Lab Leak Suppression

Always slipping from my hands

Sand's a time of its own

Take your seaside arms and write the next line

Oh, I want the truth to be known
--Spandau Ballet

One of the better investigative journalism pieces in some time, published in Vanity Fair, details the great lengths to which Anthony Fauci and other officials colluded to suppress dissent on the question of natural vs lab origins of CV19. This group kept scientific papers from being posted on pre-print servers, held Zoom sessions meant to intimidate authors of studies with controversial conclusions, and energetically attempted to build a 'united front' that opposed the lab-leak theory.

While reviewing the article's findings, Jeff Tucker asks a central question: What motivated actions to suppress the emergence of lab leak evidence? He suggests some possibilities. Perhaps the Fauci cabal wanted to avoid culpability concerning a linkage between US funding of Chinese lab actions that created the virus. Or maybe they needed to forge a single narrative that would support widespread lockdowns.

But why would lockdowns be desirable? After all, prior scientific work leaned away from lockdowns as effective countermeasures. The Fauci group ignored customary practices for coping with infectious disease spread such as developing ways to keep vulnerable populations (e.g., nursing home residents) safe, and discovering therapeutics that minimize severity in the general population.

Tucker lightly hints at one plausible explanation. A presidential election was on the horizon, and lockdowns along with other atypical countermeasures would support partisan political objectives. To obtain public support for those countermeasures, the Fauci group felt that it could not afford to lend legitimacy to the lab leak theory.

If so, then the motivation for suppressing dissent about CV19's origin goes far beyond the maintenance of 'reputations and professional standing' that Tucker offers at the end of his piece. 

Suppression of the lab leak theory was a necessary precedent for committing crimes against humanity to achieve political gains.