So then was coming the March 8 hearing of the Select Subcommittee, when a panel of experts was prepared to testify on the origins of Covid. Among them was Dr. Robert Redfield, M.D. a career virologist who served as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Trump administration; he has been saying publicly for years that Covid was likely the result of a lab leak. Why, if a credential expert such as Redfield talks like that, who knows where it could lead, in terms of recriminations?

So what to do? Again, for Democrats—at least if they wish to defend Big Health, which they do, as it’s a key part of their blue base—the best strategy was changing the subject. So in his opening statement, Rep. Ruiz began by praising the Biden administration for its work, and then added a portentous, “However.” The California lawmaker declared himself “alarmed” that Republicans had allowed “someone who wrote a book applauded by white supremacists on the panel.” Look! Racism! Now that, they hope, is a subject-changer.

Ruiz was referring, not to Redfield, but to another of the panelists, Nicholas Wade, a former science writer for Nature, Science, and The New York Times, who had written on the likely lab-origins of Covid back in 2021. Wade had also written a book, nearly a decade ago, that Ruiz didn’t like; one can look here and judge for oneself. For his part, Wade hotly denied that he was a racist, but the fight was on. Left-wing Twitter ate it up.

[And that’s all the traction this non-sequitur will get. If anything, that will backfire by drawing more attention to the testimony of Redfield, who has been consistent on this point for at least the last two years. — Ed]