The Covid dissidents taking on China

[intrepidity]

https://unherd.com/2021/04/the-covid-dissidents-taking-on-china/

Feng Zijian played a central role in the World Health Organisation’s inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. The Chinese epidemiologist was one of the team leaders who briefed diplomats on the findings, which fell suspiciously in line with Beijing’s version of events. Feng explained how the carefully vetted team had concluded that the virus was most likely to be a natural disease that spilled over from bats to humans, although it could have been imported on frozen food. The chance of a leak from a Chinese laboratory was dismissed as “extremely unlikely”.

The Chinese-controlled results sparked global accusations of a whitewash and further corroded confidence in the WHO. Few experts give much credibility to claims the pandemic was imported on a packet of chilled pork or slab of frozen pangolin sold at a market. And demands are growing for the leak hypothesis to be taken more seriously. Wuhan, after all, is the major research centre for bat coronaviruses in Asia, where there are secretive labs, known biosafety concerns and high-risk experiments being conducted.

It has now emerged that Feng, deputy head of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and an expert on emergency health responses, performed an even more sinister role as the pandemic played out. He was one of four names copied on a CDC memo sent out in February 2020 ordering China’s scientists not to share any data, documents or specimens relating to the epidemic and to “prioritise the interests of the country”. The memo warned that anyone violating the request would be “dealt with severely in accordance with discipline, laws and regulations” — a threat to be taken seriously in a country ruled by fear.

Much, much more at link above.

[jpak]

1. What is unherd dot com?

Reads like RW conspiracy piece

[intrepidity]

2. Here's what they say:

https://unherd.com/about-unherd/

As you may have guessed from our strange spelling, UnHerd aims to do two things: to push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places.

We think this approach is more needed than ever. Societies across the West are divided and stuck, and the established media is struggling to make sense of what’s happening. The governing ideologies of the past generation are too often either unquestioningly defended or rejected wholesale.

It’s easy and safe to be in one or other of these two camps – defensive liberal or angry reactionary - but UnHerd is trying to do something different, and harder.

We want to be bold enough to identify those things that have been lost, as well as gained, by the liberal world order of the past thirty years; but we strive to be always thoughtful rather than divisive.

We are not aligned with any political party, and the writers and ideas we are interested in come from both left and right traditions. But we instinctively believe that the way forward will be found through a shift of emphasis: towards community not just individualism, towards responsibilities as well as Rights, and towards meaning and virtue over shallow materialism.

[Phoenix61]

3. Some people are convinced

the virus escaped from a lab and the government of China is engaged in a conspiracy to keep that information from getting out.

[Phoenix61]

4. Questionable site at best.

“The site is funded by Paul Marshall, founder of Marshall Wallace, one of Europe's largest hedge-funds. He gave £100,000 to the Leave campaign. He also co-edited The Orange Book, a free-market loving tome which is influential among the right-wing of the Lib Dems. Now, he's giving four years of financial backing to a career Tory politico/editor to end the cruel silencing of the incredibly wealthy.”


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/a3d95p/the-unherd-and-the-whining-of-the-perfectly-well-represented

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2017/aug/06/is-it-time-media-stop-traking-politics-seriously-trump-brexit-tim-montgomerie

[OhZone]

5. What about studies that indicate the virus was in Europe before China reported cases?

"Sewage study suggests COVID-19 was in Italy before China reported cases "

https://canoe.com/news/world/sewage-study-suggests-covid-19-was-in-italy-before-china-reported-cases


Spain had a similar study.


Coronavirus traces found in March 2019 sewage sample, Spanish study shows

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish virologists have found traces of the novel coronavirus in a sample of Barcelona waste water collected in March 2019, nine months before the COVID-19 disease was identified in China, the University of Barcelona said on Friday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-spain-science-idUSKBN23X2HQ


9 MONTHS!

hmmm


There were a couple of other similar studies in Europe too.

[luckone]

6. Oooh a link to unherd.com