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“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
JUST IN: Rand Paul Directly Confronts Antony Blinken About COVID-19 Research Funding Records
Forbes Breaking News Mar 22, 2023
At today's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) confronted Secretary of State Antony Blinken about records on COVID-19 research funding.
Speaking from personal experience, if you ask a life science professor what they think of this exchange, they will respond in a quick and dismissive manner with one or more of the statements below (or derivatives of these statements). (1) "I don't know what you are talking about" (2) "I haven't paid attention to all that" (3) "I don't have time for politics" (4) "was this that Republican witch hunt?"Quote Tweet
https://twitter.com/Bryce_Nickels/status/1640767765530247171
Benny Johnson@bennyjohnson·
Mar 27Biden Sec. of State Antony Blinken SOILS his pants after Rand Paul GRILLS him like skewer for covering up COVID origins
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1640414217575493635
https://twitter.com/Bryce_Nickels/status/1640767765530247171
Discovery of a novel merbecovirus DNA clone contaminating agricultural rice sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China
View ORCID ProfileAdrian Jones, Daoyu Zhang, Steven E. Massey, View ORCID ProfileYuri Deigin, View ORCID ProfileLouis R. Nemzer, View ORCID ProfileSteven C. Quaydoi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.12.528210
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Classified report reignites debate over COVID origins
CBS News Feb 27, 2023
An Energy Department classified report has concluded with "low confidence" that it is plausible COVID-19 accidentally leaked out of a laboratory in China. CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane and CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang join "Red and Blue" to discuss the ramifications of the finding.
John Kirby Warns 'Not a Consensus' on COVID Origins Following Report
BY ANDREW STANTON ON 2/27/23 AT 6:02 PM EST
Kirby's remarks come after the Department of Energy reportedly concluded the virus most likely stemmed from a lab leak in Wuhan.
The real Covid conspiracy
Supine scientists such as Jeremy Farrar are being let off the hook
BY IAN BIRRELL March 11, 2023
https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-real-covid-conspiracy/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Gravitas: Wuhan Lab Leak theory resurfaces
WION Feb 27, 2023 #Gravitas #Covid19
The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a Chinese research lab leak. The origin story has gone from "conspiracy theory" to a government debate. Molly Gambhir reports.
#Gravitas #Covid19 #WuhanLabLeak
Treason of the Science Journals
How Anthony Fauci manufactured consensus on the origins of COVID-19 with the help of science writers and the media
BY ASHLEY RINDSBERG MARCH 08, 2023
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/treason-science-journals
Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is interviewed by CBS News about the Trump administration’s response to the global coronavirus outbreak outside the White House on March 12, 2020
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
- WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE NATIONAL SECURITY
Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Agency Now Says
Energy Department’s revised assessment is based on new intelligence
By Michael R. Gordon and Warren P. Strobel Feb. 26, 2023 7:00 am ET
A campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, in 2020.PHOTO: HECTOR RETAMAL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.
The Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak, according to a classified intelligence report
wsj.com
WSJ News Exclusive | Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says
The Energy Department joins the FBI in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was...
https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1629851338069667841
Each new revelation is a reminder of how little is actually known.
DANIEL ENGBER FEBRUARY 28, 2023, 12:08 AM ET
We’re still pretending to know things about COVID that we don’t.
Regardless of whether Covid-19 escaped from a research facility, another deadly virus very well might.
By The Editorial Board | Review & Outlook
Where the World’s at in the Hunt for the Origins of Covid-19
FBI Director Wray Says Covid-19 Likely Came From Chinese Lab
Other US agencies have come to different conclusions from the FBI on how the pandemic began.
Gilles Demaneuf Apr 27, 2022
BSL Laboratories in Wuhan and their roles in coronaviruses research
A study by the DRASTIC collective
Overview:
In 2019 in Wuhan, there were nine sites with biosafety laboratories of level 2 (BSL-2) and above, including six sites with BSL-3 laboratories and one site with a BSL-4 laboratory.
This number is not abnormal for a city of about 10 million inhabitants. However, the creation of these labs is recent. The constructions of the BSL-3 laboratories in Wuhan have been, and still is, the subject of significant and rapid development.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
The failure to investigate the origins of the virus, not No 10 parties, is the real Covid scandal
What was going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology must be examined openly and thoroughly
ROSS CLARK 24 November 2022 • 1:42pm
Avery large scandal has emerged relating to Covid-19, and this time it doesn’t involve a single Downing Street party. Emails have emerged which show that government scientists and other prominent figures in the field of genetics had their suspicions back at the beginning of 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 may have had a laboratory origin — but that rather than share their suspicions with the world they were happy to go along with efforts to effectively suppress this theory....
Top British scientist who publicly dismissed Covid lab leak theory had privately condemned 'Wild West' research being carried out in Wuhan
- Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, admitted to fears the virus might have been tied to research taking place in city where it first appeared
- Emails also show Anthony Fauci was alarmed by unusual feature of coronavirus
- He advised colleagues that they might need to tip off the FBI and MI5
- Revelations are latest development in mystery of how the pandemic was caused
By IAN BIRRELL FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 06:54 EST, 24 November 2022 | UPDATED: 10:35 EST, 24 November 2022
Watch: Fauci Again Defends Chinese Lockdowns
BY TYLER DURDENTUESDAY, NOV 29, 2022 - 03:00 PM
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
Anthony Fauci once again defended brutal Chinese lockdowns, admitting that the Communist government is forcefully locking people inside buildings but adding that if it means people get vaccinated then he is “okay” with it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/watch-fauci-again-defends-chinese-lockdowns
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
kanekoa.substack.com@KanekoaTheGreat
And here's Fauci announcing the NIH lifted its funding pause on gain-of-function research on January 29, 2018
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1608355782223093760
And here's a 2016 speech by Fauci's conduit to the Wuhan lab explaining exactly how the lab would make Covid.
twitter.com/davidsacks/sta…1:54 AM · Dec 29, 2022
https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1608328412262719490
Nice to see #ExposeFauci getting new attention! 250k+ views in last few hours. All eyes on Fauci right now #FauciFiles @elonmusk
From Eric Spracklen 6:37 PM · Dec 28, 2022
https://twitter.com/EricSpracklen/status/1608245734318424065
‘Very Suspicious:’ Chinese Virologist Casts Doubt on Timing of CCP’s U-turn on Zero-Covid
By Dorothy Li and Steve Lance January 9, 2023 Updated: January 10, 2023
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
JUST IN: Rand Paul Directly Confronts Top Biden Official On Funding Virus Studies In China
Forbes Breaking News Feb 9, 2023
At today's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Covid could have started earlier than thought
Nov 1, 2022 Just when did the covid virus start spreading around the world? Senator’s report on viral origins (Richard Burr) https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media... Section III China’s early COVID-19 Vaccine Development versus the U.S. Operation Warp Speed Full genetic sequence, SARS-CoV-2 First posted, global virus database, January 11, 2020 Chinese professor, violated government restrictions Then Vaccine developers inserted viral genome into cells to produce viral proteins Preclinical animal toxicity Safety and efficacy studies Human clinical safety and efficacy trials Commercial scale vaccine production. Operation Warp Speed Pre OWS work started on January 11, 2020 E.g. Adenovirus vector vaccines The AstraZeneca-Oxford, went from sequence to phase I clinical trials in 103 days (Ebola platform) J and J was 185 days Three adenovirus vector vaccines Pfizer trail started 7th May 2020 Another Chinese vaccine was patented on 24th February 2020 (Brigadier General Yusen Zhou, Academy of Military Medical Sciences) Question Did Chinese researchers have access to the genomic sequence before January 11, 2020? If so, how far in advance of January 11, 2020? MEP Cristian Terhes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jTgD... In the case of Pfizer Submitted a clinical trial that started in 14th January 2020 Three days later Pfizer already started a test for these vaccines Moderna Trials since 2017 https://www.modernatx.com/en-US/about... https://apnews.com/article/fact-check... https://www.riotimesonline.com/wp-con... https://patentimages.storage.googleap... Virus shares a sequence of 19 nucleotides with Moderna genome Part of spike protein Coincidence or not a coincidence? (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Uracil)
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Lab leak conspiracy theory
Dr. John Campbell Nov 24, 2022
I feel let down and apologise if I have misled anyone https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la... We are public health scientists who have closely followed the emergence of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and are deeply concerned about its impact on global health and wellbeing. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. https://www.nature.com/articles/S4159...
Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus. Conclusion Obtaining related viral sequences from animal sources would be the most definitive way of revealing viral origins. (Fully formed or evolutionary intermediate) UK experts helped shut down Covid lab leak theory - weeks after being told it might be true Sir Patrick Vallance among scientists behind paper that stifled debate into the origins of the virus https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZz9...
Top scientists including Sir Patrick Vallance, Were warned that virus could have evolved in lab animals Collaborated in above paper Debate therefore stifled To date Proximal origins paper Accessed more than 5.7 million times and cited in 2,627 subsequent papers. Emails from early 2020 FoI request, James Tobias, freelance journalist Authors held lengthy discussions with experts, Sir Patrick and Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust Warned WIV had been carrying out research on bat-coronaviruses, at worrying levels of biosecurity. Research to alter Sars-like bat coronaviruses had been taking place for many years in Wuhan (not mentioned in paper) Sir Jeremy Farrar, (Wellcome) Wuhan was like the "Wild West". Prof Kristian Andersen, Scripps Research Institute La Jolla, California (lead author) had earlier told colleagues that features of the virus looked as if they’d been engineered in a lab. (No mention of this was made in the paper) Dr Jeremy Farrar, (Wellcome) It is important that we understand how all pathogens emerge so that we can prevent future pandemics as the efforts to gather evidence continue, it is important to stay open-minded Serial passaging Would cause the virus to contain o-glycans The second notable feature of SARS-CoV-2 is a polybasic cleavage site (RRAR) at the junction of S1 and S2 Prof Ron Fouchier, Dutch virologist (from another e mail chain) It is good that this possibility was discussed in detail with a team of experts. However, further debate about such accusations would unnecessarily distract top researchers from active duties, and do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular February 8th e mail Prof Edward Holmes (one of the authors) Ever since this outbreak started there have been suggestions that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, if only because of the coincidence of where the outbreak occurred and the location of the lab. I do a lot of work in China and I can tell you a lot of people there believe this and believe they are being lied to Prof Kristian Andersen, February 8th (Lead author) Passage of Sars-live coronaviruses have been going on for several years and more specifically in Wuhan under BSL-2 conditions BSL-2 laboratories are used to study moderate-risk infectious agents or toxins such as salmonella. Serious diseases should be handled in BSL-3 or 4 labs. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Importing bat coronaviruses from areas of China which hold the closest viruses to Covid-19 Had also applied for funding to manipulate viruses by inserting a furin cleavage site (FCS) The email chain Involved Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an organisation which was funding research at the Wuhan lab. Senate report on viral origins the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media... https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/new-evi... https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Dec. 20, 2019 to Jan. 18, 2020 Searches for flu-like symptoms Differs from Previous Natural Zoonotic Spill overs Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Lack of intermediate bats to humans Influenza H7N9 (2019) multiple independent introductions across multiple locations Geographically disparate, independent spill overs of H7N9
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
UNCLASSIFIED UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE MINORITY UNCLASSIFIED SUMMARY of the SECOND INTERIM REPORT ON THE ORIGINS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Part I:
• The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the country, with almost every household feeling its effects. The United States’ death toll from this virus has surpassed one million people. Although concrete data is hard to lock down, millions of Americans are suffering from the long-term effects directly attributed to this virus. COVID-19 has also negatively affected communities, especially our school systems. It is becoming increasingly clear that school-age children face major educational hurdles because of long-term school closures. The American public deserves answers to every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic, including how this pandemic started and specifically whether it was a natural occurrence or was the result of a lab-related event. This Committee is uniquely positioned to assist in answering the questions surrounding the origins of COVID-19. This unclassified report attempts to add to the discourse of COVID-19 origins with the understanding that information held by the United States Intelligence Community (IC) that has yet to be shared with this Committee could be useful in making a final determination of the question of whether the origin of this pandemic was natural or lab-related.
• In direct contrast to media skepticism in the early days of the pandemic, the scientific community now largely accepts as feasible that the COVID-19 pandemic may have emerged from a lab-related event involving Chinese scientists experimenting with coronaviruses. Scientists have called for additional investigations and broader government cooperation to address the issue. Since the People’s Republic of China has not been transparent in sharing information, the IC is uniquely situated to provide relevant information. However, the IC has thus far failed to inform the public and failed to keep its Congressional oversight committees fully informed about what it knows. The IC owes the American people greater transparency on the information it already has and must be fully transparent to those in Congress with oversight responsibility.
• Based on our investigation involving a variety of public and non-public information, we conclude that there are indications that SARS-CoV-2 may have been tied to China’s biological weapons research program and spilled over to the human population during a lab-related incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The IC has failed to adequately address this information. The Committee has not seen any indications that the Chinese military intentionally released SARS-CoV-2.
• Omissions in the IC’s declassified version of its Updated Assessment on COVID-19 Origins (Updated Assessment) were misleading on key issues. One of the IC’s three primary tasks in its 90-day assessment of the virus’s origins was to evaluate the virus’s potential connections to biological weapons programs. The declassified report claimed the IC was able to reach “broad agreement” that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon. Despite the fact the IC relayed its confidence levels for nearly every other assessment in the declassified report – low confidence, moderate confidence, etc. – the IC failed to disclose to the public its confidence level regarding this bioweapons assessment.
* The IC’s declassified version also withheld other key information from the public that was in the classified version. The Committee believes that this vital information could have been included in the declassified version without harming national security. In fact, these omissions likely skewed the public’s understanding of key issues. The IC should be transparent regarding what it does or does not know regarding the relationship between the PLA’s Fifth Institute of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), which China has publicly admitted conducts bioweapons research and coronavirus experiments, and the WIV, particularly during 2019.
• In addition to the problems with the IC’s declassified version of the Updated Assessment, the classified version provided to Congress omits additional vital information and dismisses important intelligence in a cursory manner. The IC also failed to correct claims in the classified Updated Assessment when additional clarifying and important information became available, information that undermined a key assertion in the report.
• The IC has failed to comply with numerous requests for more information on these issues. The Committee will continue to press the IC to share the information it has and to explain why information was omitted from the declassified and classified reports
.• Members will seek to declassify the full classified version of our investigative report on this matter. Regardless, the IC should, on its own, declassify and release to the public all relevant information it may have about: the AMMS and biological weapons; the history of China’s biological weapons plans and proposals; the nature and timing of experiments by military scientists at the WIV in 2019; and Fifth Institute scientist General Zhou Yusen, who has since died under questionable circumstances.
https://republicans-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_unclass_summary_-_covid_origins_report_.pdf
Alina Chan@Ayjchan
The Republicans are saying there is classified intel that a scientist PLA General, who collaborated with WIV, died under questionable circumstances after filing for a patent on a COVID-19 vaccine in an "improbably fast timeline". https://republicans-intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_unclass_summary_-_covid_origins_report_.pdf…12:12 PM · Dec 16, 2022
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1603800320940933121
Virology in Peril and the Greater Risk To Science Published 15 December 2022
JULY 12, 2022|JUDICIAL WATCH
Judicial Watch: NIH Records Reveal FBI Inquiry of Wuhan Grant
Records Show Fauci Agency ‘Gain-of-Function’ Concerns about Wuhan Lab Going Back to 2016
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch announced today that it received 1651 pages of records from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) revealing an FBI “inquiry” into the NIH’s controversial bat coronavirus grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The records also show National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) officials were concerned about “gain-of-function” research in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2016. The Fauci agency was also concerned about EcoHealth Alliance’s lack of compliance with reporting rules and use of gain-of-function research in the NIH-funded research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/nih-fbi-inquiry-of-wuhan-grant/
https://www.judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-nih-records-reveal-fbi-inquiry-of-wuhan-grant/
The records also show EcoHealth Alliance’s legal team suggesting that a records request for data on their bat coronavirus research in Wuhan be denied because of the January 6 disturbance.
Judicial Watch obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records of communications, contracts and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-00696)).
US Senate, lab origin most likely
Oct 31, 2022 Senate report on COVID coronavirus origins the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media... Dec. 20, 2019 to Jan. 18, 2020 Searches for flu-like symptoms Cases probably started mid October, 2019 Analysis of Natural Zoonotic Origins Hypothesis Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Lack of intermediate bats to humans Virus likely needed to circulate in an intermediate host An animal virus must evolve to gain human infecting potential Closest virus is in horseshoe bats residing in Southern China or Southeast Asia Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak Differs from Previous Natural Zoonotic Spill overs Lack of dead ends spill over events, no epidemiological train in animals or humans Influenza Infected poultry and birds always found H7N9 (2019) multiple independent introductions across multiple locations Geographically disparate, independent spill overs of H7N9 Avian Influenza had circulated in bird populations, time and several provinces in China before the first known human infections SARS epidemic At least five independent spill overs of the SARS virus into humans Live animal markets followed by human to human E.g. Guangdong Province, November 2002 to January 2003 SARS, later on in 2003 – 2004 Additional independent subsequent spill over infections in humans Civets identified within 6 months Early SARS viral samples from humans contained genetic mutations that reflected prior circulation and adaptation in palm civets In total contrast Chinese government, asserted that the COVID-19 originated from a natural zoonotic transmission occurring at the Huanan market Geo-temporal spread of COVID-19 in China, December 31, 2019 to February 11, 2020 Earliest identified SARS-CoV-2 well-adapted for human-to-human transmission Early SARS-CoV-2 variants had little genetic diversity, 2 nucleotides out of 29,900 (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Uracil) No evidence of previous intermediate host circulation Genetic similarity between the environmental samples and human viral samples, supports the likelihood that the virus found at the Huanan Seafood Market was shed by humans Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, to address pandemic preparedness and response programs Interim report, to examine the two prevailing theories of origin Last fifteen months Reviewed several hundred scientific studies, interviewed several dozen subject matter experts, analyzed previous reports and studies. The lack of transparency and collaboration from government and public health officials in the People’s Republic of China with respect to the origins of SARS-CoV-2 prevents reaching a more definitive conclusion. I hope this report will guide the World Health Organization and other international institutions Introduction Challenging Since January 3, 2020, People’s Republic of China (PRC) have prohibited sharing or publishing any information on SARS-CoV-2 without state review and approval. Establishing timeline, is difficult Mid October, 2019
An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Interim Report Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions Minority Oversight Staff October 2022
https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/report_an_analysis_of_the_origins_of_covid-19_102722.pdf
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic Interim Report
Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions Minority Oversight Staff
October 2022
Conclusion
As noted by the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, the COVID19 Lancet Commission, and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence 90-Day Assessment on the COVID-19 Origins, more information is needed to arrive at a more precise, if not a definitive, understanding of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how the COVID-19 pandemic began.225 Governments, leaders, public health officials, and scientists involved in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and working to prevent future pandemics, must commit to greater transparency, engagement, and responsibility in their efforts.
Based on the analysis of the publicly available information, it appears reasonable to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident. New information, made publicly available and independently verifiable, could change this assessment. However, the hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy. The following are critical outstanding questions that would need to be addressed to be able to more definitively conclude the origins of SARS-CoV-2:
What is the intermediate host species for SARS-CoV-2? Where did it first infect humans?
Where is SARS-CoV-2’s viral reservoir?
How did SARS-CoV-2 acquire its unique genetic features, such as its furin cleavage site?
Advocates of a zoonotic origin theory must provide clear and convincing evidence that a natural zoonotic spillover is the source of the pandemic, as was demonstrated for the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak. In other words, there needs to be verifiable evidence that a natural zoonotic spillover actually occurred, not simply that such a spillover could have occurred.
An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic Interim Report
Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions Minority Oversight Staff
October 2022
https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/report_an_analysis_of_the_origins_of_covid-19_102722.pdf
US Senate, lab origin most likely
Dr. John Campbell Oct 31, 2022
Senate report on COVID coronavirus origins the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJt5jC5gbY
Biotech-WARS™ BiotecWARS™ BiotechSTORM™
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Boston University develops more lethal COVID strain to study omicron
Oct 18, 2022 ABC7
Boston University researchers say they've developed a new, more lethal strain of COVID that killed 80% of the mice infected with it. Researchers say their study will help them better understand the omicron variant and come up with new treatments.
...Gain-Of-Function Experiments At Boston University Create A Deadly New Covid-19 Virus. Who
HEALTHCARE Forbes Steven Salzberg Contributor Oct 24, 2022,07:30am EDT
News that Boston University created a lethal COVID strain ‘sensationalized’ and misrepresented, microbiologist says
- Updated: Oct. 18, 2022, 12:47 p.m.| Published: Oct. 18, 2022, 10:19 a.m.
This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. (NIAID/TNS) TNSTNS
By Ryan Mancini | RMancini@masslive.com
Boston University is defending its research after a report studying the COVID-19 omicron variant’s lower severe infection rate was met with criticism among news outlets and one of its financial backers.
Role of spike in the pathogenic and antigenic behavior of SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 Omicron
Da-Yuan Chen, Devin Kenney, Chue Vin Chin, Alexander H. Tavares, Nazimuddin Khan, Hasahn L. Conway, GuanQun Liu, Manish C. Choudhary, Hans P. Gertje, Aoife K. O’Connell, Darrell N. Kotton, Alexandra Herrmann, View ORCID ProfileArmin Ensser, John H. Connor, Markus Bosmann, Jonathan Z. Li, Michaela U. Gack, Susan C. Baker, Robert N. Kirchdoerfer, Yachana Kataria, Nicholas A. Crossland, Florian Douam, Mohsan Saeeddoi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.13.512134This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.13.512134v1.full
CBS-Boston via Yahoo News
Boston University says COVID strain created in lab is not more dangerous
CBS-Boston via Yahoo News
Boston University refutes report that lab created dangerous COVID strain
War Of Words: Experts Slam Boston University For Developing New COVID Strain; School Denies...
Mashable· The horror of the coronavirus continues, with terrifying news from Boston University in the United...
NIH investigates Boston University COVID experiments amid controversy
CBS News· The National Institutes of Health is now examining whether experiments performed at Boston ...
Federal Gov’t Is Not Happy With Boston University’s Lab-Made COVID Strain
The Daily Beast· “This research made the virus replicate less dangerous,” the school said in a statement, refuting...
OCTOBER 25, 20227:44 AM UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO
Fact Check-Boston University hybrid COVID virus kills 80% of mice, not people
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-boston-virus-idUSL1N31Q0ZK
Boston University COVID researchers combine omicron spike protein with original virus, test strain on mice
RICK SOBEY BOSTON HERALD UPDATED OCTOBER 18, 2022 12:59 PM
Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article267486713.html#storylink=cpy
https://www.kentucky.com/news/nation-world/national/article267486713.html
A pandemic worse than COVID-19? Boston University researchers create new, more lethal coronavirus strain in lab
Times Now Digital -ReactComments|3
This is the most shocking news for a world that has lost so much to a pandemic that we are battling for the third year in a row.
EcoHealth Alliance and Boston University Awarded $1 Million to Predict and Prevent Future Pandemics
NEW YORK – 30, AUGUST, 2022 – EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), in partnership with Boston University, was awarded a $1 million Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase I (PIPP) grant by the National Science Foundation. The team of scientists will strategize methods of early infectious disease detection and intervention.
“EcoHealth has championed analytical approaches to predicting pandemics for the last 25 years. This new collaboration with global leaders at BU & our own leaders in emerging disease research takes our work to the next level” said EcoHealth Alliance President, Dr. Peter Daszak.
New Lab-Made Covid-19 Coronavirus At Boston University Raises Questions Forbes
Boston University COVID researchers combine omicron spike protein with original virus, test strain
Wall Street Silver@WallStreetSilv·Oct 17
When and where will they "accidentally" release it…?
https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1582063733488001025
Top NIH director admits Boston lab that created new COVID strain did NOT clear research with agency... and only learned of details on DailyMail.com
- Dr Emily Erbelding, a director at NIAID, said she was unaware of specific details of the research
- She claims to have only found out the experiments may have involved enhancing pathogens on Monday
- Grants totalling $1.1million from NIAID are listed as having helped fund the research at Boston University
- But a spokesman today said they were included as a 'courtesy' and not funded by the government agency
- They said this meant Boston University did not need to clear the research with NIAID officials
By LUKE ANDREWS HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:06 EDT, 18 October 2022 | UPDATED: 17:17 EDT, 18 October 2022
A senior US health official today admitted that controversial Covid manipulation research carried out in a laboratory in Boston was not authorized — despite being funded by taxpayer money.
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed yesterday that a team from Boston University had developed a hybrid Covid virus — combining the Omicron and original Wuhan strains — which had an 80 per cent lethality rate.
Public records indicate it was partly paid for using a grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the federal government's main research agencies.
The above passage from the paper shows that the research used money from NIAID and NIH grants. It was funded by Boston University, which they said meant they did not need to contact NIAID to get clearance for the work
In the new research , which has not been peer-reviewed, a team of researchers from Boston and Florida extracted Omicron's spike protein — the unique structure that binds to and invades human cells. It has always been present but it has become more evolved over time. Omicron has dozens of mutations in its spike protein that made it so infectious. Researchers attached Omicron's spike protein to the original wildtype strain that first emerged in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic. The researchers looked at how mice fared under the new hybrid strain compared to the original Omicron variant
Outcry as British researcher is given ANOTHER US grant to investigate COVID - despite fears his initial work at Wuhan lab triggered pandemic: Peter Daszak is paid $650,000 to study bat coronaviruses - and 'assess their ability to infect humans'
- The EcoHealth Alliance was awarded a new $650,000, 5-year grant in August
- The funding will see the group study coronaviruses and bats in southeast Asia
- It's the same type of research that many believe is linked to Covid's origin
- The EcoHealth Alliance was previously known to use the Wuhan Institute of Virology in its research
By PAUL FARRELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:55 EDT, 3 October 2022 | UPDATED: 11:24 EDT, 3 October 2022
The Lancet Opens Pandora's Box, Suggests COVID Could Have Originated In US Labs
BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, SEP 15, 2022 - 02:40 PM
After providing a platform for a massive 'Natural Origins' Covid-19 disinformation campaign by EcoHealth Alliance head Peter Daszak, The Lancet appears to have done a 180 - suggesting Covid-19 may have originated "in US laboratories engaged in the laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses," among other possibilities.
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
https://covid19commission.org/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
The World Needs to Know What Happened at the Wuhan Lab
Was the coronavirus manipulated to infect humans? If so, that will inform our response.
By Robert Redfield and Marc Siegel Aug. 15, 2021 3:34 pm ET
US National Institutes of Health Ending Subaward for Lab in Wuhan, China
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has ended a subgrant to the laboratory in China located where the first COVID-19 cases were identified in 2019.
CHINA Zachary Stieber Aug 20, 2022
Why the Chair of the Lancet’s COVID-19 Commission Thinks The US Government Is Preventing a Real Investigation Into the Pandemic
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs says he is “pretty convinced [COVID-19] came out of US lab biotechnology” and warns that there is dangerous virus research taking place without public oversight. Current Affairs
filed 02 August 2022 in THE VIRUS
Peter Daszak Awarded Another $650,000 to Study Bat Coronaviruses and ‘Assess Their Ability to Infect Humans’
The fundamental hypocrisy of the biomedical security state on the subject of Covid's origins
Outcry as British researcher is given ANOTHER US grant to investigate COVID - despite fears his initial work at Wuhan lab triggered pandemic: Peter Daszak is paid $650,000 to study bat coronaviruses - and 'assess their ability to infect humans'
- The EcoHealth Alliance was awarded a new $650,000, 5-year grant in August
- The funding will see the group study coronaviruses and bats in southeast Asia
- It's the same type of research that many believe is linked to Covid's origin
- The EcoHealth Alliance was previously known to use the Wuhan Institute of Virology in its research
By PAUL FARRELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:55 EDT, 3 October 2022 | UPDATED: 11:24 EDT, 3 October 2022
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Amid false Russian allegations of US “biolabs” in Ukraine, it’s worth asking: What is a bioweapon?
By Matt Field | March 25, 2022
The origins of SARS-CoV-2: still to be determined
By Laura H. Kahn | March 10, 2022
https://thebulletin.org/2022/03/the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-still-to-be-determined/
Soviets Once Denied a Deadly Anthrax Lab Leak. U.S. Scientists Backed the Story.
The accident and a subsequent cover-up have renewed relevance as scientists search for the origins of Covid-19.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/world/europe/coronavirus-lab-anthrax.html
We Study Virus Evolution. Here’s Where We Think the Coronavirus Is Going.
March 28, 2022
By Sarah Cobey, Jesse Bloom, Tyler Starr and Nathaniel Lash
Dr. Cobey studies the interaction of immunity, virus evolution and transmission at the University of Chicago. Dr. Bloom and Dr. Starr study virus evolution at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Mr. Lash is a graphics editor for Opinion.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/28/opinion/coronavirus-mutation-future.html
Excess mortality during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19)
Home Coronavirus Excess mortality
by Charlie Giattino, Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Joe Hasell
We update this page each week with the latest available data on excess mortality. Last updated: 29 March 2022
https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Lab viral origins report
Sep 15, 2022 Dr. John Campbell
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic, 14th September 2022 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la... https://covid19commission.org Viral origins The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown. There are two leading hypotheses: that the virus emerged as a zoonotic spillover from wildlife or a farm animal, possibly through a wet market, in a location that is still undetermined; or that the virus emerged from a research-related incident, during the field collection of viruses, or through a laboratory-associated escape. No independent, transparent, and science-based investigation has been carried out regarding the bioengineering of SARS-like viruses that was underway before the outbreak of COVID-19. The laboratory notebooks, databases, email records, and samples of institutions involved in such research have not been made available to independent researchers. Independent researchers have not yet investigated the US laboratories engaged in the laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses, nor have they investigated the details of the laboratory research that had been underway in Wuhan. US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has resisted disclosing details of the research on SARS-CoV-related viruses that it had been supporting, providing extensively redacted information only as required by Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. In brief, there are many potential proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2, but there is still a shortfall of independent, scientific, and collaborative work on the issue. The search for the origins of the virus requires unbiased, independent, transparent, and rigorous work by international teams in the fields of virology, epidemiology, bioinformatics, and other related fields, and supported by all governments. In the absence of an unbiased, independent, and rigorous search for a natural origin by a multidisciplinary team of experts alongside an unbiased, independent, and rigorous investigation of the research-related hypotheses, the public's trust in science will be imperilled, with potentially grave long-term repercussions. It is therefore crucial to investigate all hypotheses fully, not only to ascertain the source of the pandemic and to protect against future emerging infectious diseases, but also to ensure the integrity of science itself. The perceived lack of transparency to date by leading scientific agencies and laboratories is troubling and needs to be addressed. Strategies to prevent research-related releases should include stronger international and national oversight of biosafety, biosecurity, and biorisk management, including the strict regulation of gain of function research of concern. When investigating the origins of any novel pathogen, potential hypotheses should not be prematurely rejected to ensure that time-sensitive data— such as early case information and laboratory records—are collected.
The Lancet Opens Pandora's Box, Suggests COVID Could Have Originated In US Labs
BY TYLER DURDENTHURSDAY, SEP 15, 2022 - 02:40 PM
After providing a platform for a massive 'Natural Origins' Covid-19 disinformation campaign by EcoHealth Alliance head Peter Daszak, The Lancet appears to have done a 180 - suggesting Covid-19 may have originated "in US laboratories engaged in the laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses," among other possibilities.
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
Read our final report here: https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/covid19
The Lancet COVID-19 Commission is an interdisciplinary initiative encompassing the health sciences, business, finance, and public policy.
The work of the Commission has four main themes:
- Recommendations on how to best suppress the epidemic.
- Addressing the humanitarian crises arising from the pandemic.
- Addressing the financial and economic crises resulting from the pandemic.
- Rebuilding an inclusive, fair, and sustainable world.
The work of the Commission will be supported by twelve Task Forces, in areas ranging from vaccine development, to humanitarian relief strategies, to safe workplaces, to global economic recovery.
https://covid19commission.org/
https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/covid19
The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic
- Prof Jeffrey D Sachs, PhD
- Prof Salim S Abdool Karim, MBChB PhD
- Prof Lara Aknin, PhD
- Joseph Allen, DSc
- Kirsten Brosbøl, MA
- Francesca Colombo, MSc
- et al.
- Show all authors
Published:September 14, 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01585-9
Executive summary
As of May 31, 2022, there were 6·9 million reported deaths and 17·2 million estimated deaths from COVID-19, as reported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; throughout the report, we rely on IHME estimates of infections and deaths; note that the IHME gives an estimated range, and we refer to the mean estimate). This staggering death toll is both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels. Too many governments have failed to adhere to basic norms of institutional rationality and transparency, too many people—often influenced by misinformation—have disrespected and protested against basic public health precautions, and the world's major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic.The multiple failures of international cooperation include (1) the lack of timely notification of the initial outbreak of COVID-19; (2) costly delays in acknowledging the crucial airborne exposure pathway of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and in implementing appropriate measures at national and global levels to slow the spread of the virus; (3) the lack of coordination among countries regarding suppression strategies; (4) the failure of governments to examine evidence and adopt best practices for controlling the pandemic and managing economic and social spillovers from other countries; (5) the shortfall of global funding for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as classified by the World Bank; (6) the failure to ensure adequate global supplies and equitable distribution of key commodities—including protective gear, diagnostics, medicines, medical devices, and vaccines—especially for LMICs; (7) the lack of timely, accurate, and systematic data on infections, deaths, viral variants, health system responses, and indirect health consequences; (8) the poor enforcement of appropriate levels of biosafety regulations in the lead-up to the pandemic, raising the possibility of a laboratory-related outbreak; (9) the failure to combat systematic disinformation; and (10) the lack of global and national safety nets to protect populations experiencing vulnerability.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01585-9/fulltext
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
What happened to the lab-leak hypothesis?
Western experts are blinded by vested interests
BY MATT RIDLEY AND ALINA CHAN
June 23, 2022
https://unherd.com/2022/06/what-happened-to-the-lab-leak-hypothesis/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
DIA: Intel suggests COVID virus was lab-engineered
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, revealed in prepared Senate testimony this week that some U.S. intelligence agencies — not identified by name — believe the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic may have been genetically modified in a laboratory and not transmitted naturally from an animal host in China, where it was first identified.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/11/dia-intel-suggests-covid-virus-was-lab-engineered/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
BREAKING NEWS: LEAKED DOCUMENT SHOWS U.S. AND CHINESE SCIENTISTS PLANNED TO GENETICALLY ENGINEER A SARS-LIKE VIRUS BY INSERTING A SEGMENT KNOWN TO MAKE IT MORE INFECTIOUS TO HUMANS
There never was such a headline in mainstream media, but the news was real. Contrast with widespread coverage of studies concluding Covid-19 started at the seafood market in Wuhan.
Alina Chan@Ayjchan
Dec 2019 to mid-Jan 2020: Chinese CDC, Hubei CDC, Wuhan CDC specifically looked for potential Covid-19 cases with links to Huanan Market or living in the vicinity of the market. Feb 2022: Western scientists say, "Wow so many of the early cases were centered around the market!"
2:09 PM · Mar 3, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1499461957849694212
https://zenodo.org/record/6299116#.YiEV5y-B2qD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8393104/
Bat coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 and infectious for human cells
- Sarah Temmam, Khamsing Vongphayloth, … Marc Eloit Show authors
Nature (2022)Cite this article Metrics
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4
Abstract
The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown despite reports of various SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Asian Rhinolophus bats1–4, including the closest virus from R. affinis, RaTG135,6 and in pangolins7–9. SARS-CoV-2 presents a mosaic genome, to which different progenitors contribute. The spike sequence determines the binding affinity and accessibility of its receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is responsible for host range10–12. SARS-CoV-2 progenitor bat viruses genetically close to SARS-CoV-2 and able to enter human cells through a human ACE2 pathway have not yet been identified, though they would be key in understanding the origin of the epidemics. Here we show that such viruses indeed circulate in cave bats living in the limestone karstic terrain in North Laos, within the Indochinese peninsula. We found that the RBDs of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues at the interface with ACE2, bind more efficiently to the hACE2 protein than the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain isolated in early human cases, and mediate hACE2-dependent entry and replication in human cells, which is inhibited by antibodies neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. None of these bat viruses harbors a furin cleavage site in the spike. Our findings therefore indicate that bat-borne SARS-CoV-2-like viruses potentially infectious for humans circulate in Rhinolophus spp. in the Indochinese peninsula.
bioRxiv . 2020 Aug 26;2020.08.26.268854. doi: 10.1101/2020.08.26.268854. Preprint
Furin Cleavage Site Is Key to SARS-CoV-2 Pathogenesis
Bryan A Johnson, Xuping Xie, Birte Kalveram, Kumari G Lokugamage, Antonio Muruato, Jing Zou, Xianwen Zhang, Terry Juelich, Jennifer K Smith, Lihong Zhang, Nathen Bopp, Craig Schindewolf, Michelle Vu, Abigail Vanderheiden, Daniele Swetnam, Jessica A Plante, Patricia Aguilar, Kenneth S Plante, Benhur Lee, Scott C Weaver, Mehul S Suthar, Andrew L Routh, Ping Ren, Zhiqiang Ku, Zhiqiang An, Kari Debbink, Pei Yong Shi, Alexander N Freiberg, Vineet D Menachery
- PMID: 32869021
- PMCID: PMC7457603
- DOI: 10.1101/2020.08.26.268854
Free PMC article
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a global pandemic and shutdown economies around the world. Sequence analysis indicates that the novel coronavirus (CoV) has an insertion of a furin cleavage site (PRRAR) in its spike protein. Absent in other group 2B CoVs, the insertion may be a key factor in the replication and virulence of SARS-CoV-2. To explore this question, we generated a SARS-CoV-2 mutant lacking the furin cleavage site (ΔPRRA) in the spike protein. This mutant virus replicated with faster kinetics and improved fitness in Vero E6 cells. The mutant virus also had reduced spike protein processing as compared to wild-type SARS-CoV-2. In contrast, the ΔPRRA had reduced replication in Calu3 cells, a human respiratory cell line, and had attenuated disease in a hamster pathogenesis model. Despite the reduced disease, the ΔPRRA mutant offered robust protection from SARS-CoV-2 rechallenge. Importantly, plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNT 50 ) with COVID-19 patient sera and monoclonal antibodies against the receptor-binding domain found a shift, with the mutant virus resulting in consistently reduced PRNT 50 titers. Together, these results demonstrate a critical role for the furin cleavage site insertion in SARS-CoV-2 replication and pathogenesis. In addition, these findings illustrate the importance of this insertion in evaluating neutralization and other downstream SARS-CoV-2 assays.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32869021/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Lab Leak Theory Given HUGE Boost With NEW Documents & Interviews: Ryan Grim
Apr 4, 2022 The Hill
Ryan Grim breaks down new reporting from Vanity Fair about the NIH's possible funding of gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.
INVESTIGATION
“This Shouldn’t Happen”: Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy
Chasing scientific renown, grant dollars, and approval from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak transformed the environmental nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance into a government-funded sponsor of risky, cutting-edge virus research in both the U.S. and Wuhan, China. Drawing on more than 100,000 leaked documents, a V.F. investigation shows how an organization dedicated to preventing the next pandemic found itself suspected of helping start one.
BY KATHERINE EBAN MARCH 31, 2022
BREAKING NEWS: LEAKED DOCUMENT SHOWS U.S. AND CHINESE SCIENTISTS PLANNED TO GENETICALLY ENGINEER A SARS-LIKE VIRUS BY INSERTING A SEGMENT KNOWN TO MAKE IT MORE INFECTIOUS TO HUMANS
There never was such a headline in mainstream media, but the news was real. Contrast with widespread coverage of studies concluding Covid-19 started at the seafood market in Wuhan.
Alina Chan@Ayjchan
Dec 2019 to mid-Jan 2020: Chinese CDC, Hubei CDC, Wuhan CDC specifically looked for potential Covid-19 cases with links to Huanan Market or living in the vicinity of the market. Feb 2022: Western scientists say, "Wow so many of the early cases were centered around the market!"
2:09 PM · Mar 3, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1499461957849694212
https://zenodo.org/record/6299116#.YiEV5y-B2qD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8393104/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Gravitas: US officials knew about China's Wuhan cover-up?
Mar 10, 2022 WION
Newly published documents from the US embassy in China reveal that US officials were aware of China's cover-up in Wuhan. They flagged China's incomplete health bulletins in January 2020. Did Fauci and US officials hide the reality in Wuhan? Palki Sharma tells you.
BREAKING NEWS: LEAKED DOCUMENT SHOWS U.S. AND CHINESE SCIENTISTS PLANNED TO GENETICALLY ENGINEER A SARS-LIKE VIRUS BY INSERTING A SEGMENT KNOWN TO MAKE IT MORE INFECTIOUS TO HUMANS
There never was such a headline in mainstream media, but the news was real. Contrast with widespread coverage of studies concluding Covid-19 started at the seafood market in Wuhan.
Alina Chan@Ayjchan
Dec 2019 to mid-Jan 2020: Chinese CDC, Hubei CDC, Wuhan CDC specifically looked for potential Covid-19 cases with links to Huanan Market or living in the vicinity of the market. Feb 2022: Western scientists say, "Wow so many of the early cases were centered around the market!"
2:09 PM · Mar 3, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1499461957849694212
https://zenodo.org/record/6299116#.YiEV5y-B2qD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC8393104/
Bat coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 and infectious for human cells
- Sarah Temmam, Khamsing Vongphayloth, … Marc Eloit Show authors
Nature (2022)Cite this article Metrics
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4
Abstract
The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown despite reports of various SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Asian Rhinolophus bats1–4, including the closest virus from R. affinis, RaTG135,6 and in pangolins7–9. SARS-CoV-2 presents a mosaic genome, to which different progenitors contribute. The spike sequence determines the binding affinity and accessibility of its receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is responsible for host range10–12. SARS-CoV-2 progenitor bat viruses genetically close to SARS-CoV-2 and able to enter human cells through a human ACE2 pathway have not yet been identified, though they would be key in understanding the origin of the epidemics. Here we show that such viruses indeed circulate in cave bats living in the limestone karstic terrain in North Laos, within the Indochinese peninsula. We found that the RBDs of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues at the interface with ACE2, bind more efficiently to the hACE2 protein than the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain isolated in early human cases, and mediate hACE2-dependent entry and replication in human cells, which is inhibited by antibodies neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. None of these bat viruses harbors a furin cleavage site in the spike. Our findings therefore indicate that bat-borne SARS-CoV-2-like viruses potentially infectious for humans circulate in Rhinolophus spp. in the Indochinese peninsula.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Early 2018: Wuhan & US scientists propose inserting novel cleavage sites into novel SARS-like viruses in the lab.
Late 2019: Novel SARS-like virus with novel cleavage site is detected in Wuhan.
Early 2020: WIV manuscripts fail to take note of the virus' novel cleavage site.
10:04 PM · Apr 4, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1511162716366389252
The best-laid scams of vice & spin: an origin Tweetorial[1] The global scientists who suppressed awareness of the Furincleavage site [FCS] exacerbated the mistakes triggered by China's cover-up of the outbreak in Jan. '20. Any chance to stop the pandemic died on 2/1.
https://twitter.com/CharlesRixey/status/1519748598740750337
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
INVESTIGATION
“This Shouldn’t Happen”: Inside the Virus-Hunting Nonprofit at the Center of the Lab-Leak Controversy
Chasing scientific renown, grant dollars, and approval from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak transformed the environmental nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance into a government-funded sponsor of risky, cutting-edge virus research in both the U.S. and Wuhan, China. Drawing on more than 100,000 leaked documents, a V.F. investigation shows how an organization dedicated to preventing the next pandemic found itself suspected of helping start one.
MARCH 31, 2022
Early 2018: Wuhan & US scientists propose inserting novel cleavage sites into novel SARS-like viruses in the lab.
Late 2019: Novel SARS-like virus with novel cleavage site is detected in Wuhan.
Early 2020: WIV manuscripts fail to take note of the virus' novel cleavage site.
10:04 PM · Apr 4, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1511162716366389252
The Emergence of the Spike Furin Cleavage Site in SARS-CoV-2
Yujia Alina Chan, Shing Hei Zhan Author Notes Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2022, msab327, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab327Published: 12 November 2022
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/1/msab327/6426085?login=false
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES - ARTICLE
Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment and animal samples of the Huanan Seafood Market
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1370392/v1
NIH DOCUMENTS PROVIDE NEW EVIDENCE U.S. FUNDED GAIN-OF-FUNCTION RESEARCH IN WUHAN
U.S.-funded experiment in China posed biosafety risks but did not cause Covid-19 pandemic, scientists say
Sharon Lerner, Mara Hvistendahl, Maia Hibbett
https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
PETER DASZAK ANSWERS CRITICS AND DEFENDS CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH
“Scientists disagree over an issue where there’s no definitive proof,” said the EcoHealth Alliance president on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sharon Lerner, Mara Hvistendahl
March 11 2022, 9:50 a.m.
SINCE THE EARLY days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Peter Daszak has been at the center of a heated, and at times vicious, debate over the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The parasitologist helms the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, a wildlife conservation organization that aims to understand and prevent infectious diseases; the organization has received more than $118 million in grants and contracts from U.S. agencies, much of which Daszak distributes to labs around the world. Starting in 2005, he worked closely with Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, who was a key partner on a 2014 National Institutes of Health grant to research bat coronaviruses in China. The Intercept has published over 2,500 pages of documents and communications from the grant following a Freedom of Information lawsuit — information that has transformed public understanding of the research conducted under the grant.
https://theintercept.com/2022/03/11/covid-nih-ecohealth-peter-daszak-interview/
Rossana Segreto@Rossana38510044
"And by the way, that database is somewhere on the USAID government system." https://theintercept.com/2022/03/11/covid-nih-ecohealth-peter-daszak-interview/… Care to share it @USAID?
Rossana Segreto@Rossana38510044·20m"
"For the furin cleavage site, you should really ask Ralph Baric. He wrote that section of the DARPA grant."
Care to tell us more about the furin cleavage site @Baric_Lab?
Biotech-WARS™ BiotecWARS™ BiotechSTORM™
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
EMAILS POINT TO OVERSIGHT PROBLEMS WITH NIH BAT CORONAVIRUS GRANT
In an interview, EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak addressed gaps and missing information in documents released to The Intercept. Mara HvistendahlMara Hvistendahl March 3 2022, 9:30 a.m.
https://theintercept.com/2022/03/03/wuhan-coronavirus-research-nih-ecohealth/
I’m not convinced by the new lab leak debunking
It’s still an open question
The media’s lab leak fiasco is the most-read Slow Boring post of all time.
https://www.slowboring.com/p/im-not-convinced-by-the-new-lab-leak?s=w
The October Surprise in Wuhan October 2021
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.30910.00328 Projects: Pandemics DRASTIC
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355373689_The_October_Surprise_in_Wuhan
Bat coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 and infectious for human cells
Show authors Nature (2022)Cite this article
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4
Abstract
The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown despite reports of various SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Asian Rhinolophus bats1–4, including the closest virus from R. affinis, RaTG135,6 and in pangolins7–9. SARS-CoV-2 presents a mosaic genome, to which different progenitors contribute. The spike sequence determines the binding affinity and accessibility of its receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is responsible for host range10–12. SARS-CoV-2 progenitor bat viruses genetically close to SARS-CoV-2 and able to enter human cells through a human ACE2 pathway have not yet been identified, though they would be key in understanding the origin of the epidemics. Here we show that such viruses indeed circulate in cave bats living in the limestone karstic terrain in North Laos, within the Indochinese peninsula. We found that the RBDs of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues at the interface with ACE2, bind more efficiently to the hACE2 protein than the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain isolated in early human cases, and mediate hACE2-dependent entry and replication in human cells, which is inhibited by antibodies neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. None of these bat viruses harbors a furin cleavage site in the spike. Our findings therefore indicate that bat-borne SARS-CoV-2-like viruses potentially infectious for humans circulate in Rhinolophus spp. in the Indochinese peninsula.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
NIH orders sweeping review of potentially risky experiments on viruses and other pathogens
The National Institutes of Health hopes to have recommendations by the end of the year.
By Joel Achenbach washingtonpost.com
National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) February 2022
https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=44823
Air date:Monday, February 28, 2022, 12:00:00 PM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local 41 On-demand)
Category:National Science Advisory Board for BiosecurityRuntime:01:06:39
Description:The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) is scheduled to virtually convene on February 28, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET. The meeting will include a review of the charge to the committee and discussion of next steps for the committee.
For more information go to https://osp.od.nih.gov/biotechnology/national-science-advisory-board-for-biosecurity-nsabb/
Video is up for a recent (Feb 28, 2022) National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) public review of US government policies on dual use research of concern (DURC) and research with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens (ePPP/P3CO).
https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=44823
9:55 AM · Mar 2, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1499035660627419139
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Bat coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 and infectious for human cells
Nature (2022)Cite this article 620 Altmetric Metrics
Abstract
The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown despite reports of various SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Asian Rhinolophus bats1–4, including the closest virus from R. affinis, RaTG135,6 and in pangolins7–9. SARS-CoV-2 presents a mosaic genome, to which different progenitors contribute. The spike sequence determines the binding affinity and accessibility of its receptor-binding domain (RBD) to the cellular angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and is responsible for host range10–12. SARS-CoV-2 progenitor bat viruses genetically close to SARS-CoV-2 and able to enter human cells through a human ACE2 pathway have not yet been identified, though they would be key in understanding the origin of the epidemics. Here we show that such viruses indeed circulate in cave bats living in the limestone karstic terrain in North Laos, within the Indochinese peninsula. We found that the RBDs of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues at the interface with ACE2, bind more efficiently to the hACE2 protein than the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain isolated in early human cases, and mediate hACE2-dependent entry and replication in human cells, which is inhibited by antibodies neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. None of these bat viruses harbors a furin cleavage site in the spike. Our findings therefore indicate that bat-borne SARS-CoV-2-like viruses potentially infectious for humans circulate in Rhinolophus spp. in the Indochinese peninsula.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4
Two years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, where is the investigation into the origins of Sars-CoV-2?
Article written by Louis San France Televisions Posted on 01/25/2022 06:59Updateon 01/25/2022 12:37
Finally, the viruses discovered by Marc Eloit and his team nevertheless present an "important difference" with Sars-Cov-2: their genome lacks an element called "furin cleavage site", which makes it possible to increase the entry efficiency of Sars-CoV-2 into human lung cells and its pathogenicity. This "site" is fundamental since it makes the virus dangerous for humans. “It could have been acquired by Sars-CoV-2 during multiple passages in human cells” , remarks Marc Eloit. But that means "either successive passages without symptoms in humans, until this furin site is acquired, or passages in cell cultures in the laboratory", he says. The initially silent circulation of the virus in humans, because initially without or with few symptoms, is "theoretically possible" , explains the virologist. Not to mention that the caves in which bats live are frequented by humans: inhabitants of these regions go there to collect guano or sometimes consume these animals, and tourists visit these sites.
A laboratory accident not excluded
Alina Chan@Ayjchan
The Temmam et al. Laos bat virus paper is now past peer review㊗️ https://nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4…
In a recent interview, the senior author said that the furin cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2, not present in the Laos bat viruses, may have arisen naturally or in a lab.
https://francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/deux-ans-apres-le-debut-de-la-pandemie-de-covid-19-ou-en-est-l-enquete-sur-les-origines-du-sars-cov-2_4911225.html…3:13 PM · Feb 16, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1494042359830568964
Another Potential Covid-19 Lab Leak Clue
Investigating the pandemic’s origin is still worth the effort.
By The Editorial Board Feb. 17, 2022 6:43 pm ET
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
NIH SENT THE INTERCEPT 292 FULLY REDACTED PAGES RELATED TO VIRUS RESEARCH IN WUHAN
The NIH continues to withhold critical documents that could shed light on the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sharon Lerner February 20 2022, 7:00 a.m.
WITH THE GLOBAL death toll from Covid-19 approaching 6 million, the need to understand the origins of the pandemic is both pressing and grave. But the National Institutes of Health continues to withhold critical documents that could shed light on this question. This week, in response to ongoing litigation over public records related to coronavirus research funded by the federal agency, the NIH sent The Intercept 292 fully redacted pages rather than substantive material that could help us understand how the virus first came to infect humans.
https://theintercept.com/2022/02/20/nih-coronavirus-research-wuhan-redacted/
Despite bipartisan+scientific pressure to release info relevant to #OriginOfCovid, @NIH refuses to be transparent. In a rare non-redacted email from 2020, we see confirmation that pre-pandemic funding had involved samples from SE Asia sent to Wuhan.
theintercept.comNIH Sent The Intercept 292 Fully Redacted Pages Related to Virus Research in WuhanThe NIH continues to withhold critical documents that could shed light on the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.11:52 AM · Feb 20, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1495441207442513922
Wuhan lab leak theory ‘accepted as likely behind closed doors at No 10’
Biosecurity expert helping Government to prevent future pandemics claims ministers consider leak as most likely origin of Covid pandemic
The Prime Minister said that the UK biosecurity strategy would be refreshed to protect against 'natural zoonosis and laboratory leaks'
By Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR 22 February 2022 • 7:00pm
The Lab-Leak Hypothesis Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth
Virus origin stories have always been prone to conspiracy theories. COVID disinformation has threatened research—and lives
The Emergence of the Spike Furin Cleavage Site in SARS-CoV-2
Yujia Alina Chan, Shing Hei Zhan Author NotesMolecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2022, msab327, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab327 Published: 12 November 2021 PDF Cite Permissions Icon Permissions
Abstract
Compared with other SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs), SARS-CoV-2 possesses a unique furin cleavage site (FCS) in its spike. This has stimulated discussion pertaining to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 because the FCS has been observed to be under strong selective pressure in humans and confers the enhanced ability to infect some cell types and induce cell–cell fusion. Furthermore, scientists have demonstrated interest in studying novel cleavage sites by introducing them into SARSr-CoVs. We review what is known about the SARS-CoV-2 FCS in the context of its pathogenesis, origin, and how future wildlife coronavirus sampling may alter the interpretation of existing data.
COVID-19, furin cleavage site, virology, coronavirusIssue Section: Perspective Associate Editor: Sudhir Kumar
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/1/msab327/6426085?login=false
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
#WuhanVirus #BorisJohnson #Gravitas
Gravitas: Lab leak theory: UK considers it 'behind closed doors'
Feb 23, 2022 WION
It's been 2 years since the Wuhan Virus pandemic struck. We still do not know how the virus from China originated. Was it leak from the Wuhan lab? Boris Johnson's government reportedly believes so. Listen in to Palki Sharma. #WuhanVirus #BorisJohnson #Gravitas
Wuhan lab leak theory ‘accepted as likely behind closed doors at No 10’
Biosecurity expert helping Government to prevent future pandemics claims ministers consider leak as most likely origin of Covid pandemic
The Prime Minister said that the UK biosecurity strategy would be refreshed to protect against 'natural zoonosis and laboratory leaks'
By Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR 22 February 2022 • 7:00pm
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
NIH Cover-up. It Didn't Have To Be This Way.
Premiered Feb 23, 2022 Peak Prosperity
The Intercept news organization has been trying to gain some insight into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. They have had top submit FOIA requests to a very reluctant NIH that seems quite uninterested in sharing anything about their role in funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The recent FOIA release is a case-study in guilty agency behavior. Out of 312 pages released, a full 297 of them were 100% redacted. Nada. Nothing. Well, when I won’t show you something, that means I am hiding something. I am 100% sure the NIH is hiding something here. Probably just a bad case of institutional embarrassment, but still, a hide. The NIH clearly funded activities related to Gain of Function at Chinese facilities, including the WIV. This we already know from prior releases. What are they hiding now that’s worse than that? Well, we can only guess. But now there’s also been great detective work to uncover how exactly the “furin cleavage site” (PRRA, baby!) got into SAR2. The precise genetic sequence is quite odd as it doesn’t appear anywhere else in the entire world of viruses or higher animals. But it does appear in several Moderna patents. We deserve answers as to how that might have come to be. After all, the entire world lost two years of proper living, and a bunch of draconian governmental programs were implemented. People lost livelihoods, children lost childhoods, and people lost lives. How are we *not* deserving or proper answers and, where appropriate, full accountability for anyone found to be responsible? Add it all up, and it's time for you to become more resilient. Join our tribe here and enter the best conversations about this subject on the internet: https://www.peakprosperity.com/its-ti... Links: https://theintercept.com/2022/02/20/n... https://www.muckrock.com/news/archive... https://www.muckrock.com/news/archive... https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/... https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
The 'early Covid mutations' from a Chinese lab that are fuelling leak theory: How a 'barcode error' at Shanghai lab during tests on Antarctica soil accidentally exposed variant in monkey DNA from start of pandemic
- Hungarian researchers found contaminated soil samples that had unusual coronavirus mutations by accident
- Scientists believe they may bridge the gap between original bat coronavirus and one that jumped to humans
- Error thought to have occurred at research site in Shanghai and may give clues about origins of the pandemic
By CONNOR BOYD DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE and LUKE ANDREWS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:17 EST, 10 February 2022 | UPDATED: 12:49 EST, 10 February 2022
How study of Antarctic soil samples unearthed Covid lab leak clue
Jan 2019: Scientists from the University of Science Technology of China collect 12 soil samples on King George Island, Antarctica, during study of penguin bacteria.
November 2019: Three workers at the Wuhan Insititue of virology fall sick with Covid-like symptoms, according to US intelligence
Dec 2019: The Arctic soil samples are sent to the Sangon Biotech laboratory in Shanghai, China, to be sequenced.
The Sangon Biotech laboratory also sequences samples from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Dec 2019/early 2020: The samples are analysed and during the sequencing contaminated by a different sample from another project, likely through a barcode error at the lab.
The other sample contains a mutated version of Covid-19 and genetic material from monkeys and hamsters suggesting it is from lab testing.
Virologists say the variant is a descendant of the original Wuhan strain of Covid-19. Some experts believe it is an ancestor virus that is the bridge between bat coronavirus and Covid-19.
Dec 31 2019: China confirms its first cases of Covid after reports of mystery illness spreading since November 2019.
Early 2020: The Covid sequences are uploaded to an international database with in the dataset from the Antarctic soil sample , but not exactly clear when. They go unnoticed for over a year.
Jan 2021: Researchers at Lorand University and the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hungary discover three of the Antarctic soil samples contain traces of what may be an ancestral version of Covid, along with monkey and hamster DNA.
Dec 23, 2021: The scientists publish a pre-print paper online, warning the contaminated samples could indicate the possible origin of Covid.
Jan 2022: Public access to the data is revoked after the pre-print is released and then restored a month later.
Chinese researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, near Shanghai, said they did not ask to have the data deleted or restored.
Feb 2022: Hungarian scientists publish a second pre-print suggesting the samples may be contaminated with an early version of Covid.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
#AnthonyFauci #JohnBerman #NewDay
CNN's Berman reads Fauci's emails. Watch his response
Jun 3, 2021 CNN
Dr. Anthony Fauci called criticism of his emails, which were revealed via a Freedom of Information Act request, where he was being thanked by the head of a medical company that is funding research at the Wuhan, China, virology lab for saying the Covid-19 origin was started by natural causes. #AnthonyFauci #JohnBerman #NewDay
Paul promises investigation of Fauci if Republicans take Senate
BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 02/04/22 12:05 AM EST
Health expert says other COVID-19 variants 'pale in comparison' to delta
VOL. 6, NO. 4 / FEBRUARY 2022
Thunder Out of China
Questions about the origins of COVID-19 are of more than academic interest.
https://inference-review.com/article/thunder-out-of-china
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
What We Know about the Coronavirus
Feb 28, 2020 Coalition for the Life Sciences
What We Know about the Coronavirus Featuring Ralph Baric, PhD The University of North Carolina Wednesday, February 26, 2020 Cannon House Office Building Every day we hear a new report on the coronavirus. The reports range from the spread of the virus to the current mortality rates of victims of the virus. But what does science know about this virus? And is there hope for a treatment before the virus becomes even more deadly? Here is Dr. Ralph Baric, a leading epidemiologist, who has been working on finding a treatment for this virus. He discusses what we know and what we still don’t know about the coronavirus.
sheila@capitolsheila
🧵UNC's Ralph Baric briefed Capitol Hill staff back on Feb. 28, 2020, & in one hour:
NEVER mentioned he worked w/ Wuhan bio lab.
NEVER mentioned his chimeric novel bat virus work.
Repeatedly mentioned (his) Remdesivir, says it "works against SARS2.0."youtube.com
What We Know about the Coronavirus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE_H7dTqJXU&t=1s
Featuring Ralph Baric, PhD The University of North Carolina Wednesday, February 26, 2020 Cannon House Office Building Every da...2:33 AM · Feb 21, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/capitolsheila/status/1495662993018920964
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Meet the scientist at the center of the covid lab leak controversy
Shi Zhengli has spent years at the Wuhan Institute of Virology researching coronaviruses that live in bats. Her work has come under fire as the world tries to understand where covid-19 came from.
by Jane Qiu February 9, 2022
On a foggy morning in early February last year, dozens of journalists from around the world gathered outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Some walked around to find the best camera position; others climbed a ladder to peer into the fenced-off compound, its tall red-brick buildings hidden behind a thick mist. Security guards in blue uniforms lined the winding driveway leading to the entrance.
The crowd was gathered because a team of international disease detectives selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to hunt for the origins of covid-19 was on its way to visit.
“They will be here in a minute,” a journalist working for Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting System Television said after checking her phone. Her voice was brisk and slightly shaken; her eyes sparkled with nervous excitement. “My colleagues just told me. They’re chasing the WHO cars.”
Soon enough, the motorcade burst through the fog. As it approached the institute’s main gate, a journalist in a blue down jacket and white face mask sprinted alongside as if he were running for his life, pointing a video camera toward the cars, his rucksack bouncing up and down on his back. A dozen photographers flocked to the lead car, pushing against one another and forcing the convoy to a stop. The guards tried herding them away to get the cars moving again. “Comments, please!” several journalists shouted.
Inside the car, Peter Daszak—a disease ecologist and president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit that works with scientists around the world to study viruses in wildlife—was filming the scene on his cell phone.
He was a member of the WHO team, and when we’d spoken the week before, he'd cautioned that the Wuhan trip was just a first step in trying to figure out where covid-19 came from. “It can take years or even decades to find the cause of a new infectious disease,” said Daszak, who has collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology for more than 15 years and is now himself caught up in the debate over the disease’s origins. “Sometimes we just never know.”
But the world wanted quick answers.
The institute holds a critical place in the story of the covid-19 pandemic. A leading center for coronavirus research, it was the first facility to isolate the new virus, and the first to sequence its genome. One of its labs, led by virologist Shi Zhengli, focuses on coronaviruses that live in bats, and has spent years sequencing viral genomes, isolating live viruses, and—through genetic mixing and matching—trying to understand how they may evolve to gain the ability to infect humans. Over the past 18 years, her team has collected more than 20,000 samples from bat colonies across China.
Shi’s work, which has earned her the nickname China’s bat woman, has been at the center of controversy. Some have suggested that her bat samples could be the source of the covid-19 virus, which scientists call SARS-CoV-2. They have claimed that the virus could have hitched a ride to Wuhan by infecting one of her team members in their fieldwork collecting samples from bats. Or, some speculate, the live viruses her team cultured in the lab, including—more worryingly—the ones they created by genetic tinkering, could be the source of the pandemic.
All eyes were on the WHO, the leading international public health agency, to probe covid-19’s origins. The team’s mission was to examine when and where the outbreak had started and how the new virus crossed over to humans. The report, which was released last March, concluded it was “extremely unlikely” that covid-19 could have been caused by a lab accident. The situation the team ranked most likely was that it had jumped from bats to humans via some intermediary animal. Their results, supported by research published in peer-reviewed journals and by ongoing studies, suggest that the pandemic probably started at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in central Wuhan, where live mammals were sold and where most of the early covid-19 cases emerged.
Not everybody agrees, but the majority of virologists and infectious-disease experts, especially those working directly on the origins question, lean toward that theory, barring the emergence of new evidence that persuades them otherwise.
Spillover from animals to humans “was how almost every major epidemic got started in the past decades,” says Shi’s longtime collaborator Linfa Wang, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Duke–National University of Singapore Medical School and a member of the WHO team that in 2003 investigated the origins of SARS, a deadly infectious disease caused by a coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-1. That illness sickened 8,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 800 between 2002 and 2004. “It’s a common and well-documented pathway,” he says.
But one year after the WHO’s visit to Wuhan, the disease detectives have yet to find the guilty animal or other indisputable evidence of natural origins. Critics also question the conclusion of the agency’s mission team partly because one of its members, Daszak, who is a prominent advocate of the natural origins theory, has potential conflicts of interest. Speculation over the possibility of a lab accident has surged. Inflaming the suspicions are concerns over biosafety procedures at the Wuhan lab, political tensions between China and the US, and a general sense that the Chinese government is not to be trusted.
By trying to understand the process and context of Shi’s work—and to find out who she was—I wanted to learn what role, if any, China’s bat woman had in the origins of covid-19.
Scientists like David Relman, an expert on microbiology and biosecurity at Stanford University, are dismayed at the way the lab leak theory has been dismissed. He helped organize a group of 18 scientists to sign a letter published in Science last May calling for further investigation of a possible accident. (At least two of those involved later sought to distance themselves from the letter after seeing how it had been used to promote the lab leak theory.) Soon afterwards, President Joe Biden directed the US intelligence community to intensify its probe into the pandemic’s origins. The declassified report released in October shows that it reached no firm conclusion.
In December 2020, a month before the WHO visit, I too embarked on a search for answers. I talked to dozens of top scientists and biosafety experts worldwide. I spent six weeks in Wuhan, where I interviewed Shi and her team for a total of more than 40 hours. I had a private meeting with three members of the WHO mission. I visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology half a dozen times, often on the spur of the moment, and went with the scientists on a virus-sampling trip to a bat cave. By trying to understand the process and context of Shi’s work—and to find out who she was—I wanted to learn what role, if any, China’s bat woman had in the origins of covid-19.
Probing covid-19’s origins will not only help us understand how coronaviruses work but shine a bright light on the human behaviors—including the types of scientific research—that risk causing a pandemic in the future.
Like the WHO team, I have not gone through Shi’s freezers or lab books, and therefore I cannot prove or disprove whether activities associated with her research caused the pandemic. It’s more about providing additional perspectives—having Shi and her team tell their side of the story on the record, and in the most detail to date, so that the world can better understand how this deeply entrenched controversy has come about and how we can move forward.
Meeting China’s bat woman
.The findings, say virologists such as Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney, have provided valuable insight into the evolutionary history of coronaviruses and the way they generate genetic variants.
Whenever the team found a bat relative of SARS-CoV-1, Shi says, she asked the same questions: How threatening is it to other animal species, including humans? What would it take for the virus to become one that, like SARS-CoV-1, can cause major epidemics?
It was here, on January 5, 2020, that Yang first successfully isolated SARS-CoV-2 from a patient sample—the first isolate of the new coronavirus.
.The virus was 95% identical to SARS-CoV-1. The team named it WIV1 to indicate that it was isolated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Their study, published in Nature in 2013, provided strong evidence that SARS-CoV-1 originated in bats.
In all his years of work, Yang has managed to isolate only three bat coronaviruses—all of them close relatives of SARS-CoV-1. More recently, the team managed to synthesize three bat coronaviruses from their genomic sequences. All six are close relatives of SARS-CoV-1. None of them, said virologists MIT Technology Review spoke to, could have been the source of SARS-CoV-2: they’re just too different.
There was, however, one other virus in a bat sample that is a lot closer to SARS-CoV-2—96% identical. It has its own curious origin story, and in some parts of the scientific community and beyond, it’s become a prime suspect in the hunt for the pandemic’s origins. It’s called RaTG13.
Mine mystery
In late April 2012, a strange disease emerged from an abandoned copper mine near the town of Tongguan in Mojiang county, a region in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan. Six workers who had been cleaning up bat guano in the mine fell ill with pneumonia-like symptoms—coughs, headaches, fevers, and aching limbs—and were admitted to a hospital in Kunming, the provincial capital. One died in 12 days, and two recovered in a month, followed by another death on June 12.
A week later, the country’s leading respiratory clinician, Zhong Nanshan, joined a clinical consultation remotely with colleagues at the Kunming hospital to determine how to treat the remaining two Mojiang patients. Zhong, the former director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, had played an instrumental role in the fight against SARS. He noted that the miners’ lab tests and CT scans were uncannily similar to those of patients with SARS, which hadn’t been seen since 2004. The clinicians in Kunming, he told me, suspected that a fungus had caused their illness—because cave-associated fungal infections happen in Yunnan every now and then—but Zhong thought a virus might be involved. He asked Shi’s team to test the patient samples for viral infections, but they couldn’t find any evidence of infection by coronaviruses or other known viruses.
In 2020, with the pandemic raging, some scientists—including Stanford’s Relman—wondered if Shi had been wrong. Perhaps, they say, a SARS-like coronavirus was to blame. Perhaps there was even a link between the disease that affected the Mojiang miners and covid-19.
That suspicion was bolstered in May 2020, when the anonymous owner of the Twitter handle @TheSeeker268—who claimed to me in Twitter texts that he is a 30-year-old man trained in architecture and filmmaking and lives in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar—dug up a 2016 PhD thesis by Huang Canping from the Chinese internet. Huang was a student of George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, and his thesis cited the Wuhan Institute of Virology as claiming that four of the Mojiang miners had antibodies against SARS-CoV-1. Scientists like Monali Rahalkar, a microbial ecologist at the MACS Agharkar Research Institute in Pune, India, and a strong proponent of the lab leak theory, said that this suggests the miners were infected by a SARS-like coronavirus. Social media and the press teemed with suspicion that Shi tried to hide the fact.
The scientists directly involved in the work deny that speculation. Shi said her team did not find such antibodies, although she said some early tests did produce false positives that were corrected when the assays were fully validated. MIT Technology Review has been unable to locate Huang, but Gao said his lab never analyzed the miners’ antibody status, and that Huang’s statement—possibly based on the false-positive results, which Shi discussed at an internal meeting in 2012—was erroneous. After covid-19 struck, Shi’s team went back to the Mojiang samples to look for traces of SARS-CoV-2 proteins and found none.
“Many pathogens can cause pneumonia-like symptoms similar to SARS and covid-19," Zhong told me. Some local clinicians, he adds, still suspect it was a fungus that had sickened the miners. “It remains a mystery to this day.”
It’s not unusual for respiratory illnesses to have an unknown cause, but even though Shi couldn’t figure out what had sickened the Mojiang miners, her instinct told her that something interesting might be going on. “What viruses were lurking in the cave?” she remembers wondering. Between 2012 and 2015, her team undertook more than half a dozen trips to the mine shaft, about 1,100 miles from Wuhan, and collected 1,322 bat samples.
They looked for the coronavirus-specific RdRp gene, and when they found it, they investigated further. In the end, the bat samples turned out to contain nearly 300 coronaviruses. Nine belonged to the same group of viruses as SARS-CoV-1—known as beta-coronaviruses—even though their RdRp genes were quite different: they were “distant cousins,” Shi told me.
“Why are you so different?” Shi wondered, but eventually she put the sample back in the freezer.
Eight of the nine were closely related to each other, but one—from a single fecal sample labeled “4991”—had a very distinct genomic signature. “Why are you so different?” Shi wondered, but eventually she put the sample back in the freezer. Her work was to look for bat viruses that could potentially cause SARS-like epidemics, and none of the Mojiang sequences appeared to be “directly relevant to our inquiry,” she told me. “So they were not the focus of our research.”
In 2018, though, 4991 was brought back out again. The Wuhan Institute of Virology had bought a new desktop sequencing machine, which made it much faster and cheaper to get a complete view of a virus’s genomic secrets, and 4991 was among the first batch of samples to be sequenced with the new device. The analysis confirmed that the virus residing in the sample was very different from SARS-CoV-1; they are 80% identical to each other across the genome. (The genomes of the other eight Mojiang viruses, which were sequenced after the pandemic, show they are only about three quarters identical to both SARS and covid-19 viruses across the genome.) It was always interesting to find new viruses, but there didn’t seem to be anything special for the researchers to write up, Shi said: “It didn’t seem to be a remarkable virus.”
It was so unremarkable, in fact, that it was expendable: In their attempts to piece together its genomic makeup, the scientists used up all the sample. By 2018 the virus existed only as a sequence in the Wuhan institute’s database.
In most cases, that would be the end of the story: the obscure, irrelevant virus would fade into oblivion. Except that it didn’t.
“I didn’t want to screw up”
At 5:30 in the morning on January 2, 2020, Si Haorui, a student on Shi’s team, headed toward the institute to start his day’s work. It was cold, and the white cloud of his breath danced around as he walked on the dark, empty street.
Si is not a morning person. He rarely emerges before 10:30. But on that frigid January morning, he had a battle to fight. Two and half days earlier, clinicians at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, the city’s infectious-disease center, had sent samples to the virology institute for urgent analysis.
They were from seven patients in serious condition who had been recently hospitalized for a mysterious pneumonia.
The following day, December 31, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued its first public statement about the outbreak, saying it was probing the cause of 27 pneumonia cases. Shi’s lab was among the first to officially investigate the illness, and Si was part of the team racing to pinpoint the cause. Working around the clock, team members had found coronavirus RdRp genes in five out of the seven patients’ samples; their next step was to sequence the viral genome. “That’s my specialty,” said Si, a slim man in his mid-20s whose eyes curve into two arcs when he smiles, the day we met at the institute’s sequencing facility. “I knew the stakes were high. I didn’t want to screw up.”
(Shi’s lab was one of the four teams designated by China’s National Health Commission to work in parallel to pin down the cause of the new disease. This was a high-profile assignment, and only the commission had the authority to declare outbreaks of an emerging infectious disease and to release the relevant information.)
Stepping into the sequencing room felt like being a soldier stepping onto the battlefield, Si recalled. He had laid out his weapons the night before—the software he had tweaked for piecing together the genomic sequence of unknown pathogens. The machine was still running, busy reading short fragments of the genetic material from the bugs in those patients’ samples. The low humming sound of the machine filled the room. Si’s eyes were fixated on the sequencer. It reached the final stage of sequencing. It began processing the files. It took forever. Time seemed to stand still. Eventually it was done, and with a slightly shaky hand, he inserted a flash disk and copied the files over. He bolted upstairs to his office, where he could link to the institute’s supercomputer for the analysis.
By 8:30 a.m., the genomic makeup had emerged. One sequence, now known as WIV04, was almost complete and of high quality: it was a coronavirus.
Shi entered the sequence into the institutional and international databases to see if it was new. The closest match was the sequence from sample 4991, which the team had taken from Mojiang in 2013. The virus, no longer obscure or irrelevant, now deserved an official name. The team called it RaTG13—Ra for the bat species it was found in, Rhinolophus affinis; TG for Tongguan, the town where it was found; and 13 for the year of its discovery. It was, as they reported in Nature a month later, 96% identical to the coronavirus found in the new patients.
The fact that RaTG13 is so similar to SARS-CoV-2 has aroused suspicion. Critics like Alina Chan—a molecular biologist specializing in gene therapy at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts—wonder why Shi’s Nature paper published in February 2020 didn’t mention that RaTG13 came from the Mojiang mine where people had come down with the mysterious pneumonia. Chan, who leans strongly towards the lab leak theory, has helped it spread far and wide, and signed the Science letter calling for further investigation of the possibility. She said in Viral, a book she co-authored with the British science writer Matt Ridley, that the Wuhan institute had been “economical with the truth” about this.
Related Story
The whistleblowing scientist who advanced the lab-leak theory plans to change her name and disappear, but only after a book deal.
Shi attempted to head off this kind of suspicion by publishing an addendum detailing her Mojiang studies in Nature in November 2020 to show that the team had not detected any sign of coronavirus infection in the miners’ samples. But that didn’t help squelch the speculation.
The overall similarity between the two viruses, however, is not evidence that RaTG13 is the source of covid-19, according to an article published in Cell last September, authored by two dozen or so leading virologists and infectious-disease experts. The two viruses may be related, but they sit on different evolutionary branches that diverged half a century ago, says David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow in the UK. “RaTG13 couldn’t have naturally morphed into SARS-CoV-2,” he says. Neither could anybody have used RaTG13 as the backbone to engineer SARS-CoV-2, as some proponents of the lab leak theory have argued: the two viruses are different in 1,100 or so nucleotides spread across their whole genomes—a gap too large for any realistic effort. Making SARS-CoV-2 from RaTG13, says virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, “would have required a feat of unprecedented genetic engineering.”
Meanwhile, evidence for the natural origins theory continues to mount. In the past year, several teams independent of the Wuhan institute have uncovered more than a dozen close relatives of SARS-CoV-2 in China, Japan, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. In a preprint paper posted in September 2021, a team of Laotian and French scientists reported the discovery of viruses in Laos that, according to Robertson, shared a common ancestor with SARS-CoV-2 as recently as a decade ago. These new discoveries are evidence that SARS-CoV-2 most likely evolved in the wild, says Robertson, who was not involved in the study. “We are closing in on the SARS-CoV-2 progenitor,” he says.
But even if none of the bat coronavirus samples from Shi’s team are to blame for the pandemic, they aren’t the only viruses the scientists work with. Part of their research involves studying how the machinery of viruses works; and that has involved genetic mixing and matching of different pathogens to probe the function of viral genes. Could one of those chimeric viruses have been the source of the pandemic? To find out, I needed to talk to Shi.
Genetic tinkering
The findings, published in Nature Medicine in 2015, were surprising. It turned out that both the synthesized SHC014 and the SARS-CoV-1-SHC014 chimera were able to infect human cells and make mice sick. Both were less lethal than SARS-CoV-1, but—worryingly—existing drugs and vaccines that worked against SARS were unable to counter their effects.
Meanwhile, Shi’s team was attempting similar tinkering in her own lab in a project funded by the US National Institutes of Health, which aimed to probe the genetic ingredients that could allow bat viruses to cause SARS-like diseases in humans. But while Baric focused on the human pathogen SARS-CoV-1 in the Nature Medicine paper, Shi used only its bat relatives—mostly WIV1, the first bat coronavirus the team had isolated. Their real-world risk to humans was unknown. By the time the pandemic broke out, her team had created a total of a dozen or so chimeric viruses by swapping WIV1’s spike with its counterpart from newly identified sequences of bat coronaviruses, only a handful of which could infect human cells in a petri dish.
There were more surprises in store. In an unpublished experiment, released by the NIH in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The Intercept, the researchers tested the ability of three such chimeras to infect mice expressing human ACE2. Compared with their parental strain, WIV1, the three chimeric viruses grew a lot more quickly in the mouse lungs in the early stage of the infection, but WIV1 caught up by the end of the experiment.
The differences surprised Shi, but what puzzled her the most was that the chimera causing the most weight loss in infected mice—an indicator of its pathogenicity—was WIV1-SHC014, whose spike was most dissimilar to that of SARS-CoV-1. The one whose spike was most similar had no effect on the animals’ weight.
The results from genetic studies in both Baric’s and Shi’s labs—both collaborating with the New York–based EcoHealth Alliance—have provided compelling evidence that the spike protein is not the only factor in whether a virus can make an animal sick, researchers say. “We can’t assess the emergence potential of viruses using only pseudovirus assays or predictions based on genomic sequences and molecular modeling,” Shi told me.
None of the chimeras created in Shi’s labs was closely related to SARS-CoV-2, and therefore, none could have been the cause of the pandemic. But it does seem that the team created at least one chimeric virus, WIV1-SHC014, with a functional gain—that is, increased pathogenicity—relative to the parental strain, WIV. Critics like Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, regard this as the type of gain-of-function research that ought to be subject to strict regulatory oversight. But Shi says that in none of those studies—including her collaborations with Baric and with EcoHealth—did the teams intend to create more dangerous viruses. None of the chimeras had been reasonably anticipated at the time of proposal to have increased transmissibility or pathogenicity in mammals.
According to an NIH spokesperson, the grant Shi jointly applied for with the EcoHealth Alliance—the only one with a sub-award to the Wuhan institute—“was reviewed and determined by experts to fall outside the scope” of its regulatory framework for gain-of-function research.
Last September, NIH announced an award of $36.3 million to further such work. Discovering novel viruses in the wild and using genetic techniques to probe their function in the lab, researchers say, could point toward ways of mitigating and treating future disease outbreaks similar to SARS and covid-19.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/09/1044985/shi-zhengli-covid-lab-leak-wuhan/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
'Think About What We've Been Told About This Virus That Wasn't True': Jim Jordan Slams Biden, Fauci
Jan 20, 2022 Forbes Breaking News
At today's House Select Committee on the Coronavirus, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) slammed President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why hasn’t Fauci been fired and put under FBI investigation yet?
By Adriana CohenJanuary 28, 2022 6:44pm Update
https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/why-hasnt-fauci-been-fired-and-put-under-fbi-investigation-yet/
Scientists speak out on being silenced when raising concerns about COVID lab leak theory
Scientists told Fox News that they incurred backlash and resistance to getting their work published
By Benjamin Hall , Michael Lee | Fox News
Why Didn’t Omicron-led Wave Turn Delta-Deadly? Top Virologist Gagandeep Kang Answers
Dr Gagandeep Kang pointed out that heath experts earlier were worried about Omicron because of the number of mutations. (Screenshot from Rajya Sabha TV)
The leading virologist said that Omicron did not increase in severity due to a phenomenon called epistasis where the background of mutations influences how genes work.
- NEWS18.COM
- LAST UPDATED:JANUARY 29, 2022, 20:17 IST
A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON COVID-19 MORTALITY RTALITY SAE./No.200/January 2022 /October 2021 Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise
Why doesn’t the NIH want you to read this report about the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
#FOIA https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ping-Chen-WIV-trip-report.pdf…11:02 AM · Feb 1, 2022
https://twitter.com/garyruskin/status/1488543299317075972
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ping-Chen-WIV-trip-report.pdf
BY AMY JONES Thursday, 3 February 2022
Even without restrictions, many don't want to go back to normal
https://unherd.com/thepost/spare-a-thought-for-the-covid-never-enders/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Made in China: On the Lab-Leak Origin of Covid
By JIM GERAGHTY
February 3, 2022 10:16 AM
As of this writing, more than 5.6 million people around the world have perished from Covid, and 354 million have been infected.
The first great mystery of this pandemic is how it got started — a question that must be answered to adequately prepare us for another pandemic in the future.
The second great mystery of this pandemic is why so many powerful people don’t seem to feel any sense of urgency about solving the first great mystery.
This article appears as “Made in China” in the February 21, 2022, print edition of National Review.
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/02/21/the-lab-leak-origin-of-covid/#slide-1
MARIO LOYOLA
Telegraph reports Jeremy Farrar, Wellcome Trust director, said the lab leak theory ruined international co-operation and shut the door on identifying animal origins.. Because when you're accused of a lab leak, you hide evidence of a natural #OriginOfCovid
5:20 PM · Feb 4, 2022·Twitter Web App
telegraph.co.uk
Covid lab leak theories ‘have put world at risk of a new pandemic’
Leading British scientist warns misinformation over origins of the virus ruined international co-operation on preventing future outbreaks
NIAID Establishes Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases
Global Network to Focus on Spillover Potential
August 27, 2020
Biotech-WARS™ BiotecWARS™ BiotechSTORM™
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
FBI SOUGHT DOCUMENTS RELATED TO U.S.-FUNDED CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH IN CHINA
New records from the National Institutes of Health detail internal conversations involving EcoHealth Alliance’s research in Wuhan.
Mara Hvistendahl, Sharon Lerner January 20 2022, 5:42 p.m.
THE FBI SOUGHT National Institutes of Health grant documents covering bat coronavirus research in Wuhan in spring 2020, according to emails obtained by The Intercept. The emails, released through ongoing litigation between The Intercept and the NIH, detail internal NIH conversations involving the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, which collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on research. The emails also contain previously unreported requests the agency made of EcoHealth Alliance as a condition for restoring a grant funding its research. While unable to provide some of the information requested by the agency, Peter Daszak, EcoHealth’s besieged president, fought fiercely to save the grant.
https://theintercept.com/2022/01/20/coronavirus-research-china-ecohealth-fbi/
Looks like FBI was the only intel agency to look into EcoHealth-Wuhan Institute of Virology reports. Makes sense that they assessed a lab #OriginOfCovid with moderate confidence. Question is did other agencies see these reports before origin assessment?
9:13 PM · Jan 20, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1484348293043736584
Did the spectre of Trump colour a key Covid report?
Two years ago, leading scientists suggested the virus could be manmade. Why, just days later, was it dismissed as a conspiracy theory, asks Madeleine Spence
Two years ago tomorrow, the first confirmed cases of a mysterious virus washed up in Europe from China. There were two in Paris and one in Bordeaux: all people who had travelled from Wuhan. It was only a matter of time before it hit the UK.
Around the same time, across the Channel in his Oxford home, one of the UK’s leading scientists, Sir Jeremy Farrar, sat with his wife in the kitchen contemplating the ramifications of what was slowly unfolding.
Madeleine Spence Sunday January 23 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." Thomas Jefferson
'Dr. Fauci Was Warned': GOP Lawmaker Claims Fauci Was Warned About Wuhan Lab-Leak Theory
Jan 21, 2022 Forbes Breaking News
At a House Republican press briefing on Wednesday, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) spoke about Covid-19.
Origins of Covid-19 -an investigation of The Wuhan Institute of Virology
August 2021
HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT MINORITY STAFF LEAD REPUBLICAN MICHAEL T. MCCAUL ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Based on the material collected and analyzed by the Committee Minority Staff, the preponderance of evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory sometime prior to September 12, 2019. The virus, or the viral sequence that was genetically manipulated, was likely collected in a cave in Yunnan province, PRC, between 2012 and 2015. Researchers at the WIV, officials within the CCP, and potentially American citizens directly engaged in efforts to obfuscate information related to the origins of the virus and to suppress public debate of a possible lab leak. It is incumbent on these parties to respond to the issues raised herein and provide clarity and any exonerating evidence as soon as possible. Until that time, it must be assumed General Secretary Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, prioritizes preserving the Party over the lives of its own people and those around the global suffering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ORIGINS-OF-COVID-19-REPORT.pdf
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
BREAKING NEWS: GOP Oversight Cmte Releases Emails Showing Fauci CONCEALED Lab Leak Info
Jan 11, 2022 The Hill
Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky discuss a breaking announcement from Congressional Republicans
Peter Daszak asked for US-funded virus data to be withheld, FOIAed by @USRightToKnow "It's extremely important that we don't have these sequences as part of our PREDICT release.. Having them as part of PREDICT will being very unwelcome attention" https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/China-GenBank-sequences.pdf
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1480692123922055173
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/China-GenBank-sequences.pdf
You Retweeted Jamie Metzl@JamieMetzl
Perhaps my biggest concern regarding these previously private emails revealed today is that some of the leading experts who’ve fought vigorously against the #COVID19 lab incident hypothesis & suppressed debate had actually thought a lab origin to be a very real possibility. Quote Tweet
Oversight Committee Republicans
@GOPoversight · Jan 11
To read excerpts of emails released today, click here. https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Letter-Re.-Feb-1-Emails-011122.pdf…Show this thread
11:22 PM · Jan 11, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl/status/1481119326782607360
Transcripts of the early 2020 exchanges on the #OriginOfCovid among leading scientists in the US & Europe show they were privately worried about a lab origin of Covid-19. Yet, publicly they authored Proximal Origin, which dismissed lab origin hypotheses.
https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Letter-Re.-Feb-1-Emails-011122.pdf…11:59 AM · Jan 11, 2022·
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1480947600199229444
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Fauci Team Cared More about ‘International Harmony’ Than the Truth
By JIM GERAGHTY
January 13, 2022 9:05 AM
Fauci had conflicted reasons to not want attention to fall to WIV& a lab leak. Exerting his leadership as he did here doesn't mean he's hiding knowledge of the virus' origin. Evil villains r caricatures in political witch-hunts. SARS2's origin is non-fiction,not science fiction.
12:54 AM · Jan 17, 2022·
Imo Geraghty's correct re motive: "any thorough investigation would uncover U.S. funding for EcoHealth Alliance’s work with the WIV. Even if SARS-CoV-2 had a natural origin, that.. sort of revelation.. would generate substantial American public outrage."
nationalreview.com
Fauci Team Cared More about ‘International Harmony’ Than the Truth
Is it the job of a scientist to prioritize ‘international harmony’?
4:44 PM · Jan 17, 2022·
Scientists Who Were Instrumental to COVID-19 ‘Natural Origins’ Narrative Received Over $50 Million in NIAID Funding in 2020-2021
Jeff Carlson Hans Mahncke January 19, 2022 Updated: January 19, 2022
Scientists who were instrumental to #COVID19 ‘natural origins’ narrative received over $50 Million in NIAID funding in 2020-2021, reflecting substantial increases in grant $, an @EpochTimes
review of funding data has found. @themarketswork @HansMahncke
theepochtimes.com
Scientists Who Were Instrumental to COVID-19 'Natural Origins' Narrative Received Over $50 Million...
News Analysis Four prominent scientists who played key roles in shaping the public narrative around the origin of ...
11:10 AM · Jan 19, 2022·
The Lab Leak: The Plots and Schemes of Jeremy Farrar, Anthony Fauci, and Francis Collins
BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER JANUARY 13, 2022
Regardless, it took them a full month before this small group finally came out with what appeared to be a definitive paper appearing in Nature: The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. The date it appeared was March 17, 2020. That was the day following the announcement of lockdowns in the US. We now know that the paper was written as early as February 4, and went through many drafts over the coming weeks, including edits by Anthony Fauci himself. That paper has since been debated very extensively. It was hardly the last word.
The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2
Nature Medicine volume 26, pages450–452 (2020)Cite this article
- 5.63m Accesses 2094 Citations 36505 Altmetric Metrics
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
Did Covid Leak from a Lab in China - Channel 4 Documentary
Aug 23, 2021 Anthony Ying
Wuhan ‘lab leak’: Explosive Channel 4 documentary provides compelling evidence supporting Covid origin theory. Yet it's still inconclusive because China will not allow any actual studies to be done, only specific information that they provide to their hand-picked group of researchers.
Video Link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2sg_cwu6LY
Addendum: A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin
Show authors
Nature volume 588, pageE6 (2020)Cite this article
- 39k Accesses 4757 Citations 945 Altmetric
- Metricsdetails
The Original Article was published on 03 February 2020
Addendum to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7 Published online 03 February 2020
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2951-z
Is the party over for Boris? | The spiked podcast
Jan 14, 2022 spiked
The No10 garden party, freedom after Covid, the lab-leak theory and how wokeness became a parody of itself… Tom Slater, Fraser Myers and Ella Whelan discuss.
00:00 Intro
00:22 Party-gate
12:30 Freedom after Covid
22:50 Lab-leak theory
31:00 Microaggressions
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Origins of Covid-19 -an investigation of The Wuhan Institute of Virology
August 2021
HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT MINORITY STAFF LEAD REPUBLICAN MICHAEL T. MCCAUL
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
I. The City of Wuhan: Epicenter of a Pandemic................................................13
II. Evidence of a Lab Leak..................................................................................14
III. Evidence of Genetic Modification................................................................29
IV. Evidence of a Lab Leak Cover-Up .................................................................41
V. Hypothesis: A Lab Leak That Caused a Pandemic........................................58
VI. Recommendations.......................................................................................60
VII. Conclusion...................................................................................................62
VIII. Appendix......................................................................................................63
https://gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ORIGINS-OF-COVID-19-REPORT.pdf
J Michael Waller
@JMichaelWaller
2 years ago: The first known carrier of the virus to the United States arrives on a flight from Wuhan. At this time, CCP leadership knows about the pandemic danger but keeps it secret from the world. #MakeChinaPay https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/
https://twitter.com/JMichaelWaller/status/1482936074397749248
Wuhan Virus
China’s propaganda pandemic in an expanding timeline, November 2019-April 2020
Click here for Part Two of the timeline starting May 2020
Latest update: May 30, 2020, 19:43 Washington DC time.
https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/
Addendum: A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin
- Peng Zhou, Xing-Lou Yang, …Zheng-Li Shi Show authors
Nature volume 588, pageE6 (2020)Cite this article
- 39k Accesses 4797 Citations 945 Altmetric Metricsdetails
The Original Article was published on 03 February 2020
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2951-z
FUTURE VIROLOGYVOL. 15, NO. 6 SHORT COMMUNICATIONFree Access
The divergence between SARS-CoV-2 and RaTG13 might be overestimated due to the extensive RNA modification
Yue Li, Xinai Yang, Na Wang, Haiyan Wang, Bin Yin, Xiaoping Yang & Wenqing Jiang Published Online:24 Apr 2020
https://doi.org/10.2217/fvl-2020-0066
https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10.2217/fvl-2020-0066
What are the chances of someone catching COVID from international mail? I'd say it's near impossible unless they were aerosolizing + inhaling their letters. "contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection"
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1483264851459850244
US record breaking cases and hospitalizations
Jan 11, 2022 Dr. John Campbell
United States, report record cases and people in hospital, for all of the pandemic so far https://www.reuters.com/business/heal... Monday, Reuters, 1.35 million new coronavirus infections (Previous record was 1.03 million cases on Jan. 3.) Past week, 700,000 per day Hospitalized Also hit an all-time high Doubled in past three weeks Monday, 136,604 people hospitalized with COVID-19 Previous record, 132,051, January 2021 Ongoing staff out sick Many elective procedures suspended Schools Staff, teachers, bus drivers Chicago classes cancelled New York City, three subway lines out Deaths 1,700 per day Pfizer, omicron vaccine in March Zoe study https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/omicro... US cases and deaths data https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-trac... Colorado https://covid19.colorado.gov/data California https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboar... Florida http://ww11.doh.state.fl.us/comm/_par... New York https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/cov... Illinois https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/data... https://health.ny.gov/press/releases/... UK data https://www.gov.uk/government/publica... https://covid.joinzoe.com/data#levels... https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk Zoe https://covid.joinzoe.com SA hospital data https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-i... https://www.worldometers.info/coronav... https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/... https://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/... https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-to... https://www.france24.com/en/live-news... Next 6 to 8 weeks More than half of people in Europe could be infected Hans Kluge, director for Europe a new west-to-east tidal wave sweeping across the region The region saw over seven million cases of Covid-19 in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a two-week period 26 countries, more than 1 % being infected per week Boosters, play an essential role in protecting the most vulnerable people from severe disease Also for health workers, teachers Lower vaccination rates Balkans and Eastern Europe For countries not yet hit with the omicron surge, there is a closing window to act now and plan for contingencies France, Prime Minister Jean Castex If we were to shut down classes as soon as there is one first case, bearing in mind the explosion of Omicron, all French schools would be closed in a matter of days Catherine Smallwood, W.H.O. senior emergencies officer Some sense of predictability needed to move from pandemic to endemic We are still ways off We still have a huge amount of uncertainty
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Scientists believed Covid leaked from Wuhan lab - but feared debate could hurt ‘international harmony’
Emails to Dr Anthony Fauci show ‘likely’ explanation identified at start of coronavirus pandemic, but there were worries about saying so
BySarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR11 January 2022 • 9:31pm
Emails show scientists seriously discussed the laboratory leak theory, but that they feared the debate could damage science in China
- Coronavirus
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/11/scientists-believed-covid-leaked-wuhan-lab-feared-debate-could/
© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2022
Why did scientists suppress the lab-leak theory?
In private, they said it was plausible. In public, they called it a conspiracy theory.
Richard H. Ebright@R_H_Ebright"Emails exchanged [between Fauci and otheres]..after a conference call on 1 February 2020..show..they not only thought the virus might have leaked from..lab, but..also..thought..genome sequence..showed..strong likelihood of having been..mutated in..lab."
spiked-online.comWhy did scientists suppress the lab-leak theory?In private, they said it was plausible. In public, they called it a conspiracy theory.10:49 AM · Jan 12, 2022·
https://twitter.com/R_H_Ebright/status/1481292157809999877
"Doomed To Fail" - Top Immunologist Blasts Global COVID Response Driven By "False Propaganda"
BY TYLER DURDENTHURSDAY, JAN 13, 2022 - 04:44 AM
Professor Ehud Qimron, head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University and one of the leading Israeli immunologists, has written an open letter sharply criticizing the Israeli – and indeed global – management of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Hans Mahncke
@HansMahncke
Translation: Covid's unique furin cleavage site contains a match for a furin cleavage site that was previously characterized at the University of North Carolina many years ago. UNC is where Ralph Baric has his lab. Baric famously collaborated with the Wuhan lab.
https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1481715805838532608
Contradicting Donald Trump, protecting science’s reputation at all costs, and keeping in with those who dole out large grants are pretty strong incentives to change one’s mind.
https://twitter.com/mattwridley/status/1482042326096793604
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/01/12/why-did-scientists-suppress-the-lab-leak-theory/
Very interesting! Furin cleavage site (FCS) of #SARSCoV2 is identical to FCS of human epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) which was characterized by Stutts Lab at UNC (where Baric lab is located). What a coincidence
https://elifesciences.org/articles/58603
Richard H. Ebright
@R_H_Ebright ·
Jan 13Replying to @R_H_Ebright and @TheSeeker268In this context, it is noteworthy that the FCS site of human ENaC-alpha was characterized at UNC (https://jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(19)75354-X/fulltext…; https://rupress.org/jgp/article/150/8/1179/43745/The-N-terminus-of-ENaC-mediates-ENaC-cleavage-and…), and thus likely would be known to UNC members of the research team on NIH grant 2R01-AI110964 and the DARPA Defuse proposal.3:41 PM · Jan 13, 2022·Twitter Web App
https://twitter.com/Dr_Al911/status/1481728179790237704
SARS-CoV-2 strategically mimics proteolytic activation of human ENaC
- Praveen Anand,
- Arjun Puranik,
- Murali Aravamudan,
- AJ Venkatakrishnan
- Venky Soundararajan
- nference Labs, India;
- nference, Inc, United States
https://elifesciences.org/articles/58603
Short Report May 26, 2020
Yesterday Israeli Medical Association called for stopping mass testings and quarantines, and stopping Covid passports. Today the largest hospital in Israel attacked Ministry of Health for its "insane policies". The tide is turning. The official narrative is falling apart.
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1482456326122967041
Covid Has Exposed Problems in How Scientists Share Data
Many researchers are calling for new standards of transparency after files on early Covid patients in China disappeared for over a year
By Amy Dockser Marcus Jan. 13, 2022 11:57 am ET
Rossana Segreto
@Rossana38510044
It looks like that the conspiracy orchestrated by Fauci & co. to take down the lab leak hypothesis involved also the WHO. No wonder their first "investigation" concluded that SARS2 was more likely to have originated in imported frozen food than a lab. https://bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55996728…
Quote Tweet
CDommasch
@CDommasch
·Jan 15
Replying to @TheSeeker268
Underrated email from Feb 5 from the Buzzfeed batch in this context: Notice the words "pressure" ( on the to-be-formed WHO group) and "forward immediately" (the Proximal origin draft Fauci). Oh, and "glycans" @Rossana38510044 @Ayjchan @ydeigin
12:01 PM · Jan 15, 2022·
https://twitter.com/Rossana38510044/status/1482397450979708939
It appears that the people who convened the Proximal Origin authors who staunchly dismissed a lab #OriginOfCovid may have also shaped the membership of the @WHO team that went to China and ruled a lab origin as extremely unlikely. h/t @CDommasch https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20793561/leopold-nih-foia-anthony-fauci-emails.pdf…
https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1482697425173336065
U.S. Reports Record 1.48 Million New Covid Cases As Hospitalizations Near All Time High
Jan 11, 2022 Forbes Breaking News
The U.S. reported 1.48 million new coronavirus cases on Monday, smashing last week’s record single-day rise as the highly transmissible omicron variant tears across the country, stretching healthcare networks as the number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 pushes towards record levels. READ MORE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertha...
JUST IN: Roger Marshall Confronts Fauci On Gain-Of-Function Research, Low Favorable Numbers
Jan 11, 2022 Forbes Breaking News
At today's Senate Health Committee hearing, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biotech-WARS™ BiotecWARS™ BiotechSTORM™
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." Thomas Jefferson
JUST IN: Rand Paul And Dr. Fauci Engage In Another Epic Senate Clash: 'Reprehensible!'
Jan 11, 2022
Forbes Breaking News
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Dr. Anthony Fauci clash in today's Senate Health Committee hearing.
In a Fiery Hearing, Fauci Accuses Senator Rand Paul of Fueling Threats Against His Life
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." Thomas Jefferson
Jan 2, 2022,07:04pm EST|7,
Beijing Is Intentionally Underreporting China’s Covid Death Rate (Part 1)
George Calhoun ContributorMarkets Quantitative Finance Program Director, at Stevens Inst. of Technology
- “The official figures do not reflect the true death toll, particularly in China…” - Newsweek
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgecalhoun/2022/01/02/beijing-is-intentionally-underreporting-chinas-covid-death-rate-part-1/
WUHAN, CHINA - JANUARY 22: (CHINA OUT) A man wears a mask while walking in the street on January 22, 2020 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A new infectious coronavirus known as "2019-nCoV" was discovered in Wuhan as the number of cases rose to over 400 in mainland China. Health officials stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts confirmed can be passed from human to human. The death toll has reached 17 people as the Wuhan government issued regulations today that residents must wear masks in public places. Cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. (Photo by Getty Images) GETTY IMAGES
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Ex-MI6 chief Richard Dearlove says Britain's science sector has been compromised by 'malign Chinese Communist influence' which is why it parroted China's party line that Covid did NOT leak from a Wuhan lab
- Ex-MI6 boss said UK universities have become dependent on Chinese funding
- He raised concerns on whether Britain echoed China's 'information campaign'
- Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is laboratory at the centre of alleged cover-up
- China has repeatedly insisted the virus spilled naturally into humans from bats
By KATIE WESTON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:36 EST, 9 December 2021 | UPDATED: 11:52 EST, 9 December 2021
How China made Covid worse
The regime's deceit stalled the pandemic response
BY IAN BIRRELL
https://unherd.com/2021/12/how-china-made-covid-worse/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
Pursued On All Sides By Journalists and Congress, Peter Daszak Seeks Refuge At Science Magazine
Enough with silly nonreporting reporting, send the subpoenas.
It’s time for subpoenas. Time for Daszak to appear before Congress. Time for some real public accountability.
https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/pursued-on-all-sides-by-journalists
SARS-CoV-2’s closest relative, RaTG13, was generated from a bat transcriptome not a fecal swab: implications for the origin of COVID-19
By Steven E Massey
https://drasticresearch.org/2021/11/23/sars-cov-2s-closest-relative-ratg13-was-generated-from-a-bat-transcriptome-not-a-fecal-swab-implications-for-the-origin-of-covid-19/
stevenEmassey@gmail.com
Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras,
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901
This new paper by @stevenemassey is now available to download here
This version 2 will soon to be published on Researchgate and Arxiv
The three introductory threads can be viewed here:
Evidence for ‘live’ RaTG13 at WIV Part 1
Evidence for ‘live’ RaTG13 at WIV, Part 2
Evidence for ‘live’ RaTG13 at WIV Part 3
An investigation into the WIV databases that were taken offline
- February 2021
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.28029.08160
"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." Buddha
Gravitas: Lab leak "most likely" source of Covid-19, British MPs told
Dec 16, 2021 WION
Alina Chan told British MPs that a lab leak is "the most likely" source of the Wuhan virus. She also asked the Lancet to share the research it received from Chinese scientists. Palki Sharma tells you how the lab leak theory is back in focus.
Lancet editor who published letter slamming Covid lab leak theory as 'conspiracy' admits he knew about lead author's links to Chinese lab at centre of cover-up for a YEAR before acknowledging conflict of interests
- Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said it took 16 months to publish official conflict of interest statement
- Admitted he knew that Dr Peter Daszak had links to the Wuhan laboratory at the centre of the spillover theory
- Claimed it took longer than a year to persuade Dr Daszak to formally record his links with China
By JOE DAVIES HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE and VICTORIA ALLEN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 05:42 EST, 17 December 2021 | UPDATED: 13:33 EST, 17 December 2021
INVESTIGATIONS JAN. 4, 2021
The Lab-Leak Hypothesis
For decades, scientists have been hot-wiring viruses in hopes of preventing a pandemic, not causing one. But what if …?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
The Lab Leak Fiasco
For over a year the media enforced falsehoods about the pandemic’s origins, never evaluated the evidence, never apologized, and was never held accountable
BY ASHLEY RINDSBERG NOVEMBER 15, 2021
"The media successfully couched lab leak as a conspiracy theory with roots in Trumpian politics, environmental denialism, and anti-Chinese sentiment."
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/lab-leak-fiasco
The truthtellers
China created a story of the pandemic. These people revealed details Beijing left out
By Julia Hollingsworth and Yong Xiong.
Designed by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Jason Kwok and Marco Chacón.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/02/asia/china-wuhan-covid-truthtellers-intl-hnk-dst/
Covid lab-leak researcher Alina Chan is glad she challenged China’s Wuhan ‘cover up’ despite death threats
INTERVIEW
‘My primary emotion is determination to find out the truth,’ says the co-author of ‘Viral: The Search for the Origins of Covid-19’
November 22, 2021 7:00 am(Updated November 23, 2021 5:57 pm)
Biosafety expert close to Wuhan Institute of Virology urged associates there to address his tough questions about lab origin of SARS-CoV-2
Posted on December 2, 2021 by Shannon Murray
https://usrtk.org/biohazards/biosafety-expert-close-to-wuhan-institute-of-virology-urged-associates-there-to-address-his-tough-questions-about-lab-origin-of-sars-cov-2/
How China made Covid worse
The regime's deceit stalled the pandemic response
BY IAN BIRRELL
https://unherd.com/2021/12/how-china-made-covid-worse/
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
VOLUME 398, ISSUE 10318, P2221, DECEMBER 18, 2021
Offline: The origin story—division deepens
Published:December 18, 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02833-6
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02833-6/fulltext
You Retweeted
Rossana Segreto
@Rossana38510044
https://twitter.com/Rossana38510044/status/1472302215423528964
The Lancet, 18 Dec.21
"To be clear, the lab leak theory was and remains a perfectly legitimate line of inquiry." https://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02833-6/fulltext…...
The Lancet, 19 Feb.20
"We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin."
thelancet.com
Offline: The origin story—division deepens
After more than a year of contentious debate about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, David Relman and colleagues, including Alina Chan and Michael Worobey, published a letter in Science on May 14, 2021,...
3:26 PM · Dec 18, 2021·Twitter Web App
Genomic Characterization of Diverse Bat Coronavirus HKU10 in Hipposideros Bats
by Ning Wang 1,2,3,*,†,Chu-Ming Luo 1,2,†,Xing-Lou Yang 1,Hai-Zhou Liu 1,Li-Biao Zhang 4,Wei Zhang 1,Bei Li 1,Yan Zhu 1,Cheng Peng 1,Zheng-Li Shi 1 andBen Hu 1,*1CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100864, China3Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China4Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou 510260, China*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.†
These authors contributed equally to this work. Academic Editor: Andrew DavidsonViruses 2021, 13(10), 1962;
https://doi.org/10.3390/v13101962Received: 30 July 2021 / Revised: 19 September 2021 / Accepted: 23 September 2021 / Published: 29 September 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bats and Coronaviruses)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/10/1962
Abstract
Bats have been identified as natural reservoirs of a variety of coronaviruses. They harbor at least 19 of the 33 defined species of alpha- and betacoronaviruses. Previously, the bat coronavirus HKU10 was found in two bat species of different suborders, Rousettus leschenaultia and Hipposideros pomona, in south China. However, its geographic distribution and evolution history are not fully investigated. Here, we screened this viral species by a nested reverse transcriptase PCR in our archived samples collected over 10 years from 25 provinces of China and one province of Laos. From 8004 bat fecal samples, 26 were found to be positive for bat coronavirus HKU10 (BtCoV HKU10). New habitats of BtCoV HKU10 were found in the Yunnan, Guangxi, and Hainan Provinces of China, and Louang Namtha Province in Laos. In addition to H. pomona, BtCoV HKU10 variants were found circulating in Aselliscus stoliczkanus and Hipposideros larvatus. We sequenced full-length genomes of 17 newly discovered BtCoV HKU10 strains and compared them with previously published sequences. Our results revealed a much higher genetic diversity of BtCoV HKU10, particularly in spike genes and accessory genes. Besides the two previously reported lineages, we found six novel lineages in their new habitats, three of which were located in Yunnan province. The genotypes of these viruses are closely related to sampling locations based on polyproteins, and correlated to bat species based on spike genes. Combining phylogenetic analysis, selective pressure, and molecular-clock calculation, we demonstrated that Yunnan bats harbor a gene pool of BtCoV HKU10, with H. pomona as a natural reservoir. The cell tropism test using spike-pseudotyped lentivirus system showed that BtCoV HKU10 could enter cells from human and bat, suggesting a potential interspecies spillover. Continuous studies on these bat coronaviruses will expand our understanding of the evolution and genetic diversity of coronaviruses, and provide a prewarning of potential zoonotic diseases from bats. View Full-Text
J Genet Genomics
. 2021 Dec 23;S1673-8527(21)00373-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2021.12.003. Online ahead of print.
Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Changshuo Wei 1, Ke-Jia Shan 1, Weiguang Wang 1, Shuya Zhang 1, Qing Huan 2, Wenfeng Qian 3Affiliations expand
- PMID: 34954396
- PMCID: PMC8702434
- DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2021.12.003
Free PMC article
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34954396/
Abstract
The rapid accumulation of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that enabled its outbreak raises questions as to whether its proximal origin occurred in humans or another mammalian host. Here, we identified 45 point mutations that Omicron acquired since divergence from the B.1.1 lineage. We found that the Omicron spike protein sequence was subjected to stronger positive selection than that of any reported SARS-CoV-2 variants known to evolve persistently in human hosts, suggesting a possibility of host-jumping. The molecular spectrum of mutations (i.e., the relative frequency of the 12 types of base substitutions) acquired by the progenitor of Omicron was significantly different from the spectrum for viruses that evolved in human patients, but resembled the spectra associated with virus evolution in a mouse cellular environment. Furthermore, mutations in the Omicron spike protein significantly overlapped with SARS-CoV-2 mutations known to promote adaptation to mouse hosts, particularly through enhanced spike protein binding affinity for the mouse cell entry receptor. Collectively, our results suggest that the progenitor of Omicron jumped from humans to mice, rapidly accumulated mutations conducive to infecting that host, then jumped back into humans, indicating an inter-species evolutionary trajectory for the Omicron outbreak.
1 Passage of SARS-CoV-2 in cells expressing human and mouse ACE2 selects for mouse-adapted 2 and ACE2-independent viruses 3 4 Kexin Yan1 , Troy Dumenil1 , Thuy T. Le1 , Bing Tang1 , Cameron Bishop1 , Andreas Suhrbier1,2 5 , Daniel J. Rawle1* 6 . 7 1 8 Immunology Department, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland. 9 4029, Australia. 2 10 Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, GVN Center of Excellence, Brisbane, 11 Queensland, 4029 and 4072, Australia. 12 * 13 Corresponding author. Email: Daniel.Rawle@qimrberghofer.edu.au
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.16.473063v1.full.pdf
SUMMARY 23 Human ACE2 (hACE2) is required for cell attachment and entry of SARS-CoV-2. Mouse ACE2 24 (mACE2) does not support infection of early SARS-CoV-2 isolates. Herein we describe a new 25 system for generating mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 in vitro by serial passaging virus in co26 cultures of cell lines expressing hACE2 and mACE2. Mouse-adapted viruses emerged with a 27 series of spike protein amino acid changes, all of which have been reported in human isolates. 28 Mouse-adapted viruses replicated to high titers in C57BL/6J mouse lungs and nasal turbinates, 29 and caused severe lung histopathology. Remarkably, one mouse-adapted virus was able to 30 replicate efficiently in ACE2-negative cell lines, a characteristic not described for any SARS31 CoV-2 variants. ACE2-independent entry by SARS-CoV-2 represents a new biology for SARS32 CoV-2 with potential widespread implications for disease and intervention development.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
This is long overdue. Opinion | The world deserves a thorough review of the pandemic. Congress must set up a covid-19 commission. - The Washington Post Katherine Eban
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | The world deserves a thorough review of the pandemic. Congress must set up a covid-19...
We call on our colleagues in Congress to support and pass the bipartisan National Commission on the Covid-19 Pandemic Act
https://twitter.com/KatherineEban/status/1466257033548775425
The mystery of where omicron came from — and why it matters
December 1, 20212:48 PM ET NURITH AIZENMAN
CORONAVIRUS
As COVID-19 Origins Get Another Look, Nearly Half of the Public Backs Wuhan Lab Leak Theory
About a quarter of U.S. adults believe the virus moved naturally from animals to humans
BY GABY GALVIN June 9, 2021 at 5:00 am ET
- 70% of Republicans and 32% of Democrats believe the coronavirus spilled from a lab in Wuhan, China.
- Republicans were twice as likely to have heard “a lot” about the lab leak theory than the idea that the virus moved naturally from animals to people.
- 55% of adults have at least some trust in U.S. intelligence agencies to be transparent about the pandemic’s origins.
- https://morningconsult.com/2021/06/09/coronavirus-lab-leak-wuhan-china-poll/
- https://twitter.com/thackerpd/status/1466373580774510596
December 1, 20213:12 PM EST Technology
Facebook, Instagram remove Chinese network over fake 'Swiss biologist' COVID claims
By James Pearson and Elizabeth Culliford Dec 1 (Reuters)
To Deny the "Lab Leak" COVID Theory, the NYT and WPost Use Dubious and Conflicted Sources
A bizarre and abrupt reversal by scientists regarding COVID's origins, along with clear conflicts of interest, create serious doubts about their integrity. Yet major news outlets keep relying on them.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/to-deny-the-lab-leak-covid-theory
"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." Buddha
Scientists Square Off Over Covid, Wuhan, and Peter Daszak
A group of academics claim the president of EcoHealth Alliance has misled the public amid Covid origins investigations.
Top: Peter Daszak (in vehicle) and other members of the WHO team investigating the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, January 29, 2021. Visual: Hector Tetamal / AFP via Getty Images
11.24.2021
Charles Schmidt is a recipient of the National Association of Science Writers’ Science in Society Journalism Award. His work has appeared in Science, Nature Biotechnology, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, and The Washington Post, among other publications
THE COVID LAB LEAK THEORY JUST GOT EVEN STRONGER
The Covid lab leak theory just got even stronger
Published on: Saturday, 20 November, 2021
https://www.mattridley.co.uk/10745
Everyone ignored the confession.
Quote Tweet Hans Mahncke @HansMahncke
Periodic reminder that on March 28, 2016, Daszak described exactly what led to the pandemic. This could not be clearer and yet we're still turning in circles because corrupt scientists and their media flunkies are still relentlessly pushing the natural origins hoax.
Show this thread
https://twitter.com/KevinMcH3/status/1463898150071160839
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
What Happened in Wuhan?
Four books pursue theories of possible origins of the Covid-19 virus—and the question of cover-ups.
By Adam O’NealNov. 26, 2021 5:06 pm ET
CNN Exclusive: WHO Wuhan mission finds possible signs of wider original outbreak in 2019
By Nick Paton Walsh, CNN
Updated 6:56 AM ET, Mon February 15, 2021
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/health/who-mission-china-intl/index.html
Coronavirus origins: WHO’s Sago experts sit down for first meeting
Months in the making, the 27-member scientific advisory group begins its ‘critical work at a critical time’
World Health Organization chief Tedros says the group’s aim is to bring focus squarely back to the science
Simone McCarthy Published: 3:31pm, 25 Nov, 2021
The World Health Organization has tasked the 27 Sago members with recommending the next steps for studies into the emergence of the new coronavirus. Photo: Shutterstock
CORRECTED PROOF
The Emergence of the Spike Furin Cleavage Site in SARS-CoV-2
Yujia Alina Chan, Shing Hei Zhan Author NotesMolecular Biology and Evolution, msab327, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab327Published: 12 November 2021
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article/doi/10.1093/molbev/msab327/6426085
About the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus category
https://virological.org/c/novel-2019-coronavirus/33
"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." Buddha
What Really Happened in Wuhan: Investigating the Chinese lab leak theory
Nov 28, 2021 Sky News Australia
People with the most access to intelligence are telling the world it is “more than just a possibility” the origin of COVID-19 is a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In this special investigation into the dawn of the coronavirus, Sky News Australia examines what really happened in Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic before the world really knew the sinister virus was spreading from country to country. Award-winning journalist Sharri Markson, a Sky News Australia anchor and Investigations Writer at The Australian, has been at the forefront of investigating the origins of COVID-19 since early in 2020 when the virus spread globally. Sharri also speaks with a range of Chinese whistle-blowers, scientists, and high-ranking intelligence officials to bring us closer to discovering the truth of what happened in Wuhan.
“There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.” Thomas Jefferson
The truthtellers
China created a story of the pandemic. These people revealed details Beijing left out
By Julia Hollingsworth and Yong Xiong.
Designed by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Jason Kwok and Marco Chacón.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/02/asia/china-wuhan-covid-truthtellers-intl-hnk-dst/
Covid lab-leak researcher Alina Chan is glad she challenged China’s Wuhan ‘cover up’ despite death threats
INTERVIEW
‘My primary emotion is determination to find out the truth,’ says the co-author of ‘Viral: The Search for the Origins of Covid-19’
November 22, 2021 7:00 am(Updated November 23, 2021 5:57 pm)
Biotech-WARS™ BiotecWARS™ BiotechSTORM™
"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching." Thomas Jefferson
How Dr. Fauci and Other Officials Withheld Information on China's Coronavirus Experiments
BY ROWAN JACOBSEN ON 11/22/21 AT 3:10 PM EST
What Daszak didn't reveal at the time was that the WIV had been using the NIH grant money to genetically engineer dozens of novel coronaviruses discovered in bat samples, and that he knew it was entirely possible that one of those samples had contained SARS-CoV-2 and had infected a researcher, as he conceded to the journal Science in a November 17 interview: "Of course it's possible—things have happened in the past."
The NIH fought for more than a year to keep details about the EcoHealth grant under wraps. The 528 pages of proposals, conditions, emails, and progress reports revealed that EcoHealth had funded experiments at the WIV that were considerably riskier than the ones previously disclosed.
Documents from the National Institutes of Health Call into Question Articles by Science Writers at Nature, Science, and the New York Times
Pre-prints bolstering claims the COVID-19 pandemic did not start in a Wuhan lab are a science writer’s favorite meal.
BioEssays PROBLEMS & PARADIGMS Open Access
The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin
SARS-COV-2 chimeric structure and furin cleavage site might be the result of genetic manipulation
Rossana Segreto,Yuri Deigin First published: 17 November 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000240Citations: 16
No external funding was received for this work.
Rossana Segreto and Yuri Deigin contributed equally to this study.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.202000240
Broad Institute Of MIT And Harvard Scientist On Importance Of Finding What Caused COVID Pandemic
Program: CBSN Boston Categories: News, WBZTV
Covid lab-leak researcher Alina Chan is glad she challenged China’s Wuhan ‘cover up’ despite death threats
INTERVIEW
‘My primary emotion is determination to find out the truth,’ says the co-author of ‘Viral: The Search for the Origins of Covid-19’
November 22, 2021 7:00 am
(Updated November 23, 2021 5:57 pm)
CORONAVIRUS
The Covid-19 lab-leak theory: ‘I’ve had death threats’
Dr Alina Chan, a 33-year-old scientist, is thinking of changing her name. Why? Her 18-month investigation into the theory that the Covid-19 virus really could have come from the Wuhan laboratory after all
Rhys Blakely Thursday November 11 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-covid-19-lab-leak-theory-ive-had-death-threats-szsvcfcrb
Biosafety expert close to Wuhan Institute of Virology urged associates there to address his tough questions about lab origin of SARS-CoV-2
Posted on December 2, 2021 by Shannon Murray
"He who knows best knows how little he knows." Thomas Jefferson
PROPHET IN PURGATORY
EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak is fighting accusations that his pandemic prevention work helped spark COVID-19
- 17 NOV 2021 BYJON COHEN
- https://www.science.org/content/article/we-ve-done-nothing-wrong-ecohealth-leader-fights-charges-his-research-helped-spark-covid-19
- "Poor Peter is being crucified."
Peter Daszak’s scientific collaboration with Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology has come under intense scrutiny. ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE
The Lab Leak Fiasco
For over a year the media enforced falsehoods about the pandemic’s origins, never evaluated the evidence, never apologized, and was never held accountable
BYASHLEY RINDSBERG NOVEMBER 15, 2021
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/lab-leak-fiasco
Documents from the National Institutes of Health Call into Question Articles by Science Writers at Nature, Science, and the New York Times
Pre-prints bolstering claims the COVID-19 pandemic did not start in a Wuhan lab are a science writer’s favorite meal.
https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/documents-from-the-national-institutes
BioEssays PROBLEMS & PARADIGMS Open Access
The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin
SARS-COV-2 chimeric structure and furin cleavage site might be the result of genetic manipulation
Rossana Segreto,Yuri Deigin First published: 17 November 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000240Citations: 16
No external funding was received for this work.
Rossana Segreto and Yuri Deigin contributed equally to this study.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.202000240
First Known Covid Case Was Vendor at Wuhan Market, Scientist Claims
A new review of early Covid-19 cases in the journal Science will revive, though certainly not settle, the debate over how the pandemic began.
By Carl Zimmer, Benjamin Mueller and Chris Buckley
Nov. 18, 2021Updated 5:14 p.m. ET
" This year, Dr. Daszak has been one of the strongest critics of the lab-leak theory. He and his organization, EcoHealth Alliance, have taken heat for research collaborations with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Last month, the National Institutes of Health said EcoHealth was in breach of the terms and conditions of its grant for research on coronaviruses in bats."
Crazy the @nytimes hardly covers the lab incident pandemic origin hypothesis then magnifies a relatively minor & non-determinative paper to create the false impression it demonstrates a “natural” #COVID19 origin not associated with a lab incident.
https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl/status/1461843558290317321
The Covid lab leak theory just got even stronger
From magazine issue: 20 November 2021
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-covid-lab-leak-theory-just-got-even-stronger
THE COVID LAB LEAK THEORY JUST GOT EVEN STRONGER
Published on: Saturday, 20 November, 2021
https://www.mattridley.co.uk/10745
Pursued On All Sides By Journalists and Congress, Peter Daszak Seeks Refuge At Science Magazine
Enough with silly nonreporting reporting, send the subpoenas.
It’s time for subpoenas. Time for Daszak to appear before Congress. Time for some real public accountability.
https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/pursued-on-all-sides-by-journalists
Key articles on origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research and biolabs
November 3, 2021 by Shannon Murray
Here is a reading list about what is known and not known about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, accidents and leaks at biosafety and biowarfare laboratories, and the health risks of gain-of-function (GOF) research, which aims to increase the host range, transmissibility, infectivity or pathogenicity of potential pandemic pathogens. For more information about the U.S. Right to Know investigation into these topics, see our biohazards page.
This reading list is a work in progress. We will update it.
Please send readings we may have missed to Shannon Murray at shannon@usrtk.org.
Topics (drop links)Most recent articlesWhat are the origins of SARS-CoV-2?Transparency failures and the suppression of evidence regarding COVID-19
Accidents, leaks, transparency failures in biosafety facilities
Networks of biodefense and biowarfare
Debates on gain-of-function research
Scientific papers on the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Investigative blog articles on the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Why we are suing the NIH for Covid-19 information
Posted on November 8, 2021 by Gary Ruskin
A year ago, a fearful world was struggling to emerge from a paralyzing pandemic, a confusing health care crisis that emerged swiftly to sicken and kill millions.
https://usrtk.org/biohazards-blog/why-we-are-suing-the-nih-for-covid-19-information/
Public notice of proposed new Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) members
(Updated 9 November 2021) 13 October 2021
After careful consideration of all applications submitted to WHO, the following individuals are proposed for membership of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
Following the re-opening of the call on 1 November 2021, the Secretariat is adding two additional members to the original 26, for a total of 28. The names of the additional two proposed members can be found at the bottom of the list; they will now be subject to a two-week public comment period.
WHO will be finalizing the appointment of the first 26 members in the coming days following the review of comments received during their notice period.
An Engineered Origin for the SARS-CoV2 Genome.
https://medium.com/@SherlockGNomes/an-engineered-origin-for-the-sars-cov2-genome-47914a6919ad
Letter confirms Wuhan lab’s COVID-19 leak was funded by US taxpayers
By Joel Zinberg November 4, 2021 10:26pm Updated
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
COVID-19 OUTBREAK & COVER-UP
https://www.theepochtimes.com/infographic-covid-19-outbreak-cover-up_4025512.html
Nov 04 2021
Washington—Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) today introduced legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the COVID-19 outbreak and identify lessons learned regarding U.S. preparedness, response and recovery to improve our ability to respond to future outbreaks.
‘Another Domino Has Fallen’: Top GOP Lawmakers Pledge To Hold Fauci Accountable Following DCNF Report On Wuhan Gain Of Function Experiments
ANDREW KERRINVESTIGATIVE REPORTER November 05, 20212:56 PM ET