"Blame" – when the only critical words about Shi Zhengli and Peter Daszak come from a Chinese journalist.💥
Jane Qiu visibly feels uncomfortable. It seems to her as if she is participating in propaganda, she says'
In contrast, Variety has a surrealist article:
"Oscar-nominated Swiss director Christian Frei began to experience a feeling that “those who warned us would eventually be the ones who are blamed.
This sentiment, which he calls an “epiphany,” is at the heart of “Blame”.
For the inside story, Frei contacted Daszak at end of 2020, to discuss a film project (initially called 'Host').
Shi Zhengli and Linfa Wang, as well as Quammen, were looped in Sep 2020.
Then the cast of Daszak, the great Markolin (!!), Jane Qiu, Linfa Wang, Supaporn, was put in place by 2 Dec 2022.
@emilyakopp @R_H_Ebright @janeqiuchina @NZZWissen
2022 was when travel was easier, and the filming was able to proceed.
👉🏻 The operation was part of the 'Positive engagement strategy' of Daszak.
@JaEsf @Tantalite @NolwennLF @zeynep
👉🏻 That strategy included trips for journalists in fall 2022, at a time when Daszak had a problem with poached Lao samples that ended up in Latinne et al.
A proposed Addendum did not work out, resulting in a retraction/republication which wiped out the intermediate peer-reviews.
More details of the filming in 2022. and post-production in 2023.
Also:
👉🏻 25 Feb 2023: 'whatsapp christian [Frei] and philip [Markolin?] re. filming the man who loved China, the hare with the golden eye' [some heavy references here]
👉🏻 Frei visited EHA offices in April 2023. @NZZWissen
When Daszak became a 'martyr', the name was changed from 'Host' to 'Blame'.
Quite a bit of a love-fest. Complete lack of distance to the subject.
Using one's brain instead of one's political emotions would have resulted in a better documentary, not a soapy propaganda piece.
1/12 Nice article by @stephaniebenz and @yohanblavignat summarizing the situation as to the origins debate.
It captures very well the absurd cheap certitudes of the 100% zoonosis fans, and the questions that such a rush to close an existential debate raises. lexpress.fr/sciences-sante…
2/12 If asked, I would say that after the wise 50/50 position that any scientist should have initially considered, most of the developments have been towards a research-related accident, with many predictions there coming true,
3/12 On the contrary, the ground has been weakening under the zoonotic side, with demolished market papers, no animal reservoir identified, and a lot of time wasted on candidate pangolins and racoon dogs.
Flo Debarre is mentioned here as someone jumping to conclusions that are in fact essentially speculations (the whole raccoon dog saga),
1/8 I am relieved to see that @RogerMarshallMD has asked Thomas Monheim, Inspector General of the IC, to look into the integrity of the Intelligence Community's COVID-19 origins assessment process. marshall.senate.gov/wp-content/upl…
2/8 I also asked 2 years ago if DEFUSE was part of the Biden intel evaluation, and, if not, why.
In 2023 Daszak was boasting internally that his funding was better than before the pandemic (and, indeed, at $17 min over the year, it was).
Read🧵 below for the details:
@R_H_Ebright @DrJBhattacharya
2/15 Research from Billy and me for DRASTIC, with the help of some anonymous friends, all based on legally obtained original documents (h/t @BillyBostickson), provides the internal EHA story.
2/29 @PeterDaszak spent the following 3 years pretending that this was all lies, that the grant was denied just because he asked for too much money, calling DRASTIC conspiracy theorists.
Today's💥bipartisan💥 @COVIDSelect report 💯% confirms what we explained back in Sep 2021.
3/29 That bipartisan report also includes many examples of Daszak's lies and obfuscations.
But I'd like to retweet below a thread I published exactly a year ago, based on a source who provided many more details about the rejection.
@emilyakopp oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…