New York Times Reporter Wants To Kill Lab-Leak Theory Because Racism – The Federalist

New York Times coronavirus reporter Apoorva Mandavilli fantasized on Twitter Wednesday the world would stop discussing the plausible theory that COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese lab because its racist.

Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots, Mandavalli wrote in a since-deleted tweet, as if the idea COVID-19 emerged from the Chinese eating bats was much better. But alas, that day is not yet here.

The lab-leak theory, that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institutes of Virology (WIV) conducting gain-of-function research, was given life this week among legacy outlets which initially dismissed the idea as a conspiracy after the Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. intelligence of three lab workers hospitalized with COVID-like symptoms in the weeks preceding its first outbreak in the same area. Republicans and conservative media who gave credence to the idea from the beginning, including The Federalist, were smeared by the legacy press as amplifying a racist conspiracy theory in an election year.

Alternative theories suggest the novel Wuhan coronavirus, named for the site of its first outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, came from bat-to-human transmission either in the wild or at a local wet-market. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) however, with a reputation for subpar safety protocols was conducting research on bat coronaviruses which could infect humans with funding from the U.S. Institutes of National Health (NIH), the umbrella organization of Dr. Anthony Faucis National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has refused total transparency for a thorough investigation, has pushed several bizarre alternative theories including the idea it was imported through frozen food packaging or came from a Maryland research facility.

Mandavilli doubled-down on her assertion that any inquiry into COVID-19s origins at the Wuhan lab, which killed nearly 3.5 million people globally, is racist after deleting her initial post.

A theory can have racist roots and still gather reasonable supporters along the way, the COVID-19 Times reporter wrote. Doesnt make the roots any less racist or the theory any more convincing, though.

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New York Times Reporter Wants To Kill Lab-Leak Theory Because Racism - The Federalist