Crooked Media - What A Day: The life zoonotic

President Biden and top health officials have called for additional investigations into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, now that the lab-leak theory—extracted from the conspiracy theories that surround it—has gained new credence.
 

• On Wednesday, Biden publicly asked the intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” to definitively ascertain whether the virus originated from human contact with an infected animal, or emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China. Biden said he’s asked for a report within 90 days. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has called for a “transparent” follow-up probe, after an initial, dubiously opaque investigation conducted by the WHO and China deemed the lab theory “extremely unlikely.”
   
• Most scientists still think a jump from animals to humans is the most likely scenario, but new details—and researchers’ inability thus far to pin down the animal culprit(s)—have prompted calls for a closer look at the lab-leak hypothesis. This week, a newly disclosed U.S. intelligence report identified three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who were hospitalized in November 2019 after falling ill with...something. 
   
• Like any good theory about a concerted government cover-up, this one centers on an abandoned, bat-infested copper mine. In April 2012, six miners who went into a mine in southwest China to clear away bat guano fell sick from a mysterious virus, and three of the men died. Scientists from WIV took samples from the mine, and identified several new coronaviruses. Could an accident involving that research have sparked the pandemic? Because Chinese authorities have tightly restricted access to lab records and raw data, it’s entirely possible that we’ll never know.

For the purposes of preventing the next pandemic, it’s also not clear how much it matters.
 

• There’s no evidence to suggest that China manufactured a bioweapon and unleashed it on purpose, cackling maniacally as it spread through its own population, so either way, we’re looking at policies that need changing. The simple fact that there are two plausible scenarios (which aren’t mutually exclusive!) for how COVID-19 spread  should prompt action on both fronts. If investigators determine that this particular virus escaped in a lab accident, it should obviously spur virology labs around the world to enhance their safety protocols and reassess their research policies—but it would be a mistake to conclude that factors like wet markets and deforestation need no further scrutiny.
   
• A finding that the virus emerged from a lab also wouldn’t vindicate disgraced former president Donald Trump, contrary to his early declaration of victory. The Trump officials who promoted the lab-leak theory from the start—couching it in the conspiracy theory that the virus was a man-made weapon—transparently did so in an attempt to divert blame from the Trump administration’s disastrous pandemic response, and to bolster an anti-China presidential campaign. Wherever the evidence leads investigators going forward, inciting racist attacks with baseless accusations while undermining public-health measures will remain dead wrong.

The new statements from the Biden administration mark an interesting shift in the public conversation around the pandemic’s origins, and signal that the U.S. will be more aggressive in seeking definitive answers. But they certainly don’t point to any conclusions, or vindicate finger pointing without evidence as a basis for foreign policy.

On this week's Pod Save The World, Tommy and Ben discuss how the Belarusian president forced a plan to land so he could arrest a journalist, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and more. Plus, USAID Administrator Samantha Power stops by to talk about her development agenda and how the agency can actually help get coronavirus vaccines into arms around the world. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts →

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to force a vote on legislation to establish a January 6 commission this week, and if Senate Republicans follow through on their public opposition, it will be the first successful filibuster this Congress. Gladys Sicknick, the mother of late Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, has requested meetings with every single GOP senator on Thursday to push them to back the commission: “Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has sought to counter that point by reminding members that a high-profile investigation into a GOP-backed attempt to overthrow the government could be bad for Republicans in the midterms. The best case scenario here is that Republicans hand Democrats an undeniable reason to abolish the filibuster and they take it, but each GOP senator should absolutely have to explain it to Gladys Sicknick.

• A public transit employee shot and killed eight people at a light rail yard in San Jose, CA, before taking his own life. In a disturbingly familiar refrain, President Biden has urged Congress to take immediate action on gun control legislation. 
   
• Arizona Republicans have voted to strip Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) of her ability to defend election lawsuits, in response to her criticism of the state Senate-backed circus audit. The provision ends at the conclusion of Hobbs’s term, just in case a Republican takes office next.
   
• Amazon will buy MGM for $8.45 billion, gaining (partial) control of the James Bond franchise. 
   
• Donald Trump could run for president from prison, legally. Just a fun 2024 scenario to mull over as a New York grand jury starts hearing evidence of his various crimes. 
   
• Biden administration officials have begun looking into potential “gaps” in cryptocurrency oversight, like whether criminals and terrorists are using it to move money around without detection.
   
• New Hampshire police have issued an arrest warrant for Marilyn Manson on assault counts from 2019, related to an incident involving a videographer at one of Manson’s concerts.
   
• The coast of Turkey is all clogged up with “sea snot,” which would be very funny if the snot wasn’t threatening fishermen’s livelihoods and murdering seahorses. 
   
• Former Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has died at 94. 
   
• Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has died at 91.
   
• Kelly Clarkson has NOT died, and furthermore, will take over Ellen DeGeneres's talk show slot.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Dominion Voting Systems have warned county governments not to allow outside audits, as Trump supporters increasingly rally around the idea of replicating Arizona’s messy, conspiracy-driven audit in other swing states. Benson’s office preemptively alerted county clerks that they should not authorize unqualified third party audits no matter what GOP-controlled county boards demand, while Dominion warned that letting random conspiracy theorists tinker with its machines could render them “unqualified for official use,” as happened in Maricopa County. Meanwhile, some Republicans are skipping the audit route and going full vigilante: Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has hired a bunch of retired police officers to investigate the 2020 election.

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Coronavirus immunity could last for years, according to two new studies.

Pennsylvania has become the 10th state to jab at least 70 percent of its adult population.

Nevada could become the sixth state to make its 2020 universal mail-in voting option permanent. 

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House principal deputy press secretary, made history on Wednesday as the first Black woman to hold the daily press briefing in 30 years.