Questions re Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
December 8, 2024 6:46 AM Subscribe
"After a 2-year investigation, The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (a House of Representatives committee investigating the COVID-19 pandemic) has released a wide-ranging final report criticizing the actions of several U.S. science agencies and concluding that SARS-CoV-2 did not originate naturally, as many scientists think, but likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China."
- from www.science.org 12/3/2024 -
Do politicians have the qualifications to make such an investigation?
What was the committee's motive; what is the reason for needing to know where it originated?
What is the committee hoping to do with their findings?
Do politicians have the qualifications to make such an investigation?
What was the committee's motive; what is the reason for needing to know where it originated?
What is the committee hoping to do with their findings?
Do politicians have the qualifications to make such an investigation?
I mean, obviously not. This is properly a scientific question and we do not have many scientists in Congress.
A couple of years ago a team of scientists published two well-regarded pieces on the topic which, if memory serves, used quite different methodologies and landed on the same answer -- the kind of convergent evidence we'd want to see.
Worobey M, Levy JI, Malpica Serrano L, Crits-Christoph A, Pekar JE, Goldstein SA, Rasmussen AL, Kraemer MUG, Newman C, Koopmans MPG, Suchard MA, Wertheim JO, Lemey P, Robertson DL, Garry RF, Holmes EC, Rambaut A, Andersen KG. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Science. 2022 Aug 26;377(6609):951-959. doi: 10.1126/science.abp8715. Epub 2022 Jul 26. Erratum in: Science. 2024 Mar 15;383(6688):eadp1133. doi: 10.1126/science.adp1133. PMID: 35881010; PMCID: PMC9348750.
Pekar JE, Magee A, Parker E, Moshiri N, Izhikevich K, Havens JL, Gangavarapu K, Malpica Serrano LM, Crits-Christoph A, Matteson NL, Zeller M, Levy JI, Wang JC, Hughes S, Lee J, Park H, Park MS, Ching Zi Yan K, Lin RTP, Mat Isa MN, Noor YM, Vasylyeva TI, Garry RF, Holmes EC, Rambaut A, Suchard MA, Andersen KG, Worobey M, Wertheim JO. The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2. Science. 2022 Aug 26;377(6609):960-966. doi: 10.1126/science.abp8337. Epub 2022 Jul 26. Erratum in: Science. 2023 Oct 13;382(6667):eadl0585. doi: 10.1126/science.adl0585. PMID: 35881005; PMCID: PMC9348752.
What was the committee's motive; what is the reason for needing to know where it originated?
If we can blame China, we can justify moving dollars from basic science agencies (agents of evil!) to DoD (protecting us from foreign enemies!), would be my guess.
What is the committee hoping to do with their findings?
Wage an information war against the voting public in the US? Honestly, I don't know exactly. It's also hard to know what anyone's hopes and dreams will have to do with what actually happens in a Trump administration. Republicans hold all the reins of power here, but he was so undisciplined last time that it felt more like he stopped normal things from happening more effectively than he created new, abnormal things. If I knew genetics I bet there'd be some fruitful metaphor I could build about loss-of-function vs gain-of-function mutations, but since I'm not and I have more sense than Congress, I will leave it to someone more qualified to flesh that out (or refute it!).
posted by eirias at 7:05 AM on December 8 [11 favorites]
I mean, obviously not. This is properly a scientific question and we do not have many scientists in Congress.
A couple of years ago a team of scientists published two well-regarded pieces on the topic which, if memory serves, used quite different methodologies and landed on the same answer -- the kind of convergent evidence we'd want to see.
Worobey M, Levy JI, Malpica Serrano L, Crits-Christoph A, Pekar JE, Goldstein SA, Rasmussen AL, Kraemer MUG, Newman C, Koopmans MPG, Suchard MA, Wertheim JO, Lemey P, Robertson DL, Garry RF, Holmes EC, Rambaut A, Andersen KG. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Science. 2022 Aug 26;377(6609):951-959. doi: 10.1126/science.abp8715. Epub 2022 Jul 26. Erratum in: Science. 2024 Mar 15;383(6688):eadp1133. doi: 10.1126/science.adp1133. PMID: 35881010; PMCID: PMC9348750.
Pekar JE, Magee A, Parker E, Moshiri N, Izhikevich K, Havens JL, Gangavarapu K, Malpica Serrano LM, Crits-Christoph A, Matteson NL, Zeller M, Levy JI, Wang JC, Hughes S, Lee J, Park H, Park MS, Ching Zi Yan K, Lin RTP, Mat Isa MN, Noor YM, Vasylyeva TI, Garry RF, Holmes EC, Rambaut A, Suchard MA, Andersen KG, Worobey M, Wertheim JO. The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2. Science. 2022 Aug 26;377(6609):960-966. doi: 10.1126/science.abp8337. Epub 2022 Jul 26. Erratum in: Science. 2023 Oct 13;382(6667):eadl0585. doi: 10.1126/science.adl0585. PMID: 35881005; PMCID: PMC9348752.
What was the committee's motive; what is the reason for needing to know where it originated?
If we can blame China, we can justify moving dollars from basic science agencies (agents of evil!) to DoD (protecting us from foreign enemies!), would be my guess.
What is the committee hoping to do with their findings?
Wage an information war against the voting public in the US? Honestly, I don't know exactly. It's also hard to know what anyone's hopes and dreams will have to do with what actually happens in a Trump administration. Republicans hold all the reins of power here, but he was so undisciplined last time that it felt more like he stopped normal things from happening more effectively than he created new, abnormal things. If I knew genetics I bet there'd be some fruitful metaphor I could build about loss-of-function vs gain-of-function mutations, but since I'm not and I have more sense than Congress, I will leave it to someone more qualified to flesh that out (or refute it!).
posted by eirias at 7:05 AM on December 8 [11 favorites]
Do politicians have the qualifications to make such an investigation?
The role of a select committee is to bring together House members to investigate defined matters. Given that, yes, they are qualified to make such an investigation.
That's separate from questions of subject matter expertise, which would be determined by looking at the specific committee staff members and their backgrounds.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:15 AM on December 8 [7 favorites]
The role of a select committee is to bring together House members to investigate defined matters. Given that, yes, they are qualified to make such an investigation.
That's separate from questions of subject matter expertise, which would be determined by looking at the specific committee staff members and their backgrounds.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:15 AM on December 8 [7 favorites]
Do politicians have the qualifications to make such an investigation?
Yes. They absolutely are qualified to criticize the performance of various federal agencies, and to make decisions based on which of the many many different opinions being expressed are credible.
concluding that SARS-CoV-2 did not originate naturally, as many scientists think, but likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China… as many other scientists think.
The reports are being misrepresented as politicians making scientific judgements. They are not. They are making their judgement of who, in the end, they find credible.
Now, whether their judgments are politically motivated (yes) is a whole different story.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:24 AM on December 8 [2 favorites]
Yes. They absolutely are qualified to criticize the performance of various federal agencies, and to make decisions based on which of the many many different opinions being expressed are credible.
concluding that SARS-CoV-2 did not originate naturally, as many scientists think, but likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China… as many other scientists think.
The reports are being misrepresented as politicians making scientific judgements. They are not. They are making their judgement of who, in the end, they find credible.
Now, whether their judgments are politically motivated (yes) is a whole different story.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:24 AM on December 8 [2 favorites]
Yes. They absolutely are qualified to criticize the performance of various federal agencies, and to make decisions based on which of the many many different opinions being expressed are credible.
Where "qualified" is in the sense of "holding this political office is defined by law as a qualification for making these judgements", not in the sense of "these people have met benchmarks in critical thinking and subject expertise" (and good faith and honesty).
posted by trig at 8:19 AM on December 8 [16 favorites]
Where "qualified" is in the sense of "holding this political office is defined by law as a qualification for making these judgements", not in the sense of "these people have met benchmarks in critical thinking and subject expertise" (and good faith and honesty).
posted by trig at 8:19 AM on December 8 [16 favorites]
From Nature
These guys are blowing smoke up your ass.
Link not working.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03982-2
posted by Max Power at 9:09 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
These guys are blowing smoke up your ass.
Link not working.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03982-2
posted by Max Power at 9:09 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
This is basically all standard-issue "the government investigates various things that may be of concern," aimed at determining which information the federal government should believe and act on, whether with rhetoric, diplomacy, economic action, espionage, or some sort of covert, proxy, or direct military action. Or, you know, information to be saved up and trotted out in 20 years as part of a laundry list of reasons to support a future action.
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:40 AM on December 8
posted by cupcakeninja at 9:40 AM on December 8
Well, "the government" includes a whole range of branches, agencies, positions, and so on. Different parts of the government have been studying this and coming to different conclusions.
Every report the government releases is probably political, but when the studying is done by elected politicians split along party lines it's different from an internal agency doing it under a leadership that encourages it to be as objective as possible, which is different from an internal agency doing it under a leadership pressuring it for a specific conclusion, etc.
In this specific case, I think if you were asked, before the report was issued, what conclusion this committee of House Republicans in 2024 would come to, on this issue on which their party and president have been extremely aggressive and vocal, you could confidently predict that they would conclude it came from the Wuhan lab. I will also predict here and now that if they "studied" climate change they would conclude it's exaggerated and not man-made, that if they "studied" gender-affirming care they would conclude it was entirely harmful, and so on.
posted by trig at 10:36 AM on December 8 [5 favorites]
Every report the government releases is probably political, but when the studying is done by elected politicians split along party lines it's different from an internal agency doing it under a leadership that encourages it to be as objective as possible, which is different from an internal agency doing it under a leadership pressuring it for a specific conclusion, etc.
In this specific case, I think if you were asked, before the report was issued, what conclusion this committee of House Republicans in 2024 would come to, on this issue on which their party and president have been extremely aggressive and vocal, you could confidently predict that they would conclude it came from the Wuhan lab. I will also predict here and now that if they "studied" climate change they would conclude it's exaggerated and not man-made, that if they "studied" gender-affirming care they would conclude it was entirely harmful, and so on.
posted by trig at 10:36 AM on December 8 [5 favorites]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
2. Blame China, scapegoat their own culpability in the failings of the US response.
3. See 2.
posted by Dashy at 6:54 AM on December 8 [10 favorites]