Online Public Relations Thoughts

Tensions with China are high enough without resorting to dumb conspiracy theories about the origin of COVID.  Yet the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence has decided at this late date to endorse the lab leak theory although it acknowledges its confidence is low.  The disclosure has set off a political uproar and the Chinese government can't be happy about it.  Nor, for that matter, can the Biden administration welcome the conclusion.  It is trying resolve a fraying diplomacy with China as it is.  The DOE's statement flies in the face of general scientific opinion and conclusions from other agencies which have examined the same set of facts.  It is only making the job harder to get along with China.  Sometimes it is best to bite one's tongue and to go along with prevailing views in the absence of evidence.