The national press is going wild over supposed new “evidence” that COVID-19 originated in nature. That follows recent findings by the US government that the virus likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (the lab leak theory).

According to multiple outlets, including The New York Times and The Atlantic, a crack “international team of virus experts” has found reason to believe that a “raccoon dog” was infected. The idea is that this raccoon dog was one of the animals sold in Wuhan’s now-infamous wet market.

Scientists found genetic data from a Wuhan market linking illegally traded raccoon dogs to the Covid pandemic’s origins. https://t.co/Ga288MbC7d pic.twitter.com/IFQXPBzQL0

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 17, 2023

Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.

An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale there, adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade.

The genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virus. By then, the animals had been cleared out, but researchers swabbed walls, floors, metal cages and carts often used for transporting animal cages.

You don’t even have to get past the first sentence to see the problem here. The genetic data being cited just so happened to be put up and then removed from an international database. Who uploaded it? Well, that would be the Chinese government, the very same government that has every incentive to continue its quest to disprove the lab leak theory. Does that sound like a rope-a-dope to you?

Based on the genetic data that the CCP put out, this team of “virus experts” wants you to believe that it should be seen as near definitive proof that COVID-19 began in nature. Yet, when you read further into the article, it becomes clear that the dots that are being connected don’t even connect, and that’s even if you are naive enough to believe China’s data.

The jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected. And even if a raccoon dog had been infected, it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people. Another animal could have passed the virus to people, or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog.

So let me get this straight. This big bombshell is based on data uploaded by China that doesn’t show that any raccoon dogs sold at the market were even infected? It’s just incredible to see the media propaganda organ at work.

It gets worse, though. Apparently, this crack team of “virus experts” includes some of the same people who sought to discredit the lab leak theory originally. [Warning: contains coarse language]

What is especially pathetic about this so-called scoop is that one of the authors on the paper has been pushing this raccoon dog bullshit in the press for over a year. Its not even new! Just recycled oppo against even more proof of the lab leak pic.twitter.com/ltF2X4AIJQ

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) March 17, 2023

Let’s put this all together. A team of “virus experts” who have long sought to dismiss the lab leak theory are using genetic data provided by the CCP, that doesn’t even prove raccoon dogs were infected, to proclaim that the natural origin theory is somehow evidence-based. Did I miss anything?

Here are the facts in the simplest terms. Unlike past pandemics, scientist have not yet found the original animal that was actually infected with COVID-19. Without that link, the natural origin theory remains uncredible nonsense. On the other hand, we know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was manipulating coronaviruses. So again, which theory seems more plausible to you? That the virus leaked from a lab that was in the very city the pandemic started in? Or that a still unidentified animal magically transferred COVID-19 to humans via being sold at a wet market? I know which way I’m still leaning.