At first, I’d assumed that this was just a bad joke circulating on social media but it’s apparently true. A few days ago, the Chinese Communist Party announced (through the country’s Academy of Sciences) the winners of their prestigious awards in the fields of science and technology. Near the top of the list was the Wuhan Institute of Virology and some of the doctors there doing all of that research on bats that absolutely didn’t have anything to do with the outbreak of the plague that the world is currently fighting. They went further, saying that those researchers should definitely be awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine for their groundbreaking work. At National Review, Jim Geraghty applies the appropriate amount of snark to this announcement.

Late last week, the Chinese Academy of Sciences nominated the Wuhan Institute of Virology for its Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize, specifically naming Shi Zhengli, a.k.a. “Bat Woman,” and Yuan Zhiming, director of the WIV’s Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory.

Chinese state-run media explained that, “The award is mainly given to individuals or research groups who have made or demonstrated significant achievements in the past five years . . . China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressed at Thursday’s press conference that scientists working at the WIV should be awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine, rather than being blamed for being the first to discover the gene sequence of the novel coronavirus.”

We must admit, the Institute’s work really has touched all of our lives, hasn’t it? And just think how many medical breakthroughs we’ve seen in the past 18 months from Pfizer and Moderna and Oxford and Johnson & Johnson that never would have occurred if hadn’t been for the earlier work of the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

The ongoing research into the original source of the virus has made it so obvious that the original explanation was flawed that even the NIH, the WHO, and Dr. Faucci have been forced to admit that the laboratory origin theory is at least worth studying. Add to that the fact that no one has yet found a single bat carrying a virus that’s a match for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. China’s protestations in this matter are looking increasingly pathetic.

But, as Jim correctly points out, this award announcement demonstrates that the CCP has absolutely no intention of changing their tune. They will continue their pattern of trying to take credit for everything good that happens and skirt the blame for any potential mistakes. (Assuming they actually were just “mistakes.”)

The linked article points to additional evidence of this trend in the form of the various vaccines that are making their way around the world. China continues to cast aspersions against the United States for supposedly politicizing the global distribution of doses by sending a large shipment to Taiwan. They also question the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Meanwhile, China is shipping the Sinopharm vaccine to developing nations. It’s a nice gesture on their part, I guess, but the Sinopharm dose has tested at such a low efficacy rate that people who have received it are being urged to go get a Pfizer shot in addition if they can find one.

I doubt that the leaders of the CCP even believe the crap they are peddling, but their state-run news agencies have to keep up appearances on the home front. They continue to spread rumors that if the virus didn’t come from the wet markets it probably came out of a military laboratory in Maryland. I wonder when Facebook will start suspending their accounts for spreading stories like that? Oh, wait… I forgot. That’s not going to happen because we now have to have an open discussion of the science or something.