Covid 19 lab leak hypothesis

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-covid-lab-leak-theory-is-looking-increasingly-plausible?fbclid=IwAR3kSfdFeXTrec4Vy-U7C1wZHiva-v9g28aG4yKvyzndPUbtggFDu4USIzE

A linked Spectator article written by Matt Ridley (blog link here https://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/ ) who has written numerous articles about the progression and evolution of the SARS Covid-19 situation since the emergence of the virus in 2020.

My limited thoughts on the lab leak hypothesis below.

I think from the reaction of the CCP, at the start (in hindsight now). Is that they didn't actually know how mutative Covid-19 was, but suspected it could jump in many different directions depending on the human host affected. 

The CCP was caught on the hop, just the same as the rest of us, and by the time they had finished trying against the odds to suppress the virus and information regarding the virus, it was too late. 

They tried to spin too many plates.

And as our author above has pointed in previous articles; the various ways we have tried to tackle the virus has taught it new tricks. So now the whole world forevermore is going to have to live with a viral pathogen that is transmissible in enclosed spaces where crowds gather. 

The good things (depending on your perspective), is that it's not deadly to most people; which is no comfort to all those people who have lost loved ones. And will be no comfort for anyone who now approaches the last quarter of life, or has an ongoing chronic health condition (fingers crossed the vaccine will mitigate the risk). And I suppose the other useful thing that has been discovered and early on, is this ability to learn new tricks, as it has in long-term patients treated with convalescent plasma, which means that scientists can possibly keep pace with the changes.

The issue or issues with the CCP overall and how it's dealt with, and how it deals with the 6 billion other souls external to its citizens in the world is an entirely separate matter. 

The Chinese people can't be punished for the mistakes of the regime. But the regime needs to take a very long hard look at itself if it wants to stay as the worlds 2nd superpower. Because there are other large emerging economies, Brazil and Mexico, never mind the traditional industrial centres in the west, that could with the right motivation reclaim manufacturing and stall the rise of China. And we can only hope that the top of the CCP realises it, and doesn't dig in any further.

Defund the BBC

I genuinely don't see the point of the BBC anymore.

For every radio station, there is an individual newsroom, for each of those newsrooms there is a subset of reporters, and for each of those newsrooms, there is a different slant on the same stories. The important point being that they are the same stories, the narrative being shaped is the same but clearly at different demographic points.

It is social engineering, not news. Because news is at its core facts about the world and those facts don't change. Therefore re-shaping the way the facts are presented has nothing to do with the facts themselves and everything to do with shaping opinion across as broad a sweep of the entire population as possible.

Underlying this is the cost to us, to replicate the same main news service six or seven (probably more) times (never mind the news channel itself, and then all the regional programmes). I've done the experiment in the mornings, and programed in the four primary radio stations and then flicked through the news, the variation in the facts is minimal, just the presentation changes.

So one simple change: A single radio newscast fed to all stations at the same time would save hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds. The excuse that they will lose the engagement of the younger generation if they make news too highbrow is bogus. When we were kids the news was the news, there was one flavour. And likewise, the argument that if the news is made too lightweight they will lose engagement from the older generation is equally spurious, and at all points in between depending on the station.

You only have to flick to Al Jazeera at 10pm, to realise the narrow band of news you are being fed. The BBC is rotten to the core and no matter how much it tries to self-flagellate itself in the wake of the latest scandal to try and make it appear like it's going to change, it simply won't, it's just more smoke and mirrors. There will be a noisy kerfuffle for a bit, some talking heads will vomit platitudes, time will pass, people will forget, BAU. It's the same pattern time and again.