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Comment by Throwawayaerlei | Hacker News Reader

What's been highlighted of the FOIA released emails so far suggests he didn't know if his NIAID was funding Wuhan Institute of Virology SARS type coronavirus gain of function experiments, but he was quite concerned that might be the case. Look for the one where he tells someone to keep his cell phone on.

It's something he'd likely be concerned about, because he's been a big booster of gain of function research, and the Institute famously houses China's first BSL-4 lab, although the article claims the Bat Lady said prior to the pandemic they were only using BSL-2 and -3 labs for their coronavirus research. This assumes she'd know about all that was going on the Institute.

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The email trail is damning. Fauci knew that the possibility was there. Instead of pushing for discovery and transparency of what actually happened, he publicly and vehemently denied the possibility and gave fuel to those who wanted to call the "lab leak theory" people "conspiracy nuts".

Fauci's elevation to sainthood was way too premature. His constant media appearances where he hasn't been questioned on any of this should be an object lesson to the public on media bias and the subsequent narrative bubbles that impact our society.

It's not surprising that the same people pushing Michael Avenatti as the next great politician have been the same people promoting Fauci.

The bar is really low if the person helps push the narrative.

I don't think anyone thought Avenatti had any substance to him.

Nice try and trying to equate Fauci with Avenatti - please return to the cable Fox hole which you emerged from.

I don't think anyone thought Avenatti had any substance to him.

What you're doing is called "gas lighting".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrJwjYPQvhQ

Avenatti was ALL over the place in left-leaning media, receiving endless accolades.

This is an issue for sure. The core reason though, IMO, was the contrast - for example, you have the president calling for injecting bleach, publicly. Any reasonable person is going to drift away from that, and towards someone who seems more reasonable, and thoughtful. Now that there is less extreme rhetoric, the seams in this particular leadership are starting to show. Can't say the same for Michael Avenatti, who seemed unhinged from the beginning although again just my opinion.

"you have the president calling for injecting bleach"

Please don't repeat that. If you do even a little bit of research, you'll see that he didn't say that, and by repeating it you're lowering the dialog you want to raising.

I'll do you one better than repeating it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177

Thanks for your unsubstantiated comment though

Thanks for the source that proves GP's point: Trump heard something, and isn't a scientist, so he was asking someone knowledgeable if it was possible.

It's terrible how badly this was reported on.

> “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

No he was not.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/24/disinfectan...

Seems like a live press conference is a bad time to just "ask questions". It's a very idiotic time, in fact, to start spitballing medical treatment ideas to the general public.

Exactly, great point

How about this? https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/cedars-sinai-statement...

That trope is only slightly wrong. He didn't say bleach, he said disinfectant. And that was in the context of disinfectant used to clean surfaces.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?

"So it'd be interesting to check that."

Pointing to his head, Mr Trump went on: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."

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