I don't understand the claim that the virus has not been isolated. There are several examples of that having happened and even a complete genetic sequence of different variants of the virus. I guess it could all be lies but what is the evidence of that? I mean this is research that has been done by people who are experts in this stuff as far as I can tell. On the other hand, the claim that it has never been isolated, as far as I can tell, came from one guy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7036342/
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.00543-20?permanently=true
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247524
https://theconversation.com/i-study-viruses-how-our-team-isolated-the-new-coronavirus-to-fight-the-global-pandemic-133675
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947 (complete genome)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT560525.1 (another complete genome)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MT019532 (yet another)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/niaid/albums/72157712914621487/with/49557785797/ (pictures of the virus)
If the information in the links above cannot be taken as evidence, then what can?
I hear what you are saying but it's not like all of this is coming from the CDC or drug companies. Some is coming from universities and other organizations. In my experience, for the most part, scientists themselves are not particularly political when it comes to their work (though politicians certainly twist the results in misleading ways for their own purposes).
Every doctor who has seriously studied this is part of some institution as not many individuals would have the resources for the proper equipment and personnel to do the necessary work. Dr. Kaufman is a psychiatrist with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. Is he really more qualified to speak on these issues than any of the people in the above links? I don't see how.
I can't really prove all the people in the above studies aren't lying...it's difficult to prove a negative anyway. But I've seen no proof that they are and I don't really see any reason to give Dr. Kaufman's claims any more credit. I'm sure the notoriety he is getting makes for some economic opportunities for him as well. He could also just believe what he is saying. But that doesn't make him right.
Economic incentive alone isn't generally a good enough reason not to trust someone. After all, most people have economic incentive for the work that they do or they would have to be doing something else. But I don't believe doctors and scientists generally spend all that time, money and effort to get advanced training in their fields just so they can go out and make crap up. Of course there are always dishonest people but it's hard to believe the vast majority of doctors and scientists are lying (about the very existence of a virus no less)...or completely wrong. It's far easier to believe someone like Dr. Kaufman, who would seem to have quite a bit less training and experience in this particular field, is wrong.