Did I miss this discussion today?? Conservatives applaud Jon Stewart???

[a kennedy]

Conservatives applauded Jon Stewart’s for embracing the coronavirus lab leak theory on The Late Show’s first post-pandemic episode.

The former Daily Show host was Stephen Colbert’s guest on Monday night for the show’s first full-audience production at the Ed Sullivan Theater since the pandemic began. Stewart and Colbert butted heads after Stewart voiced support for the theory that Covid came from a Chinese laboratory.

“And how long have you worked for Senator Ron Johnson?” Colbert asked during the exchange. This was clearly a jab at the Wisconsin senator — a longtime believer in the lab leak theory. But Stewart stood by his argument that “this is not a conspiracy.”

Between the coronavirus’ origins from Wuhan, China’s lack of transparency, and the politicization of the pandemic, the public discourse over the lab leak theory has been colored by battles of partisanship. Conservatives and hard-liners against China have been arguing in favor of the theory for months, whereas others have viewed it as an anti-Chinese conspiracy theory, or at least, an idea that requires more investigation, facts and hard evidence before it can be proven true.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/conservatives-takes-a-victory-lap-after-jon-stewart-backs-lab-leak-theory-on-the-late-shows-return-online-leftists-seem-big-mad/

[Skittles]

1. Trump dropped the fucking Covid ball NO MATTER WHERE IT CAME FROM

JEEZ

[Pobeka]

3. Indeed! n/t

[catrose]

4. Right

[uponit7771]

38. +1

[Cha]

47. YEP!

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Thoughtful people do not know the origins of the spread.

Could have been spread from wild animals that were caught and eaten. In China, anything that's alive is a potential meal. Or it could have been leaked out by a breakdown of protocol. What I doubt is any sane population/government would leak this out on purpose. Yeah, lets jumpstart a pandemic and kill lots of our citizens and let it eventually engulf the world. The Darkside chooses to believe the lab leak was on purpose.

We may learn the truth eventually, but in the absence of facts, the rush to validate your predisposed opinions is always the 1st option for these people. Stewart is open to a lab leak....that does not mean that it was leaked on purpose or that his opinion is correct..

[dflprincess]

7. What the darkside doesn't understand is,

even if it did leak from a lab, it does not mean it was developed in a lab. The origins of the virus may have been natural and there is nothing necessrily nefarious about scientists studying it.

[Blue_true]

8. A Nobel Prize winner in Biology gave some credence to the lab leak theory

when he pointed out that a sequence on SARS-COV-2 could not have formed in Nature. He was then hammered by another imminent Biologist that pointed out to him that the sequence has been replicated in Nature a number of times on viruses, including SARS. The Nobel Prize winner has walked back his statement and is now saying that the source of the sequence is unknown and could have been from Nature.

[OAITW r.2.0]

9. When science doesn't know, I am smart enough to know that it is too soon for me to

make an informed opinion.

[Blue_true]

20. Good point.

If a Nobel Prize winner can put his foot into his mouth, who are we to make conclusions about the origins of SARS-COV-2.

[intrepidity]

36. David Baltimore nt

[Blue_true]

46. Yes. The Nobel Prize for ground breaking work in Biology. nt

[womanofthehills]

24. So many virologists on Twitter talking about sequences I don't understand

In the Fauci letters Christian Andersen told Fauci about a part of the virus that looked lab generated and so did 4 other scientists. Now Christian is changing his story.

[Blue_true]

26. The sequence has been replicated naturally by the SARS Virus.

Also, some FLU Viruses replicate it in Nature with some frequency.

Like I pointed out to someone else, China can go a long way toward ending this, now the country is acting defensive and is uncooperative. I personally believe that it is ok if it is found that a food practice in China caused the outbreak, that is something that is understandable to me. Some people eat wildlife in this country and it is possible that wildlife may one day release a deadly virus into our species that we have never seen and will have trou VM ble dealing with, even with competent presidential and two party leadership.

The most deadly viruses in modern times originated outside of China, MERS from the MiddleEast and Ebola from West Africa, but those places were open to having competent world scientists help track down the source.

[womanofthehills]

27. There are still many virologists out there saying part of the sequence

Definitely can not have come from nature. Some said the sequence is very similar to a vaccine for Sars. We don’t know yet but so many scientists seem to be working on this that we might some day.

[Blue_true]

10. We have not "learned" the truth about where the 1918 Pandemic started.

There are people claiming to put together investigative analysis, but when those efforts are examined, they made a lot of conjecture in arriving at their conclusion, Science doesn’t work that way.

[womanofthehills]

33. OMG but our scientists have reconstructed the 1918 virus- hope it doesn't escape the lab

CDC researchers and their colleagues successfully reconstructed the influenza virus that caused the 1918-19 flu pandemic, which killed as many as 50 million people worldwide. A report of their work, “Characterization of the Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virusexternal icon,” was published in the October 7, 2005 issue of Science. The work was a collaboration among scientists from CDC, Mount Sinai School of Medicineexternal icon, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and Southeast Poultry Research Laboratoryexternal icon. The following questions and answers describe this important research and related issues.


From CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html

[Blue_true]

45. I hope that it stays in the lab also.

There was a situation here in Florida is one of the medium sized reddish counties, I would guess that it is a vaccine resistance hotbed given it’s location in the state.

Something like six people got exposed to SARS-COV-2 in a county office building (in a 7th floor office). Two people died, one two days after getting diagnosed, the second person at home. Three people were hospitalized, not much was said about their current condition. The only person in that office that didn’t get sick was the only person that was vaccinated. The office building had something like 300-500 employees in it, generally a building with that many people has cafeteria onsite, my guess is more people will be falling ill.

The county administration plans to start an emergency vaccination effort on Monday, offering the J&J and Moderna vaccines. It will be interesting to see if there are any knothead anti-vaxxers left running around in that building now.

The people that got sick and died were all around middle age, the youngest was something like 38-39 years old.

[Initech]

42. 1918 also had its' fair share of anti-maskers and conspiracy theorists.

The sad thing is that pandemic had its' fair share of idiots and so does this one. I'm sure the next one will be even worse.

[Blue_true]

43. All you wrote, unfortunately is true. There was tremendous resistance to commonsense

measures in 1918. I believe that pandemic was when the concept of social distancing became a public tool for keeping people safe. The masks used then were made of gauze, not remotely comparable to today’s masks.

I believe the number of people who died in that pandemic is still open to question, some sources say 20 million and some say 50 million or more. One thing that is clear, at least for me is that if SARS-COV-2 had struck in 1918, it would have been devastating, COVID19 has killed over 5 million people worldwide, with modern understanding of viruses and vaccine production technology being world ahead of what existed in 1918.

[womanofthehills]

18. Thoughtful top World & US scientists say WHO did not research lab leak

And it needs to ba a hypothesis. From letter from scientists to Science Mag

As scientists with relevant expertise, we agree with the WHO director-general (5), the United States and 13 other countries (6), and the European Union (7) that greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve. We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest. Public health agencies and research laboratories alike need to open their records to the public. Investigators should document the veracity and provenance of data from which analyses are conducted and conclusions drawn, so that analyses are reproducible by independent experts. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/694.1.full#:~:text=Theories%20of%20accidental%20release%20from%20a%20lab%20and,determine%20the%20origins%20of%20SARS-CoV-2%20%28%202%20%29.

[RegularJam]

5. It's a legitimate theory.

Just as are multiple other theories.

It will remain that way.

China cannot allow this theory to become backed by anymore facts than are already known. If they know it came out of the lab then they will spare no resources to deflect.

But I’m going to guess there will never be a smoking gun.

[Skittles]

6. I absolutely agree it needs to be investigated

but the idea that where the virus came from somehow vindicates Donald Fucking Trump is absolutely ludicrous

[RegularJam]

11. Completely fucking ludicrous.

It does the opposite of clear him.

I once said to a friend that Donald’s Covid response was the single greatest failure perpetrated against conservative ideology and the country. An invisible enemy swept across our shores, killed hundreds of thousands and left countless more scarred, and that piece of shit welcomed it with open arms. The most basic view of conservatism is when your citizenry is under attack, you spare nothing at the federal level to protect the people. It is the cornerstone/starting point of conservative ideology.

And remember that Donald said in the earliest of days that he completely trusted Xi when it came to the virus.

[OAITW r.2.0]

15. Blame China became his mantra after it was obvious that he totally screwed up the US response.

Someone must be blamed, otherwise he's responsible for the US complete miss on dealing with the pandemic.

[RegularJam]

19. No matter the answer as to where it came from.

The failure within our borders starts with Donald. While the results would be the same, it would appear even worse for Donald if we found out it was intentionally or accidentally released.

Not sure it actually matters as Donald’s failures remain the same under each scenario. Where it does matter to me is that this type of thing has been my greatest fear for some time. It’s important we investigate it’s origins to the best of our ability. How out of control this and other scientific research has gotten around the globe is horrifying and highly unreported on at any mainstream level. I’m not saying that a lot of it isn’t very positive. I am saying that work is being done in countries with almost zero oversight, people are creating heavily modified animals at their own homes, and a lot of it is completely off the grid.

[Skittles]

31. just hearing an American PRESIDENT moan about the "CHINA VIRUS"

all while trying to deflect from his incompetent response to a pandemic - sickenng

[Blue_true]

16. I am leaning toward that the source will never be known.

So, we will have another “who killed JFK” into infinity.

I can tell you one thing, China isn’t helping itself by being a Dick. It is only giving oxygen to the wild assed claims of Trump and republicans. China is well advised to let in a team of competent scientists and pair them with competent Chinese scientists, then give that combined team whatever help it needs.

[RegularJam]

21. Maybe China is fine trying to maintain it as a conspiracy theory.

Probably their best option and they will do what serves their interests.

[Blue_true]

23. I believe proving that it came from Nature best helps them.

Even if it was because of some of the traditional food source practices that are done there. IMO, what doesn’t help them is to have unsubstantiated claims taking root.

[RegularJam]

25. I'm not sure how they wouldn't know for a fact if it came from the lab.

They are going to act based on that knowledge.

How would the Chinese government not now if it was from the lab?

[Blue_true]

29. The claim being made on the right is that China was sequencing the virus

and accelerated it to study it (or one claim is the Chinese military was involved and likely looking at it as a bio weapon).

The bio weapon theory works only if China could totally seal itself off from the rest of the world after releasing the virus on it’s targets. In today’s interconnected world, the likelihood of China pulling that off without harming it’s own people seems small.

It is possible that Chinese scientists were studying the virus in a lab and had an unintended leak. China would know that and my feeling is it is in that country’s best interests to explain what it was trying to do (assuming that theory is true).

[womanofthehills]

34. Other viruses that came from nature - source was identified early

Scientists say the fact that no source has been found for such a long period of time makes the animal hypothesis weaker.

[Blue_true]

48. I may be wrong, but the source of SARS hasn't conclusively been proven.

A wild type of cat (Civic?) was the top suspect, but I believe a lot of doubt was cast on that choice. MERS had it’s source identified relatively quickly and that has held up. But MERS originated in the MiddleEast and there was good corporation with The WHO to track down the origin.

I have wondered about why there is such a large problem getting China to cooperate (first with SARS and now with SARS-COV-2). My personal feeling is the issue may be with the country’s history of being a relatively feudal country inside the last two centuries and having to fight off invaders. I just don’t think the national mindset there cottons to a situation where people seem to be demanding that China do something. China has aspirations to be a world power, but for some reason doesn’t seem to fully grasp that it is already sitting at the big kid’s table (second largest economy in the world) and that a seat at that table comes with responsibilities, like cooperating openly with the rest of the world.

[womanofthehills]

28. Take into account our funding of the research thru EcoHealth Alliance

And how closely our scientists were working with the Chinese scientists. Our Dr Barik & Dr Shi wrote a paper together on g-o-f research on coronavirus and spike proteins. You can find the research paper on the web.

[RegularJam]

30. I think this bolsters my thought.

China knows if it came from the lab. I’m not sure how it can be any other way.

Possibly others as well but China at a minimum. If they are creating roadblocks and taking even more nefarious action then it will remain a conspiracy theory. There will be no smoking gun from the lab or from the people directly involved.

[rownesheck]

32. Yes. It's a theory.

But lots of theories didn't pan out. Lone gunman, communism, geometry...

[JHB]

12. Of course they're jumping on it. "Liberal icon endorses Trump bullshit!" (or some variant)

One thing to remember is that Trump knew early on that it would be bad but downplayed it anyway. Bob Woodward has tapes to prove it. The whole reason Trump started going on about "China virus" and anything connected to the Wuhan lab was ass-covering. The virus was starting to get serious here, and he needed to point fingers at "anybody but me."

[Mr.Bill]

13. The biggest lie that goes unchallenged

is Trump saying he shut down travel from China. He actually let 42,000 American expats come home from China without so much as taking their temperature.

[Hoyt]

14. We have to be prepared to handle these things whether from lab, bats, enemies, etc.

trump wasn’t ready, and made things worse.

If — a big if — it were a lab, it doesn’t appear nefarious. That’s what trump tried to make it.

[Blue_true]

17. Not only was Trump not ready, he had crippled our ability to get early warning

by pulling the CDC reps out of China.

If Presidents Bush and Obama had not properly funded mRNA research so that a vaccine was possible fast, we would be in deep shit now.

What I am afraid of is there is a virus out there, likely more than one, that has a long incubation period after a person is infected (similar to HIV) and is transmitted by aerosol. If that happens and we don’t have research compiled on that virus, the human race is likely finished.

[uponit7771]

39. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[Yavin4]

22. Dear conservatives, the lab leak theory makes Trump look even worse, far worse.

He looks impotent as a leader if true.

[intrepidity]

35. It's NOT JUST CONSERVATIVES

who think lab leak is highly probable.

Grrrrrrrrr. Good for Jon speaking up.

[Sapient Donkey]

37. True. There were a lot of non-conservatives discussing it for awhile

Most of them were annoyed with Trump turning into a circus. Which was then capitalized on by those who wanted to completely suppressed it as a valid theory by saying "you're not on Trump's side on this, are you?" I'm glad people are discussing it without it having the same sense of taboo as before. I don't even know what it means if it originate from the lab, but we should know either way. I mean, I'd want to know if it came from a US lab so that we could figure out why and ensure it's less likely to happen again. I'm sure in that situation most people would agree that they'd want it to be investigated, even those who may not want to investigate the chances of it coming from the Chinese lab.

[Sympthsical]

40. Only 25% of Americans think it was transmission from animals

Our side is in the minority in trying to suppress the idea, calling it conspiracy, and dredging up articles over a year old to prove things that have already been disproven.

We're supposed to be about science and evidence. Our head in the sand on this one, because "Fuck Trump!" is a bad look.

Good for Stewart. Colbert was shook. He couldn't even muster a response. Just made lame partisan cracks.

Partisanship is going to be the death of us.

[Raine]

41. TOTALLY Agree, I'm glad he spoke out! 👍 nt

[Mosby]

44. Seems like the propaganda is working.

Someone must be happy.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

49. Jon Stewart was an ass last week