you have demonstrated zero grasp on any of the relevant facts and you have repeatedly mis-characterized my position.

Handle this week:
"(Your position is DEM CHINEESE MADE A KILLER VIRUS ON PURPOSE!! )"

Handle on June 16, 2023:
"I know you think it was engineered, and I’m pretty sure you believe it was developed as a weapon and that it was released intentionally, and your poll cannot reflect that with two options only."

fif on June 16 in response:
"Engineered? Most likely, yes.

Intentionally released? Most likely, no."

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this is very poor form, Mr Handle.

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what is the "news" in the link I posted? It shows that Fauci received an email from his Chief of Staff on Jan 27, 2020, outlining what Wuhan Institute of Virology (in sometimes conjunction with Peter Daszak's outfit, EcoHealth Alliance and UNC's Ralph Baric) had "accomplished" re: bat coronavirus research. Fauci very likely was aware of some or most of this work prior to this email. After this email...let's say a lot of things happened, many of which remain a mystery to the public. Kristian Andersen and Robert Garry in late jan, early feb discuss the possibility of lab leak with Fauci. Then a Fauci-helmed teleconference where the concerns of these top scientists re: lab leak vanish....and a USA powers-that-be consensus position emerges in the Proximal Origins paper March 17, 2020. This paper has been shredded by other scientists. K Andersen is on record considering lab leak a real possibility even after the publication of Proximal Origins. Peter Daszak spearheaded a lancet article touting zoonosis, didn't reveal his role. This is all off the top of my dome, the evidence of an obfuscation of these people's true beliefs on "did covid come out of a lab in Wuhan?" is overwhelming. If you want me to nail down these references, holla.

So this recent email released thru a FOIA request is further evidence that Fauci and Co have not been forthright about their thinking re: covid's origins. You say no mention of of gain of function in the new email? Look at the sixth bullet point. And consider Shi's 2018 research proposal to DARPA while reading it. Here is the intro to the bullet points:


"NIAID has funded Peter’s group for coronavirus work in China for the past 5 years through R01 1R01AI110964: “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence”. That’s now been renewed, with a specific focus to identify cohorts of people highly exposed to bats in China, and work out if they’re getting sick from CoVs. Erik Stemmy is the Program Officer. Collaborators include Wuhan
Institute of Virology (currently working on the nCoV), and Ralph Baric. The results of the work to date include:"



"Found SARS-related CoVs that can bind to human cells (Published in Nature), and that cause
SARS-like disease in humanized mouse models."

this done most likely through serial passage, which is gain of function. in lax safety conditions. it's all right there if you stop and actually read the facts.

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but the comms from Fauci and Co are NOT the most persuasive evidence that covid came out of a lab in Wuhan. The cover-up Fauci, Francis Collin, Daszak, et al engaged in is definitely a data point that pushes the balance of evidence more toward "lab leak most likely"....but my credence in that belief is increased more by other facts... such as


--the on the face of it, incredible coincidence that the only known bat coronavirus with a FCS emerged in Wuhan, a place very far from where bats with closely related viruses have been found. that Shi's team was going very far away to Yunnan, extracting unknown bat viruses from caves and bringing them back to Wuhan to experiment on....and of course Shi's 2018 proposal to DARPA to....add furin cleavage spikes to bat coronaviruses in order to increase their pathogenecity to humans.

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would you like to engage with any of this? we could try to figure out where we disagree. but so far you have shown no willingness to actually talk it through.