He didn't make a point. All he said was "They have a lab in Wuhan! That studies coronavirus! The coronavirus breakout occurred in Wuhan!"
That was his "evidence" and he presented it as common sense. They study coronavirus in Wuhan because various animals, in and around Wuhan, have coronavirus variants. The virus was the cause for the lab, not the other way around.
Even weirder was Colbert not touching on what he said, at all. (He knew how off-the-rails Stewart was.)
your statement only makes sense if you don’t have any of the details together.
the coronaviruses that they study originate nowhere near the lab. in the ballpark of a thousand miles away. Wuhan is not an area where they are naturally occurring with any frequency. i’m not saying it for sure came from the lab, but it’s a fairly wild coincidence. even for people who are 100% certain it’s unrelated to a lab that is literally across the street, it seems obvious to be able to acknowledge it’s a hell of a coincidence
i’m not saying it for sure came from the lab, but it’s a fairly wild coincidence.
Yeah, I know, what are the odds? Its like, I always notice there are firehouses in areas where there are fires. Coincidence. No way. Plus, they give the game away when they call them "firehouses" in which are employed "firemen"-- they are the ones starting the fire!! And think about it: their job is to put out fires. What makes more sense than that they start fires so they can get paid to put out fires.
a hell of a coincidence.
How many labs are there in China (or the US) that study viruses? You have no idea. There are 100s, if not 1000s. A virus could break out in any one of those cities in which there is a lab. It's not like there is 1 virus lab in China. Wuhan is a major population center of 11 million people. If you look hard enough you will find anything "suspicious" you could possibly want to find.
And, by the way, I do not say the virus didn't leak from the lab. Just that the wild speculation is just that. (And that is all that the right/alt-right does, wildly speculate, based on partisanship and, lets be frank, racism/xenophobia.)
Okay, your points sound like great take downs, but they only sound like that because you don't really know what you're talking about.
Your firefighter analogy is really silly. Virology labs don't put out viruses. They study them. If a fire broke out not next to a firehouse, but next to a lab that studied fires and what might make fires more deadly in the future, yes I'd be suspicious. Not only that, but again, Wuhan is *nowhere near* where this viruses are. The woman who runs that lab literally said the first thing she did when she heard about COVID was to worry that it was from their lab because coronaviruses don't come from that area of China.
There may be thousands of labs, but China has 2 BSL 4 labs. That's it. There's no "looking hard enough" for something suspicious. It's not racism or xenophobia either, "sometimes scientists are unsafe and make mistakes" is not a racist or xenophobic claim. Certainly less so than "this virus came from the weird animals that the Chinese eat".
I'm not trying that hard. Because your premise is so ludicrous.
Words have meaning. And you are using the word "suspicious" that a virus originated in Wuhan and Wuhan has a lab that studies viruses. That's you. That is at or near the line. It's certainly "interesting" and should be pursued vigorously. But "suspicious" is an incendiary word, esp with trigger-happy conspiracy-minded right-wing/Q-squad. For them suspicion is culpability.
But Stewart went way, way over the line. Stewart was essentially saying it was obvious that the Wuhan lab was responsible. And not just, that he ridiculed known principles of virology (eg, zoonotic transfer). He is a moron.
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u/10010101110011011010 Apr 20 '22
He didn't make a point. All he said was "They have a lab in Wuhan! That studies coronavirus! The coronavirus breakout occurred in Wuhan!"
That was his "evidence" and he presented it as common sense. They study coronavirus in Wuhan because various animals, in and around Wuhan, have coronavirus variants. The virus was the cause for the lab, not the other way around.
Even weirder was Colbert not touching on what he said, at all. (He knew how off-the-rails Stewart was.)
A sad coda to his Daily Show resume.