Don’t waste money on Wuhan lab hypothesis

Republican legislators are eager to get to work evening the score with Democrats. On their proposed agenda is a delightfully delusional plan to investigate the “lab-leak hypothesis” related to the origins of the covid pandemic.

Two “competing” hypotheses about the pandemic are that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was complicit (with Dr. Anthony Fauci?) in creating a genetically modified version of the virus, which resulted in the outbreak. As RNA viruses do, this one mutated rapidly enough to become extremely contagious but not highly virulent. If the Wuhan lab was attempting to create a doomsday weapon, they failed miserably.

The competing hypothesis is that this virus was what researchers had been expecting as a result of viral spillover from animal populations to humans. There is significant evidence supporting this hypothesis related to the wet market for live animals in Wuhan, a place almost designed to enhance viral spillover. Skeptics are advised to read David Quammen’s meticulously researched book, “Breathless.”

Two competing hypotheses: the laboratory conspiracy or the spillover hypothesis? Among experts there is little debate. The lab leak idea falls into the non-probabilistic realm of conspiracy theories. Scientific probabilities significantly favor the spillover hypothesis over the much less credible lab-leak hypothesis.

This might seem like an esoteric debate, when in fact, the truth is precisely the opposite. It would be a misuse of public funds and an insult to public trust in government to waste money on the Wuhan lab hypothesis. — Roland Lamarine, Chico