"The Cure to Misinformation is More Misinformation"
https://www.gurwinder.blog/p/the-cure-to-misinformation-is-more
> "Just as quarantining people from a harm can make them more vulnerable to it, so exposing them to that harm can strengthen them against it. This is how vaccines work; by subjecting us to a controlled dose of a pathogen so our bodies can deconstruct it and learn how to beat it."
via @tripu
1/3
“Lack of evidence” ≠ “conspiracy theory”
“lack of evidence” ≠ “misinformation”
There is “no evidence” of a supernatural creator, or of alien life forms. And yet, billions of people believe there's a god, and many scientists think life in other corners of the universe is more likely than not. Those are not conspiracy theories, or misinformation.
/cc @koalie
2/3
What the “Chinese Academy of Sciences” has in Wuhan are “laboratories”, yes. How is the word “lab” controversial or relevant?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology
The US “was funding gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Lab”
https://reason.com/2024/06/04/anthony-fauci-gives-misleading-evasive-answers-about-nih-funded-research-at-wuhan-lab/
and gain-of-function research “genetically alters an organism”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gain-of-function_research
so yes, there was “bio-engineering” of coronaviruses in Wuhan.
Both the US Energy Department and the FBI concluded at some point that “an accidental laboratory leak” was the most likely origin of the pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/us/politics/china-lab-leak-coronavirus-pandemic.html
US Department of State: “despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, [it] has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military [and it] has engaged in classified research […] on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017”.
https://2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-activity-at-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology/index.html
Are those three institutions fringe, or misinformed?
/cc @koalie
“That FBI report was specifically ‘low confidence’”
Yes. A hypothesis that three huge governmental institutions report to be the most likely, even with low confidence, cannot be a conspiracy theory, or misinformation. That was my point. The FBI etc necessarily had *even lower* confidence in all other competing theories, by definition.
I agree about the “military” bit. That is probably a stretch. I haven't found much pointing in that direction, specifically (only in the general sense of secret research being conducted there).
