NBC News was pretty excited to announce that it had been given access to the Wuhan lab where the coronavirus pandemic is believed to have started.
.@NBCNews is granted access inside the Wuhan lab at the center of the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/jbWrQQe8yW
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 10, 2020
“The institute is the focus of speculation and conspiracy theories — some emanating from the White House — about whether the virus leaked from the facility,” NBC News reports:
During the roughly five-hour visit, which included a tour of the BSL-4 lab, where technicians clad in bubblelike protective suits handled small vials and other equipment while sealed inside a thick-walled glass enclosure, Wang Yanyi, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said she and others felt unfairly targeted. She urged that politics not cloud investigations into how the coronavirus spilled over into humans.
“It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus,” she said. “Any person would inevitably feel very angry or misunderstood being subject to unwarranted or malicious accusations while carrying out research and related work in the fight against the virus.”
Is that why Chinese officials started spreading the rumor that the U.S. Army had brought the coronavirus to Wuhan?
Here’s State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus:
.@NBCnews was granted the first independent media access to the Wuhan lab, and what do they have to show for it? They just regurgitated Chinese Communist Party propaganda and didn’t press for facts. https://t.co/hQoEF5fMC9
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) August 10, 2020
.@NBCnews, did you ask the CCP why they failed to share info about the virus, censored their own scientists, and delayed access by the international community seeking answers? We don’t know what happened because the CCP preferred saving face over saving lives.
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) August 10, 2020
Eight months later, mystery still surrounds the Wuhan lab indeed. It's high time the media ask hard questions and demand answers that go beyond CCP propaganda.
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) August 10, 2020
That’s why NBC is granted first access, CCP team players.
— Challenge Flag ? (@challengeflag) August 10, 2020
They have to do all they can to get that Universal Studios theme park open in Beijing.
— Huey Tzompantli (@Tzompantli5) August 10, 2020
And here’s Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin:
This @NBCNews report on their field trip to Wuhan Institute of Virology has several errors, but the most glaring is that it misrepresents what U.S. officials wrote in diplomatic cables in 2018. I'll explain: https://t.co/ocexX0ANB0
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
The NBC story says that U.S. officials "said they observed" serious safety issues at the lab. That's just wrong. The officials reported the Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists TOLD THEM about the safety issues. https://t.co/kgwc21YwBP There's more…
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
Wang Yanyi, director of the WIV, told NBC reporters the U.S. officials visited in March 2018, two months after the first cable was written. The truth is they visited three times, both before and after the Jan. 2018 cable. Did U.S. officials make an entire visit? Not likely..
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
That calls into question Wang's credibility. She also says biosafety was not discussed. Again, calling several U.S. diplomats fabricators? NBC reports that without any pushback. But there's more…
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
The NBC reporters toured the lab, as if that would tell them anything. What did they expect to find, a piece of paper they forgot to throw out that says "Coronavirus Origin Evidence"? It's absurd to think that has any probative value. But there's more…
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
The NBC report says that Fauci "discounted the idea that the virus had accidentally escaped from a lab." If you read the interview, Fauci said its not important if it was a lab accident (which is wrong) but not that he rules out the possibility. https://t.co/h5HB1teyzX
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
The NBC piece also launders more warped logic by Peter Daszak, who has a direct conflict of interest. "The fact that they published the sequence so quickly suggests to me that they weren't trying to cover up anything." Or, maybe they were so quick because they recognized it.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
This, from Yuan, the Wuhan institute's vice director is interesting and true: "So far, there is no evidence to show that the novel coronavirus jumped from animals to people in Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan." No evidence.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
Overall, the Chinese scientists can't be blamed for toeing the Party line. They deviate from that under penalty of death. But U.S. news organizations must do better than presenting a walk around a lab and an interview with falsehoods in it as telling us anything about the virus.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
Wow. Thank you for pointing out the inaccuracies @joshrogin . Think @NBCNews will retract it?
— Maria Peagler (@MPeaglerDigital) August 10, 2020
I doubt it
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 10, 2020
@NBCNews is a CCP propaganda network.
— Agnes Cushing-Ruby (@CushingAgnes) August 10, 2020
Related:
‘This. Must. Stop.’ Drew Holden hammers WaPo for disgracefully allowing Chinese ambassador ‘to share CCP propaganda’ [screenshots] https://t.co/qxuzuWD8G6
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 7, 2020
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