Current Affairs17 Jan 2022

How Did The COVID-19 Pandemic Actually Start? (w/ Alina Chan)

Today's guest is molecular biologist Dr. Alina Chan, a fellow at the Broad Institute and co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19. She has been one of the most prominent commentators on the origins of COVID-19 and has attracted controversy for encouraging more serious consideration of the possibility that the pandemic began through an accident at a virology lab. She has been credited for changing the discussion about the issue and causing scientists and the media to pay more attention to the possibility of a lab accident than they were previously. In this episode we discuss:

- The various possible ways the pandemic could have begun and why "lab leak" and "natural origin" can be somewhat misleading terms

- How the politicization of the debate has gotten in the way of having a serious discussion about the facts, since the right is committed to the lab hypothesis and the left does not want to consider a hypothesis that the right is so committed to

- What the actual evidence we currently have is (not much)

- How investigations into COVID-19's origins have been compromised

- What the stakes of finding the truth are, and how people's worldviews and narratives are threatened by conclusions they don't like

- What a "lab accident" would look like and why it could easily come from well-intentioned research intending to stop pandemics, rather than nefarious attempts to manufacture a bioweapon

The articles in the Los Angeles Times and Science suggesting that the virus is unlikely to have been released from a lab are here and here. Nathan's own article on the origins of COVID-19 is here.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(600)

The Consultants Will Kill You

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membershipIn Michigan and Maine, a tale of two campaigns.🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.cu...

8 Okt 19min

In Praise of Suit Socialism

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membershipIf there’s a visual language that connotes credibility and authority, why not take advantage of it?�...

5 Okt 17min

Democrats Paved the Way for Fascism — Jennifer Welch on MAGA, Socialism, and Political Revolution

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Jennifer Welch, co-host of I’ve Had It and author of Not Today, Fascists, joins Current Affairs ed...

29 Sep 43min

Israel Is Stealing the West Bank in Plain Sight (w/ Jasper Nathaniel)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membershipJasper Nathaniel is an independent journalist who recently returned from reporting in the occupied W...

19 Sep 36min

How 9/11 Normalized Endless War

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, along with national co-director Danaka Katovi...

15 Sep 45min

How Trump Made a Broken DOJ Even Worse

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Rachel Cohen is an attorney and organizer who previously resigned from the law firm Skadden Arps a...

9 Sep 31min

MAGA Stole Animal Rights from the Left

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Astra Taylor is a writer, activist, and co-author of End Times Fascism, and Aaron Regunberg is a cl...

2 Sep 49min

Palestinians Shouldn’t Have to Be Perfect Victims (w/ Mohammed el-Kurd)

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer from Jerusalem, The Nation’s Palestine correspondent, and ...

31 Aug 31min