I am not a conspiracy fanatic. I refer you to an essay I wrote six years ago: http://cuttingedgepublishing.com/essays/conspiracy-theories-2/. I generally do not believe in them as they are usually fictitious, not true, made up, and patently false. Also, those theories are generally accusatory towards groups that they, the conspiracy groupies, have already tried and convicted as guilty for their own reasons in their minds, with little concrete evidence. They are not exactly impartial. I have acquaintances like that! But once in a while, the conspiracists have hit on something. The problem becomes in sorting out at which conspiracy theories we should take a closer look.
Humans are prone to look for patterns. This trait has led us to discover some spectacular associations. It allowed Ernest Rutherford to describe the current model of the atom with a central nucleus and a cloud of electrons orbiting around the nucleus. A new branch of physics evolved with new laws and new theories and became quantum physics. Dimitri Mendeleev, the Russian physicist, recognized the pattern of the elements. He created the Periodic Table listing them in relation to each other. He even left spaces for elements that had not yet been discovered, recognizing the pattern demanded there be an element in a particular spot even though that element had not been found or created. Sure enough, with time, it was.
Looking for patterns has also created some horrendous idiocies. We looked for and have found unfortunate humans afflicted with diseases of the mind and called them witches, whom we then burned on the stake.
Here is a conspiracy theory that you at least should take a look at. I am just saying…!
Virology and bacteriology are sciences that can be used for good or evil. The biological weapons that have been created by man are based on that science. Anthrax, Smallpox, Measles, Yersinia pestis, Syphilis, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and others have been used in the past to reduce the enemy in strength and number. Envelopes of the white powdered Anthrax have been sent to members of Congress and the White House. Saturated blankets with Smallpox pus were distributed to Indians in the 1700 and 1800s as a supposed friendly gesture, but actually to kill. More of the indigenous South and North American population was wiped out by disease than gunpowder. In the Middle Ages, the bodies of plague victims were catapulted over castle walls to break a siege. Biologic weapons are potentially more lethal than nuclear weapons.
We have all heard Trump call it “the Chinese Virus,” for which he was roundly criticized as racist. But the fact is that the Corona Virus did come from China, specifically from a Wuhan wild animal market with bats, turtles, snakes, ferrets, etc. I have actually been to that market just a few days before 9/11.
Chinese people have eaten wild animals for thousands of years. Supposedly 14,000,000 people are involved in that business, with an annual market value of 76 Billion dollars. China has apparently shut down that business. Good luck to them, shutting down an activity that has been in existence for several millennia is likely to fail.
“Gain of Function” research dates back to 2012 with H5N1 Avian flu virus to enhance virulence and transmissibility, allowing a better understanding of transmission and control of the disease. In 1914 Barack Obama shut down the experimental program of GOF (Gain of Function). The aim of these programs has been with benevolent intent, but the opposite could be true. Obama did not stop the program but held their funding. His reasoning presumably was the danger in that pursuit. They were back in business again in 2017. The purpose is to study and to gain an understanding of disease-causing agents, and develop medical countermeasures on the benefit side or how to weaponize viruses and bacteria on the evil side. It so happens that 300 yards from the Wuhan wild animal market is a level IV virology lab that studies exactly those issues with guess what, Corona Virus. The level IV lab is approved to deal with the most dangerous pathogens that can be aerosolized. Their work is freely published in journals of virology and can be accessed in those journals and the internet.
Bat Woman, as she is known, Shi Zhengli, the lead virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was reported to say, “Could that be our Corona Virus?” when she was urgently recalled from Shanghai to Wuhan at the beginning of the outbreak.
According to the New York Times and The Atlantic monthly, China has now started its own disinformation campaign of conspiracy theories. China now blames the US Army for bringing the epidemic to Wuhan to answer the criticism that they were slow to contain virus in the early days by muzzling physicians and whistleblowers who attempted to warn fellow citizens and us. They are evicting reporters, including the Wall Street Journal, who report on this new tactic. These actions have not been helpful and are reminiscent of old cold war tactics. China, in fact, has a documented history of handling other viruses with less than full protocol to prevent a breach such as the SARS Virus in 2003 where 1814 citzens of Bejing were infected with 79 deaths as a consequence.
Another strange story has emerged. One of the Chinese scientists was recently tried and convicted to 12 years in jail for selling lab animals to markets for human consumption. It is rather odd to have the Virus originate just yards from where CoronaVirus research is going on. It is possible the Virus leaving the confines of the lab, could have occurred accidentally without ill intent. At this point, does it matter how the Virus came to infect humans, as we know it has? Will it change anything if we know? Or is this all mental self-stimulating cud-chewing of the conspiracists?