Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory of Coronavirus Origins

[Voltaire2]

Scientists have dismissed suggestions that the Chinese government was behind the outbreak, but it’s the kind of tale that gains traction among those who see China as a threat.

The rumor appeared shortly after the new coronavirus struck China and spread almost as quickly: that the outbreak now afflicting people around the world had been manufactured by the Chinese government.

The conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists. But it has gained an audience with the help of well-connected critics of the Chinese government such as Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist. And on Sunday, it got its biggest public boost yet.

Speaking on Fox News, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, raised the possibility that the virus had originated in a high-security biochemical lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak.

“We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there,” the senator said, “but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says, and China right now is not giving evidence on that question at all.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/coronavirus-tom-cotton-china.html

Apologies for the paywall.

[phandancer917]

1. It is not like....

....you need to be Republican to suspect the words from the Chinese government.

I am suspicious of this -- perhaps not MIHOP or LIHOP (Made it happen on purpose/Let it Happen on purpose), but do not doubt that they tried to cover up to a point where it got much worse.

Failing to see China as a threat JUST because we have a threat in our own government is a fool's errand. They do NOT have our best interests in mind anymore that Donny Small Hands (and his ignorant cult) has.

[Voltaire2]

2. So you think the Chinese poisoned their own people in order to hurt us somehow?

I am not quite clear how this latest coronavirus outbreak has benefited China, so perhaps you can explain that.

[brewens]

5. The movie The Andromeda Strain had a supervirus break out of one of our secret labs.

They're thinking of something like that.

[Voltaire2]

9. Oh I see. So aside from a work of fiction

from like 40 years ago, and despite several other cross species coronavirus outbreaks around the world, this one is a lab malfunction. Because?

[brewens]

11. I was just pointing out that the conspiracy theory isn't claiming the Chinese intentionally did

it to their own people, which as the previous poster said, would not make sense. I don't believe it. It doesn't sound like the kind of thing any country would be working on for a biological weapon anyway.

[Voltaire2]

12. I was responding to the poster

who was railing in about the malevolent Chinese.

[phandancer917]

13. My apologies...

...not the Chinese, but the Chinese GOVERNMENT.

I do not trust any national government as they operate in order to survive.

Appearance and honor are strong factors in government responses. I am absolutely saying that the Chinese gov did not respond well, covered up the outbreak and origin and continues to hide the facts (sadly, just as our government would if the outbreak started here) of its spread.

Sometimes Fact is stranger than fiction....

[struggle4progress]

3. "I'm glad I'm not in the brain of Cotton! stuffed full of crazy crap a-rottin. Go away! Go away!"

[Leith]

4. You're my new favorite poster

[Generic Other]

6. This may be where the information comes from

A Murdoch publication, so we can't really accept its veracity without further corroboration.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8009669/Did-coronavirus-originate-Chinese-government-laboratory.html

[keithbvadu2]

7. Dr Cotton also diagnoses TBI as just 'headaches'.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. This article says it is doubtful the virus was from the lab

Because they think their was intermediate host between bat and human that took about 20 years to evolve.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/mining-coronavirus-genomes-clues-outbreak-s-origins

I am more likely to trust scientific evidence over Murdoch publications and some stupid bullied Senator who thinks Trump isn't corrupt.

[Voltaire2]

10. Like the three other outbreaks.

[JCMach1]

14. I don't think it's far fetched that the monitoring station lab located near the food market in Wuhan

man have unintentionally spread the virus. The Chinese gov. denies this, but without an investigation we will probably never know...

Cat is out of the bad, regardless...

Cotton's language makes it sound more ominous than it was. It was literally a lab the gov. had in place to monitor the food market likely to prevent just such another infection like Corona, or SARS.