Amid increasing scrutiny over whether the coronavirus may have originated in a Wuhan lab, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is defiantly calling for that same lab to receive a Nobel Prize in medicine.
SO WHAT
Journalists and experts in the scientific community have walked back their initial dismissals of the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis – which some characterized as a bigoted, right-wing conspiracy theory – and now admit the idea is plausible.
Considering the ongoing questions surrounding the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab at the center of the controversy, many are finding China’s Nobel Prize campaign to be absurdly distasteful.
what happened
At a press conference last week, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said scientists working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology should be awarded the Nobel, Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times reported.
The spokesperson’s remarks were made in direct response to mounting scrutiny over whether the lab’s scientists may have been responsible for unleashing the coronavirus upon the world.
On Friday, the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a candidate for the 2021 Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize, “for its achievement in identifying the COVID-19 pathogeny.”
money quote
“This is #CCP propaganda at its finest,” Rep. Jim Hagedorn, R-MN, tweeted on Tuesday in response to the news.
