Republican Wildly Suggests Coronavirus is Chinese Biological Weapon

[rsacamano]

[FBaggins]

1. Not seeing it

The wild speculation in this case appears to be the host's. I don't hear anyone but him talking about biological weapons or engineered viruses.

[mr_lebowski]

3. My boss told me a week ago this is a thing ...

Not sure how widespread it is (in terms of how many people are discussing it), but this is not the first I'm hearing of it.

Apparently there's some kind of major biological research facility in that province, and (supposedly) some of the first known cases were people who worked there.

It's not that outlandish of an idea, though I have no idea whether there's any basis for the theory.

[LiberalArkie]

4. A big Chinese Bio Lab is about 200 meters from the animal market.

That was what I thought at first as the virus having Snake and Bat DNA was hard to imagine. Now an accident at the lab and the person walking out and spreading it makes a lot more sense to me.

Just one of those things that happen in China. Like poison in dog food, steel that is not up to spec just a lot of things that just happen over there.

[FBaggins]

8. Goodness... is it really that close?

I had just read that it was in the same province.

[LiberalArkie]

10. It is a in a section of the Wuhan hospital that everyone was taken to.

[FBaggins]

6. It's important to distinguish between the two

There is a high-level lab (the Wuhan Institute of Virology) close by and the same scientist who is quoted above as debunking the bioweapon theory confirms that one of their specialties is researching coronaviruses that are transmitted by bats. I have not seen that early cases included employees of the lab, but I have seen claims that while a high percentage of the first couple dozen cases were employees at the market... "patient zero" was not and did not have a connection to it. I've also seen reported that the initial speculation in China was that it originated either at the market, or in bats.

So while it would be irresponsible conspiracy fear-mongering to imply that this was a bioweapon created by China that somehow got out of control (which has been speculated on some CT sites)... it would not be irresponsible to wonder whether something that the lab was researching infected someone who worked there - who then brought it home with him. After all... that's how SARS got started.

I see Cotton pretty clearly falling in the second camp... but being accused of being in the first one. It appears instead to be irresponsible journalism.

[mr_lebowski]

16. Agreed ... facts always matter (to our sort anyway) ...

Thanks for the addt'l details mate

[mountain grammy]

2. And they're using them on themselves?

[NurseJackie]

5. Next thing they'll be telling us is that you can get gonorrhea from won-ton soup.

[virgogal]

7. Nonsense.

[Doreen]

9. Yup, remember that climate change is a Chinese hoax also.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. Tom cotton is a worthless hack. It's supremely irresponsible for him to speculate idly where this..

deadly disease comes from, and throw unfounded rumors into the wind w/o any facts to back him up. In short, this is a deadly disease and I sincerely hope that the powers that be ignore hype like what this idiot is spreading via a news channel no less). It takes a lot of time and heavy duty investigation to determine where and when a particular disease pops up...the AIDs virus is a good example...speculation was rampant about the origins of this virus and all kinds of nonsense popped up.

[BigDemVoter]

12. What a load of SHIT from a real bullshitter.

And we will get NO relief in seeing this silly fuck booted out EVER, as his constituents adore him. . .

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

13. Another member of the Stupid Party

[TomSlick]

14. That's our boy Tom. Makes Arkansas so proud.

The bad news is that's hardly the worst politician we have in Arkansas.

[tomhagen]

15. It's Unclear whether or not Tom Cotton beats his Wife.

[TrollBuster9090]

17. Psycho.

[Aussie105]

18. Conspiracy theories are easy!

Just finding proof for their validity or otherwise, is a bit more difficult . . .

I could hypothesize the Corona virus was created in the USA, and released in China by an agent.
Then Trump can ring up and say 'See what we did? Now are you going to take me seriously?'

Prove me wrong!

But the anti-Chinese sentiment is out in the open and quite strong. Chinese businesses here in Adelaide report a massive drop in trade, and even my wife . . . I ordered a cheap watch for her from China, had some concerns until I explained Corona virus is like the flu virus, it doesn't survive long outside the body. A month of postage time for the item would be enough to render any virus harmless.