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Who Discounted the Chinese Lab Theory Early On?

I did!

I remember being asked repeatedly early in the pandemic about the Internet rumor making the rounds that the coronavirus might have “escaped” from a Chinese lab in the city that appears to have been the place where the disease first took hold.

This theory was advanced for the rest of President Trump’s tenure in the Oval Office. Here’s the issue with that: Because of Donald Trump’s inability to keep facts straight, tell the truth or not say outright lies about many different subjects, when he espouses a theory it becomes tainted with the odor of falsehoods that emanate from him. I, for one, was impacted by my personal observations of the man.

An Eric Holdeman quote I’ve shared before is, “only you can take away your integrity.” Once it is gone, then you can be shouting “wolf, wolf” at the top of your lungs when there really is a wolf and no one will believe you.

It is possible that President Trump was right and everyone poo-pooed it because of his past utterances. I’m reminded of the saying, “even a broken clock is right twice a day.”

As for us really finding out what happened to initiate the COVID-19 virus, I’m not hopeful we will ever know. In a segment on Meet the Press, the details were provided for the level of effort and cooperation we would need from the Chinese to do the appropriate detective work. I don’t think that will ever happen.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.