The Augurs of Virology

Mainstream press turns to Kristian Anderson and Ron Fouchier to explain bird flu.

I just stumbled across a recent report in STAT under the headline: These are the bird flu questions that influenza and animal scientists desperately want answered. Hoping to learn something, I clicked on the report and saw that in order to gain insight about bird flu, the reporter had queried Kristian Anderson—who played an instrumental role in concealing the true origin of SARS-CoV-2—and Ron Fouchier, who notoriously altered H5N1 bird flu virus in a lab in order to make it infectious to ferrets via aerosolized transmission. Ferrets often contract the same respiratory viruses as humans because their lungs and airways are strikingly similar to those of humans.

The STAT reported reminded me of a thought I’ve had for some time—namely, that Kristian Anderson, Ron Fouchier, and other elite virologists compose something akin to a High Priesthood. Like Augurs in ancient Rome—who “took the auspices” by observing the behavior of birds and analyzed how these signs related to the will of the gods—the High Priests of Virology are now consulted to explain how all of mankind will be affected by the invisible stratum of nature in which viruses dwell.

Even if the High Priests of Virology commit acts of recklessness, folly, and dishonesty, they are still consulted by dummies like the STAT reporter.