Tucker Carlson slams US government for hiding the truth about the coronavirus
By ramontomeydw // 2021-07-26
 
Fox News host Tucker Carlson denounced officials in the U.S. government who helped China conceal the truth about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Carlson also criticized entities who previously dismissed the COVID-19 laboratory leak theory but did an about-face as evidence for it emerged. His tirade came as other mainstream media outlets released an "avalanche of evidence" bolstering the possibility of a lab leak. During a June 3 episode of his Tucker Carlson Tonight program, the host echoed claims by Chinese scientists more than a year ago. According to the scientists, "the novel coronavirus 'probably escaped' from a government lab in Wuhan." Despite the plausibility of this claim, it has received criticism for being "racist" and a "conspiracy theory" – if not outright silence. Carlson said: "Of course, [COVID-19] escaped from a Chinese virology lab. Did you really think it came from the wet market? Come on." The host also mentioned the existence of numerous emails from infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci sent to other individuals. Several mainstream media outlets obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request. Furthermore, Carlson also mentioned articles from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Vanity Fair that supported the COVID-19 lab leak theory. The Vanity Fair piece noted that virologist Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) collected samples of a bat coronavirus from a cave in China's Yunnan province. The pathogen, which had similarities to SARS-CoV-2, caused the death of several miners in 2012. Carlson added that BBC journalists tried to visit the Yunnan cave in late 2020. However, plainclothes police officers followed them and the road toward the cave was obstructed by a "well-placed broken-down truck." Meanwhile, the WSJ piece cited a U.S. intelligent report outlining how three WIV researchers fell ill and sought hospital treatment back in November 2019. The report noted how the scientists displayed "symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness." According to Carlson, the WSJ piece only strengthened the idea that the WIV researchers who "seem to have been working with bat viruses" were the "first [COVID-19] victims." The host ultimately said that while the Chinese government covered up the truth about COVID-19, some researchers in the U.S. government helped them. Carlson claimed that the U.S. researchers who helped Beijing conceal the truth had interests "aligned with [that] … of the Chinese government." He continued: "Many research scientists are addicted to tax dollars. If the public understood just how recklessly they've behaved [by] endangering the entire world with their weird little experiments in … China, the money might dry up." (Related: Fauci secretly funded gain of function research at Wuhan lab that produced Covid-19.)

U.S. officials who insisted on the lab leak theory were "bullied" into silence

Carlson also mentioned that a number of U.S. government officials who espoused the COVID-19 lab leak theory faced harsh criticism. Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield was among those officials intimidated into backing down. "That's not some guy on Twitter. It's the former director of the CDC, so you'd think the world would stop and ask follow-up questions. But that's not what happened," Carlson said. The former CDC head told Vanity Fair why he espoused the laboratory leak theory for COVID-19. He said that in early January 2020, he received a call about the virus spreading in Wuhan. Redfield immediately suspected the WIV as responsible – given his training as a virologist. However, he "was threatened and ostracized" by both politicians and other scientists for putting forward "another hypothesis." (Related: Gain-of-function expert Dr. Peter Daszak bullied top scientists into covering up laboratory origins of SARS-CoV-2.) Redfield has consistently stood by the lab leak theory as the possible origin of the pandemic. He remarked during an interview: "I still think the most likely [cause] of … [the outbreak in Wuhan] was from a laboratory. Other people don't believe that [and that's] fine. Science will eventually figure it out." Another government official confirmed the intimidation those believing in the COVID-19 lab leak theory face. Former State Department official Thomas DiNanno outlined that other staffers were warned not to scrutinize the lab leak theory. According to the former official, any investigations on the theory would expose the U.S.'s links to gain of function research in the facility. DiNanno wrote in a memo that staff members from two State Department bureaus – the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance and Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation –dissuaded any probes on the matter. The official said his attempts to press further were blocked by staffers who warned him that doing so "opens a can of worms." DiNanno told Vanity Fair: "[The warnings] smelled like a cover-up and I wasn't going to be a part of it." Deception.news has more articles about the U.S. government's role in the origins of COVID-19. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk VanityFair.com WSJ.com