I’m concerned for the state of journalism when a single story in The Wall Street Journal, with unnamed Department of Energy sources quoting a report expressing “low confidence” in the lab-leak theory of where COVID-19 came from, turns into “DOE says COVID-19 leaked from lab” in multiple news outlets that ought to know better.
People who know how to do hardcore science-y things like checking the coronavirus’s genome all agree the most likely explanation is that it jumped from some animal to people, probably via the live-animal market in Wuhan, China. None of them rule out a lab leak because that’s not what scientists do, but they think the likelihood is small, and so does the DOE, apparently, because that’s what “low confidence” means.
I understand why we regular folks are so desperate for it to be a lab leak. We want life to be like the movies: there’s a simple explanation for a catastrophic event, possibly caused by a supervillain (China? Anthony Fauci?), and the hero stops the supervillain, fixes whatever caused the catastrophe and makes sure it will never happen again. Happily ever after!
Unfortunately, diseases jump from animals to people regularly, and it will probably happen more as climate change disrupts our usual patterns of human-animal interaction. We can’t do much to prevent the emergence of these new diseases or mitigate the consequences, except do our best to track them (boring and unmovielike) and hope our vaccine development technologies can keep up.
We will have COVID-19 in many variations. We will probably have deadly flu: The H5N1 bird flu strain is rare in humans (so far) but kills half the people it infects. We will have other diseases that maybe even experts haven’t seen before.
What we won’t have is absolute certainty or simple solutions, because life is not a movie.
— Elizabeth Gardner, Riverside
Calling out Fourth Estate
Regarding “How an ideologically blinded media failed to take the COVID-19 lab-leak theory seriously” (March 1): Thanks to the Tribune Editorial Board for its honesty in calling out the Fourth Estate for its failure during a critical time when critical thinking and truth-seeking were essential for our nation.
— Steve Sterner, Libertyville
Trust and Donald Trump
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A March 1 editorial claims that the media failed to take seriously the notion that a lab leak started the COVID-19 pandemic. And part of the blame for this failure is placed upon a collective hatred of Donald Trump and scorn for any of his pronouncements as he is one of the main cheerleaders for the lab leak theory. The editorial further communicates the idea that “just because a person lies and talks nonsense” (I assume referring to Trump), it does not mean he can’t be right once in a while.
But in whom should the media, or anyone for that matter, place more trust? The well-educated, knowledgeable scientists who know that animal-to-human transmission of viruses has been responsible for many diseases like the bubonic plague and have caused other recent outbreaks, such as Ebola in 2014-16, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic? Or should we heed the person who “lies and talks nonsense” and has proved himself to be quite ignorant of science? Some examples: wondering if injecting humans with bleach will cure the virus; pronouncing that wind turbines will cause cancer; denying global warming while ignoring evidence to the contrary; thinking we can wash coal to make it a nonpollutant; pronouncing that environmentally friendly light bulbs cause cancer; tweeting that record-setting freezing temperatures prove global warming is a hoax; and pronouncing that the coronavirus will miraculously go away.
The editorial also blasts the media for getting the coverage of the COVID-19 virus all wrong by “allowing ideological bias, and a specific distain for Trump,” to influence the news reporting, i.e., shying away from a theory because it is a theory that Trump believes in.
In view of Trump’s past “scientific” pronouncements, can you blame the media?
— Megan Bedard, Round Lake Beach
Nothing new in report
The Tribune Editorial Board decided to write a half-page editorial castigating the “liberal media” over a report by the Energy Department that the COVID-19 virus originally, possibly, maybe could have escaped from a Chinese lab. Seriously? The report was issued with “low confidence,” something the board notes but ignores. And when exactly was the Energy Department given purview over the COVID-19 origination story?
In no way am I giving the Chinese government, which has acted despicably in this matter, a pass. However, the editorial board did readers a disservice by highlighting a low confidence report as if it were hard fact, which it was not. The report certainly was not worthy for use as an object lesson in media bias.
In fact, this report did not tell us anything new, and it should be viewed as one of many probable origination stories of which we may never know the truth. With the current obfuscation of the Chinese government, I can say that with high confidence.
— Bruce Cantor, Aurora
Faith in government
After reading the article “US agency connects pandemic to lab leak” (Feb. 27), I am more confused and do not know who or what to believe. The Energy Department points to an accidental laboratory leak in China; however, U.S. spy agencies remain divided over the origins. What?
Discovering the origin of this virus is extremely important. It should not be a partisan issue. If the Energy Department, the FBI, four other intelligence agencies, the National Intelligence Council and now a congressional subcommittee cannot share information and come to a conclusion, then the intelligence communities need to be dissolved and reconstituted.
This inability to discover the source that has resulted in almost 7 million deaths justly promotes Americans’ lack of faith in governmental agencies.
— Cathleen Bylina, Chicago
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