What happened in Wuhan?

We will know the truth someday.

we'd know right now, if some traitorous autocrat hadn't dismantled the pandemic response team.

How many times can you repeat the same damn lie?

usatoday

In May 2018, former national security adviser John Bolton restructured Trump's National Security Council and disbanded the global health unit. Its former head, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, resigned from the administration and was not replaced.

Tim Morrison, a former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post  that he "inherited a strong and skilled staff in the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate" when he joined in July 2018.

"This team of national experts together drafted the National Biodefense Strategy of 2018 and an accompanying national security presidential memorandum to implement it; an executive order to modernize influenza vaccines; and coordinated the United States’ response to the Ebola epidemic in Congo, which was ultimately defeated in 2020," he wrote.

He also said that the reorganization of the NSC was necessary after the "bloat that occurred" under Obama, when the staff quadrupled to nearly 400 – a figure that even members of the Obama administration agreed was too large.

Though the unit was disbanded, not all members of the team left. Some moved to other units in the NSC, like those focused on weapons of mass destruction and international organizations, per  The Washington Post.

At the time of the disbanding, National Security Council spokesman Robert Palladino told the Post the Trump administration "remains committed to global health, global health security and biodefense, and will continue to address these issues with the same resolve under the new structure.”

After the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in mid-March, the decision to disband the global health unit received fresh scrutiny. Bolton defended the restructuring on Twitter.

"Claims that streamlining NSC structures impaired our nation's bio defense are false," he wrote on March 13. "Global health remained a top NSC priority, and its expert team was critical to effectively handling the 2018-19 Africa Ebola crisis."

Bolton attributed the attack to partisan politics.

"The angry Left just can't stop attacking, even in a crisis," he wrote.

More: Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic team hindered coronavirus response

Even critics of the choice to disband the unit – like Beth Cameron, its head under Obama – noted that not all pandemic preparedness personnel left the administration.

"It’s impossible to assess the full impact of the 2018 decision to disband the White House office responsible for this work," she wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post in March. "Biological experts do remain in the White House and in our government."

The media tells a lie often enough; and the sheeple on the left will keep repeating it forever.

Oh, and the "pandemic response team" wouldn't have any more access to China at the outbreak than anyone fucking else? If China wouldn't let WHO in, an organization that has catered to China's every whim. What the hell makes you think they would let in anyone from the US?

"We will know the truth someday."

I doubt it, but I'm sure conspiracy theories will continue to be dragged up, since it deflects from how America handled it.

since it deflects from how America handled it.

America wouldn't have to handle it if the CCP didn't let those flights go out after they knew what they were dealing with!

(BTW I like the picture clues better)

No conspiracy except on the part of Chinese authorities who apparently suppressed information, discredited its own experts, and has been very uncooperative. It could have been handled better at the very beginning, but wrongly blaming it all on Trump is absurd.

"(BTW I like the picture clues better)"

(Waiting for a consensus, so thanks for your input)

I don't blame it ALL on Trump, but had he handled it like the leaders of Australia and New Zealand did, and not delayed (as he admitted to Bob Woodward) it would have made a huge difference. 

America wouldn't have to handle it if the CCP didn't let those flights go out after they knew what they were dealing with!

Most of the original COVID infected came from Europe.

Mount Sinai Study Finds First Cases of COVID-19 in New York City are Primarily from European and US Sources

But you go ahead and keep blaming China to distract from Trump's abysmal handling of the crisis.

I don't blame it ALL on Trump, but had he handled it like the leaders of Australia and New Zealand did, and not delayed (as he admitted to Bob Woodward) it would have made a huge difference.

How many needless Covid-19 deaths were caused by delays in responding? Most of them

Most of the original COVID infected came from Europe.

So you are saying that our European allies fucked up their response; and in return it screwed the US over. I remember a whole lot of Trump is a racist bashing when he put travel bans in place for China and Europe. Democrats fell all over themselves trying to prove how safe it was to go out.

But you go ahead and keep blaming China to distract from Trump's abysmal handling of the crisis.

If China had contained the disease within it's borders it never would have spread, period. That includes to Europe and the rest of the damn world. Why the hell is the left carrying water for China? Trump is no longer in office. You can't make him look any worse.

How many deaths were caused by fucked up Democratic governors forcing retirement and nursing homes to take in those with Covid 19; the cover up is still going on.

mcknights

bridgemi

nbcnews

detroitnews

washingtontimes

How delayed was the response from Democrats trying to prove Trump was a racist for his travel bans at the start of Covid 19? I am sure these little get togethers by the left helped the spread in the beginning.

news.yahoo

wibc

air.tv

bostonherald

When the administration decided to halt air travel from China, the left immediately decided this was the wrong move (shocker). A CNN article critiqued the decision as naive: “Experts say travel restrictions the Trump administration put in place to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading could have unintended consequences that undermine that effort … Details about the U.S. travel ban’s impact are still emerging. But some are already urging the U.S. to reconsider.” The same “experts” who were against the travel ban in early February are now warning us on an hourly basis that we are on the brink of an Apocalypse. The safety measures Trump made in early February were racist and excessive. Now, a few weeks later, we are told those precautions weren’t extreme enough.

But Trruuummmmppppp!!!!!! It is all the left has. Pathetic.

So you are saying that our European allies fucked up their response; and in return it screwed the US over.

The virus was on US soil months before that.  COVID spreading across the country was inevitable.  It was the US's lack of a coherent response, and complete denial, that is responsible for many of the 500,000+ deaths.

How many deaths were caused by fucked up Democratic governors forcing retirement and nursing homes to take in those with Covid 19; the cover up is still going on.

You definitely love deflecting, don't you?  State response were dictated by federal recommendations since the feds had the data and the experts.  Federal recommendations consisted of the following quotes:

• “No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
• “We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.”
• “There’s a theory that, in April, when it gets warm — historically, that has been able to kill the virus. So we don’t know yet; we’re not sure yet.”
• “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
• “We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we’ve had very good luck.”
• “The risk to the American people remains very low. We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.”
• “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”
• “There’s only one hot spot, and that’s also pretty much in a very — in a home, as you know, in a nursing home.”
• “No, I’m not concerned at all. No, I’m not. No, we’ve done a great job.”
• “So it could be right in that period of time where it, I say, wash — it washes through. Other people don’t like that term. But where it washes through.”
• “The CDC is advising the use of non-medical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure. So it’s voluntary. You don’t have to do it. They suggested for a period of time. But this is voluntary. I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”
• “I just don’t want to be doing, I don’t know, somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk. I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just, I just don’t.”
• “I don’t agree with the statement that if everybody wears a mask, everything disappears.”
• And so many more....

And don't forget the follow recommendations:

• “HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine,” and said that the drugs should be “put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE!”
• Trump floats idea of disinfectant for coronavirus ‘by injection inside or almost a cleaning’

Chinese workers apparently carried the virus to Italy and Europe, thence it spread to NYC.

The very first cases appeared in Wuhan. Do some honest research so you'll appear to know what you're talking about.

The very first cases appeared in Wuhan. Do some honest research so you'll appear to know what you're talking about.

Do some honest reading, I never claimed it originated anywhere else.

What 'handling of the crisis'?

He put a lot of effort into "handling" it with a lot of denials and finger pointing.

America wouldn't have to handle it if the CCP didn't let those flights go out after they knew what they were dealing with!

America wouldn't have had to handle it if the Administration told the Americans in China to quarantine there

instead of letting them fly back and forth to China for months while the Admin banned Chinese nationals.

At a House subcommittee hearing on the coronavirus on Feb. 5, Ron Klain , White House Ebola response coordinator under the Obama administration, took issue with the characterization of the travel restrictions as a travel “ban.”

“W e don’t have a travel ban,” Klain said. “We have a travel Band-Aid right now. First, before it was imposed, 300,000 people came here from China in the previous month. So, the horse is out of the barn.”

“There’s no restriction on Americans going back and forth,” Klain said. “There are warnings. People should abide by those warnings. But today, 30 planes will land in Los Angeles that either originated in Beijing or came here on one-stops, 30 in San Francisco, 25 in New York City. Okay? So, unless we think that the color of the passport someone carries is a meaningful public health restriction, we have not placed a meaningful public health restriction.”

Indeed, on Jan. 24, a week before the travel restrictions, the CDC confirmed two cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. from people who had returned from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began.

Furthermore, Klain said, the import of goods from China is exempt from the travel restrictions, “and, of course, the people who fly the planes and drive the boats that bring those goods from China. We couldn’t ban that activity. We vitally need that. Ninety percent of the antibiotics in this country come from China. All kinds of vital medical supplies … we will use to treat people. So, travel bans … that’s not what we’re imposing, that’s not what exists.”

factcheck

You definitely love deflecting, don't you?  State response were dictated by federal recommendations since the feds had the data and the experts

Wrong again. Democrats were so damn eager to prove Trump wrong and a racist. Trump had nothing to do with moronic Democratic governors putting Covid 19 patients in nursing and retirement homes. Talk about deflecting. Look at Governor Whitless' excuse. Nor did Trump have anything to do with Democrats going all out against travel bans; and telling people to go out a ride subways, visit China Town, or any other damn stupid thing that popped into their little TDS driven heads.

clickondetroit

But on Tuesday, she spoke with Local 4′s Rod Meloni and doubled down on her policy, saying there’s not a strong alternative.

“We’ve made decisions on the best science available in the moment,” Whitmer said. “I don’t know if you can ask anyone to do better than that.”

Whitmer said she isn’t changing her policy, instead ordering all nursing home patients and staff members to get tested.

She said she’ll also keep her regional hubs.

“That appeared to be the best practice with the science information we had, and that is why we pursued it,” Whitmer said.

Florida, which has a much larger senior population, decided not to commingle COVID-19 positive patients with COVID-19 negative seniors.

Michigan Sen. Pete Lucideo said Florida officials understood the risk. He now has a bill that would keep the positive patients out of Michigan nursing homes.

“I’d like to hear what data was relied on to pick nursing homes to bring COVID-19 patients to infect those that weren’t infected, to kill those loved ones of almost 2,000 -- that that’s what the federal government says,” Lucido said.

The Centers for Medicare Services said 2,297 Michiganders died from the coronavirus in nursing homes, which is 350 more than the state is reporting.

Lucido wants Whitmer to dedicate one facility for recovering COVID-19 patients.

“It is maybe something we could have done, however, the incredible, herculean undertaking that would have been to do it right would have taken time and would not have been a perfect solution,” Whitmer said.

Democrats take no damn responsibility for anything, ever. "But Trruuuummmmmppppppp!!!!!!!!" Pathetic as always.

Not America; Trump.

You think that the no-maskers, those who considered that their God-given individual rights and freedoms were more important than the health or lives of their parents and grandparents, the ones who spit in the faces of elderly Chinese people, the ones who intentionally coughed on the vegetables in marketplaces, had nothing to do with the uncontrolled spread of the virus?

Someone posted an interesting article about the lab and its researchers a few days ago

thenewstalkers

We know they made repeated visits over many years to the exact caves where SARS-related viruses were found. There, they handled bats directly, spent extensive time inside the caves breathing the air, and brought thousands of samples of guano, blood, and other bits of bat ( possibly even live bats ) back to Wuhan with them.

Then a lab tech somehow got infected and later visited the market. Sounds entirely plausible. And then the Chinese authorities failed to act.

And then the Chinese authorities failed to act.

They did act to protect other parts of China.


Someone posted an interesting article about the lab and its researchers a few days ago

That was an excellent article

CCP to investigate itself

Isn't that a conflict of interest?

Absolutely, but that's what the WHO agreed to. The CCP even decides on who gets to go.

Oh, I know. Coming from someone that used to be in a quality role though... that's a big no no.

Absolutely, but that's what the WHO agreed to.

You do understand that the Who had absolutely no authority to challenge that, right?  They are invited into countries and hold no position of authority.

You do understand that the Who had absolutely no authority to challenge that, right? 

Then why act as a proxy for the CCP. You mean the WHO has whored itself?

Coming from someone that used to be in a quality role though... that's a big no no.

They have zero credibility.

MsAubrey it seems like only yesterday that the nation was whole:

Then why act as a proxy for the CCP.

Only in the right wing fevered dreams.

So you think the CCP, is totally innocent?

The CCP is certainly not innocent. They, much like most other major world governments are no doubt trying to protect themselves and paint their best face on their pandemic response much like the Trump administration tried to do once it was on our shores.

Do you think they tried to cover up anything?

There's no doubt they covered up something, what that something is will be the real mystery to unravel, but I doubt very highly it will be some intentional spreading of the virus to other countries. They are likely covering up their initial response and their failures to contain it when they had the opportunity to do so but some higher ups in the CCP made decisions to down play it and didn't take it seriously enough at first which cost Chinese citizen lives that they will likely never take responsibility for. They will probably deal with those who made bad decisions internally and we'll never hear about it because exposing the truth would make them look bad in the eyes of their people and the world.

But this whole nonsensical conspiracy theory fantasy that some conservatives have imagined of the CCP supposedly developing this virus and then intentionally spreading it around the world to weaken other countries and economies is no doubt pure fever dream fiction most likely intended to distract and deflect from the Trump administrations own failed response.

So you think the CCP, is totally innocent? Do you think they tried to cover up anything?

Please show where I said that?  Or are we in right wing fairy land where everything is black and white absolutes?

If you have had the vaccine, Trump's response was not a failure

I do think that they must be held accountable so that this type of thing does not get repeated.  It is very serious you know....

I agree, any government that lied about or downplayed the seriousness of the virus or discouraged a responsible response in an effort to make it look like they had it all under control should be held accountable for the hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths that resulted. The CCP should be held accountable for their mistakes and their refusal to lock things down quicker and their attempt to sugar coat their response claiming they did everything they could because they obviously did not until it was already too late. And any other government, especially the ones with massive death tolls even after being warned about how virulent and dangerous this virus was but chose to lie to their own citizens while behind closed doors were admitting it was a deadly airborne virus, should be held to account.

Sadly, some here in our own country refuse to see the prior administration as anything but some sort of second coming of Christ and refuse to hold them to account for their obvious mishandling of the pandemic and cling to some fantasy that because we now have a vaccine that we should only praise the former administration and we should ignore the lies, the downplaying of the seriousness, the ridiculing of sensible safety precautions like mask wearing and social distancing. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, if holding the CCP to account is paramount in this never happening again, then so is holding the other governments such as our own for dropping the ball and choosing lies over truth.

I was asking you 2 questions, because you seem to think it’s just in the “ right wing” minds.  So can you answer them?

Well let's see.....

So you think the CCP, is totally innocent?

Have never said anything about it, so I have no stance on it at this time.

You would rather blame it all on trump instead of the CCP. 

Trump and the CCP are two separate issues. 

Dr. Deborah Birx said on a show last night that she thinks Trump may be responsible for 400,000 deaths from covid. This is a women who worked for the Trump administration for a good part of the covid pandemic. 

"China" does not absolve Donald Trump.

You would rather blame it all on trump instead of the CCP.

You're trying aren't you?

• I blame Trump for the US's pitiful response to the pandemic.
• I blame Trump for his abject failure to support professional recommendations in handling the pandemic.
• I blame Trump for dismantling America's Pandemic Response team, merely because Obama set it up.
• I blame Trump for eliminating the position that was onsite at China's CDC and would have had 1st hand knowledge of COVID.
• I do not blame Trump for the existence of the virus.
• I do not blame Trump for allowing it into the US, that was inevitable.

Now it's your turn to answer a couple questions.

Do you believe that there would have been anyway to prevent the virus actually from making it into the US, or would it have just been delayed a month or 2?

What Trump policies do you think would have made a difference with even a 2 month delayed exposure to COVID?

The first question, if they would have contained it right away, there is a good chance it would not have gone global.

Please re-read the question.  You're answer does not apply to what I asked.  I did not ask about China.

Do you believe that there would have been anyway to prevent the virus actually from making it into the US, or would it have just been delayed a month or 2?

The second question, that is hard to say because the virus was new and “no one” really knew what to expect.

And again, you are avoiding the question.

You can look up Trump's policies, you can look up traits of COVID.  The question is very simple.  I am not asking for what they knew then, with today's knowledge is what I am asking about.

You need to re-read my answers because they actually do. You just did not like them.

I will repeat.  I did not ask about China, I asked if there was anyway to prevent the virus actually from making it into the US, or would it have just been delayed a month or 2?

Again. I did not ask about China.

2nd question I asked what Trump policies would have made a difference after it had gotten into the US, even if the spread of the virus had been delayed by a couple months.

I did not ask about January 2020, look back at everything we know today and tell me which Trump policies would have made a difference.

Ok, through all of your yelling and screaming and pointing fingers and blaming, what is your desired outcome?

It seems you all love to bitch and scream yet what is the point? What are you trying to accomplish?

Ok, you blamed China, now what? Just more bitching and complaining?

Seems that is all some can do.

Ok, through all of your yelling and screaming and pointing fingers and blaming, what is your desired outcome?

Why do you defend China? Why does this subject anger you so much? Try to calm down.

Where did I defend China?

Why do you think I am angry?

What do you think articles like this achieve? Well, instead of more butthurt feelings and oh yeah, bitching and complaining.

What do you want to happen? Go to war? Enact sanctions and tariffs?

What does anybody accomplish here other than alleviating boredom.

The political right is obsessed with one thing above all -  their belief that they are losing their "freedoms". 

What are examples of them losing "their" freedoms?  Diversity, LBGTQ rights, racial reckoning, street protests, social justice, entitlements, "cancel culture" , liberal politicians.  Many white people , most always conservatives, believe, consciously or even unconsciously, that they are losing "their" country. And they lash out over it. 

What does this have to do with China ?   Because China is run by a communist party it is the favorite whipping boy and all purpose villain for the right. Note part of the Trump election fraud claim was that China was involved in stealing the election from Trump. Trump knows his followers will love to place any blame possible on China. 

It's not really about China, China is a stand in for everything right wingers don't like about modern day America. 

No, I'm sure they do. They just don't have any responsibility that excuses Donald Trump's behavior over the past year. 

To this day Trump continues to complain about the "China virus".  That is like complaining about the manufacturer of a defective extension cord while you stand and watch a fire that it caused burn down your house. 

Epilogue:

To wrap this up and call out the WHO "investigation" for the farce it is, I'll simply post the comments of Jamie Metzl (former NSC official in the Clinton administration and member of a WHO advisory committee on genetic engineering.) :

Jamie Metzl: We would have to ask the question, "Well, why in Wuhan?" To quote Humphrey Bogart, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, why Wuhan?" What Wuhan does have is China's level four virology institute, with probably the world's largest collection of bat viruses, including bat coronaviruses. 

Lesley Stahl: I had seen that the World Health Organization team only spent 3 hours at the lab.

Jamie Metzl: While they were there they didn't demand access to the records and samples and key personnel.

That's because of the ground rules China set with the WHO, which has never had the authority to make demands or enforce international protocols.

Jamie Metzl: It was agreed first that China would have veto power over-- over who even got to be on the mission. Secondly--

Lesley Stahl: And WHO agreed to that.

Jamie Metzl: WHO agreed to that. On top of that, the WHO agreed that in most instances China would do the primary investigation. And then just share its findings--

Lesley Stahl: No.

Jamie Metzl: --with these international experts. So these international experts weren't allowed to do their own primary investigation.

Lesley Stahl: Wait. You're saying that China did the investigation and showed the results to the committee and that was it?

Jamie Metzl: Pretty much that--

Lesley Stahl: Whoa.

Jamie Metzl: --was it. Not entirely. But pretty much that was it. Imagine if we have asked the Soviet Union to do a co-investigation of Chernobyl. It doesn't really make sense.

China had ruled out a lab accident long before the WHO team arrived at the airport in Wuhan on January 14 and were greeted by people in full PPE gear. 

The team included some of the world's leading experts on how viruses are transmitted from animals to humans. But even though there have been accidental lab leaks of viruses in China in the past that have infected people and killed at least one, no one on the team was trained in how to formally investigate a lab leak. 

They were there for a four-week mission, but two of those weeks were spent holed up at this hotel in quarantine. Once out, they had some tense exchanges with their counterparts, a team of chinese experts, over their refusal to provide raw data.

cbsnews

IMO the CCP is its own worst enemy when it comes to its lack of transparency on the virus origin and that goes for Xinjiang as well - its own propaganda or that of its media will never be considered satisfactory.  Up until recently I felt that it should allow an international group to inspect Xinjiang, but if they are "controlled" in the manner that the WHO group was it would be a useless exercise.  However, that does not mean that I don't ALSO believe that the USA and others are unfairly promoting biased speculation about what really happens in and of China for its own purposes of roadblocking the possibiliity that China will surpass their own self-aggrandizement, and I suppose the CCP believes that, which is a reason it is not allowing such an inspection. So IMO, even if such an inspection team were to determine that the CCP was correct concerning Xinjiang, we would see responses like the Epilogue you posted.

I agree Buzz. In the same spirit, I think that our very own National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases must be transparent and tell us all if they were partners in studies of infections diseases held in China.