{"id":565328,"date":"2021-06-16T11:07:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T15:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=565328"},"modified":"2021-06-16T11:07:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T15:07:34","slug":"columnist-rips-jon-stewart-for-saying-he-believes-covid-19-originated-in-chinese-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/columnist-rips-jon-stewart-for-saying-he-believes-covid-19-originated-in-chinese-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Columnist Rips Jon Stewart For Saying He Believes COVID-19 Originated In Chinese Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolumnist-rips-jon-stewart-for-saying-he-believes-covid-19-originated-in-chinese-lab%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=565328&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/js.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A Washington Post columnist blasted comedian Jon Stewart, a well-known liberal, for declaring that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart, the former host of \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d went on a five-minute rant Monday night in an appearance on Stephen Colbert\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScience has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic \u2026 which was more than likely caused by science,\u201d he said to laughter and applause.<\/p>\n<p>But Colbert interrupted, saying he does not support the lab-leak theory and asking Stewart, \u201cDo you mean perhaps there\u2019s a chance that this was created in a lab? If there\u2019s evidence, I\u2019d love to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA chance? Oh my God!\u201d Stewart yelled. \u201cThere\u2019s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe disease is the same name as the lab! That\u2019s just a little too weird, don\u2019t you think?\u201d he said. (According to the Chinese, though, the lab is called the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but it reportedly has long studied coronaviruses.)<\/p>\n<p>Stewart\u2019s comments prompted columnist Paul Waldman to write a piece headlined, \u201cJon Stewart\u2019s rant is a reminder: Don\u2019t rely on celebrities for COVID-19 theories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like a long time ago now, but Jon Stewart used to be an immensely important figure sitting at the place where politics and pop culture meet,\u201d Waldman wrote. \u201cBut these days, he\u2019s retired and only emerges from time to time, and because he always delighted more in skewering Republicans, it was a bit shocking to see him go on an extended rant on \u2018The Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u2019 about the coronavirus lab-leak theory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Waldman said the lab-leak theory \u201chas become associated with conservatives trying to prove that former President Donald Trump was right about everything\u201d and ripped Stewart for suggesting \u201cit\u2019s the only plausible explanation for the source of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis provides an important lesson about celebrities: You shouldn\u2019t get your political opinions from them, or your scientific opinions either,\u201d Waldman wrote. \u201cI know what you\u2019re going to say: \u2018That\u2019s just because this time a liberal celebrity is taking a position you don\u2019t like!\u2019 But it\u2019s not that. On the lab leak question, I\u2019m agnostic. Might that be where the virus came from? Sure. Or maybe not. But it matters only for the historical record and questions like \u2018What should international virology lab safety standards require?\u2019 As a political question, it\u2019s pretty much irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in February 2020, just as the virus was beginning to sweep across the U.S., the Post dismissed the lab-leak theory, declaring in a headline, \u201cTom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.\u201d But 15 months later, the paper issued a \u201ccorrection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEarlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) regarding the origins of the coronavirus,\u201d the correction reads at the top of the piece. \u201cThe term \u2018debunked\u2019 and The Post\u2019s use of \u2018conspiracy theory\u2019 have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese insist the virus came from a \u201cwet market,\u201d likely from someone eating an infected bat, but plenty of experts have questioned that assertion.<\/p>\n<p>At a Senate hearing last month, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked CDC Director Rachel Walensky how she thinks the pandemic began. \u201cI don\u2019t believe I\u2019ve seen enough data, individual data for me to be able to comment on that,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy then asked about the \u201cpossibilities\u201d on where the virus originated. \u201cCertainly the possibilities of, that most coronaviruses that we know of are of origin from, that have infected the population \u2014 SARS CoV-1, MERS \u2014 generally come from an animal origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre there any other possibilities?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly a lab-based origin is one possibility,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the Stewart rant below (skip to 2:10).<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jon Stewart On Vaccine Science And The Wuhan Lab Theory\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sSfejgwbDQ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Washington Post columnist blasted comedian Jon Stewart, a well-known liberal, for declaring that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.Stewart, the former host of \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d went &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280426,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/js.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Columnist Rips Jon Stewart For Saying He Believes COVID-19 Originated In Chinese Lab","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/js.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Columnist Rips Jon Stewart For Saying He Believes COVID-19 Originated In Chinese Lab","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}