3 Stories You Should Read 4/24/2019: Virus origins, Jon Karl, Ramadan
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In the category of: Science fiction
Why these scientists still doubt the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab
A Wuhan lab studied SARS-related viruses. But there’s no evidence it discovered or was working on the new virus.
Such a spy-novel-worthy plot may seem plausible for a number of reasons: the Chinese government’s poor record of transparency; the fact that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research center with facilities in the same city where the virus first appeared, was studying dangerous pathogens, including bat coronaviruses; and US officials’ concerns about the lab’s safety standards in 2018, per the Washington Post.
Yet five scientists I interviewed, some of whom have worked extensively in China with researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, say the pandemic can’t logically be pinned on an accident at that lab. (Researchers at the institute didn’t respond to my request for comment.)
In the category of: Backtalk truth to power
ABC’s Jon Karl Talks Back To Donald Trump For ‘Bad Reporting’ Remark
“You people aren’t satisfied,” he said. “So let’s say we had 350 million people in the United States. Let’s say you gave every one of those people a test. So you give 350 million people a test 10 times. The fake news media would say, ‘Where’s the 11th time? He didn’t do his job. Trump didn’t do his job.’ Because you have a lot of bad reporting out there. It is very sad.”
That’s when Karl attempted to correct him. “That’s not true,” Karl interrupted. “That’s not true.”
“You are one of the leaders of the bad reporting,” Trump responded.
“No, but it’s not true,” Karl replied.
In the category of: Religious rigor
Ramadan during coronavirus: Muslim doctors weigh whether to fast
A difficult question for Muslim doctors and nurses on the coronavirus front line: Do I fast during Ramadan this year?
New York City – Dr Ahmed Hozain intends to wake up around 4am on Friday and begin the first day of his Ramadan fasting. For 15 hours, the 32-year-old surgery resident and lung transplant researcher plans to abstain from eating, drinking, chewing gum and taking medicine as he goes through his daily routine, which now includes caring for more than a dozen COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit at the Brooklyn hospital where he works.
Hozain has been fasting since he was 10 years old, and although some days are harder than others, he generally feels good. He is a bit sharper mentally. He has more free time. He does not worry about feeling tired after a big meal. Even in his first years of practising medicine, when he would sometimes be pulled unexpectedly into the emergency room and have to extend his fast for an additional hour or two, he never broke early and ate before sunset.
But amid the exhaustion of fighting a pandemic, he wonders whether that will be the case this year.
“The goal is to go through it like I’ve always done,” he says. “But, I’m not opposed to breaking it if I need to.”
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