Changing the Covid narrative

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, in particular the testing of historic human samples stored by hospitals to determine where and when the virus really started spreading.

Those scientists who argue that the possibility of an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology should also be included as part of any investigation are curious about this apparent silence.

"I find it very unlikely that such investigations would not have already occurred," Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told me.

"It's a serious risk to resume life as usual without knowing where a dangerous human pathogen came from."

Instead of publishing its own evidence though, China appears to be taking an anywhere-but-Wuhan approach, with state media cheerleading the idea that the virus may have arrived in Wuhan on frozen food imports or talking cryptically of "multiple origins".

At a recent daily press briefing, I asked China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, why such narratives were being promoted in the absence of real scientific evidence.

"Your question reveals your prejudice against China," she replied. "Reports have emerged from Australia, Italy and many other countries that the coronavirus was found in multiple places in the autumn of 2019."

"Aren't these all facts?" she asked.

Well, what are "facts" nowadays? Don't we live in a post-truth world?

Besides, won't the World Health Organisation visit sort it all out and give us the answers?

Dr Daniel Lucey, a physician and infectious disease professor at the Georgetown Medical Centre in Washington, suggests the stage is being set for a foregone conclusion.

"In my view, if you line up side-by-side the WHO's terms of reference with the Shi Zhengli Science article," he told me, "then it is clear that the overarching strategic narrative is that the origin of the virus is outside of China."

Hmm. Maybe not.

In Wuhan's giant exhibition hall, the city's place in history is again called into question by one of the concluding sign boards which says Covid-19 broke out "in multiple places around the world".

For China, this city's past is now propaganda and the truth, like the virus, is being brought under tight control.

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