This report by Duane Rolheiser introduces a very interesting analysis on the origin of the Covid-19 virus in a long article written by Nicholas Wade and published on a public platform Medium on May 2nd, 2021. It is by far the most thorough and most balanced analyses on the topic! Rolheiser was right that “In the millions of articles, opinion pieces, and news stories written about Covid there is one topic that is more important than all the others. It’s more important than masks, vaccines, or lockdown measures. The origin of the virus is critical because no matter how many people die from covid, or how many businesses are wiped out, it’s critical that IF the next virus can be stopped, it must be.”
I was not aware of the Wade article until last night when I was checking the Flipboard magazine. I must say I was impressed by the story he presented and for that we all owe Wade appreciation for his public information service. Of course the jury is still out as we are not yet at the point to make conclusions to the inquiries. That being said, Wade analyses are definitely one of the deepest and “the most important article yet written during this pandemic” as Rolheister points out.
The Good & The Bad
Looking from a positive perspective, it is assuring to see articles like Wade are still available in the US, where diverse opinions and analyses are always more tolerated — if not always encouraged — than many other countries.
Looking from a negative perspective, the fact that it was written by an essentially freelancer science writer tells us something about the reality of the academic world. Many field experts could or should have pointed out the problem with the currently prevailing conclusion but they did not, nor the scientists in news media and government agencies.
This is a perfect example where institutional design moves in different directions with preinstitutions. On the one hand, we have the institutions set up to relying on a few area experts for approving or disapproving research grants, accepting or rejecting journal articles, hiring or rejecting job applicants; on the other hand, we have the preinstitutional approach that says to spread out, to use the votes of a diverse panel of decision makers, and more importantly to check with facts and reasoning to reach better decisions. The idea behind the preinstitutional approach is to acknowledge that decisions differ in background, knowledge, amount of information, material conditions, timing, prospect. These variations make the quality of decisions by a fixed set of decision makers hard to predict, so we want to make the set of decision makers involved less predictable as well. Eventually we will rely more and more on AI to make the picks.
China Needs A Push from the World
After reading the Wade article I believe we should allow the time and efforts to look into the possibility of lab leaks in Wuhan. It does not have to be a conspiracy but could be an accident. China is likely to deny any possibility but the world needs to add some pressure on it. This is more meaningful than the forced labor accusation in Xinjiang, which is based on no fact. I have stopped following that as it only disappoints me and even made me angry for the dirty politics.
Too sad to see the people I love all went home! I am getting my home care organization license soon from the State so have to prepare myself for the franchisee business.