Periscope NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSISSCIENCE IN EARLY 2020, AS THE PANDEMIC WAS LOOMING, Dr. Anthony Fauci corresponded with a group of scientists about the possibility that the COVID-19 virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. After a conference call, the scientists published a paper downplaying the lab-leak theory.
Jim Jordan, a Republican representative from Ohio who began questioning witnesses on Wednesday in the House hearings on the origin of the pandemic, has his own way of weaving those facts into a narrative. It’s a story of gross malfeasance, with Fauci as villain.
The best thing about the debate over the origin of COVID-19—or the worst thing, depending on your point of view—is that it provides great fodder for constructing narratives. Consider one alternative view of Fauci’s actions. Amid the…