re: #124 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

The idea it escaped from a lab is paired with the idea that it was being studied or developed as a weapon. That way wingnuts can claim China attacked us (by killing a whole bunch of their people first, apparently).

They also claim various figures in the USA were secretly working with China on this, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, TEH JOOOOOS, &c.

None of it makes sense but it really doesn’t have to. Wingnuts only need an “other” for their anger, and Asian nations have long attracted the anger of conservatives.

The whole “bioweapon” argument is completely stupid if you think about it for ten seconds: it’s the worst bioweapon you could think of. Much of the time it does nothing to the targets, and most affects humans that are old or medically compromised, which means not soldiers or anyone of fighting age. It’s combination of transmissibility and lethality means it spreads uncontrollably and is almost guaranteed to end up infecting the aggressor.

The scandal for China is not that the virus emerged there: it was the instinctive, autocratic reaction by the government to cover up, delay, and lie about it.