Washington: Origins of COVID-19 are still unknown. It is still unknown, three years after the pandemic began, whether the coronavirus that causes the illness escaped from a lab or was transferred from an animal to people.
One thing is certain: Since COVID-19 misinformation has been circulating since the start of the pandemic, any new information about the virus's origin quickly causes a relapse and the return of false claims about the virus, vaccines, and masks.
This week, it happened once more as a result of the Energy Department's confirmation of a classified report's low confidence conclusion that the virus escaped from a lab. Within hours, COVID-19 conspiracy theories were more frequently brought up online, and many commenters claimed the classified report proved they had been correct all along.
Also Read: Canadians believe PM Trudeau should be more aggressive with China
The Energy Department's report, though far from conclusive, is the most recent of numerous attempts by researchers and authorities to pinpoint the virus's point of origin. Since it was first discovered in late 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the virus has now claimed the lives of nearly 7 million people.
Officials in Washington emphasised that different US agencies are not in agreement on the report's origin even though it has not been made public. The FBI "has for quite some time now," according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, determined that the pandemic's origins are "most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan."
However, there is no agreement among the US intelligence community's other members, who disagree. Numerous studies and reports support the theory that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans, possibly at Wuhan's Huanan market, which is the explanation preferred by many scientists. According to the World Health Organization, a lab leak must first be thoroughly examined even though an animal origin is still the most likely explanation.
According to virologist Angela Rasmussen, people should be open-minded about the data used in the Energy Department's evaluation. She claimed, however, that she is unable to judge whether the classified report is convincing enough to refute the assertion that the virus was spread by an animal without first reviewing it.
Also Read: California denied parole to the man convicted of killing Robert Kennedy in 1968
The majority of the evidence still favours natural origin, Rasmussen said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I work in science. Instead of trusting the FBI director's word, I need to see the proof.
However, many of those who used the report as evidence appeared uninterested in the specifics. They seized on the report and claimed it indicated the experts may have also been mistaken regarding masks and vaccinations.
"Closures of schools were a disastrous and failed policy. Masks are useless. And harmful," read a tweet from Sunday that has been viewed almost 300,000 times. "COVID was created in a lab. All of the things the sceptics said were true.
Following Sunday's publication of a story about the Energy Department report in The Wall Street Journal, COVID-19 was more frequently mentioned as a whole. According to research done by Zignal Labs, a media intelligence company with offices in San Francisco, and shared with The Associated Press, mentions of various COVID-related conspiracy theories have increased significantly since that time.
The lab leak theory has been discussed online since the pandemic started, but according to Zignal's analysis of social media, blogs, and other websites, the number of references to it increased by 100,000% in the 48 hours following the release of the Energy Department report.
Numerous conspiracies run counter to one another and the conclusions of the Energy Department report. US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, referred to COVID-19 as a "man-made bioweapon from China" in a tweet on Tuesday. It was made in Ukraine, the challenge from a follower who interrupted her was.
Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a Washington-based organisation that has tracked government propaganda about COVID-19, says it's not at all surprising that COVID-19 is still capable of inciting such anger and false information given the myriad unanswered questions about a global event that has claimed so many lives and upended even more.
The pandemic caused such severe disruption for everyone. I don't think the strong feelings people have about COVID are going to change," Schafer said. And whenever something new emerges, it gives these real or imagined complaints and frustrations new life.
Chinese government representatives have in the past promoted anti-US conspiracies on social media, including some that claimed the US created the COVID-19 virus and blamed China for its release.
They have so far been more subdued in their response to the Energy Department report. China's government rejected the agency's assessment as an attempt to politicise the pandemic in their official response. The vast propaganda and misinformation network of Beijing was largely silent online, with only a few posts criticising or making fun of the report.
Also Read: Black Man wrongfully detained in the US for 38 years is deemed innocent
A pro-China YouTuber posted the message "BREAKING" to Twitter. I can now say with "low confidence" that Hunter Biden's laptop was the source of the COVID pandemic.