There's really only two viable hypothesis at this time:

1. China, despite years of the WHO telling them to cut it out, allowed the virus to develop by bringing multiple different animal species together in wet markets.

2. China, through poor standards, allowed the virus to escape from a laboratory (admittedly, almost every "highly secure" virus laboratory in the world has "lost" samples at some point).

In both cases, China is at fault. In the second case, perhaps slightly less because the virologist community should know better and deliberately chose to do this kind of research in a country that has poor standards.

The brigade of the timid, may point their vulnerable back side to the the sun for the pleasure of China, I won’t be one.
Those with the most to lose can suck along, and there is a big price to pay by them for going along the lazy path to their riches, by fraternising with the communist enemy.

That Communist enemy co-incidentally, is the same enemy lovingly embraced by the Marxists ruling elite, the wealthy and arrogant class of social misfits presenting themselves as progressive.
Actually, regressive fits more perfectly their casting mould.

I interpret this article as a less than subtle pro-Chinese sop piece.
And the short line which invites in the Palestinians as observers, is beyond laughable.
I still have a vivid memory of the PLO terrorists and Yasser Arafat.
How quickly the wealthy forget their past!

Dan.

Don't pressure China too much? Use diplomacy? Just kowtow to the biggest thugs and bullies on earth. The CCP's apologies for diplomats threaten and insult us in our own country. The virus came from China, and there is no evidence that it doesn't constitute germ warfare, to compliment the grey war against us - spying and stealing commercial and military material. What better way to have a country locked down and in a constant state of panic as Australia is than with a deadly virus?

Humanity and Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party should not be mentioned in the same breath.

We need to take up the old mantra, 'Better Dead Than Red'. There is no sort of life to be had under Chinese Communism.

Disagree! For the sake of humanity, we do need to know the source of this pathogen. And given the CCC's reaction thus far and the unexplained disappearance of some Wuhan scientists from the lab that was experimenting on coronavirus? We simply cannot rule out an engineered viral weapon?

China needs to decide if she wants to remain a trading nation within the circle of law-abiding trading nations that are governed by established rules! Or whether she wants to step outside as a rogue nation that is governed by her own, made up as we go along, rules or none?

I do believe though, we need to do this very politely with respectful but firm diplomacy behind closed doors. Rather than some of the megaphone diplomacy, we've seen to date!

And those meetings need to establish, that we can be pushed just so far and no farther!

For our part, we need to stop exporting raw materials and instead get cracking on converting them to manufactured/value-added exports! And with urgent alacrity! As if there was not a moment to lose! Cause, truth be known, there isn't! TBC.
Alan B.

China will listen to those she respects And those include nuclear powered nuclear-armed nations with significant manufacturing bases!

But not kowtowing near banana republics that go cap in hand begging for a tummy rub!

Our response to date is to roar from the rooftops and then look as puzzled as all get-up, why we're being hit with trade sanctions and tariff barriers!?

If we would b the mouse that roared? We need to be the nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered mouse that squeaked! And started to rationalise our manufacturing ability with the raw materials we currently export!

I hear with some disgust, some cretins argue that the things we made here were second class and had to be subsidised? Those subsidies were only necessary to counter energy costs, transport costs and water costs!

And because we didn't have the nouse to manufacture completed products from single-site utilising a single company! And simply refusing to embrace a, cheaper than coal, clean green carbon-free, energy source! That energy source is thorium, the most energy-dense material on the planet!

Just 8 grams of the stuff, costing around $100.00 to mine and refine, contains enough available energy to power your house and car for 100 years, without refuelling! That's just one oxford scholar P.A.

All that prevents any of the above is political timidity and or powerful vested interests with other plans? And pollies in the pocket/on the payroll? And if the cap fits!?
Alan B.

Given a situation where the required action is:
If X, do A.
If Y, do A.

There is no need to check X or Y, because the outcome is the same.

China is our deadly enemy, the enemy of freedom, the enemy of religion, so we must shut off all contacts with it and brace ourselves as best we can for its conventional, cyber, nuclear, biological and chemical attacks. We may be fortunate to make it through and survive or we might not and die, but questioning the exact origin of what happened to be the first shot in this war, is simply futile.

Remember when it was only knuckle-dragging, Trump supporting believers in debunked conspiracy theories who thought it possible that the WuFlu came out of the Wuhan labs.

Remember when the tech giants, in cahoots with the Biden campaign, claimed anything that said that the virus was man-made was dangerous misinformation and censored it accordingly.

Now there is so much evidence that the virus was created by the Chinese scientists in the employ of the Chinese armed forces that it's now the favoured theory. So much so that Biden, who'd closed down one Trump initiated inquiry into the lab theory, was forced to open another. All of this before we even begin to consider that significant numbers of pro-Chinese US scientists may have also been involved.

So now we have the CCP apologists suggesting that it's probably best to not look too hard, lest Deng become obstreperous. Well too bad. It's vital we find out how the virus came about.

We'll never get definitive proof because the Chinese government and their Western supporters and Quislings will never permit it. Nevertheless we can get enough evidence such that only those who'll never be convinced won't be convinced. Then the world can adopt it's stance against Peking knowing the true blackness in it's heart.

Of all the mealy mouthed, double talking, pro China propaganda I have read lately by pro Chinese apologists, this article by Rodney Crisp takes the cake. There are so many errors it is difficult to find somewhere to start. Rodney's claim that finding out the source of the pandemic is "beyond the role of WHO". Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. THAT was the WHO's sole job and they blew it. Tedros Adhanom is obviously in the pay of Peking, and he only changed his tune about whether the source was a lab when it became obvious that he could not credibly deny it any more.

The French built the lab in Wuhan so that French and Chinese scientists could study coronavirus's together. After it was built, the Chinese told the Frogs to far cough and the lab went into the control of the PLA. Even OLO's own Daffy Duck would be smart enough to figure out what was going on. Well, with a bit of coaching, he could. "Gain of function" research is exactly the same as biological warfare. The only difference being the intent of the researchers. For real medical researchers it is public health. For biological warfare researchers it is public health in reverse.

The Chinese artificially created this virus from an existing bat pathogen, probably as a biological weapon. Then some idiot let it loose. The Chinese government quite obviously wanted it to spread around the world because they allowed international flights out of Wuhan while banning domestic flights. If that was not the case then they have got a lot of explaining to do.

But the Chinese fascist party is not going to explain anything. Nor is it going to co operate in an independent inquiry because it already knows how the virus was created, and why. Everything the CPC has done is to hide the evidence. From deep cleaning the wet market, to disappearing the lab researchers, and scrubbing any information about the Wuhan lab from the internet.

And the CPC can rely on Rodney Crisp to help muddy the water.

.

Dear LEGO,

.

You wrote :

« Rodney's claim that finding out the source of the pandemic is "beyond the role of WHO". Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. THAT was the WHO's sole job … »
.

It was, indeed, the “sole job” of the WHO, LEGO, but the author did not “claim that finding out the source of the pandemic is "beyond the role of WHO". What he wrote was :

« The UN health agency had been sent on a "mission impossible". The indispensable preliminary groundwork on the heavy, overlying moral and political aspects of the pandemic had been totally neglected.

« That crucial preliminary groundwork was not a task for the WHO to undertake. It was beyond its role as the UN's international health agency. It was a matter that should have been undertaken by the main body of the UN itself (perhaps with input from another of its agencies, the International Court of Justice) and subsequently submitted to the 193 members of the UN General Assembly … »

Apart from that, your suspicion that “the Chinese artificially created this virus from an existing bat pathogen, probably as a biological weapon” may or may not be well-founded, LEGO. It remains to be proven.

As the author remarks :

« Despite the predictable fury and protestations of the Chinese authorities, for the sake of humanity, it is imperative that we succeed in identifying the origin of the virus and the circumstances of its propagation if we hope to have any chance at all of avoiding further outbreaks of devastating pandemics coming out of China or any other sovereign state in the world »

For the preservation and well-being of humanity, clearly identifying the origin of the virus and the circumstances of its propagation takes precedence over all else. Determining any possible responsibilities is a secondary, non-vital consideration.

The determination of responsibilities is the role of the relevant judicial authorities. For this, the author preconises a procedure whereby any judicial consequences of the WHO’s findings would be left to the discretion of the “host nation”.

.

The commentary has ensured that China can never prove it wasn't complicit in the spread or release of this virus in the same way the existence of God can't be proven either way. Much of the media has already decided and passed judgement.

Even if there was some sort of admission of guilt - so what?

Will the world submit individual financial claims against the PRC, and how would they determine the cost? The action (or inaction) of other Governments must also bear some responsibility for subsequent damages.

Will the Chinese bankrupt themselves, slip back into some new dark age and throw their entire population back into poverty?

Will the impoverished population rise up and overthrow the Chinese government, likely helping collapse the global economy?

Will the world cease trade with the country that manufactures most of it's goods?

What if a new virus appears from within another country in the meantime? What then?

China is probably "too big to fail" and won't be submissive any longer and may even have some secrets of it's own to share about other government dealings.

What total BS, BJ.

The WHO mission to China was a whitewash and it's team included one Peter Daszac who's own medical research organisation was being funded by Anthony Fauci. Daszac's organisation had commercial links to the Wuhan Lab. That is clearly a conflict of interest and one which the WHO should not have tolerated, if the WHO was impartial, and the intent of the investigative team was to find out the truth.

If the Chinese government were reluctant to give full access to the facts then the WHO mission should never have been sent and the WHO should have stated right out that the Chinese government was not co operating. Instead, the WHO sent this mission knowing full well that they would not be allowed to investigate. The whole WHO charade was part of the cover up.

As for the claim that the virus was artificially produced "has yet to be proven", all I can say is that don't leave your present job because you would never make a detective.

The facts are that the French built the lab and they were then ejected. The lab was taken over by the PLA and run by a general. The virus was discovered when workers in a mine digging bat guano became sick and the Wuhan lab took samples. Members of the Wuhan lab then began to get sick. The general in charge of the lab patented a vaccine for the bat virus long before any of this happened, which conforms with how China beat everybody in saying that had a vaccine. The "bat lady" was quoted on the Chinese internet saying how her team had engineered a new virus.

When the effluent hit the fan, the Chinese general and the bat lady disappeared. All Wuhan records were expunged and any internet references expunged also. The wet market which the Chinese Fascist Party claimed was the real culprit was deep cleaned. The Chinese government then exhibited the most extreme sensitivity to anybody who called for an independent inquiry.

You don't need to be a Mensa to put two and two together.

.

Dear LEGO,

.

That is an interesting narrative. Perhaps you would be kind enough to indicate the source of your information to enable me to separate the chaff from the grain.

So much fake news, misinformation, conspiracy theories, etc. are going around these days, LEGO. We can’t take anything at face value anymore. As you say, “you don't need to be a Mensa to realize that”. We have to do our fact-checking.

Ever since Donald the Dictator started peddling his conspiracy theory about voter fraud, fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories have become all the rage. The herd effect has been quite amazing. So many different people have been trying to jump on the bandwagon with all sorts of weird and wonderful tales.

You mentioned a potential conflict of interest in relation to Peter Daszac’s participation in 2020 on the WHO team of investigators into the origin of Covid 19 in Wuhan. You could also have mentioned the fact that China happens to be the second-largest financial contributor to the WHO, after the US. That should be reason enough to throw doubt on the integrity of the investigation if need be.

You add :

« As for the claim that the virus was artificially produced "has yet to be proven", all I can say is that don't leave your present job because you would never make a detective. »

Well, at least I can assure you of one thing, LEGO : I would never hire a detective who would content himself with sitting in his office and collecting unverified information, without carrying out a thorough investigation himself on the scene of the “crime”, collecting the facts, analyzing the data, and carrying out interviews of everyone involved – leaving no stone unturned.

You are right in thinking that I don’t pretend to be a competent, professional detective – or judge, for that matter.

But I do reserve myself the right to form my own opinion when presented with all available, verifiable evidence as well as the analyses and (possibly contradictory) conclusions of competent, reputable experts.

.

All of which sounds a bit like the AEC trundling around Iran a few years back trying to find evidence of bits n bobs to make WMD's methinks. Don't poke the Dragon, it's just awakening, is very hungry and no doubt quite cranky and suffering from low blood sugar