Photo of Steve Bannon from Wikimedia Creative Commons by Elekes Andor
A fake study that China created COVID-19 in a lab has been linked to Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who has aligned himself with the alt right and White supremacists.
The Daily Beast reports the widely maligned report is the work of two organizations Steve Bannon not only chaired, but created-the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation.
According to Newsweek, the study was not peer-reviewed, a common practice before a scientific study is published. Six leading experts in biology and infectious disease told Newsweek the paper offers no new information and makes unsubstantiated and weak claims.
Unfortunately, newspapers such as the New York Post ran with the story as if it was credible.
“This pre-print report cannot be given any credibility in its current form,” says Andrew Preston, a researcher from the University of Bath in the U.K. told Newsweek.
The paper is also described by the magazine as striking a conspiratorial tone with no references to support the claims.
The Daily Beast also reports that both foundations have never published scientific or medical research. Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui is also connected to the foundations. Bannon has collaborated with Bannon on numerous anti-China campaigns in the past.
The phony report supports theories also mouthed by President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s leading researcher on infectious disease, has stated all evidence supports the belief the virus was not man made.
Trump has seeked to villify China as a way to take pressure off from critics who blame him for his handling of the pandemic in the United States and the deaths of nearly 200,000 people so far.
“It’s all circumstantial and some of it is entirely fictional,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University said about the study to The Daily Beast.
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