Republican Senator from Arkansas Tom Cotton suggested on Sunday that the new coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19, is a biological weapon released from the Chinese labs. The Senator didn't have credible evidence to back up his 'hypothesis' but continues to argue that the virus was manufactured by the Chinese military.
According to Cotton's claims, the virus didn't start from the animal market in Wuhan, China. Several experts have continued to say that it is not a biological weapon because it doesn't portray the characteristics of a bioweapon. Cotton was previously criticized by the Chinese officials for claiming that the new coronavirus was a biological weapon.
China has been "lying from the beginning, and they're still lying today," the Senator said. "The situation is very grave in part because ... China was lying from the beginning, and they're still lying today," he added.
The virus "did not originate in the Wuhan animal market," the Republican senator said, adding that a Chinese super laboratory in Wuhan may have been the origin of the virus. "Epidemiologists who are widely respected from China who published a study ... have demonstrated that several of the original cases did not have any contact with that food market ... The virus went into that food market before it came out."
Conspiracy theory or hypothesis?
After the claims, while he was on "Sunday Morning Futures" on Fox News, he received several comments about his theory on Twitter. The theory about the Covid-19 was already debunked by several media outlets as well as researchers. After Cotton's comments, CNN anchor Jake Tapper took to Twitter to talk about what an expert told him about the Covid-19 being a weapon. Tapper mentions that the expert believes that this was a theory.
Upon hearing several comments about how the 'conspiracy theory' by Cotton was unrealistic in nature the Senator took to Twitter to talk about how this was not a theory but a hypothesis. He followed Tapper's tweet to talk about his hypothesis.
He replied to Tapper by tweeting "This unnamed "expert" says it's "possible" that coronavirus originated in Wuhan super lab, we "just don't know how probable." I agree. Yet he calls it a "conspiracy theory" that we shouldn't "mention." " The Senator believes that the expert is wrong on two counts.
On the second count, he believes that people should know about the possibility that this could have happened. He says that the lesson that the previous outbreaks have taught was that there shouldn't be any filter with the public. A twitter thread that still continues to be flooded with comments from the public has talked about various angles to what the senator said.
Eyes of Darkness: A 1981 thriller
The 1981 novel by Dean Koontz, which was ironically set in Wuhan, talks about a deadly virus that came from a Chinese military lab. The virus was called Wuhan-400 in the book. The book refers to the disease as a perfect weapon of mass destruction. The disease in the book has an uncanny resemblance to the new outbreak in China.
The outbreak is causing panic across the world and with the increasing social stigma towards people from East Asia, the comments by Senator Cotton aren't helping the situation.
