"Today, the committee will hear from an intelligence community whistleblower about these questions. The witness will testify that the CIA scientific analysts repeatedly concluded that a laboratory leak was the most likely origin of COVID-19. And that those conclusions were buried, softened, or withheld from Congress while the public was told to trust a different story."
"Ah, but there is the rub. Paul has cast himself as the Ahab of the bloodstream to cast doubt on the all the admittedly inconvenient precautions taken against the pandemic. And, I suspect, he wants to sow chaos in the country's public health system by sowing doubts about the public health experts and scientists who fought the virus."
"The origins of the virus do not affect the public health aspect of the pandemic in any way, and it would not have had an impact on the prophylactic response to the pandemic from the public health community."
"For years, Americans were told to trust the experts, trust the agencies, trust the intelligence community, and trust the officials who assured us that they were following the science. But the evidence before the committee tells a very different story."
A Senate committee temporarily suspended a rule limiting public statements by Paul family members. Rand Paul brought CIA whistleblower James Erdman III to testify while pursuing claims that COVID-19 escaped from a lab in China rather than originating in a wet market. The argument centers on alleged government-wide cover-up and the burial or softening of intelligence conclusions. The origins of the virus are framed as not affecting public health responses, while concerns are raised that casting doubt could undermine public health precautions and trust in experts. The hearing is expected to include testimony that CIA scientific analysts repeatedly judged a laboratory leak as the most likely origin and that Congress was given a different narrative.
Read at Esquire
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