Number 118-2, which was passed on March 20, is short at just 418 words but is to the point and gives the intelligence officials little, if any, wriggle room to hold things back.
It is one of the few things that those on either side of the Covid origins debate have come together to agree on, albeit for very different reasons.
Those who think the virus emerged naturally have dubbed it a “put up or shut up” law. Lab leakers, on the other hand, see it as a means to lift the lid on an episode they believe the US government itself is partly responsible for as it part-funded the high security lab in Wuhan.[1]
This strikes me as a bit foolish. First, we need motive for the intelligence community to have been withholding evidence. Apart from entirely cringe-worthy paranoia about U.S. funding, we have none. We do, however, have motive on the part of Donald Trump and his supporters, who have made very clear that they will not accept as credible anything that contradicts their predetermined views; who, early on, saw COVID-19 principally as a threat to his re-election chances, sought at every opportunity to dismiss and diminish a highly contagious and life-threatening disease,[2] and this has set the stage for everything that has come since, including when Trump contracted the virus himself.[3]
At a press conference on Sunday [March 15, 2020] – the same day that state governors declared closures of bars and restaurants and when the Covid-19 death count shot up in Italy – the American president spent more time gushing over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut, heaping praise on big corporate retailers for keeping Americans well-supplied, and praising Friday’s rise in the stock market (“almost 2,000 points!”) than, say, addressing the health concerns of the public.[4]
If the intelligence release doesn’t back the “lab leak” hypothesis, Trump’s supporters will simply accuse the “deep state” of failing to comply with the law. No doubt, there will be hearings in the House of Representatives. Of course, if it does (and this, we can say at this point, is unlikely[5]) there will be some deeper conspiracy which our spaghetti-on-the-wall types will surely supply.
Because it never ends.
Samuel Lovett and Paul Nuki, “Three things to watch as US intelligence prepares for Covid ‘lab leak’ reveal,” Telegraph, June 16, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/us-intelligence-prepares-for-big-lab-leak-reveal/
Human Science
Inquiry
Quantitative
Artificial idiocy
Cordilia James, “The Best AI Apps to Try Now,” Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-apps-tools-214958d8
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 2. “Jake Angeli (Qanon Shaman), seen holding a Qanon sign at the intersection of Bell Rd and 75th Ave in Peoria, Arizona, on 2020 October 15.” Photography by TheUnseen011101 [pseud.], October 15, 2020, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tell me again how we have law that applies equally to everyone:
[A]bsent from [Michael R.] Sherwin’s 11-page presentation [on the January 6 coup attempt investigation] to [Merrick] Garland on March 11, 2021, was any reference to [Donald] Trump or his advisers — those who did not go to the Capitol riot but orchestrated events that led to it.
A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and [Federal Bureau of Investigation] agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation.[6]
The Washington Post report makes clear that Merrick Garland and other leaders at the Department of Justice were determined to at least delay, if not bury, any investigation into Donald Trump or his circle, in significant part due to the risk of appearing ‘political,’ which is, of course, itself a political decision, and as the discrepancy between other probes and DOJ efforts widened, that decision could not be sustained.[7]
The process did not go quickly. Lawyers at the [Federal Bureau of Investigation] and Justice Department launched into what became many weeks of debate over the justification for the investigation and how it should be worded; one time-consuming issue became whether to name Trump as a subject.
With the FBI investigation still not opened, late in March a federal judge presiding over a civil case made a startling ruling: [Donald] Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in trying to obstruct the congressional count of electoral college votes.
The determination from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter came in a ruling addressing scores of sensitive emails that [John] Eastman had resisted turning over to the House select committee. After reviewing the documents privately, Carter wrote that the actions by Trump and Eastman amounted to “a coup in search of a legal theory” and that “the illegality of the plan was obvious.”
Carter, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, took the opportunity to express frustration with the pace of the criminal investigation.
“More than a year after the attack on our Capitol, the public is still searching for accountability. . . . If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.”[8]
Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” Washington Post, June 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/
- [1]Samuel Lovett and Paul Nuki, “Three things to watch as US intelligence prepares for Covid ‘lab leak’ reveal,” Telegraph, June 16, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/us-intelligence-prepares-for-big-lab-leak-reveal/↩
- [2]Aaron Blake, “The timeline of Trump’s coronavirus response is increasingly damning,” Washington Post, April 7, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/07/timeline-trumps-coronavirus-response-is-increasingly-damning/; Robert Costa and Philip Rucker, “Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans,” Washington Post, September 9, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump/2020/09/09/0368fe3c-efd2-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html; Adam Gaffney, “Trump sees the coronavirus as a threat to his self-interest – not to people,” Guardian, March 17, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/17/trump-sees-the-coronavirus-as-a-threat-to-his-self-interest-not-to-people; Susan B. Glasser, “A President Unequal to the Moment,” New Yorker, March 12, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/a-president-unequal-to-the-moment; Ben Mathis-Lilley, “Multiple White House Staffers Diagnosed With COVID-19 as Trump, Pence Hold Photo-Ops With the Elderly,” Slate, May 8, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/multiple-white-house-staffers-covid-19-trump-pence-meet-elderly.html; Tom McCarthy, “‘They don’t give him enough credit’: the voters who back Trump, even through the pandemic,” Guardian, May 18, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/18/they-dont-give-him-enough-credit-the-voters-who-back-trump-even-through-the-pandemic; Laura Meckler, “With pressure and threats, Trump pushes to fully reopen schools. Schools say: Not so fast,” Washington Post, July 8, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/trump-schools-cdc-pence/2020/07/08/8a52d400-c14b-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html; Dana Milbank, “For Trump, a reckoning has come,” Washington Post, February 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/28/trump-reckoning-has-come/; Ashley Parker, Yasmeen Abutaleb, and Lena H. Sun, “Squandered time: How the Trump administration lost control of the coronavirus crisis,” Washington Post, March 7, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-coronavirus-response-squandered-time/2020/03/07/5c47d3d0-5fcb-11ea-9055-5fa12981bbbf_story.html; David Remnick, “How the Coronavirus Shattered Trump’s Serene Confidence,” New Yorker, March 22, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/how-the-coronavirus-shattered-trumps-serene-confidence; Rich Tenorio, “In virus epicenter NYC, disaster guru puts blame squarely on Trump White House,” Times of Israel, April 2, 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-virus-epicenter-nyc-disaster-guru-puts-blame-squarely-on-trump-white-house/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Trump wants to lift lockdowns. Other countries’ attempts show why the U.S. isn’t ready,” Washington Post, April 21, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/21/trump-wants-lift-lockdowns-other-countries-attempts-show-why-us-isnt-ready/; Joanna Walters, “Donald Trump goes without mask at Michigan Ford plant despite company request,” Guardian, May 22, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/21/trump-ford-factory-mask-michigan; William Wan and Aaron Blake, “Coronavirus modelers factor in new public health risk: Accusations their work is a hoax,” Washington Post, March 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/27/coronavirus-models-politized-trump/↩
- [3]Associated Press, “Trump said to be improving but next 48 hours ‘critical,’” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 3, 2020, https://triblive.com/news/politics-election/concerning-signs-in-trumps-care-despite-word-hes-doing-ok/; Derek Hawkins et al., “President’s blood oxygen levels dropped twice in recent days, doctors say,” Washington Post, October 4, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/04/trump-covid-live-updates/; Melissa Healy, “Trump received dexamethasone for COVID-19. Here’s what that says about his condition,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-10-05/trump-dexamethasone-covid-19-condition; Colby Itkowitz et al., “Chief of staff says next 48 hours ‘critical’ as Trump says he’s doing well,” Washington Post, October 4, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/03/trump-covid-live-updates/; Soo Kim, “Donald Trump ‘Gasping for Air’ Video Raises Questions About President’s Health,” Newsweek, October 6, 2020, https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-donald-trump-breathing-difficulty-gasping-air-white-house-hospital-discharge-1536598; Laura King and Chris Megerian, “Trump stages drive-by for supporters after doctors disclose more serious symptoms,” Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-04/trump-receiving-powerful-lung-drug-doctors-disclose-revealing-more-serious-symptoms; Gina Kolata and Apoorva Mandavilli, “Trump’s Covid Treatments Are Aimed at Preventing Severe Illness,” New York Times, October 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/health/Covid-trump-treatments.html; Robert Mackey, “Trump Is Hospitalized With Covid-19, Days After Mocking Biden for Wearing a Mask,” Intercept, October 2, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/10/02/trump-tests-positive-covid-48-hours-mocking-biden-wearing-mask/; Maeve Reston and Gregory Krieg, “White House sows confusion about Trump’s condition as source tells reporters next 48 hours will be critical,” CNN, October 3, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-walter-reed/index.html; Felicia Sonmez et al., “Trump returns to White House from hospital; may not be ‘out of the woods,’ doctor says,” Washington Post, October 5, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/05/trump-biden-live-updates/; John Wagner et al., “Trump at hospital after positive coronavirus test; Kellyanne Conway, two senators test positive,” Washington Post, October 4, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/02/trump-biden-live-updates/↩
- [4]Samuel Lovett and Paul Nuki, “Three things to watch as US intelligence prepares for Covid ‘lab leak’ reveal,” Telegraph, June 16, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/us-intelligence-prepares-for-big-lab-leak-reveal/↩
- [5]Michael Hiltzik, “Despite latest reports, there’s still not a speck of evidence that COVID escaped from a Chinese lab,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-27/contrary-wsj-claim-theres-still-not-a-speck-of-evidence-that-covid-escaped-from-a-chinese-lab; Karen Kaplan, “The problem with the lab leak theory,” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/science/newsletter/2023-03-14/coronavirus-today-the-problem-with-the-lab-leak-theory-covid-wuhan-market-coronavirus-today; Dhruv Khullar, “Lab Leaks and COVID-19 Politics,” New Yorker, March 3, 2023, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/lab-leaks-and-covid-19-politics; Ciara Linnane, “Leading infectious-disease expert says COVID-19 is now endemic, but Americans are divided on whether pandemic is over,” MarketWatch, March 10, 2023, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/leading-infectious-disease-expert-says-covid-19-is-now-endemic-but-americans-are-divided-on-whether-pandemic-is-over-cc391dec?g=ef386d39-3a07-4fb1-997f-4e6eb5e975aa; Katherine J. Wu, “The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic,” Atlantic, March 16, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/03/covid-origins-research-raccoon-dogs-wuhan-market-lab-leak/673390/↩
- [6]Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” Washington Post, June 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/↩
- [7]Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” Washington Post, June 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/↩
- [8]Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” Washington Post, June 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/↩