By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst 

For most individuals on the planet, Covid is over. We’ve got efficiently moved on. We don’t let it fear us anymore or undermine our lives, and the harshest restrictions, aside from a couple of locations, are firmly a factor of the previous.

Nevertheless, there’s one lingering aftermath of the pandemic which refuses to go away, and that’s the political blame sport. Over the previous few days, the US authorities has once more been cultivating the “lab leak” conspiracy concept, claiming that the Сovid-19 virus originated from a laboratory leak within the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The re-emergence of those claims appears random, nevertheless it has been coordinated throughout the administration. First, the US Division of Power issued a report on the matter, then US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns known as on Beijing to be “extra trustworthy” about Covid origins, which was adopted by FBI Director Christopher Wray making his assertion.

The query is: why are they doing this? And why now? The reply is, but once more, the US is weaponizing this conspiracy concept in a bid to undermine China publicly. Particularly, the objective is to create a public distraction from a number of points China has been specializing in these days. A kind of is the chemical catastrophe plaguing the US state of Ohio after final month’s practice derailment, and the Biden administration’s bungled response to it. The opposite is China’s Ukraine peace plan.

For 3 years, the US has used the Covid-19 pandemic as a public opinion weapon in opposition to China throughout a variety of areas, overtly scapegoating Beijing for the pandemic and its penalties, whereas additionally searching for to depict China’s response to the pandemic negatively. Examples embrace: framing China as culpable for a coverup, claiming China is accountable for the worldwide unfold of the virus, depicting China’s lockdowns as brutal and inhumane, and naturally, spreading the laboratory leak concept, which has by no means been taken severely by credible biomedical consultants.

It appeared that by 2023, the dismay and battle of the Covid-19 pandemic was lastly over, as even China forfeited its “zero-Covid” coverage and moved on with life as typical. Not so, says the US because it begins weaponizing the lab leak concept but once more, which is shortly circulated and endorsed by the mainstream media. Sarcastically, the identical media have little or no to say in regards to the fallout of the environmental catastrophe in Ohio, or the credible report that the Nord Stream pipelines had been actively sabotaged by the US.

After all, it’s no coincidence that these occasions are, because it occurs, the exact motive for the coordinated re-emergence of the laboratory leak concept. Following the drama and anti-China hysteria promulgated by the current “spy balloon” incident, Chinese language state media and commentators have hit again on the US by relentlessly criticizing the Ohio catastrophe, utilizing that as a public opinion offensive of their very own. Along with that, Beijing has tried to affect the course of the Ukraine conflict by proposing a peace plan of its personal, one which doesn’t help Washington’s aims within the nation, requires compromise, and has subsequently been dismissed by US officers.

What does the US do to reply to this? It reignites the lab leak concept to distract the dialog. There’s no proof supplied to the general public, however the sensational statements by American officers by no means fail to be amplified by the media, with the outcome being whipped-up public outrage in opposition to China. Then the US strikes from one anti-China “meme” to the following. It’s due to this fixed public opinion manipulation that it has change into inconceivable for Washington and Beijing to normalize and stabilize their ties, which is resulting in a vicious circle and turning into inherently harmful.

In conclusion, the concerted re-emergence of this concept is essential proof of how the US manipulates world discourse and public opinion. On this explicit situation, nonetheless, the US will not be utilizing the lab leak concept to pursue any particular coverage targets, corresponding to manufacturing consent for sanctions, however is doing in order a tit-for-tat distraction in opposition to China’s concentrate on the Ohio chemical catastrophe. Whether or not this tactic will work is up for debate. The world has had sufficient of the Covid blame sport, and, with out some arduous proof, the lab leak concept won’t ever be as efficient a story device because it as soon as was.