The Opening Salvo

"In a recent interview with the Telegraph, the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove cited an “important” scientific report that suggested that the novel coronavirus had not emerged naturally, but had been created by Chinese scientists. Dearlove said he believed the pandemic had “started as an accident” after the virus escaped the lab."

(Ok, Daszak has posited the argument against up front:

Any investigation into Covid's origins should include an examination of the possibility that it leaked from an Wuhan lab.

That’s standard academic format - put the headline argument of your opponents (Sir Richard Dearlove and Prof Birger Sørensen) out there then methodically take it apart. If you’re good enough…

This should be good - Daszak/Lipkin V Dearlove/Sørensen - a heavyweight clash of the experts!

"Suggestions that Covid-19 is a manmade virus are the latest chapter in a tale of blame, misinformation and finger-pointing.

(Emotive generalizations - but two out of three i’d agree. Wait, technically ‘blame’ and ‘finger pointing’ is a tautology, so one out of two.)

"Cue the conspiracy theorists (name-calling), marching out their narrative about the high-security BSL-4 lab in Wuhan, (which there is) where mysterious experiments to design “frankenviruses” led to the tragic global pandemic."

(It’s not "mysterious" Pete. WIV scientists have published papers on engineering viruses to make them more contagious since 2008 - it’s what they do there - it’s what you do there - to protect us - in case something like Covid ever happens… God forbid.)

"Cue the genetic analyses pointing to “unexpected” insertions in the code of A, G, T, and C that explain how this virus could not have evolved naturally."

(Is that not allowed now? Why? (‘Cue’ the scientist up to his eyeballs in China, about to say ‘cue’ again...))

"Cue political posturing against China, with calls for an inquiry, trade sanctions and even reparations."

(Calls for an inquiry! How dare they! The world is irreversibly altered by Covid and now they want to know why?)