Politics. The Washington Post in the 1970s reflected its sleepy hometown of dutifully bureaucrats. Politics was not the big business it is today. The boring realities of legislation were not yet disguised by intense coverage of every burp and fart emanating from the lunatic fringe of a representative democracy.
When a few hapless low-level political operatives, fueled by suitcases of cash and dreaming of a free Cuba, broke into the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate, no one really noticed, or cared.
It took Ben Bradlee, the Post’s editor, to pluck Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein out of the suburban news beat and investigate what appeared to be a minor crime. Things, of course, were not as they appeared to be, but you would not have known that if you were reading the New York Times in 1972.
Eventually the New York Times and a whole lot of other publications caught up and the gap was closed between the scrappy Post and other, more esteemed publications.
Today a similar gap persists between the prestigious media outlets and Substack upstarts like Bari Weiss’ The Free Press. Those worlds began to converge last week with the Department of Energy’s announcement that they have concluded with “low confidence” that the SAR-CoV-2 virus was engineered. The FBI followed quickly with their own confirmatory announcement.
The Select Subcommittee on Coronavirus Pandemic issued a memo today suggesting global health officials, including NIH’s own Dr. Anthony Fauci, believed the virus was engineered but moved to create the perception of consensus that a “lab leak” was improbable.
We appear to be careening toward a “what did you know and when did you know it" moment, and where it ends politically is anyone’s guess. We can say this, the issue isn’t going away.
Policy. As uncomfortable as it is for the enlightened to consider a previously rejected theory of a virus’ origin story, we and they are forced to do so by the magnitude of its implications.
At stake, potentially, is the federally fueled biomedical research apparatus that funds academic institutions the world over and is supported by the life sciences industry which supplies consumables, tools, and equipment.
When Congress is displeased it looks first to its budget to express its unhappiness. NIH receives $42B in funding which it doles out for a wide range of purposes.
In the near term, Congress is likely to fund operations via a Continuing Resolution which will preserve the status quo budget. More broadly, and depending on what the Select Subcommittee and the Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party conclude, other implications could include questioning the 30-year-old premise that biomedical research can and should be a public-private global affair. Perhaps it should be treated more like atomic research during World War II or space exploration during the Cold War.
The hearings for both committees will be worth watching for more clues. We know this, it won’t be nothing.
Power. Until the Department of Energy’s admission, a man-made origin for SAR-CoV-2 was treated to the partisan dismissals that have characterized all things COVID. Now, the administration finds itself at least in loose agreement with the House majority that a non-natural origin of a world-wide pandemic is worthy of consideration.
In effect, the DOE and the FBI have shifted at least some of the blame to a state actor that becomes more unlikeable with each passing day. In so doing, they have liberated the debate and made it possible for those that could not or would not want to be taken for a Trump voter to ask questions.
Blaming the Chinese Communist Party for such malfeasance will also be politically popular because Washington is probably the last to conclude that things were not as they appeared.
As Richard Nixon learned, once that ball gets rolling it becomes very hard to stop.
Have a great rest of your long weekend.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
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