Trying to place the blame in any direction serves two purposes: 1) trying to punish those responsible, and 2) using the knowledge that we know now to stop the next pandemic in its tracks. For the first purpose, If it’s a lab leak, literally anything else that could have contributed to the initial spread in China is likely too big and powerful (or perhaps too nebulous) to meaningfully punish. If it isn’t, everything in that previous sentence after “literally” still applies. If we’re talking about the second, well, frankly, bear in mind we’re talking about a government so averse to criticism that they’ve banned anything related to Winnie the Pooh because Xi Jinping is sore about people online saying the two look alike. His initial response to the COVID crisis was honestly shockingly similar to Trump’s (at least throughout January, anyway) and a fuckton less opaque, up to and including sending a legal cease and desist order to the first people trying to sound the alarm. For them to fix it would require admitting they were wrong and committing to rectifying their mistakes, and I don’t see that happening with the PRC. Maybe after Xinping is dead, and not a moment earlier. Perhaps not even then. Either way, trying to blame somebody is little more than a dead end in this case.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.