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正如新冠病毒迅速出现，并成为全球公共卫生与国际关注的核心议题一样，它也同样迅速地从新闻报导中消失。
研究疫情的社会学家、经济学家、政治学家、历史学家以及其他学者，都将这场疫情的爆发与蔓延视为过去十年间最具深远影响的地缘政治事件之一。它不仅造成了前所未有的大规模死亡，更以近数百年来任何其他公共卫生事件都无法比拟的方式，扰乱了全球日常生活、社会秩序与经济运作。
回顾而言，这场疫情成为强大的地缘政治催化剂，将全球卫生议题转变为激烈战略竞争的场域。疫情原本应促进科学理解与国际合作，共同对抗未知病毒，但实际上却暴露了全球治理体系的深层裂痕，并从根本上改变了国际关系与政策方向。
“中国病毒”论述
几乎在疫情开始之初，一场激烈的“叙事之战”便随之展开。华盛顿将病毒起源与扩散责任指向中国。美国总统特朗普更公开将病毒称为“中国病毒”与“中国人的病毒”，引发美国及部分西方盟友，尤其是澳洲，批评中国的疫情管理与治理方式。一些最不负责任的批评者甚至宣称，病毒是中国针对西方发动的生物战争产物。
在民间层面，西方针对中国的信息操作与政治化宣传，加剧了反华情绪与排外论述，造成对中国以及具有亚洲面孔人士的长期误解与敌意。这些论述不仅将病毒起源归于中国以及把中国政府的应对方式视为失败，更进一步将问题延伸至中国文化本身。
为何政治与媒体对此议题的关注如此迅速消退？部分原因在于病毒已经度过最初造成巨大冲击的高峰期。世界卫生组织于2023年5月正式宣布，新冠疫情不再构成全球公共卫生紧急事件。如今，病毒已被全球视为一种地方性流行的呼吸道疾病，其对生命、经济与社会的影响，类似流感。
此外，西方政治与媒体对“中国应为病毒起源负责”的关注，也比2020年至2022年的高峰时期明显下降。
关键原因在于，尽管西方情报机构、科学评估以及调查听证会（尤其是在美国）试图将中国塑造成疫情爆发的主要责任者，但利用疫情造成的大量死亡数字，作为打击地缘政治对手工具的企图，最终遭遇阻力。
在缺乏“确凿证据”的情况下，过去三年的争论似乎已陷入科学与政治上的僵局。
重新追查新冠病毒起源
然而，情况可能正在改变。出乎意料的是，美国国家情报总监加巴德在2026年6月任期最后一天，公布了一系列解密文件，声称这些文件揭露：美国首席医疗顾问福奇曾利用美国纳税人的资金，支持武汉病毒研究所进行具有高度风险的“功能增益研究”。
她在个人公开的X平台帐户上发表声明：
“昨天是我担任国家情报总监的最后一天。我解密并公布了一批前所未见的文件，揭露福奇利用数百万美元美国纳税人的资金，在武汉实验室支持危险的功能增益研究；他与情报界合作，压制关于其行为真相的信息，并掩盖病毒源自实验室泄漏的可能性；他也在2024年国会宣誓作证时撒谎。现在，是时候让你知道真相。请前往ODNI.gov网站自行查看。”
加巴德指控这名前首席医疗顾问，在疫情起源问题上向国会作伪证。到目前为止，福奇本人、其支持者以及被指涉及掩盖真相的美国政府机构，都没有提出有效反驳。
同样值得注意的是，西方主流媒体，自称致力于追求真相报导，也没有给予这些指控如同过去针对中国时相同程度的关注。
拜登总统在离任前数小时给予福奇“预防性赦免”，被视为支持福奇涉及掩盖指控的最强证据。然而，这项赦免也可能使未来追查福奇以及美国政府在病毒事件中的角色更加困难，即使加巴德已经公开相关文件。
病毒是否源自食用蝙蝠？
除了持续存在的政治掩盖争议之外，新冠病毒起源问题还涉及另一个值得解开的层面——种族与文化污名化。疫情初期，互联网上大量流传病毒源于中国食用野生动物，尤其是武汉华南海鲜市场的说法。
关于“蝙蝠汤”以及食用蝙蝠的网络迷因，主要源自一段2016年拍摄的影片。影片中，一名旅游博主在帛琉食用蝙蝠肉，该影片原本只是旅游节目的内容。然而，这段影片迅速被重新包装，演变成与中国食用蝙蝠相关的反华嘲讽与仇恨内容，即使相关说法后来已被证实不准确，至今仍持续流传。
部分研究者提出假说，认为“人畜共患病毒跨物种传播”（例如病毒从蝙蝠传至中间宿主，再感染人类）可能是疫情来源之一。
虽然蝙蝠肉并非武汉或中国饮食文化中的普遍食物，但“新冠病毒源自武汉市场”的说法，却被部分人士利用为种族歧视工具，用来污名化中国与亚洲饮食文化。
事实上，食用果蝠在世界许多地区都有长久历史，尤其是在亚太地区、非洲以及一些岛国。对太平洋岛屿及东南亚部分土著而言，果蝠长期以来一直是蛋白质来源之一，也是被认可的“丛林肉”。在这些社群中，相关习俗往往与传统生活方式、民间信仰以及对地方生态系统的认识相连。
另一方面，支持“实验室泄漏说”的人士认为，由于武汉病毒研究所拥有全球最大规模的蝙蝠冠状病毒收藏，加上美国资助相关研究，因此该研究机构可能是病毒来源。
但同样重要的是，未来研究也应探讨蝙蝠肉消费以及类似饮食习惯，是否可能成为新型疫情爆发的潜在来源。
注释
1. 美国国家情报总监
美国国家情报总监负责监督与指导美国情报界18个机构的运作，包括管理由国会批准的国家情报项目资金分配与支出；促进情报机构、执法单位以及国际合作伙伴之间的协调；并制定情报收集、分析与产出的优先方向。
2. 美国情报机构解密文件显示，美国长期资助全球30多个国家的120多个生物医学研究实验室，其中约三分之一位于乌克兰。有观点认为，一些按照美国标准属于高风险、例如涉及“功能增益研究”的病原体研究，可能主要在海外研究机构进行，例如武汉相关研究单位。
林德宜《新冠疫情：美国或中国病毒》原文： COVID 19: American Or Chinese Virus.
Just as quickly as COVID appeared and became the center of public health and worldwide attention, it disappeared from the news coverage.
Sociologists, economists, political scientists, historians and other scholars studying the pandemic see its outbreak and spread as one of the most consequential geopolitical events of the past decade. Not only did it result in an unprecedentedly high human mortality rate but it disrupted everyday life and socio-economy around the world like no other health phenomenon has during the last several hundred years.
In retrospect, the pandemic acted as a powerful geopolitical accelerant, transforming global health into an arena of intense strategic competition. Instead of generating scientific understanding and international cooperation to combat an unknown virus, the outbreak exposed profound fractures in global governance, fundamentally altering relationships and policies.
The Chinese Virus
Almost immediately, it began a fierce "battle of narratives" with Washington blaming China for the origins and its spread. President Donald Trump famously renamed the virus as the “China” and “Chinese” virus, leading the U.S. and some western allies, notably Australia, to critique China's crisis management and governance, with the most irresponsible critics seeing the virus as emerging from biological warfare by China directed against the West.
At the public level. Western information weaponization against China during the pandemic amplified Sinophobic and xenophobic tropes, producing enduring misconceptions and antagonism against China and Asian looking people. These narratives framed the virus’s origins and China’s response as a failure not only of its government but also of its culture
Why political and media attention has evaporated so quickly is partly because the virus has peaked from its initial impacts. The pandemic, as a global public health emergency, officially ended in May 2023 when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak over. Today the virus is managed globally as an endemic respiratory illness similar to the flu in its impact on lives, economy and society.
This disappearance from the headline news is also because Western political and media attention on China's alleged responsibility for the origins has significantly declined compared to the peak years of 2020–2022.
Key in the decline is that, despite western intelligence and scientific reviews and investigative hearings (notably in the U.S.) aimed at targeting China as the principal villain in the pandemic outbreak, this attempt at weaponizing the massive human casualty count resulting from the pandemic against a geopolitical enemy has hit a brick wall.
Without a smoking gun, the debate appeared to have reached a stage of scientific and political stalemate during the past three years.
Unraveling COVID-19 Origins
No longer. Unexpectedly, on her final day in office as the United States Director of National Intelligence in June 2026, Tulsi Gabbard released a series of declassified documents alleging that Dr. Anthony Fauci used American taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Her statement on her accessible X.com account reads:
“Yesterday was my final day as Director of National Intelligence. I declassified and released never-before-seen documents exposing the truth about Fauci directing millions of US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with the Intelligence Community to suppress the truth about his actions and hide the virus’ lab-leak origins, and lied to Congress while under oath in 2024. It’s time you know the truth. Go to ODNI.gov to see for yourself”.
Gabbard's accusation that the former chief medical advisor had lied under oath regarding the pandemic's origins has not been rebutted by Dr Fauci, his supporters or by the agencies of the US government engaged in the cover up. Neither has it been subject to the same kind of attention by Western mass media labeling themselves as engaged with truth seeking reporting.
The fact that President Biden granted Dr. Fauci a preemptive pardon hours before he left office is the strongest evidence that Fauci was guilty of the coverup charge on the virus. This pardon will unfortunately ensure that the truth regarding Fauci’s and the American state’s role will be much harder to uncover, even with Gabbard's expose.
Did the Virus Emerge From Bat Consumption
There is another wrinkle in the COVID origins mystery away from the ongoing political coverup to its ‘race and culture’ boxing that needs unraveling. Early memes of the virus's origins in the internet linked it to wildlife consumption in China, specifically through the Wuhan wet market.
These viral memes on bat meat soup and bat meat consumption were largely based on a video of a travel vlogger eating bat meat in Palau that was filmed in 2016 for an online travel show. This quickly escalated into bat meat consumption and anti China parodies and hate content that persists even today despite its debunking.
Some researchers have hypothesised that zoonotic spillovers (such as from bats to intermediate hosts to humans) could be responsible for the pandemic.
Although bat meat is not a common food item in Wuhan or Chinese cuisine, the notion that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan market was used as a racist trope that stigmatized Chinese and Asian foodways.
In fact, consumption of fruit bats is a long-standing practice in various parts of the world, particularly across the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and several island nations. For many indigenous cultures in the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia, fruit bats have historically been a source of protein and a recognized "bushmeat." In these communities, the practice is often tied to traditional lifestyle, folklore, and local ecosystem knowledge.
While advocates of the lab-leak theory argue that the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American funded research is the likely source of the virus since the facility houses the world's largest collection of bat coronaviruses, it would be important to also study whether bat meat consumption and similar food practices may be a source of new forms of pandemics.
Notes
1.The U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is responsible for the oversight and direction of the 18 elements of the intelligence community. This includes managing the allocation and expenditure of National Intelligence Program funds authorized and appropriated by Congress; promoting collaboration among intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and international partners; and establishing priorities for the collection, analysis, and production of intelligence.
2.U.S. intelligence declassified records detail "longstanding" United States funding for more than 120 biomedical research laboratories across over 30 countries, with roughly one-third located in Ukraine, It is likely that research deemed hazardous such as on “gain of function” pathogens which are unacceptable by American standards is mainly conducted outside the country in institutes such as in Wuhan.
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