‘Accidental’ contagion

Trump pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory

Posted: May 04, 2020 06:57 AM Updated: 6 hours ago

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US President Donald Trump has been advancing a theory that the novel coronavirus
originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and that the current pandemic was the
result of an accident in that laboratory. His embracing the conspiracy theory
brought him in conflict with his intelligence agencies, but that has been the case
earlier too. What was unusual this time was that the US Office of the Director of
National Intelligence asserted that it had not come to any such conclusion, even as
it was ‘rigorously examining’ the outbreak. What President Trump expects from his
intelligence agencies is clear, enough evidence to point a finger at Beijing. The
public stand by the clearing house for American spy agencies was a pushback, rare
and courageous.

The politics of naming the coronavirus is something that Beijing is sensitive to.
As the news about the new virus spread, it was called Wuhan flu, Wuhan coronavirus,
2019-nCoV etc, till the WHO named the disease Covid-19, which was a contraction of
the coronavirus disease-2019. Even as the reference to the city of origin was
removed by the WHO, President Trump, also sensitive to the naming game, began
aggressively calling it the China virus. He has also announced his administration’s
plans to punish China over the pandemic outbreak. In this, he is not alone, other
countries too are at loggerheads with Beijing, including Australia. Aggressive
Chinese pushback has not helped its case.

The US has an unfortunate history of asking intelligence officials to look for

evidence that pushes a politically convenient agenda. The infamous example is one
of finding Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, which could never be
proved, but provided the justification sought to invade Iraq. The intelligence
agencies have promised to continue looking. They can be assured that a sceptical
international community will scrutinise their conclusions. In any case, President
Trump’s endorsement has pushed the hitherto fringe theory that the pandemic, that
has swept through the world, spread from a Chinese lab, not a market to the
forefront. Now the world will seek answers, and it remains to be seen if the
President’s assertion will be validated or will remain another of the many
statements he makes.