Trump's 2020 campaign focus is China not him or his record
Pictured above is the Wuhan, China Class-4
epidemiological laboratory. It was built in co-operation with the French
bio-industrial firm Institut Merieux
and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is among a handful of labs around the world cleared
to handle Class-4 pathogens (P4), which are dangerous viruses that pose a high
risk of person-to-person transmissions, infections, and possible pandemics.
A very good reference to study the differences between
“real and fake or false conspiracies” is this
Conspiracy Theory Handbook (.pdf) from the University of Bristol. A
very good document.
Introduction: This post today addresses the wild
theories going around about the COVID-19 virus and its origin, spread, damage,
and related false and fake stories all over the place (on purpose from China,
for example, man-made another wild story) as seen here
in his extensive report from USA TODAY – (my minor editing to fit the blog
follow this short introduction):
My Note: I love conspiracies (only real ones),
not the phony ones. I like to study them, dispel them, discredit them, and tear
them down with facts and the truth to clam up those who spread them for their
own pleasure via mostly ignorance or for fame and fortune.
My earlier related post re:
Trump blames Wuhan and China with his wild conspiracy.
Some
reports (CBS news) also now say China will be his
2020 campaign theme.
First
this flash update from the NY Times – here in part:
The
White House is considering winding down the coronavirus task force in the
coming weeks.
Trump
administration officials are telling members and staff of the coronavirus task
force that the White House plans to wind down the operation in coming weeks
despite growing evidence that the crisis is raging on.
It is not clear whether
any other group might replace the task force. Questions will arise about the
administration giving organized information to address the complex, life-and-death
decisions related to the virus and giving adequate voice to scientists and
public health experts in making sound policy.
Task force adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who
has helped oversee the task force, Olivia Troye, told senior officials involved
in the task force to expect the group to wind down within weeks. The task force
met Tuesday, but Monday’s meeting was canceled, and a Saturday session, a
staple of recent months, was never held.
Trump stopped linking his news
briefings on the virus to the task force’s meetings and no longer routinely
arrays task force members around him in his public appearances.
While the
rate of new infections and deaths has been falling in New York, it has
continued to rise in much of the rest of the country, and a number of
projections suggest that deaths will remain at elevated levels for months to
come and could increase as states ease their stay-at-home orders.
One document
circulating inside the administration raised the possibility of a rise in
coronavirus infections and deaths this month, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths
on June 1 — nearly double the current level.
A senior administration official said the task force
will be winding down as the White House moves toward Phase One of Trump’s plan
to “open up” the country. The focus now will be on therapeutics, vaccine
development, and testing. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.
A
group led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been
functioning as something of a shadow task force. That group is likely to
continue working; among other issues Kushner is said to be discussing a new
role for someone to oversee development of therapeutic treatments.
My note: Putting Kushner in charge is a very bad
move – everything he touches turns to crap as
I posted about here –This is really bad move and the public should be outraged
about that and re-opening.
Now the
Wuhan conspiracy story I wanted to address in the USA
TODAY article (detailed fact
checking) highlights follow – see link for full detailed story with this
headline:
The
claim: The Obama administration gave $3.7 million to a research institute in
Wuhan, China
The origins
of the coronavirus have become an increasingly hot-button issue, allowing
conspiracy theories to gain traction online and among high-profile officials.
Claims that
the U.S. government helped fund research into coronaviruses spread after
the Daily Mail reported it obtained documents that “show
the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook coronavirus experiments on mammals
captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan – funded by a $3.7 million grant
from the US government.”
The report gained traction on social media, and the
claim was repeated by political figures.
Examples:
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) praising Trump Fox News (of course
on Fox) for “committing to end this America Last grant given to labs in Wuhan by
the Obama administration!” said: “For years, the US government has been funding
cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which may have
contributed to the global spread of COVID-19.”
Trump during a news conference April 17, was asked by a Newsmax reporter: “We will end that
grant very quickly?” Trump said: “It was made a number of years ago. Who was
president then, I wonder?”
(I Note: Trump
was implying of course, that it was Mr. Obama – see more below that disputes
that).
Sen. Tom Cotton(R-AR) accused the Chinese government of
covering up its involvement in the virus’s origins in his April 21 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal writing: “This
evidence is circumstantial, to be sure, but it all points toward the Wuhan labs.”
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney tweeted
April 26: “Why did the US (NIH) in 2017 give $3.7 million to the Wuhan Lab in China?
Such grants were prohibited in 2014.”
The claims that the Obama administration funded
coronavirus research may be referring to a grant provided by the NIH to
EcoHealth Alliance, a research group that tracks emerging diseases. The grant
is directly overseen by the NIH, and it continued under the Trump
administration until it was recently rescinded.
The EcoHealth Alliance is
a nongovernmental research group that focuses on emerging diseases caused by
human and animal interactions.
The NIH has consistently funded the organization for projects
since at least 2002.
In 2014, the NIH approved a grant to EcoHealth Alliance
designated for research into “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
The
project involved collaborating with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology to study coronaviruses in bats and the risk of potential transfer to
humans. The original five-year grant was re-approved by the Trump
administration in July 2019.
In total, $3,378,896 in NIH funding was directed
from the government to the project.
The project,
which was established “to understand what factors allow coronaviruses,
including close relatives to SARS, to evolve and jump into the human
population,” yielded 20 scientific reports on how zoonotic diseases may
transfer from bats to humans.
The agency cited a statement from the O/DNI that the intelligence community (IC)was continuing to
investigate the origins of COVID-19.
The projects funded by the Obama and Trump
administrations produced research that highlighted the risk of an outbreak
like SARS-CoV-2 in southern China.
The abstract proposal for the project cited
concerns that a disease like SARS-CoV, or the earlier SARS outbreak, would
arise from the region.
Finally, USA Today says: “We
rate this claim PARTLY FALSE
because some of it was not supported by our research. It is misleading to
claim that the Obama administration gave funding to a Chinese research
institute. It is true that funds were provided to a project where an American research group worked
alongside a Chinese organization. Claims that the funding helped produce
the pandemic are unsubstantiated. A total of $3.7 million was not given to the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, only about $600,000.”
My 2 cents: Not much more to add – this post is long,
but needed to be said.
Thanks for stopping by.
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