In February 2020, Americans were starting to hear quite a bit about a word that was, at that point, largely unfamiliar: coronavirus. The global pandemic hadn’t yet begun, and the number of officially confirmed infections in the United States was fairly low.
It was against this backdrop that on Feb. 16, 2020, when Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on Fox News and shared a theory: The virus had originated in a biochemical lab in Wuhan, China. The Arkansas Republican conceded that he didn’t have any evidence. There was some ambiguity in his rhetoric, though the senator soon after clarified that he didn’t believe Covid was a Chinese bioweapon run amok.
Cotton’s comments were nevertheless not well received at the time. The New York Times reported that the Arkansan was touting a “fringe” theory. A Washington Post used the same phrasing, adding that the senator’s ideas had already been “debunked.” As it turns out, I wrote a similar piece a day later, noting that Cotton had a habit of pushing provocative ideas without evidence, and many of those ideas unraveled under scrutiny.
Three years later, however, the theory pushed by the Republican is back in the news — and getting a fresh look. NBC News reported:
The Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that the Covid-19 pandemic “likely” originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, according to a classified report delivered to key lawmakers on the House and Senate Intelligence committees, two sources with direct knowledge told NBC News. … The news was first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.
So, was Cotton right all along? Should he take a victory lap? It’s not quite that simple.
The fact that Energy Department officials have “low confidence” in the findings obviously stands out: This is not a definitive conclusion about Covid’s origins. What’s more, NBC News’ report added, “[A] source cautioned that the Energy Department’s conclusion was not being viewed as hugely…
Read the full article here
