Examining Conspiracy theories about Covid19

[ZNP]

Researcher 'on verge of making very significant' coronavirus findings shot to death
Tim Stelloh
TODAYMay 5, 2020, 11:03 PM EDT
A medical researcher said to be on the “verge of making very significant” coronavirusfindings was found shot to death over the weekend in Pennsylvania, officials said.

Bing Liu, 37, a researcher for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was found dead Saturday inside a home in Ross Township, north of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner said.

Researcher 'on verge of making very significant' coronavirus findings shot to death

 

[com7fy8]

I see how a conspiracy theorist could believe someone had him shot so he would not stop the COVID-19, because the conspirators want it to continue.

But this could be just a coincidence, maybe because someone who is desperate for food or money for drugs did a home invasion or a burglary gone bad and knew nothing about him being a COVID-19 researcher.

I suppose he has others partnering with him, who can keep the research going.

Investigators might look into the possibility of a love triangle problem, plus they might consider how there can be cut-throat competition to get credit for stopping the virus or to get research funding. Someone jealous or competing could have had something to do with it. So, I imagine investigators will follow the trail they find . . . if there is any.

 

[ZNP]

I see how a conspiracy theorist could believe someone had him shot so he would not stop the COVID-19, because the conspirators want it to continue.

I don't think that is plausible. The university has already said they will continue his research.

No, the only reason I could see this tying into a conspiracy theory is if he discovered that someone had made this virus. Anyone who proves this is manmade would have information that would be extremely damaging to the conspirators.

2nd, as you have said there are many reasonable motives that have nothing to do with a conspiracy theory, but if his death and the death of the man in the car are connected, both being shot, then you have to rule out simple things like home invasion and burglary.

 

[com7fy8]

The more recent conclusion is it was murder-suicide.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...sburgh-coronavirus-researcher-murder-suicide/

They believe Hao Gu shot him numerous times. Murder investigators can take this to mean it was a crime of rage, passion. But I suppose a struggle at close quarters could have included a number of nonlethal shots in the process.

And then Hao Gu killed himself in his car. So, this could mean it was not just a robbery gone bad, in which the criminal likely would leave and not kill oneself. But there could be something Hao wanted enough so he could kill because of not getting it.

Bing is married, by the way.

And Hao seems not to be connected with his work. A conspiracy plot writer could use this, though.

It says Bing Liu was studying how things work in cells in connection with coronavirus infection. Therefore, I suppose he would not need to know the genetic makeup of the virus, since his study is about cellular mechanisms. So, even if the virus were engineered, his research could be too specialized to have anything to do with knowing or discovering that; plus we are told they already have the genome; so already they should be able to compare that to natural genomes of coronaviruses.

But what I suppose could be significant would be understanding mechanisms of how the virus uses cell chemistry to reproduce itself . . . so they can put in a drug which interferes with that.

 

[ZNP]

The more recent conclusion is it was murder-suicide.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...sburgh-coronavirus-researcher-murder-suicide/

They believe Hao Gu shot him numerous times. Murder investigators can take this to mean it was a crime of rage, passion. But I suppose a struggle at close quarters could have included a number of nonlethal shots in the process.

And then Hao Gu killed himself in his car. So, this could mean it was not just a robbery gone bad, in which the criminal likely would leave and not kill oneself. But there could be something Hao wanted enough so he could kill because of not getting it.

Bing is married, by the way.

And Hao seems not to be connected with his work. A conspiracy plot writer could use this, though.

It says Bing Liu was studying how things work in cells in connection with coronavirus infection. Therefore, I suppose he would not need to know the genetic makeup of the virus, since his study is about cellular mechanisms. So, even if the virus were engineered, his research could be too specialized to have anything to do with knowing or discovering that; plus we are told they already have the genome; so already they should be able to compare that to natural genomes of coronaviruses.

But what I suppose could be significant would be understanding mechanisms of how the virus uses cell chemistry to reproduce itself . . . so they can put in a drug which interferes with that.

It is something to note, but otherwise we would never be able to tie this to some kind of conspiracy of Chinese or US because those guys know how to make it look like suicide, etc.

 

[Albion]

One example
Mike Pompeo says there's 'enormous evidence' COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab even though intelligence officials have said there's none

The article itself says that the virus is believed to have started in that lab which is undeniably in the province that was first afflicted with the disease.

All that it claims, and whichever "officials" the very unreliable Washington Post chose to believe, is that there is no conclusive evidence that the virus escaped the lab.

It might be that the nearby Chinese population could have been infected with it some other way. Someone has suggested that it was done by the Chinese government purposely.

 

[ZNP]

The New York Times
Hidden Toll: Mexico Ignores Wave of Coronavirus Deaths in Capital

Hidden Toll: Mexico Ignores Wave of Coronavirus Deaths in Capital

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government is not reporting hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico City, dismissing anxious officials who have tallied more than three times as many fatalities in the capital than the government publicly acknowledges, according to officials and confidential data reviewed by The New York Times.

The tensions have come to a head in recent weeks, with Mexico City alerting the government to the deaths repeatedly, hoping it will come clean to the public about the true toll of the virus on the nation’s biggest city and, by extension, the country at large.

But that has not happened. Doctors in overwhelmed hospitals in Mexico City say the reality of the epidemic is being hidden from the country. In some hospitals, patients lie on the floor, splayed on mattresses. Elderly people are propped up on metal chairs because there are not enough beds, while patients are turned away to search for space in less-prepared hospitals. Many die while searching, several doctors said.

“It’s like we doctors are living in two different worlds, ” said Dr. Giovanna Avila, who works at Hospital de Especialidades Belisario Domínguez. “One is inside of the hospital with patients dying all the time. And the other is when we walk out onto the streets and see people walking around, clueless of what is going on and how bad the situation really is.”

Mexico City officials have tabulated more than 2,500 deaths from the virus and serious respiratory illnesses that doctors suspect are related to COVID-19, the data reviewed by The Times shows. Yet the federal government is reporting about 700 in the area, which includes Mexico City and the municipalities on its outskirts.

Nationwide, the federal government has reported about 3,000 confirmed deaths from the virus, plus nearly 250 suspected of being related, in a country of more than 120 million people. But experts say Mexico has only a minimal sense of the real scale of the epidemic because it is testing so few people.

Only 0.4 of every 1,000 people in Mexico are tested for the virus — by far the lowest of the dozens of nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which average about 23 tests for every 1,000 people.

The government says Mexico has been faring better than many of the world’s largest countries, and on Monday its COVID-19 czar estimated that the final death toll would be around 6,000 people.

“We have flattened the curve,” Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the health ministry official who has become the face of the country’s response, said this week.

I think the conspiracy of silence and the pretense of "nothing to see here" is definitely the issue with the developed world. You can't possibly afford to have a shutdown, you can't have trillion dollar stimulus packages, you can't test, you are powerless, so might as well put your hands-on your eyes and say nothing to see, cover your ears, nothing to hear, and cover your mouth, nothing to say.

 

[ZNP]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

China Reports New Cases, Brazil Deaths Surge: Virus Update
Bloomberg News
May 8, 2020, 7:30 PM EDT Updated on May 8, 2020, 8:32 PM EDT

Brazil surpassed the U.K. in fatalities, and infections tripled in the past two weeks, as officials warned the numbers are likely higher given the low level of testing. Spain, Portugal and Germany reported upticks in new cases as lockdown measures eased. China, the ground zero for the pandemic, reported a new imported case and 15 asymptomatic cases.

 

[johneb]

The debut of this virus or the timing of it gave me cause to think the powers that be are trying to derail Trump, just my feeling on this.

 

[ZNP]

The debut of this virus or the timing of it gave me cause to think the powers that be are trying to derail Trump, just my feeling on this.

There is evidence that those who were exposed to SARS are now immune (perhaps limited immunity) to Covid19. This could explain why Taiwan and Vietnam have been essentially unscathed by this pandemic even though they should be viewed as high risk.

SARS had the potential to be a global pandemic, imagine if the US had developed a vaccine for it back in 2004. We could have put that vaccine into production and would already be able to administer it to kids going back to school. What is the point of having a CDC if they are not developing therapies to these deadly pathogens?