The Wall Street Journal is playing sleight of hand over an (allegedly) upcoming Trump executive order that would halt federal funding for gain-of-function (GoF) research.
For starters, they frame opposition to GoF as partisan, and suggest that concerns over it are recent. Journalist Paul Thacker of The Disinformation Chronicle breaks it down.
For example, the WSJ writes "The gain-of-function studies had been a staple of research into viruses, but became an object of controversy and criticism during the pandemic crisis. Republicans in Congress criticized the studies."
Wrong: GoF has been under scrutiny for more than a decade. In fact, the Obama Administration banned it in 2014, which is why Dr. Anthony Fauci offshored it to Wuhan, China via EcoHealth Alliance.
2) "The gain-of-function studies had been a staple of research into viruses, but became an object of controversy and criticism during the pandemic crisis. Republicans in Congress criticized the studies."
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) January 23, 2025
FALSE: Scientists have long criticised this research. This is from 2018 pic.twitter.com/AqSCHpgxa3
Next, the Journal suggests that only "some Republicans" who think GoF caused Covid-19, when in fact a majority of Americans think that's the case, including 53% of Democrats.
The article also cites scientists with huge conflicts of interest, and that "Many scientists and public-health officials have said there isn’t any public evidence that an experiment at the Wuhan lab could have created the virus that caused the pandemic."
Wrong: The government was concerned at the highest levels that the virus started in a lab.
5) "Many scientists and public-health officials have said there isn’t any public evidence that an experiment at the Wuhan lab could have created the virus that caused the pandemic."
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) January 23, 2025
FALSE: Emails released by Congress show Tony Fauci concerned the pandemic started in a lab. pic.twitter.com/0a2pB2QRlQ
And about those conflicts of interest...
7) @l_e_whyte reported on the pandemic problems in the Trump WH, but I don't remember her doing the same when the Biden administration misled the public on the pandemic origins, masks, lockdowns, and vaccines.
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) January 23, 2025
Why is that? pic.twitter.com/nNdNPPSCMA
Amazing.
The headline is the sole fact in the article.
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) January 23, 2025
Maybe the Trump team needs to hold a daily briefing about articles in the media and go through them explaining the fallacies. Then, afterwards send out the corrections to their social media sites and post it on the White House website. They'll have to hire a couple of people to…
— Snarky Side (@snarky_side) January 23, 2025
To think, some people still pay $400 a year for the @WSJ limited hangout when they can get the X firehose and learn to think for themselves FOR FREE.
— fbastiat (@fbastiat17) January 23, 2025
