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by credit_guy 1105 days ago
I don't have many doubts in my mind that it was a lab leak.

But then, so what?

Let's say that someone presents irrefutable evidence at these hearings. Not long after you'll start hearing demands for reparations. The US is large, and you can find people that hold all sorts of opinions. Some will claim that it is only just that China needs to pay. One quadrillion dollars.

But then, even if the virus came from a lab leak, it was our own ineptitude that resulted in so many deaths. I remember CNN's Sanjay Gupta telling everyone that you don't need masks, that you only need to wash hands, that it's safe to travel on an airplane. In a show dedicated to educating people about Covid. Did China force him to say these things? By the way, there was nothing special about Gupta, all sorts of medical experts were proclaiming the same falsehoods.

Ok, let's make China pay. But what exactly should they pay for? CDC says that 1.1 million people have died in the US from Covid as of today, and 6.1 million have been hospitalized. How many of these deaths and hospitalizations could have been avoided with a proper government response?

One reasonable response from China could be: in our country only about 120k people have died of Covid, and our population is 4 times higher than yours. With a competent handling of the situation, you could have had only 30k deaths. Less than 3% of the deaths you did have. If you want us to pay reparations, we pay for 3% and you pay for the 97% that your action or inaction caused. How's that?

And of course, China could rightfully point to the fact that the research at the WIV was partially funded by the NIH. Specifically the research that lead to the Covid leak. If China is at fault for the leak, so is the US. If China owes reparations to the US, then so the US owes (along with China) to the rest of the world.

So, yes, it was caused by a lab leak. What exactly are we going to do then?

4 comments

> Ok, let's make China pay. But what exactly should they pay for?

Monetary payment isn't the only way to make them pay.

I'm less concerned about the lab leak itself and more concerned with China's behaviour that followed, assuming the leak is true. They should be treated accordingly.

> CNN's Sanjay Gupta telling everyon

He's a TV personality. I'm more concerned with our own government agency's actions that did major damage to their credibility.

> One reasonable response from China could be: in our country only about 120k people have died of Covid

If you believe a word the Chinese say then you haven't learned the lesson yet, any you're not doing your part to make China "pay".

> And of course, China could rightfully point to the fact that the research at the WIV was partially funded by the NIH.

Yes and now you've identified yet another way to make them pay.

> But then, so what?

Sometimes an answer is an end in itself.

Oh, yeah. Because we pursue truth for the sake of truth. Knowledge is what we are after.

In the real world though, this type of answer can increase the likelihood of war. Actual war. I for one am ok with letting this particular "truth" remain unstated.

And let's be honest, it's not like we will ever get the actual "truth". No matter what anyone says, there will always be evidence in support of the opposite view.

I find the lab leak theory less and less plausible as anti-China rhetoric picks up in the west, to be honest.
China pushed the WHO to recommend against masking and airborne spread.