I may owe Sam Husseini an apology over WIV and the possible bioweoponization of COVID

Nearly two full years ago, Husseini raised the possibility of not just a coronavirus lab leak happening at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and not just the idea that gain of function research led to this particular virus that we know today as COVID-19, but that there was bioweaponization research behind this.

To say that I was skeptical is putting it mildly. Based on the USSR's biological weapons program, I was skeptical that the Chinese military would do such work at a lab that was nominally for civilian purposes, built in part with Western help, and in a crowded metropolitan area.

Well, in the past couple of days, multiple media reports said "think again." The Daily Mail, as reprinted in Perth, Australia, claimed that Zhou Yusen was "thrown to his death," rather than just "died under mysterious circumstances." It adds, on its first reference to him, "Chinese military scientist." Lest Blue Anon types in Merikkka say "Oh, it's the Daily Mail," Pro Publica also identifies him as such, and did so in its extensive piece about last year's Senate investigative committee report led by ranking member, ie, top minority party member, Richard Burr, which I blogged about in detail, and then followed up with blogging about Pro Publica largely refuting its critics.

Who is Zhou? Per Pro Publica:

(D)irector of the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, in Beijing.

There you go, BlueMAGA.

Then, the NY Post talks more about details of the bioengineering, whether just "gain of function" or "bioweaponization" was behind it. It, in turn, references a Times of London piece which says this before you hit the paywall:

The US investigators say one of the reasons there is no published information on the work is because it was done in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding it and which, they say, was pursuing bioweapons.

There you go.

If this is all true, per my three objections to Husseini?

Actually, first, going beyond my three objections?

Did Chinese president for life or so Xi Jinping know about this in advance or was he kept in the dark? It's a question that shouldn't be idly dismissed, and I'm sure US nat-sec nutsacks inside and outside official government positions are pondering and perusing it. If not, they should be.

Now, the three objections.

First, I guess a nominally civilian lab was believed to offer better cover. Obviously, that belief was wrong and has been shown wrong, at least indirectly, for years.

Second, I guess the fact that the French helped build it might be thought of as a way of throwing Western intelligence off the trail. Well, that might have worked until you caused a global outbreak that probably killed at least 15 million, with 1 million plus in the US, 1.5 million in Europe, at least 2.5 million in China, contra its lies, based on my old estimates, surely at least 5 million in India, and 5 million in the rest of the world getting us to 15 million.

Third, although no racism was involved, the overall callousness at least approaches, if not exceeds, that of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study "experiment" here in the US. Of course, in non-racial callousness or stupidity, Fort Detrick was and is not THAT far from DC and Baltimore.

But, that all said, I go back to Jeff St. Clair's "more credulous precincts of the left," a mot juste that he used about people who believed the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.

If, like Green Party thought leaders Howie Hawkins, you think the Chinese government's cultural genocide and slave-ish labor of Uyghurs should be treated "in Chinese terms," do you say the same to this?

And, I can double down on continuing to call Dr. Peter Hotez a grifter and gaslighter — at minimum. Since St. Anthony of Fauci is out of government, he's currently less of one. And, although Joe Rogan is a multi-theory conspiracy theorist, it would be "fun" seeing him and Hotez square off.