ABC’s Norman Swan backflips on COVID-19: ‘Biden has ordered an investigation so it must be true’

Sky News host Rowan Dean says the ABC’s Dr Norman Swan performed a “beautifully executed pirouette” this week deserving of a “gold medal” – changing his mind about the possibility coronavirus could have started in a Wuhan lab. In May 2020, Dr Swan said “there really is very little evidence” the coronavirus started in a lab in Wuhan, China. “It’s on the outer bounds of possibility, but really so unlikely that you could … say definitely that it's not the case,” he said. Dr Swan swapped stance this week. “There is indications that virologists in the Wuhan Institute got sick in November with an illness, so there are increasing signs that the Institute of Virology may well be the source,” Dr Swan said. Host Rita Panahi said his “change of heart” about the origin of COVID-19 came down to the change of administration in the US. “Before it was Donald Trump pushing this theory, which meant it must be false, but now Joe Biden has ordered an investigation, so it must be true,” she said. “It just shows Swan, like almost everyone else at ABC, regards anything conservative governments do with suspicion.” This week President Biden issued a directive giving intelligence agencies 90 days to uncover the origins of the coronavirus.