Anatomy Of A COVID Conspiracy Theory

CNN: How A Covid-19 Origin Theory Backed By Bannon Unraveled 
It was a blockbuster story. A respected Chinese virologist appeared on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News in mid-September to share the results of her just-completed report. The conclusion: The novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was likely engineered in a Chinese lab. On Carlson's show, she claimed it was intentionally released into the world. (Kuznia, Bronstein, Griffin and Devine, 10/21)

AP: US Surgeon General To Plead Not Guilty In Hawaii Virus Case
A lawyer for U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Wednesday that his client, who is charged with illegally entering a Hawaii public park that was closed because of the coronavirus, will plead not guilty. The criminal complaint against Adams, who was on Oahu in August helping with surge testing amid a spike in coronavirus cases, says he and two other men were looking at the view and taking pictures at Kualoa Regional Park on the island’s northeastern coast. The rural park offers a view of the famed Mokolii island, also known as Chinaman’s Hat for its cone shape. (Jones, 10/21)

News on separated families —

The Washington Post: Hundreds Of Parents Separated From Children At Border In 2017 Still Have Not Been Found 
The ACLU has demanded the names of all separated parents and children and wants to work to confirm all reunifications. The organization, which filed the lawsuit that led to the judge’s order to reunite the families, estimates that as many as 5,400 children have been separated from their families since Trump took office. More than half were split up from May to June in 2018, when DHS and the Justice Department rolled out the administration’s official “zero tolerance” policy to deter a surge of asylum-seeking families at the southern border. The ACLU and others say the effort to locate the still-separated families has been hindered by incomplete government reports as well as conditions on the ground in the children’s native lands, including gang violence, remote villages, and now, the coronavirus pandemic. (Armus and Sacchetti, 10/21)

The New York Times: Parents Of 545 Children Separated At The Border Cannot Be Found
Radio spots are airing throughout Mexico and Central America. Court-appointed researchers are motorbiking through rural hillside communities in Guatemala and showing up at courthouses in Honduras to conduct public record searches. The efforts are part of a wide-ranging campaign to track down parents separated from their children at the U.S. border beginning in 2017 under the Trump administration’s most controversial immigration policy. It is now clear that the parents of 545 of the migrant children still have not been found, according to court documents filed this week in a case challenging the practice. About 60 of the children were under the age of 5 when they were separated, the documents show. (Dickerson, 10/21)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Considers Labeling Top Humanitarian Groups ‘Anti-Semitic’
The Trump administration is considering labeling some of the most prominent humanitarian organizations in the world, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, as “anti-Semitic,” according to two people familiar with the discussions. A declaration by the State Department could come as early as this week, the individuals said, adding that it might encourage other governments not to support the groups’ work. ... Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam each strenuously denied any accusation of anti-Semitism. “Any insinuation that Oxfam supports anti-Semitism is false, baseless, and offensive,” Noah Gottschalk of Oxfam America said. (Hudson, 10/21)