Question

They made it in a lab.

They are making new pandemics in labs.

The former head of CDC has sounded an alarm about it.

Sheep population still too stupid and brainwashed to say one fucking word in defense of their own lives.

politicalfilm.wordpress.com/2024/07/13/c...

Answer 1

The listed source is an incredibly opinionated blog site that uses completely unprofessional language that refers to opposing opinion groups as "sheep". An NBC article claims that COVID was originally thought to have come from a lab outbreak however the article states "The spokesperson added that the agency has “low confidence in this judgment” and will continue to evaluate any new intelligence reporting or relevant information."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cia-shifts-assessment-covid-origins-saying-lab-leak-likely-caused-outb-rcna189284

Comments

I enjoy how this factcheck is direct and clearly stated how the claim is very misleading and heavily opinionated. You used a very trustworthy source that quickly debunked the original claim. The wording was also very clear and professional.

Answer 2

The only source given isn't a reliable source. It's a biased blog page mainly used for personal opinions on political conspiracy theories. The claim itself is also a personal post made by an account that is mainly about political film blogs. The post uses foul language and is targeting the audience for, "being sheep and not being able to defend their own lives." The post is very opinionated. Upon further investigation I did come across a video where according to the clip the ex-CDC director states that "it is my opinion that it came from a Chinese lab."  All though the claim is true for the post. The statement is backed up by an informed opinion by the former CDC director with little to no evidence on the matter.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/03/26/sanjay-gupta-exclusive-robert-redfield-coronavirus-opinion-origin-sot-intv-newday-vpx.cnn

Comments

I enjoyed how you were able to realize how satire it was due to the accounts past with other articles not related to the statement but still says a lot. as well as a post being disingenuous though the way they speak with such foul language.

Answer 3

This claim that pandemics are being made in a lab, was made on an opinion blog, which leads me to believe that it has very low reliability in being a factually sound argument. Investigating further into the types of content that the blog contains, it seems to have a primary focus on other claims supporting a demographic of conspiracy culture, confirmation bias, and fear-mongering. On the margins of the blog page, there are two main quick search categories, "Covid" and "Nazis", along with several independent films one of which is named "When the Terrorists are Supernatural". Additionally, when digging deeper into this claim on other sites, there was a debate about the validity of the claim within articles such as the NBC article; "CIA shifts assessment on Covid origins, saying lab leak likely caused outbreak", although concluding in the article that there was a very "low level of confidence" within the agency's claim. Therefore this leads me to think that it was mainly built on speculation. 

politicalfilm.wordpress.com

https://politicalfilm.wordpress.com/2024/07/13/cdc-chief-redfields-testimony/

NBC news article

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cia-shifts-assessment-covid-origins-saying-lab-leak-likely-caused-outb-rcna189284

Comments

Great fact check, I appreciate how thorough you were in giving your reasoning for disagreement and that you mentioned where the claim originated from and what that says about its validity. To make your fact check even better, I would recommend stating and tagging your claim directly- whether you believe this is false, exaggerated, etc.

---

This is a really good fact check. You encourage careful consideration of the sources and were able to highlight the importance of skepticism when encountering claims that seem heavily biased, such as this claim. I also liked that you used a reliable source, along with quoting them making your fact check even stronger. Overall, this is a good fact check using a reliable source and evidence to back your fact check up!

Answer 4

First, the website that is cited is unreliable. The facts to back their claim up are cited as "social media scumbags". No one made COVID-19 in a lab, and nowhere in any source listed does it suggest that. The former head of the CDC also did not sound any alarm about it. The part you are criticizing is where he says, "They don't prevent infection, they do have side effects." This is not new information and most vaccines do not prevent infection they support the body in fighting the infection to limit the damage it can do. This is not sounding any alarm and is simply stating a fact about the vaccine, which is fairly well known.

To discuss your main claim, I found it difficult to find a definitive answer as the topic is highly riddled with misinformation. Some suggest that COVID-19 could have spread due to a lab leak, but to say it was made in a lab with the intention to cause destruction is exaggerated heavily. There are no reliable sources that contain evidence on this claim. Cited is an article explaining where pandemics come from, and one item listed is animal exposure, which is the original claim in the outbreak of COVID-19.

https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/where_do_pandemics_come_from

Overall, the likelihood of COVID-19 being started in a lab is extremely low, and the rest of the claim is misleading and false.

Answer 5

This post seems to be either a super right winged conspiracy theorist page or a satire "rage bait" page looking to get people mad. Their whole bluesky page is filled with posts that are all opinion based and not backed by any facts or sources where they got the information, this post is the acception. The source they linked on the post is not only unreliable, but also seems to be very opinion based too with everything the website covers being swayed to one side of political views. The claim is that "They made it in a lab" which we are left to infer that they are talking about COVID-19, and that we (the sheep population) are too "stupid" and "brainwashed" to defend our lives. This whole claim is just an opinion and the former head of the CDC who originally made this claim of COVID-19 coming from a lab even said the words "It is my opinion" before making that statement.

Comments

I like the way you adressed the facts and touched on the fact of where it was written was not reliable and it was a baseless claim.

Answer 6

The actual testimony given that the blog post is a portion of a hearing on determining the origins of Covid-19. The blog itself isn't a credible source, and it only provides two quotes without context for them, or analysis, it also draws the wrong conclusion from Dr. Redfield discussion on one of his initial hypothesis about the origins of Covid-19 possibly being from a lab. "My hypothesis... was that this was most likely come from a lab, and we need to aggressively investigate both hypothesis" (Dr. Redfield 1:46:14 - 1:46:26). This quote is referring to the early investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and the confusion comes from Dr. Redfield's discussion of the virus possibly coming from the lab with the limited data and information they had, and in the interest of not ruling anything out.

The links below take you to a video of the hearing with statements from and questions for Dr. Redfield at 39:04, 1:05:50, 1:21:29, 1:44:24, 2:03:57, 2:20:42, 2:25:33, 2:29:38,  as well as a link to his opening statement, but written out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXXWRaM-sWQ

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Testimony-Redfield-2024-07-11.pdf

Comments

Nice work uncovering where the claim stems from!

Answer 7

The only source provided is an unreliable blog focused on personal opinions and political conspiracy theories. The claim itself comes from an account primarily dedicated to political film blogs, and the post is highly opinionated, using foul language and accusing its audience of being "sheep" incapable of defending themselves.

The broader claim that pandemics are being deliberately created in labs originates from an opinion-based blog, which raises serious doubts about its factual reliability. The blog predominantly promotes conspiracy narratives, confirmation bias, and fear-mongering. Notably, its main search categories include "Covid" and "Nazis," alongside independent films, one of which is titled When the Terrorists Are Supernatural.

Answer 8

After looking at the website that this person cited, it looks like an extremely biased blog. There appears to be no factual evidence to back up the information posted on this site, and a clear warning sign is the crude language used in some of the articles and quotes. Some of the text on the website gives false information about the image it is paired with, and many of the images have been captioned to frame them a certain way. According to an NBC article, the CIA is still assessing where COVID-19 came from. They have considered a lab leak from China as a higher possibility than a natural origin, however, they made it clear in the NBC article that this was with little confidence and not confirmed.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-covid-likely-originated-lab-low-confidence-assessment/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cia-shifts-assessment-covid-origins-saying-lab-leak-likely-caused-outb-rcna189284

Answer 9

The listed source is quite opinionated, calling the population sheep, essentially followers. While some reliable sources such as NBC news have said that a possible origin of COVID-19 was in a lab, but further studies suggested they have "low confidence" in this claim. A part of disease prevention occurs in labs trying to develop formulas for potential outbreaks that could occur, so misleading information develops from the presence of those labs' studies. However, new pandemics are not being made in labs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cia-shifts-assessment-covid-origins-saying-lab-leak-likely-caused-outb-rcna189284

https://www.cdc.gov/labs/index.html

https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/where_do_pandemics_come_from