A new White House administration and a new “60 Minutes” anchor reached startingly different conclusions about the origins of COVID-19.
When Donald Trump was president, mainstream media pooh-poohed his contention that the Wuhan Institute of Virology leaked the deadly virus outside a containment lab. FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointment, believes the Wuhan leak led the worldwide pandemic and a recent classified Department of Energy report concurred. So, the long-running CBS News magazine revisited the subject.
Fox News further reported:
The once-respected CBS News program “60 Minutes” attempted to set the record straight about the origins of COVID nearly a year after declaring the lab-leak theory “debunked.”
In recent days, the theory that COVID originated from a lab leak in Wuhan had been embraced by FBI Director Christopher Wray and a bombshell report indicated that the U.S. Energy Department believes the virus likely started in the lab.
However, back in May 2020, CBS News’ Scott Pelley cast significant doubt on the Trump administration’s assertions of the theory, telling viewers “both the White House and the Chinese Communist Party have been less than honest.”
Instead, Pelley hyped the credibility of Peter Daszak, president of the group EcoHealth Alliance and one of the world’s most vocal foes of the lab-leak theory. EcoHealth Alliance received government funding from the National Institutes of Health and has had a long working partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which is now widely believed to be ground zero for the COVID pandemic.
The “60 Minutes” correspondent praised the work of EcoHealth-WIV at the time as being “critical right now.”
Instead, Pelley hyped the credibility of Peter Daszak, president of the group EcoHealth Alliance and one of the world’s most vocal foes of the lab-leak theory. EcoHealth Alliance received government funding from the National Institutes of Health and has had a long working partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which is now widely believed to be ground zero for the COVID pandemic.
The “60 Minutes” correspondent praised the work of EcoHealth-WIV at the time as being “critical right now.”
The “60 Minutes” correspondent pushed the notion that the virus stemmed from a wet market and turned to another expert who suggested that the virus came naturally from a pangolin.
“There is zero evidence that his virus came out of a lab in China,” Daszak insisted.
“Does the Wuhan Institute of Virology, to your knowledge, have this virus in its inventory?” Pelley asked.
“No,” Daszak answered.
“Why do you say so?” Pelley followed.
“The closest known relative is one that’s different enough that it is not SARS-CoV 2, so there’s just no evidence that anybody had it in the lab anywhere in the world prior to the outbreak,” Daszak answered.
CBS News has said its report was based on the facts known at that time.
Fast forward to March 2021 when Pelley’s colleague Lesley Stahl posed the question, “How did SARS-CoV 2… originate,” calling a potential lab-leak a “leading theory.”
Stahl spoke with Jamie Metzl, a former Clinton administration official and an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) who was among several scientists calling for a new investigation in Wuhan since the first one that was conducted was essentially run by the Chinese government.
“Wait, you’re saying that China did the investigation and shared the results to the committee and that was it?” Stahl asked in shock.
“Pretty much,” Metzl replied. “Imagine if we had asked the Soviet Union to do a co-investigation of Chernobyl.”
Stahl also interviewed Daszak, who still deemed the lab-leak theory “extremely unlikely.” But unlike Pelley, Stahl grilled the EcoHealth Alliance president for defending China’s handling of the probe.
“You’re just taking their word for it,” Stahl reacted.
“Well, what else can we do?” Daszak pushed back. “There’s a limit to what you can do, and we went right up to that limit. We asked them tough questions. They weren’t vetted in advance and the answers they gave we found to be believable, correct and convincing.”
“But weren’t the Chinese engaged in a cover-up?” Stahl asked. “They destroyed evidence, they punish scientists who were trying to give evidence on this very question of the origin.”
“Well, that wasn’t a task to find out if China covered up the origin issue,” Daszak responded. “We didn’t see any evidence of any false reporting or cover-up in the work that we did in China… There were Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff in the room throughout our stay, absolutely. They were there to make sure everything went smoothly from the China side.”
“Or to make sure they weren’t telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Stahl quipped.
“You sit in a room with people who are scientists, and you know what a scientific statement is and you know what a political statement is. We had no problem distinguishing between the two,” Daszak doubled down.
Stahl highlighted declassified intelligence information showing China buried revelations that Wuhan lab scientists had COVID-like symptoms and that the Chinese military had been working with the lab. But Daszak kept insisting COVID itself was never in the lab.
Metzl, as Stahl pointed out, “beg[ged] to differ, citing how Wuhab lab researchers were sent to bat caves and returned samples that were “genetically mostly related” to COVID.
Metzl, as Stahl pointed out, “beg[ged] to differ, citing how Wuhab lab researchers were sent to bat caves and returned samples that were “genetically mostly related” to COVID.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
