[Firebot]

On the origin itself. If people haven't noticed, the media has shifted heavily on the Wuhan lab theory, something that was initially dismissed as a conspiracy nut theory.

Here is an article from CNN on the lab theory back in March 2020, completely dismissing it as a fringe right wing conspiracy theory

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/01/asia/...hnk/index.html

Almost as soon as the outbreak spiraled into a public health crisis in late January, a dubious fringe theory started to spread: that the virus did not come from nature, but was man-made in a lab.
The conspiracy has been widely dismissed by scientists in China and the West, who point to research indicating that the virus is likely to have originated in bats and jumped to humans from an intermediate host -- just like its cousin that caused the SARS epidemic.
The scientific findings, however, did not prevent the rumor mill from spinning, nor did the repeated attempts by authorities to stamp out the wholly groundless accusations.
As the virus continued to spread and kill, conspiracy theories became more elaborate, with many pointing to a high-level virology lab known to study bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, the ground-zero of the outbreak.

What is CNN saying today?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/26/china...hnk/index.html

Chinese state media is turning on Fauci amid Wuhan lab controversy

Uh oh, CNN used the term "Wuhan lab controversy" that is so racist by naming the lab origin...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/polit...ory/index.html

Why scientists are suddenly more interested in the lab-leak theory of Covid's origin

Clearly the media has shifted on it.

I bought into the wet market origin. It's most certainly plausible, considering SARS was naturally occurring and came from such a market as well. When it was noted that no bats were sold at this particular wet market, the Pengolin theory came to fruition. That's great, except all the information about the origins came from Chinese researchers (who are currently on state watch prior to releasing any information)

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00364-2

Researchers in Guangzhou, China, have suggested that pangolins — long-snouted, ant-eating mammals often used in traditional Chinese medicine — are the probable animal source of the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 30,000 people and is wreaking havoc worldwide.

Meanwhile, the Global Times, the state media for the Chinese government released that Pengolins for sure were the cause, not the lab today (if you want to have fun, browse through the site)

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1224394.shtml

CHINA / SOCIETY
Latest report of China's bat woman shows novel coronavirus closer to pangolins, ‘unlikely from Wuhan lab’

Latest research again indicates that it was unlikely the novel coronavirus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), experts said, amid US media's recent hyping of the lab leak theory ahead of the World Health Assembly (WHA).

US politicians and media outlets have been pursuing the lab leak theory as the origin of COVID-19, despite scientists from the WHO-China joint study team concluding, in a full report after their field study in Wuhan, that a lab leak is extremely unlikely.

Hours before the WHA began on Monday, the Wall Street Journal ran a story, citing an undisclosed US intelligence report, indicating that three researchers from the WIV became sick in November 2019 with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.

Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory of the WIV, refuted the report, calling the story "an outright lie that came from nowhere."

The Global Times found that the claims of three WIV researchers getting sick had been spread by Australian media as early as March by Australian journalist Sharri Markson, an active disseminator of conspiracy theories and lies that smear China.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1224597.shtml

Yeah, these guys sound totally credible...

That people chose to so easily accept China's explanation that the wet market was the originating source without any evidence, a country that literally erased Tiananmen Square from history and initially tried to cover up the pandemic, is what is most concerning.

People seriously underestimate the power of state propaganda and censorship.

Unfortunately, politics became the controlling factor.

It's ironic, that now it's suddenly ok to talk of the lab origin possibility as the media and new articles have picked up on the possibility, but a year ago OP was vilified for even mentioning it and people called him a bigot and conspiracy nut. We also can't currently cannot say "wuhan coronavirus", but we can say "indian variant".

That's CP for you (as Manhanttanboy pointed out early in the thread), cancel any opposing views and even cancel a fricking post title, unless they become mainstream. Months or years from now, we could be talking of the "Wuhan lab engineered coronavirus" if proven and picked up by the media.

Then it's ok again.