I was convinced it was just some daft b****** fancied a Bat chow-mein and it all went tits up from there. But then came across these claims about how the protein strand looks odd, primarily around how it would impact on the R rate and followed it up a little.

The people I have been listening to on this all stress that its possible for a novel virus to emerge like this but very, very unusual. Hence the suspicions around the possibility of human interference. Throw in the fact that the lab in Wuhan had some safety strikes against it and anything is possible.

But I suspect the truth may never really emerge. Even if the West does have definite proof that it was engineered unless the release was deliberate, is there any upside to exposing it? The public pressure for retaliation would be huge and to what end? Nobody can be bought back to life and I would hazard a guess that Chinese labs are probably the most secure now in the world.

Behind the scenes there might be repercussions but out in public? A lot of snakes rather than obvious ladders.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

There is no way the Chinese will fully co-operate with the WHO. Whether it be by withholding information, refusing access to certain places or simply by already having covered their tracks. The investigation is a waste of time and money.

Wheels within wheels I guess. If, and I am convinced to the nth degree it is not, it was a deliberate and sanctioned at the highest levels release by the Chinese Government then it would be a full on, boots on the ground, global involvement war to bring about total regime change. Only rational response. You simply could not allow that to go unchallenged.

As it is...I suspect they have the proof (Die Spiegel released tapes allegedly gathered by the German intelligence service that proves collusion between the Chinese Government and the WHO to delay the announcement of human to human transmission) that the Chinese did not act in the worlds best interests but that can be leveraged against them at a later date. Best to just focus on dealing with the mess for now and see how things pan out in the future.

The tiddlys have had plenty of time to cover their tracks but it is probably about time for them to be taken down a peg or two anyway and given their state-sanctioned theft of IP rights, enough justification as it is for all kinds of measures.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

It was Schlitz “The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous”. Budweiser started in St. Louis. Samuel Adams is quite reasonable American beer.

Busch bought the rights to it in the 1870s. Brewing continued locally in Budejovice but the name had to be changed to Budweiser Budvar.

What do you mean? Hic.