If there is one word that defines the principal affliction of the mainstream media and public intellectuals, it is ‘apriorism.’ Collins Dictionary defines ‘apriorism’ as “the philosophical doctrine that there may be genuine knowledge independent of experience.” The operative part here is independent of experience. Often, the doctrine develops hostility toward empirical evidence. The affliction has proved a boon for China, for it helped deflect the world’s attention from Beijing’s role in birthing and spreading the deadly novel coronavirus.
In an earth-shaking article in the prestigious magazine The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the prominent science journalist Nicholar Wade has exposed a global conspiracy aimed at proving that the origin of the novel coronavirus is natural. He hinted at the thought leaders’ insane anti-Trump obsession helping the Chinese. “Another reason, perhaps, is the migration of much of the media toward the left of the political spectrum. Because [former US] President [Donald] Trump said the virus had escaped from a Wuhan lab, editors gave the idea little credence. They joined the virologists in regarding lab escape as a dismissible conspiracy theory” (https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/).
In other words, for the top opinion makers’ a priori belief—that is, the belief independent of empirical evidence—was that whatever Trump says is a lie (A factcheck industry thrived to prove him a liar, stupid, or worse). The natural corollary was that the opposite of what Trump says is true; indeed its truth is self-evident, thus requiring no proof. It was not just unscientific but anti-scientific attitude, but that was the attitude that prevailed all over the world in the recent past; it still does to some extent.
Intellectuals’ affliction has cost the world, not them, dear. Top scientists and public health activists closed ranks to claim that the origin of the novel coronavirus was natural. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin,” a number of prominent virologists and others wrote in the top international medical journal Lancet on February 19, 2020.
Wade has pointed out that at that time “it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened.” Yet, the scientists “overwhelmingly conclude[d] that this coronavirus originated in wildlife.”
The scientifically unsubstantiated assertion became gospel truth; and anybody, from conservative American politicians to dissenting scientists, questioning the novel coronavirus’ natural origin was accused of peddling a conspiracy theory. Trump and his political allies were of course hauled over the coals, but even credentialed experts were silenced. Like Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan. In September last year, Twitter suspended her account for the unpardonable crime of saying in public that China had “manufactured” the coronavirus in a Wuhan lab.
While the mainstream media and Big Tech acted like the Inquisition to support China, nobody bothered to check the intentions of the scientists who had emphatically asserted the natural origin theory. According to Wade, “It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, ‘We declare no competing interests’.”
Daszak, the shameless liar, took the world for a ride for more than a year—to help the Chinese Communist Party. Just as he and others did to send American taxpayers’ money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. According to Wade, “From June 2014 to May 2019, Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance had a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, to do gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Whether or not SARS2 is the product of that research, it seems a questionable policy to farm out high-risk research to foreign labs using minimal safety precautions. And if the SARS2 virus did indeed escape from the Wuhan institute, then the NIH will find itself in the terrible position of having funded a disastrous experiment that led to the death of more than 3 million worldwide, including more than half a million of its own citizens.”
The NIAD is headed by Anthony Fauci, the guy who received much praise from the liberal establishment in the recent past for being at odds with President Trump. Such was the hatred for Trump that Fauci’s role in promoting the controversial gain-of-function research was ignored. Gain-of-function is “any research that improves the ability of a pathogen to cause disease.” The justification is that this would help mankind tackle that pathogen in the event of an outbreak caused by the pathogen under study. It looks like the researchers at Wuhan created a Frankenstein’s monster.
Worse, when the monster was created, the CCP thugs decided to unleash on the entire world; nothing else explains their reluctance to inform other countries about the deadliness of the new virus for almost two months. They knew about it, and this helped them contain it within the Hubei province in which Wuhan is situated.
Top functionaries in the US government, prominent scientists, the public health mafia, the mainstream media, Big Tech—everybody who is somebody has helped China. First to carry out morally and scientifically questionable research, and then to deflect blame from its rulers’ unconscionable actions. Those who should have seen, and seen through, the CCP’s shenanigans chose to shut their eyes and believe the fairy tales told by the fibbers like Daszak.
All because of their a priori belief that Trump never speaks the truth.