In the United States, any discussion about the origins of the pandemic has broken down along strictly partisan lines.
If you’re a Democrat or in the media (but I repeat myself), you’re supposed to insist that the virus could only have originated in the wild, and Wuhan hosting a level 4 lab is one of those crazy coincidences that sometimes happen.
And then there’s Sir Richard Dearlove whose politics are all over the map, but who has suggested several times that the virus came out of a lab.
Coronavirus was more likely to have escaped from a lab than to have come from an animal, the former head of MI6 has told LBC.
Sir Richard Dearlove said aspects of the virus “point in the direction of it being somewhat tailored” though he warned this may never be proven.
The former “C” of the Secret Intelligence Service – equivalent to “M” in James Bond – also told LBC’s Tom Swarbrick that more information on the coronavirus’ origin will soon come out.
Sir Richard, who headed up the spy agency between 1999 and 2004, told Tom the World Health Organisation’s report, which said a lab leak was highly unlikely but further work was needed, was a “farcical investigation”.
While he admitted “it’s possible” the virus jumped to humans from nature, Sir Richard said: “But the fact that… it’s far more likely, if you’re a scientist, that it was put together.
“All right, put it like this… It’s a natural virus that’s been, as it were, mucked around with and the characteristics of things like the spike protein, which make it so highly infectious, also point in the direction of it being somewhat tailored.”
He alleged that Chinese influence was hindering the publication of scientific articles on the matter.
Within the ‘China Did It” camp, there are two basic theories.
1. It was a deliberate weaponized biowarfare attack or test
2. It was an accident
Dearlove is more in the latter camp which makes a certain amount of sense. Though if it was an attack, China has profited enormously by the virus.
Even within the ‘accident’ camp there are two possibilities. One is that the accident happened during the course of normative medical research while the other is that it happened during a weaponization program. That’s the difference between a nuclear reactor melting down and an accidental missile launch.