Whoopi Goldberg has weighed into the row over whether Covid-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan, declaring ‘politics got in the way’ of truth.
Goldberg speculated the theory was initially quashed due to concerns it would fuel anti-Asian hate crimes as she backed talk show host Jon Stewart who said he received backlash from liberals for advocating the Wuhan hypothesis back in 2021.
Her comments came after FBI Director Christopher Wray said the pandemic ‘most likely’ came from a Chinese government-controlled lab.
‘The politics got in the way of a lot of looking for the truth,’ Goldberg said on The View on Wednesday morning.
‘They still are not saying definitively and that’s a problem. They still don’t know for sure.
Whoopi Goldberg said ‘politics got in the way of a lot of looking for the truth,’ as she appeared t back the theory Covid-19 originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China
Goldberg and her fellow The View panelists discussed comments recently made by FBI director Christopher Wray that the pandemic ‘most likely’ came from a lab
‘You know, who knows where it came from. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t.’
She went on to bash former President Donald Trump who she claimed made it a race issue by riling up hatred towards Asian Americans in the early days of the pandemic.
‘I know when the last guy before Biden said anything about this – he made it about Asian people,’ Goldberg continued.
‘I’m sure Jon Stewart didn’t realize that’s what was happening because I’m sure he didn’t know what was going on all over the country with Asian folks getting smacked and hit and people saying stuff to them about bringing the disease here.’
The origins of Covid-19 have been subject of fierce global debate, with early theories suggesting it had developed in bats.
But some scientists speculated it was actually the result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China – though this was largely considered a conspiracy theory touted by the fringes of society.
At the time reports stated there had been a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes as a result of pandemic tensions.
An aerial view shot shows the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2020 where the virus is believed to have emerged
Beijing has hit back at claims the virus emerged in the Wuhan lab as it accused Washington of ‘political manipulation’. Pictured: researchers working in the Wuhan lab in 2017
But yesterday FBI director Christopher Wray added weight to the Wuhan theory as he claimed China had done ‘its best to try and thwart and obfuscate’ efforts to establish how the pandemic began.
Beijing has since fought back, accusing Washington of ‘political manipulation.’
Earlier in the week the U.S. Energy Department also concluded with ‘low confidence’ that the Wuhan Theory had plausibility.
The news vindicated former ‘Daily Show’ host Jon Stewart who touted the Wuhan hypothesis in a 2021 episode of the Stephen Colbert show.
Stewart said this week that he was stunned by the liberal backlash he received from the comments.
‘First of all, I wasn’t waiting on the Department of Energy to weigh in on this,’ Stewart said during his new Apple show The Problem.
‘The larger problem with all of this is the inability to discuss things that are within the realm of possibility without falling into absolutes and litmus-testing each other for our political allegiances as it arose from that.
‘My bigger problem with that was I thought it was a pretty good bit that expressed kind of how I felt, and the two things that came out of it were I’m racist against Asian people, and how dare I align myself with the alt-right.’
He added: ‘The part that I don’t like about it is the absolutes and the dismissive like ‘f**k you, I’m done with you. I will never forgive you, you have crossed an unforgivable line. You’ve expressed an opinion that is antithetical to mine, or not mine.’
Back in the 2021, episode Stewart had claimed that the pandemic was ‘more than likely caused by science.’
Jon Stewart joked that he could be ‘canceled’ for discussing the lab leak theory which he was criticized for mentioning in 2021
When challenged by host Colbert, he replied: ‘A chance? Oh my god, there’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do?
‘Oh you know who we should ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab. That’s just a little too weird!’
Goldberg’s acknowledgement comes on the heels of co-host Joy Behar surprisingly defended Marjorie Taylor Greene after the congresswoman revealed she was attacked by an ‘insane’ woman in a restaurant.
Behar announced during the show’s morning broadcast that she was ‘on Marjorie’s side on this one’.
‘I don’t believe that anybody should be going up to any of us in public and harassing us and that goes for you too, Marjorie,’ Behar said.
