A Horseradish
Sunday 12th April 2020 10:59pm [Edited]
8,475 posts
For anyone who was concerned by the suggestions in the last article, my team have kindly undertaken a full fact check:
FACT CHECK
1. Is There Really Such a Person as the Chinese Bat Woman?
Yes. It is a nickname for a virologist who worked until extremely recently in the Wuhan Institute of Virology which is ten miles from the Wet Market and which has been undertaking extensive research into coronaviruses with bats since 2005.
2. Is the Wuhan Institute of Virology Unsafe And, If It Is , Should We Be Furious With China?
It is unknown whether the Institute is unsafe but no one serious has suggested it is anything but safe. However, to view it as Chinese would be wholly wrong. Just as our own Porton Down Laboratory has, it has close ties with the World Health Authority (WHO). So close in fact that on 20-21 January 2020 a Mission from WHO was positively welcomed there by the Chinese Government for an assessment in connection with so-called Covid-19. Its National Bio-safety Laboratory was completed in 2015 largely by French engineers. The Laboratory has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory in the University of Texas. In 2020, Ebright, named after American molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright, called the Institute a "world-class research institution that does world-class research in virology and immunology". So it's "big global".
3. Was the Bat Woman Really Locked up - And, If So, What For?
British media have said in the last 24 hours that it is believed the Bat Woman was locked up by the Chinese government. The reason the newspaper writers have given is that she was the first senior person with a good microscope to have claimed that the illness in Wuhan was linked to bats. The story goes that the Chinese Government did not want to believe it and did not want the public to be frightened. Further, that it took some six days for them to conclude she was right.
However, some of this is counter-intuitive. The character of the Chinese Government involves elements of suspicion. They were more likely to have acted rapidly in any doubt with a general clampdown. Furthermore, they were already paranoid not only about US troops entering their country on 18 October 2019 for the International Military Games in Wuhan but the fact that there was on exactly the same day a strategic role play exercise in the US on what might happen in the event of a coronavirus pandemic. It was this which led to their false accusation of US troops bringing in the virus.
4. Is The White House Really Giving Money to the Wuhan Laboratory?
The term "The White House" in the title in the previous post is adjudged to be shorthand, poetic licence and/or spoof in its reference to senior figures in the United States. It could be any "The White House" and is not assessed to be intended to read literally. Indeed, it is believed that a part of its ironic flavour involves the extreme unlikelihood that the real The White House knew what was happening or was involved in any way. But, British media in the last 24 hours have said that significant money was given to the Laboratory by "the Americans". That may be Texan in origin and science based.
Alternatively, if there is a more overt political dimension, it too would in all rationality have entirely by-passed both the Trump Administration and most if not all of the Chinese Government and have been organised by the non elected Global Elite which some believe is operating as the Real World Government. In that event, we are back in the realms of "The Lizard Race". If the Bat Woman was secretly working for "The Lizard Race" then the Chinese Government wouldn't like her.
5. Are We Really Going To Have a Pangolin Cull in British Zoos?
The idea that the pangolin is the carrier of Covid-19 from bats to humans only emerged in February and again it came from China. It is more guesswork than fact and largely unsubstantiated by any science. Coming late-ish in the Chinese Covid-19 experience, one could see rationally how it was a rather sloppy way of trying to fill in obvious knowledge gaps.
There are only one million pangolins in the world. They happen to be the most trafficked mammal internationally which of itself suggests that they could be super spreaders through no fault of their own. Viewed almost in the same way as mythical creatures are viewed, they are a culinary delicacy for the tiny part of the Chinese population who are filthy rich and bored with eating live bats for kicks. While in Britain there has been a lot of excited interest in pangolins purely as an animal, not least at Chester Zoo - Chris Packham really, really likes them but that is hardly a massive surprise - pangolins are extrememly shy creatures and notoriously difficult to breed outside their natural habitats. Consequently there are either no pangolins in Britain or so few that it would be difficult to locate them in a flock of, say, ewoks or mermaids.
