Foil Hatters

I get really tired of debunking this shit.

Chinese lab conducted extensive research on deadly bat viruses, but there is no evidence of accidental release

WaPo:

On Thursday, the U.S. intelligence community released an assessment formally concluding that the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic originated in China. While asserting that the pathogen was not man-made or genetically altered, the statement pointedly declined to rule out the possibility that the virus had escaped from the complex of laboratories in Wuhan that has been at the forefront of global research into bat-borne viruses linked to multiple epidemics over the past decade.

“The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, using a common initialism for the U.S. intelligence community.

It goes on to tell of certain activities concerning genetic modifications of some viruses in order to make them easier to study - which involved making the viruses more capable of infecting hosts, including humans.

Most of us find this pretty alarming because it sounds like it came straight out of a Michael Crichton novel. But the real point is that because you have to acknowledge the "possibility" of something going horribly wrong - and things do go wrong with near-shocking regularity - you end up giving just enough daylight for the Foil Hat Brigade to run amok.

You can't say absolutely that there's no chance of something happening, so the nutballs seize on that and lickety-split, the villagers are destroying everything they associate with the monster, including all the information they need to make sure they can fight it and beat it.

They just burn everything and hope for the best.

"It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

But wait - there's more.

WaPo:

Since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, misinformation has proliferated on the Internet — par for the course during a crisis. People took to social media in droves to share false claims that covering your body in chlorine or eating garlic were effective methods of fighting the virus, both of which were disproved by the World Health Organization.

The pandemic has also sparked a wave of more insidious conspiracy theories, such as the false claim that 5G mobile networks spread and worsen the coronavirus, which has led to dozens of instances of arsonists setting fire to cell towers across Europe.

Misinformation spreads online much like a virus itself. Though various types spread slightly differently, the transmission of the 5G conspiracy theory offers some insight into how false claims grow online.

A “calamitous event” like the pandemic creates a “very fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories,” said John Cook, an expert on misinformation with George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication.

The onslaught of information and misinformation on social media, on cable news and in general conversation may create confusion, but it’s made even worse by human discomfort with ambiguity, especially when our lives are at stake.

Kate Pine, an assistant professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, is currently interviewing people around the United States on how they’re navigating covid-19. She said people “feel like they’re inundated with information, but they don’t have the information they want,” and as a result, they might be more willing to believe outlandish claims.

- and -

“When people feel threatened or out of control or they’re trying to explain a big significant event, they’re more vulnerable or prone to turning to conspiracy theories to explain them,” Cook said. “Somewhat counterintuitively, it gives people more sense of control to imagine that, rather than random things happening, there are these shadowy groups and agencies that are controlling it. Randomness is very discomforting to people.”

In the mean time - don't forget that 45* needs to make us look the other way. He's desperate to get the economy back up and running. And while he can easily blame COVID-19 for the economy going in the shitter, he has to get us thinking away from his total fuckup-itude, so he's desperately spinning the yarn about how COVID-19 is all China's fault.

He invites the inference that China "attacked" us with the virus and so none of the bad shit that happens as a result is his fault - everything he does is justified because he's just being a strong powerful leader - a wartime POTUS.