IN EARLY 2020, AS THE PANDEMIC WAS LOOMING, Dr. Anthony Fauci corresponded with a group of scientists about the possibility that the COVID-19 virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. After conference call, the scientists published a paper downplaying the lab-leak theory.
Jim Jordan, a Republican representative from Ohio who began questioning witnesses on Wednesday in the House hearings on the origin of the pandemic, has his own way of weaving those facts into a narrative. It's a story of gross malfeasance, with Fauci as villain.
The best thing about the debate over the origin of COVID-19-or the worst thing, depending on your point of view is that it provides great fodder for constructing narratives. Consider one alternative view of Fauci's actions. Amid the worst public health crisis in a century, perhaps it was wise of him to consult with evolutionary biologists and virologists about the possible causes of the pandemic. And although downplaying the lab-leak idea seems, in hindsight, like bad policy (which Newsweek reported in April 2020), at the time, with the U.S. depending on precious information from Beijing, it might have seemed smart to avoid alienating the Chinese government.
We all tell stories, but when it comes to the origins of COVID-19, the possibilities are particularly rich not just in the House chambers but throughout the debate. Over the past few years, experts seem to have gravitated to one side of the question or the other and dug themselves in.
They can do this because the debate lacks dispositive evidence one way or the other. There is no proof that the virus originated in a lab, and no proof that it emerged as a spillover from nature. What we have instead is a smorgasbord of facts from which to assemble arguments, one way or the other, to suit ourselves.
Denne historien er fra March 31 - April 07, 2023 (Double Issue)-utgaven av Newsweek US.
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Denne historien er fra March 31 - April 07, 2023 (Double Issue)-utgaven av Newsweek US.
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Can Alternative Therapies Treat Cancer?
Doctor and breast cancer survivor Liz O'Riordan addresses misinformation around managing the disease
Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
