COVID-19 could be a Bioweapon created by the Chinese Communist Party

[revealer3k]

Chinese army 'engineered mice with humanized lungs' to test viruses

Medical researchers with the Chinese army engineered mice with humanized lungs in 2019 to test viruses on them, it has been reported.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Studying human lung infection in mice - Nature Methods

Mice implanted with human lung tissue model pathogen infection and immune responses.

www.nature.com

Mice implanted with human lung tissue model pathogen infection and immune responses.

Human–mouse chimeric models (humanized mice), generated by engrafting human tissues and/or stem cells into immunodeficient mice, are powerful tools for in vivo studies of human pathogens.

A number of challenging pathogens, including Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Zika virus, mycobacteria, respiratory syncytial virus and cytomegalovirus, were found to replicate in the lung implants after inoculation.

To further model human immunity against pathogens in vivo, the team created a second model, BLT-L mice, by implanting autologous bone marrow–liver–thymus tissue and lung tissue into the immunodeficient mice.

“We envisioned that LoM and BLT-L mice could be used to study important emerging human pathogens like severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS), and tuberculosis.

Dr Fauci briefed world leaders coronavirus escaped from lab in SPRING

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he was told Dr. Fauci had briefed world leaders on the possibility that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab early in the pandemic.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Yahoo Search - Web Search

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you\'re looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

in.news.yahoo.com

Canadian scientist sent deadly viruses to Wuhan lab months before RCMP asked to investigate
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1750689347782

CBC News has learned that a Canadian researcher escorted out of Winnipeg's National Microbiology Lab over a possible policy breach also sent dozens of vials of deadly viruses to the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, four months earlier. Experts say Ottawa needs to be more transparent about what happened.

How a Chinese Scientist Broke the Rules to Create the First Gene-Edited Babies

Dr. He Jiankui, seeking glory for his nation and justice for HIV-positive parents, kept his experiment secret from a doctor, deceived a hospital, ignored Western peers’ warnings and faked a test in creating the world’s first known gene-edited human babies.

www.wsj.com

 

[revealer3k]

U.S. report concluded COVID-19 may have leaked from Wuhan lab - WSJ

A report on the origins of COVID-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis of a virus leak from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the classified document.

www.reuters.com

The wet market sources of Covid-19: bats and pangolins have an alibi | University of Oxford

www.ox.ac.uk

Our investigation, published today in Nature-Scientific Reports, found that both bats and pangolins had an alibi – neither was there!

No bats or pangolins sold at Wuhan markets before pandemic: study

The research documents a menagerie of nearly 50,000 animals, including badgers and boars, peacocks and pit vipers, traded at animal markets in the Chinese city from 2017 to November 2019.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[revealer3k]

Judicial Watch Obtains Records Showing NIAID under Dr. Fauci Gave Wuhan Lab $826k for Bat Coronavirus Research From 2014 to 2019 - Judicial Watch

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch today announced that it obtained 280 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services revealing that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the National Institute of Allergy and...

www.judicialwatch.org

Judicial Watch today announced that it obtained 280 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services revealing that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Tabak: WH has strongly embraced concerns raised by Congressman Gaetz who is publicly criticizing HHS/NIH for funding the Wuhan laboratory’s bat research. Here’s this quote from another article: “I’m disgusted to learn that for years the US government has been funding dangerous and cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute, which may have contributed to the global spread of coronavirus, and research at other labs in China that have virtually no oversight from US authorities.” [Emphasis in original]

This is a large multi-country study with Wuhan being one site. The principal investigator, Peter Daszak, is based in NY at EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. [Emphasis in original]

The Pentagon actually funded the People's Liberation Army's military researches and experiments :

The Pentagon funneled $39million to a charity that funded Wuhan lab

Federal data seen by DailyMail.com reveals The Pentagon gave $39 million to charity EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), which funded a lab in Wuhan, China.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[revealer3k]

Kristian G. Andersen from Scripps Research told Fauci in an email that COVID-19 could be lab-made, but his public assertion was exactly the opposite.

It turned out that Scripps Research collaborates with a Bio-lab in China :

Scripps Research and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory announce international chemical biology research collaboration

www.scripps.edu

Scripps Research and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) today announced a trans-Pacific chemical biology research collaboration that combines the expertise of both institutions to accelerate the pace of discovery in one of the most promising areas of science.

Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (SZBL) is a recently established Guangdong Provincial Laboratory located in the heart of China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay area.

Areas of research include bioinformatics, biomedical engineering and the discovery of innovative drugs with the goal of prevention, early diagnose and treatment of major diseases including but not limited to cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and infectious diseases.

Kristian G. Andersen is also an assistant professor of Tsinghua University, China :
https://biography.omicsonline.org/china/tsinghua-university/kristian-g-andersen-770012

Kristian G. Andersen
Assistant Professor
Department of Immunology and Microbiology
Tsinghua University
China

Chinese Influence over Scientific Experts - Formosahut forum

Living in Taiwan

formosahut.com

None other than Edwards C. Holmes and Kristian G. Andersen (who we'll get to next) - both co-authors of the article endorsing China's version of the conronavirus origin - both big-time recipients of Chinese money.

 

[RealityChecker]

Kristian G. Andersen from Scripps Research told Fauci in an email that COVID-19 could be lab-made, but his public assertion was exactly the opposite.

It turned out that Scripps Research collaborates with a Bio-lab in China :

Scripps Research and Shenzhen Bay Laboratory announce international chemical biology research collaboration

www.scripps.edu

Kristian G. Andersen is also an assistant professor of Tsinghua University, China :
https://biography.omicsonline.org/china/tsinghua-university/kristian-g-andersen-770012

Chinese Influence over Scientific Experts - Formosahut forum

Living in Taiwan

formosahut.com

Lots of good information here. Thanks for sharing revealer3k.

 

[revealer3k]

More CCP Bio-research entities that collaborate with the Scripps Research :

The Scripps Research Institute and ShangPharma Innovation Announce Translational Research Collaboration | Scripps Research

www.scripps.edu

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and ShangPharma Innovation, Inc. (SPII) today announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of innovative drug candidates through scientific collaboration, a services relationship with Shanghai ChemPartner Co. Ltd. (ChemPartner), and sponsored research at TSRI and its drug discovery affiliate, California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr).

ShangPharma Partners with Scripps Research to Form $15 Million US Accelerator

ShangPharma Innovation, the US-based biopharma incubator arm of China CRO ShangPharma, will collaborate with The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and its drug discovery affiliate, California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), to accelerate the development of innovative drug candidates...

www.chinabiotoday.com

ShangPharma Innovation, the US-based biopharma incubator arm of China CRO ShangPharma, will collaborate with The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and its drug discovery affiliate, California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), to accelerate the development of innovative drug candidates. ShangPharma will contribute $15 million in funding and in-kind services over three years.

Xu Jingren - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Xu Jingren and his relatives continue to be mentioned as one of China's top "vampire billionaire" families with majority investments abroad.[6][7][8] Notable international initiatives include the 2017 YRPG subsidiary[9] merger and rebranding of global drug manufacturer ShangPharma[10] by group CEO Michael Hui and board vice-chair Aaron Shang, with a stated intent of expanding North American operations leading to development of San Francisco-based venture portfolio ShangPharma Innovation.

ShangPharma Corporation | The Org

ShangPharma is a leading China-based outsourcing partner in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development, who provides

theorg.com

ShangPharma is a leading China-based outsourcing partner in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development

Headquarters Shanghai, China

Michael Hui - Partner at Hongsen Investment | The Org

Mr. Hui is a successful entrepreneur and investor and is a Managing Director of Pandect Bioventures.

theorg.com

Mr. Hui is a successful entrepreneur and investor and is a Managing Director of Pandect Bioventures. He also serves as Chairman and CEO of ShangPharma Holdings, Vice Chairman of Quantum Hi-Tech Biological, Chairman of Shanghai ChemPartner, and Chairman of ShangPharma Innovation.

Dr. Peter Schultz, CEO of The Scripps Research Institute, Visits WuXi AppTec Headquarters in Shanghai
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...pptec-headquarters-in-shanghai-300161745.html

SHANGHAI, Oct. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: WX), a leading open-access R&D capability and technology platform company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, announced today that Dr. Peter Schultz visited WuXi AppTec's Shanghai headquarters on October 17 and gave an inspiring public lecture. Dr. Schultz is the CEO of The Scripps Research Institute and the founder and Director of the California Institute for Biomedical Research. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States and of its Institute of Medicine.

Chinese Academy of Sciences official website :

Professor Peter G. Schultz from The Scripps Research Institute Visited IBP and Delivered a BeiShizhang Lecture----Institute of Biophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences

On December 13th, 2017, Professor Peter G. Schultz, a member of US National Academy of Sciences, from The Scripps Research Institute visited IBP gave a BeiShizhang lecture entitled “Synthesis at the interface of chemistry and biology:From molecules to Medicine and Materials”. Researchers and...

english.ibp.cas.cn

Ben Shen, Ph.D. » Scripps Biomedical Research » University of Florida

The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

www.scripps.edu

Direct Protein Delivery to Mammalian Cells Using Cell-permeable Cys2-His2 Zinc-finger Domains
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4401377/

Thomas Gaj
1 Departments of Chemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute

Jia Liu
1 Departments of Chemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute
2 Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, Shanghai Tech University

Due to their modularity and ability to be reprogrammed to recognize a wide range of DNA sequences, Cys2-His2 zinc-finger DNA-binding domains have emerged as useful tools for targeted genome engineering.

Obviously, the Scripps Research is expert at genome engineering, and they shared such technologies with the CCP.

 

[revealer3k]

Chinese Lab-Leak Investigators Demand Inquiry into Role Science Journals Played During Pandemic

Scientists who have been challenging theory that coronavirus emerged naturally are calling for an inquiry into role played during pandemic by leading Western science and medical journals

www.voanews.com

Scientists who have been challenging the theory that the coronavirus emerged naturally and couldn’t have leaked from a Chinese lab are calling for an inquiry into the role played during the pandemic by leading Western science and medical journals, including Nature and The Lancet.

They say the editors of the influential journals rebuffed dozens of critical articles which raised at least the possibility of the coronavirus being engineered and that it might have subsequently leaked from a lab in Chinese city of Wuhan. 

“So many papers questioning the origins were quickly rejected by the journal editors at Nature and Lancet, etc. without even being sent for review. This early rejection was therefore presumably largely not on scientific grounds but on political or other grounds determined at a high level within those journals,” he says. 

Petrovsky is one of dozens of scientists skeptical of the natural-spillover theory who say their efforts to point out inconsistencies in the quickly established standard narrative was met with silence, rejection and hostility by the editors of major Western science journals.

“Starting in January 2020 and continuing through early 2021, a small group of scientists, and a larger group of science journalists, established and enforced the false narrative that scientific evidence supported natural spillover and a false narrative that this was the scientific consensus,” says Ebright. 

Scientists skeptical from the start of the natural-spillover theory, including Petrovsky, Ebright and a so-called Paris Group of scientists, which drafted two open letters on the origins of coronavirus, say an inquiry into the role of major science journals is in order. Much of the focus has been on The Lancet and Nature but other leading journals have come under criticism, including Science, an academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“This pandemic has exposed just how vulnerable our scientific institutions including our academies, universities and scientific journals are to politicization and covert influence,” says Petrovsky. “At the same time as exerting undue influence over Western journals, China is launching hundreds of its own journals over which it will have direct control and are offering easy routes to publication and incentives for scientists to publish in them,” he adds. 

“An inquiry by Congress into this might be a good first step although this is also a much broader international issue, that should ultimately involve an international effort to fix these problems,” he told VOA.

Petrovsky says he and others faced tremendous hurdles in getting published papers casting doubt on the natural-spillover theory. He says if a rare paper was initially accepted for consideration, it fell at the second stage when it was sent to reviewers to consider its merits and would then be rejected. “Almost all the scientific community, from which reviewers are selected, had been indoctrinated by the misleading and heavily manipulative early Lancet and Nature Medicine commentaries that suggested any questioning of the origins should be seen as an attack by conspiracy theorists from the extreme right,” he says.

Springer Nature has dozens of cooperation and sponsorship agreements with Chinese educational and government institutions. So, too, does the owner of The Lancet, Elsevier, a Netherlands-based publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content.  

Secret bat cages at Wuhan lab where virus experiments were planned

The Chinese laboratory at the centre of suspicion over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic was awarded a patent for cages to hold live bats for testing months before the virus started spreading.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[revealer3k]

Events :

Kristian G. Andersen told Fauci in an email that COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 has some unusual features that look engineered, and the genome was inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory :

Fauci replied : “Talk soon on the call.”

Then Kristian G. Andersen published his paper “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2”, asserting that “SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus” :

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 - Nature Medicine

www.nature.com

And Peter Daszak published his “Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19”, to suppress the “conspiracy theories” :
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30418-9/fulltext

EcoHealth Alliance Orchestrated Key Scientists’ Statement on “natural origin” of SARS-CoV-2 - Independent Science News | Food, Health and Agriculture Bioscience News

In February 2020 medical journal The Lancet published a letter with 27 scientific signatories. It turns out that the letter was authored chiefly by the President of the EcoHealth Alliance which funded research at the lab under suspicion of leaking the virus.

www.independentsciencenews.org

The letter included no scientific references to refute a lab-origin theory of the virus. One scientist, Linda Saif, asked via email whether it would be useful “to add just one or 2 statements in support of why nCOV is not a lab generated virus and is naturally occuring? Seems critical to scientifically refute such claims!” Daszak responded, “I think we should probably stick to a broad statement.”

The mainstream media adopted Peter Daszak & Kristian G. Andersen’s public claims as “scientific truth”.

And then several months later, both Peter Daszak & Kristian G. Andersen received generous fundings from NIAID:

NIH establishes Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases

Global network to focus on spillover potential.

www.nih.gov

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced that it has awarded 11 grants with a total first-year value of approximately $17 million to establish the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID).

Kristian Andersen, Ph.D., Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
West African Emerging Infectious Disease Research Center (WAEIDRC)
West Africa; 1 U01 AI151812-01

Peter Daszak, Ph.D., EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., New York City
Emerging Infectious Diseases-South East Asia Research Collaboration Hub (EID-SEARCH)
Southeast Asia; 1 U01 AI151797-01

International research alliance launched to boost pandemic preparedness

www.scripps.edu

says Kristian Andersen, PhD, professor of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, and one of seven key investigators on the grant.

The five-year grant, awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Anthony Fauci - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Anthony Stephen Fauci (/ˈfaʊtʃi/; born December 24, 1940) is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who serves as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the chief medical advisor to the president.

 

[revealer3k]

In a February 2016 forum on emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic, Peter Daszak told us how to manipulate SARS coronaviruses in the lab to create some deadly new viruses that can infect humans (eg. Covid-19):


Starting from 1:16:51, Peter Daszak said :

“Then when you get a sequence of a virus, and it looks like a relative of a known nasty pathogen, just like we did with SARS, we found other coronaviruses in bats, a whole host of them, some of them looked very similar to SARS. So we sequenced the spike protein — the protein that attaches to cells.

“Then we, well I didn’t do this work, but my colleagues in China did the work, you create pseudo particles, you insert the spike proteins from those viruses, see if they bind to human cells. At each step of this you move closer and closer to this virus could really become pathogenic in people. So you narrow down the field, you reduce the cost, and you end up with small number of viruses that really do it like killers.”

Pandemics

Sonia Shah moderated a forum on emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic. The event began with Ms. Shah discussing her book, [Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Ebola and Beyond].

www.c-span.org

 

[dirtpoorchris]

In a February 2016 forum on emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic, Peter Daszak told us how to manipulate SARS coronaviruses in the lab to create some deadly new viruses that can infect humans (eg. Covid-19):


Starting from 1:16:51, Peter Daszak said :

Pandemics

Sonia Shah moderated a forum on emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic. The event began with Ms. Shah discussing her book, [Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, From Cholera to Ebola and Beyond].

www.c-span.org

Sounds like this guy might have won a legal trip to the gallows.

 

[revealer3k]

Starting from 3:16 ->

And here’s another interesting feature of Covid-19 : It likes human more than bats. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t harm bats. So the CCP propaganda claims this virus comes from bats but it doesn’t like bats.

Military scientist filed Covid vax patent within weeks of virus emerging
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sc...s/news-story/4adee56c1433fad332a76ffe043390ea

Anthony Fauci’s institute funded research by the Chinese military, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists to genetically manipulate coronaviruses soon before the pandemic hit.

Chinese scientist filed patent for a COVID vaccine in February 2020
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...r-a-covid-vaccine-in-february-2020/ar-AAKLGuS

 

[revealer3k]

Origin of CovidâââFollowing the Clues

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: the political agendasâ¦

nicholaswade.medium.com

One can only imagine Dr. Daszak’s reaction when he heard of the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan a few days later. He would have known better than anyone the Wuhan Institute’s goal of making bat coronaviruses infectious to humans, as well as the weaknesses in the institute’s defense against their own researchers becoming infected.

But instead of providing public health authorities with the plentiful information at his disposal, he immediately launched a public relations campaign to persuade the world that the epidemic couldn’t possibly have been caused by one of the institute’s souped-up viruses. “The idea that this virus escaped from a lab is just pure baloney. It’s simply not true,” he declared in an April 2020 interview.

The virus, a model of economic design, does not carry its own cleaver. It relies on the cell to do the cleaving for it.

Viruses have all kinds of clever tricks, so why does the furin cleavage site stand out? Because of all known SARS-related beta-coronaviruses, only SARS2 possesses a furin cleavage site. All the other viruses have their S2 unit cleaved at a different site and by a different mechanism.

How then did SARS2 acquire its furin cleavage site? Either the site evolved naturally, or it was inserted by researchers at the S1/S2 junction in a gain-of-function experiment.

So it’s hard to explain how the SARS2 virus picked up its furin cleavage site naturally, whether by mutation or recombination.

That leaves a gain-of-function experiment. For those who think SARS2 may have escaped from a lab, explaining the furin cleavage site is no problem at all. “Since 1992 the virology community has known that the one sure way to make a virus deadlier is to give it a furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 junction in the laboratory,” writes Dr. Steven Quay, a biotech entrepreneur interested in the origins of SARS2. “At least eleven gain-of-function experiments, adding a furin site to make a virus more infective, are published in the open literature, including [by] Dr. Zhengli Shi, head of coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

There’s another aspect of the furin cleavage site that narrows the path for a natural emergence origin even further.

But CGG is coronavirus’s least popular codon for arginine. Keep that in mind when looking at how the amino acids in the furin cleavage site are encoded in the SARS2 genome.

There are several curious features about this insert but the oddest is that of the two side-by-side CGG codons. Only 5% of SARS2’s arginine codons are CGG, and the double codon CGG-CGG has not been found in any other beta-coronavirus. So how did SARS2 acquire a pair of arginine codons that are favored by human cells but not by coronaviruses?

For the lab escape scenario, the double CGG codon is no surprise. The human-preferred codon is routinely used in labs. So anyone who wanted to insert a furin cleavage site into the virus’s genome would synthesize the PRRA-making sequence in the lab and would be likely to use CGG codons to do so.

“When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus,” said David Baltimore, an eminent virologist and former president of CalTech. “These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2,” he said.

One problem with this idea, though, is that if SARS2 jumped from bats to people in a single leap and hasn’t changed much since, it should still be good at infecting bats. And it seems it isn’t.

“Tested bat species are poorly infected by SARS-CoV-2 and they are therefore unlikely to be the direct source for human infection,” write a scientific group skeptical of natural emergence.

A virus isolated from the Mojiang mine, called RaTG13, is still the closest known relative of SARS2. Much mystery surrounds the origin, reporting and strangely low affinity of RaTG13 for bat cells, as well as the nature of 8 similar viruses that Dr. Shi reports she collected at the same time but has not yet published despite their great relevance to the ancestry of SARS2.

 

[revealer3k]

The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202000240

SARS-COV-2 chimeric structure and furin cleavage site might be the result of genetic manipulation

CRITIQUE OF “THE PROXIMAL ORIGIN OF SARS-COV-2″

Due to the broad-spectrum of research conducted over almost 20 years on bat SARS-CoVs justified by their potential to spill over from animal to human,[48] a possible synthetic origin by laboratory engineering of SARS-CoV-2 cannot be excluded.

The widely cited article of Andersen et al.[2] stated that SARS-CoV-2 has most likely a natural origin. The main argument brought by the authors is that the high-affinity binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to hACE2 could not have been predicted by models based on the RBD of SARS-CoV. Based on the structural analysis conducted by Wan et al.,[49] SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to recognize hACE2 more efficiently than the SARS-CoV, which emerged in 2002. Moreover, generation of CoV chimeric strains has recently demonstrated that bat CoV spikes can bind to the hACE2 receptor with more plasticity than previously predicted.[15] All amino acids in the RBD have been extensively analyzed and new models to predict ACE2 affinity are available.[50] In this regard, BatCoV Rs3367 (99.9% identity to WIV1) has been shown to share with SARS-CoV-2 four out of six critical residues in the RBD. Considering that WIV1 was shown to directly bind to hACE2, the same assumption could easily have been made about SARS-CoV-2 RBD.[51]

As described above, creation of chimeric viruses has been carried out over the years with the purpose of studying the potential pathogenicity of bat CoVs for humans. In this context, SARS-CoV-2 could have been synthesized by combining a backbone similar to RaTG13 with the RBD of CoV similar to the one recently isolated from pangolins[12], because the latter is characterized by a higher affinity with the hACE2 receptor. Such research could have aimed to identify pangolins as possible intermediate hosts for bat-CoV potentially pathogenic for humans. Subsequent serial cell or animal passage, as described by Sirotkin & Sirotkin [1] could have provided the perfect adaptation of the RBD to the hACE2.

 

[revealer3k]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202000240

Regarding the furin cleavage site, Andersen et al.[2] state that “the functional consequence of the polybasic cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is unknown.” New studies from several groups have lately identified this activation site as possibly enabling the virus to spread efficiently between humans and attack multiple organs.[52] Experiments on proteolytic cleavage of CoV spike proteins have been recently suggested as future key studies to understand virus transmissibility in different hosts.[50]

Andersen et al.[2] also state, based on the work of Almazan et al.[53] that “the genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone.” In the last 6 years before the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 the number of potential bat backbones has been undeniably increased by several bat CoV screenings, last but not least bringing RaTG13 to scientific attention in January 2020. Other possible backbones could, as well, still wait for publication.

It is important to mention that RaTG13 and the pangolin CoV sequences from smuggled pangolins confiscated in the GD province in March 2019, and to which most of published papers supporting a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 refer,[2] have recently been questioned as to the accuracy of their assembly dataxii and require further analyses to prove their correctness.[xiii ,xiv ]

Another open question is the reason for modification and subsequent deletion of WIV's own viral database.

On the basis of our analysis, an artificial origin of SARS-CoV-2 is not a baseless conspiracy theory that is to be condemned[66] and researchers have the responsibility to consider all possible causes for SARS-CoV-2 emergence. The insertion of human-adapted pangolin CoV RBD obtained by cell/animal serial passage and furin cleavage site could arise from site-directed mutagenesis experiments, in a context of evolutionary studies or development of pan-CoV vaccines or drugs. A recent article in Nature[67] affirms that a laboratory origin for SARS-CoV-2 cannot be ruled out, as researchers could have been infected accidentally, and that gain-of-function experiments resulting in SARS-CoV-2 could have been performed at WIV. Genetic manipulation of SARS-CoV-2 may have been carried out in any laboratory in the world with access to the backbone sequence and the necessary equipment and it would not leave any trace. Modern technologies based on synthetic genetics platforms allow the reconstruction of viruses based on their genomic sequence, without the need of a natural isolate.[68]

 

[revealer3k]

WHO dunnit? WHO knows | The Spectator Australia

Did the Sars Cov-2 virus, which has infected 1.4 million people and caused more than 82,000 deaths, escape from a lab in Wuhan? Is there a cheap cure already available? The answer to both questions…

www.spectator.com.au

Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward C. Holmes (based at Sydney University) and Robert F. Garry argued in Nature Medicine (17 Apr.) that the virus could not have been engineered because if it had, it would not have been engineered in this way. They write that two features of the new virus — its receptor-binding domain (RBD) and its distinct backbone ‘rule out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for Sars-CoV-2.’

That’s an odd argument because a team of scientists at the WIV did engineer a bat virus in exactly this way and published the results in the American Society for Microbiology’s Journal of Virology in February 2008. They wrote that they were the first to genetically engineer a Sars-like coronavirus found in horseshoe bats to make it infectious to humans.

Many of these scientists are still at the WIV working on the new Sars coronavirus, which must come in handy given the genetic similarities between the two viruses. Two of the team, however, worked at the CSIRO Biosecurity Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the time. One has since retired but Professor Lin-Fa Wang is now director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, an advisor to the WHO and works with Anderson and the WIV on bat coronaviruses. It’s a small world!

On 3 January the WIV team announced that they had sequenced the virus but did not release the genome. Eventually, a week later Professor Holmes submitted the gene sequencing data on behalf of a group from Fudan University, where he is an honorary visiting professor giving it to Andrew Rambaut, the administrator of Virological.org and professor of molecular evolution at the University of Edinburgh. When the WIV team submitted a paper to Nature on 20 January they pointed out that it was 96 percent identical to a horseshoe bat coronavirus from Yunnan province and used the same cell entry receptor as Sars.

But that wasn’t all. The WIV team was also conducting in vitro research on the efficacy of two drugs to control of Sars-Cov-2. One was Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences which had shown good antiviral activity against Sars and Mers coronavirus. The other was chloroquine, a cheap generic drug that stopped both Sars and Sars-Cov-2 from entering human cells or from replicating itself.

Surprisingly, on 21 January the WIV team filed a patent for Remdesivir although they didn’t announce their results until 4 February when they said both drugs had delivered such positive results that they should be trialled in patients and started that week.

Virus Outbreak: COVID-19 likely synthetic: Researchers say - Taipei Times

Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

www.taipeitimes.com

A French research team that examined the gene sequence of COVID-19 has discovered that it has four more amino acids than other coronaviruses, he said, adding that this makes its transmission easier.

The findings have led some in the research community to speculate about whether China’s scientists intended to develop a virus more difficult to contain than SARS, he said.

If that was their intent, they appeared to have succeeded, Fang added.

Mutations of viruses that occur naturally only result in small, singular changes, he said, adding that one would not normally see a naturally mutated virus suddenly take on four amino acids.

In Feb. 2020, Chinese scientists Botao Xiao & Lei Xiao from the South China University of Technology proposed the coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory :

(PDF) The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus

PDF | The 2019-nCoV has caused an epidemic of 28,060 laboratory-confirmed infections in human including 564 deaths in China by February 6, 2020. Two... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

web.archive.org

In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

 

[revealer3k]

Opening of the “Can of Worms”

The famous paper that tells us how to create a new pandemic virus by manipulating SARS coronaviruses :

A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence - Nature Medicine

Ralph Baric, Vineet Menachery and colleagues characterize a SARS-like coronavirus circulating in Chinese horseshoe bats to determine its potential to infect primary human airway epithelial cells, cause disease in mice and respond to available therapeutics.

www.nature.com

The authors :

Vineet D. Menachery
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Boyd L Yount Jr
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Kari Debbink
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Lisa E Gralinski
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Jessica A Plante
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Rachel L Graham
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Trevor Scobey
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Xing-Yi Ge
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China

Eric F Donaldson
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Scott H Randell
Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Cystic Fibrosis Center, Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

This is the famous “Bat Woman” Shi Zheng-Li, her name was misspelled here :

Zhengli-Li Shi
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China

Another key figure :

Ralph S Baric
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins

Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.

www.vanityfair.com

State Department official Thomas DiNanno wrote a memo charging that staff from his bureau were “warned…not to pursue an investigation into the origin of COVID-19” because it would “‘open a can of worms’ if it continued.”SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

As they combed open sources as well as classified information, the team’s members soon stumbled on a 2015 research paper by Shi Zhengli and the University of North Carolina epidemiologist Ralph Baric proving that the spike protein of a novel coronavirus could infect human cells. Using mice as subjects, they inserted the protein from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat into the molecular structure of the SARS virus from 2002, creating a new, infectious pathogen.

It soon emerged, based on emails obtained by a Freedom of Information group called U.S. Right to Know, that Daszak had not only signed but organized the influential Lancet statement, with the intention of concealing his role and creating the impression of scientific unanimity.

Under the subject line, “No need for you to sign the “Statement” Ralph!!,” he wrote to two scientists, including UNC’s Dr. Ralph Baric, who had collaborated with Shi Zhengli on the gain-of-function study that created a coronavirus capable of infecting human cells: “you, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.” Daszak added, “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.”

Baric agreed, writing back, “Otherwise it looks self-serving and we lose impact.”

Baric did not sign the statement. In the end, Daszak did. At least six other signers had either worked at, or had been funded by, EcoHealth Alliance. The statement ended with a declaration of objectivity: “We declare no competing interests.”

 

[revealer3k]

The Wuhan Lab Leak Question: A Disused Chinese Mine Takes Center Stage

That Covid escaped from a lab isn’t the predominant hypothesis for the pandemic’s origins, yet prominent scientists are calling for a deeper probe and clearer answers from Beijing.

www.wsj.com

Among the signatories to the Science letter was Ralph Baric, a microbiologist at the University of North Carolina who worked with the WIV on a study to create an artificial coronavirus that infected human cells in the lab.

In an email, he said SARS-CoV-2’s genetic structure suggests it originated in wildlife and evolved naturally to infect humans, and that he believes that is the most likely scenario, but “more investigation and transparency are necessary to define the origin of the pandemic.”

Academy meeting on risky virus studies struggles to find common ground
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...ky-virus-studies-struggles-find-common-ground

Several accidents this year in federal high-containment labs heightened concerns that such gain-of-function (GOF) studies could result in a dangerous virus escaping the lab and touching off a pandemic. The ban is much broader, however: It covers about 18 projects on influenza, MERS, and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) viruses that make these respiratory viruses more pathogenic or likely to spread in mammals.

Other speakers defended GOF studies of MERS and SARS coronaviruses. Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and others argued that their attempts to adapt the MERS virus to mice in order to develop an animal model for the virus are crucial for vaccine and drug studies. Nobody is attempting to alter the virus in ways that would make it spread more easily among people, which would be difficult to do, they said.

Because of the ongoing MERS epidemic, “it is critical” that the funding ban be lifted for MERS, Baric said. At least one prominent voice on the anti-GOF side was convinced: Including coronaviruses in the ban "has muddied the waters. … Let's take it out," said Peter Hale of the Foundation for Vaccine Research in Washington, D.C.

Humanized mice develop coronavirus respiratory disease

Coronavirus infections historically were associated with mild upper respiratory tract diseases in infants, children, and adults. Human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 and HCoV-229E were associated with 15–30% of common colds in winter and occasionally linked with lower respiratory tract disease in...

www.pnas.org

Ralph S. Baric and Amy C. Sims
Departments of * Epidemiology and † Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435

WATCH: 2018 Video Shows Wuhan Lab Partner Scheming on How to Make Money from a Pandemic.

While speaking at a conference in 2018, Wuhan Institute of Virology collaborator Dr. Ralph Baric advised attendees on how to "make money" in the next pandemic.

thenationalpulse.com

Baric – who’s attended conferences at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and is described by Wuhan’s “bat woman” Shi Zhengli as one of her “longtime collaborators” – made the comments at an April 2018 event hosted at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Baric – who’s described lifting bans on gain-of-function research as “critical” – also provided the Wuhan lab with humanized mice to likely conduct the controversial form of research with SARS-like coronaviruses.

Ralph Baric from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill attended CCP-held conferences multiple times and shared his technologies with many PLA researchers :
http://www.biols.cas.cn/xsjl/bjsmkxlt/ltxx/201601/t20160121_4521968.html

15:30-17:00 Session IV Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

1. American Speaker Ralph Baric MERS: Genetic Systems and Models
2. Chinese Speaker Zhengli Shi Bat coronaviruses associated with human diseases

09:00-10:00 Session V Gain of Function Research

http://english.whiov.cas.cn/ne/201811/t20181116_201324.html

The 8th International Symposium on Emerging Viral Diseases was held in Wuhan from October 20th to 22nd. The conference was hosted by Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and jointly organized by State Key Laboratory of Virology, WIV, CAS, Hubei & Wuhan Society for Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, CAS, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, WIV, CAS and Virologica Sinica. More than 300 people from 12 countries including China, the United States, France, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Kenya and Pakistan attended the symposium.

Prof. Ralph Baric from University of North Carolina, Dr.Peter Daszak from Ecohealth Alliance

 

[revealer3k]

Facebook's CCP-Linked 'Fact-Checker' is Now Censoring Stories Critical Of Zuckerberg-Funded Wuhan Lab Partners.

Facebook's CCP-linked "fact-checker" Lead Stories has launched a campaign to defend Wuhan Institute of Virology collaborator Ralph Baric.

thenationalpulse.com

The Chinese Communist Party has executed a whole-of-government propaganda campaign to discredit stories linking COVID-19 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology while promoting theories that the virus originated in a wet market.

Facebook executives including Zuckerberg have repeatedly attended China-based conferences sponsored by the entity spearheading the disinformation campaign: the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Facebook 'fact checkers' cited Wuhan lab funder to 'debunk' leak claim

For nearly a year, Facebook censored articles exploring the lab leak theory, labeling them 'false information' and punishing news publishers by limiting their reach on the platform.

www.dailymail.co.uk

For nearly a year, Facebook censored articles exploring the lab leak theory, labeling them 'false information' and punishing news publishers by limiting their reach on the platform, before the social media giant sheepishly reversed course last month.

Facebook relies on third-party fact-checkers to 'debunk' false claims, and in the case of the lab leak theory, a February article from Facebook partner Science Feedback played a key role in the social media site's censorship.

It has now emerged that the Lancet letter, which played a key role in suppressing early debate on the pandemic's origins, was not only signed but organized by Peter Daszak, whose group funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars to controversial gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

 

[revealer3k]

Items from coronavirus expert Ralph Baric‘s emails

Items from coronavirus expert Ralph Baric‘s emails

This page lists documents in Professor Ralph Baric’s emails, which U.S. Right to Know obtained via a public records request. Dr. Baric is a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). He has developed genetic techniques […]

usrtk.org

Tracy McNamara, Professor of Pathology at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California wrote on March 25, 2020: : “The Federal govt has spent over $1 billion dollars in support of the Global Health Security Agenda to help developing nations create the capacity to detect/report/respond to pandemic threats. An additional $200 million was spent on the PREDICT project via USAID looking for emerging viruses in bats, rats and monkeys overseas. And now the Global Virome Project wants $1.5 billion dollars to run around the world hunting down every virus on the face of the earth. They will probably get funding. But none of these programs have made taxpayers safer right here at home.” (emphasis in the original)

Global Health Security Agenda

ghsagenda.org

Global Health Security Agenda - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Global Virome Project

www.globalviromeproject.org

Viral metagenomics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So this is the “can of worms” - it turns out that studying deadly viruses overseas and sharing technologies with the CCP was an US government idea. Fauci alluded it in a Congress hearing.

The Chinese Communist Party grabbed this opportunity. Then in the name of “study the viruses to prevent future pandemics”, the CCP obtained the technologies they need, and later created a pandemic.

 

[revealer3k]

Items from coronavirus expert Ralph Baric‘s emails

This page lists documents in Professor Ralph Baric’s emails, which U.S. Right to Know obtained via a public records request. Dr. Baric is a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). He has developed genetic techniques […]

usrtk.org

Dr. Jonathan Epstein, Vice President for Science and Outreach at EcoHealth Alliance, sought guidance for a request from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) about communicating “potentially sensitive dual-use information” (March 2018).

EcoHealth Alliance paid Dr. Baric an undisclosed sum as honorarium (January 2018).

“Sensitive dual-use” means the virus manipulation technologies can be used to make vaccines, and can also be used to create bio-weapons.

Ralph Baric and other virologists shared such technologies with the Chinese Communist Party, and helped fund the People’s Liberation Army’s military researches and experiments with US taxpayer money.

And this is just a lesser “can of worms”. A bigger “can of worms” is the Havana Syndrome matter :

Havana syndrome and the mysterious attacks - invisible but real

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suspected-energy-attack-white-house-havana-syndrome/ Law enforcement agencies are investigating two possible directed energy attacks on government employees on U.S. soil. Energy attacks were suspected in Cuba and China in the past few years as U.S. personnel...

debatepolitics.com

 

[revealer3k]

Items from coronavirus expert Ralph Baric‘s emails

This page lists documents in Professor Ralph Baric’s emails, which U.S. Right to Know obtained via a public records request. Dr. Baric is a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC). He has developed genetic techniques […]

usrtk.org

Invitation to U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) U.S. China Dialogue and Workshop on the Challenges of Emerging Infections, Laboratory Safety, Global Health Security and Responsible Conduct in the Use of Gene Editing in Viral Infectious Disease Research, Harbin, China, Jan 8-10, 2019 (November 2018-January 2019). Preparatory emails and a travel memorandum indicate the identities of the American participants.

NAS invitation to a meeting of U.S. and Chinese experts working to counter infectious disease and improve global health (November 2017). The meeting was convened by the NAS and the Galveston National Laboratory. It took place on January 16-18, 2018, in Galveston, Texas. A travel memorandum indicates the identities of the American participants. Subsequent emails show that the WIV’s Dr. Zhengli Shi is present at the meeting.

Ralph Baric, a microbiologist at the University of North Carolina, has worked with WIV researchers.

 

[dixon01767]

Defector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Official​

RedState’s sources confirmed that the defector is, in fact, Dong [Jingwei], that he was in charge of counterintelligence efforts in China, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February, allegedly to visit his daughter at a university in California. When Dong landed in California he contacted DIA officials and told them about his plans to defect and the information he’d brought with him. Dong then “hid in plain sight” for about two weeks before disappearing into DIA custody.

Defector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Official

pjmedia.com

This is probably what prompted Biden to announce a 90 day investigation into the origins of the COVID virus, shortly after he eliminated the ongoing Trump investigation

 

[revealer3k]

Fauci’s NIAID had been funding University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to conduct virus manipulation experiments for years :

NIAID renews 5-year grant for research on emerging viruses - UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

September 19, 2017 Dr. Ralph Baric is co-principal investigator on a grant that will develop new mouse models that replicate the genetic diversity found in humans and validate precision medicine models that predict human gene function following infection by emerging pathogens.

sph.unc.edu

September 19, 2017

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has renewed a 5-year grant managed by co-principal investigators Ralph S. Baric, PhD, professor of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Mark Heise, PhD, professor of genetics in the UNC School of Medicine.

The grant, titled “Systems Immunogenetics of Biodefense and Emerging Pathogens in the Collaborative Cross,” will run from Sept. 1, 2017, to Aug. 30, 2022, with a funding amount of approximately $11.5 million.

The overarching premise of the grant is the development of new mouse models that replicate the genetic diversity found in humans. These “outbred” models will allow researchers to better understand how natural genetic variation regulates immune and disease outcomes following infection with highly pathogenic emerging viruses.

By working with the UNC Collaborative Cross panel, a mouse genetic reference population specifically designed to model genetically complex populations such as humans, the researchers hope to identify and map the specific genes that interact to regulate virus immunity. Then, they will work to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which these genes control protective or pathogenic host immune responses following infection.

In particular, Baric’s group will focus on identifying susceptibility alleles that regulate SARS coronavirus disease mechanisms and immunity; this work will build on previous findings noted by Lisa Gralinski, PhD, a member of the group and a research assistant professor in the Gillings School’s Department of Epidemiology.

Dr. Ralph S. Baric from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a top expert, defender & beneficiary of the virus modification / gain-of-function research.

By using humanized mice, they created new deadly viruses that can infect humans.

So in the name of “study the viruses to prevent future pandemics”, they actually created new viruses that can cause future pandemics.

Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research - Nature

Lab-made coronavirus related to SARS can infect human cells.

www.nature.com

The researchers created a chimaeric virus, made up of a surface protein of SHC014 and the backbone of a SARS virus that had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic human disease. The chimaera infected human airway cells — proving that the surface protein of SHC014 has the necessary structure to bind to a key receptor on the cells and to infect them.

The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens — what is known as ‘gain-of-function’ research. In October 2014, the US government imposed a moratorium on federal funding of such research on the viruses that cause SARS, influenza and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, a deadly disease caused by a virus that sporadically jumps from camels to people).

The latest study was already under way before the US moratorium began, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed it to proceed while it was under review by the agency, says Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a co-author of the study. The NIH eventually concluded that the work was not so risky as to fall under the moratorium, he says.

But Wain-Hobson disapproves of the study because, he says, it provides little benefit, and reveals little about the risk that the wild SHC014 virus in bats poses to humans.

“The only impact of this work is the creation, in a lab, of a new, non-natural risk,” agrees Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and biodefence expert at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Both Ebright and Wain-Hobson are long-standing critics of gain-of-function research.

But Baric and others say the research did have benefits. The study findings “move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger”, says Peter Daszak, who co-authored the 2013 paper. Daszak is president of the EcoHealth Alliance, an international network of scientists, headquartered in New York City, that samples viruses from animals and people in emerging-diseases hotspots across the globe.

 

[revealer3k]

US suspends risky disease research - Nature

Government to cease funding gain-of-function studies that make viruses more dangerous, pending a safety assessment.

www.nature.com

The US government surprised many researchers on 17 October when it announced that it will temporarily stop funding new research that makes certain viruses more deadly or transmissible.

Wuhan lab infected 'humanized mice' with bat coronaviruses in 2019 | Taiwan News | 2021-01-11 10:39:00

Did experiments with new bat viruses in transgenic mice lead to COVID-19 pandemic? | 2021-01-11 10:39:00

www.taiwannews.com.tw

The revelation that a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had been infecting "humanized mice" with new bat SARS coronaviruses in 2019 raises the question of whether an accident during these experiments led to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at WIV, Shi Zhengli (石正麗), also known as "Bat Woman," since 2007 has been researching how spike proteins in natural and chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses bind to the ACE2 receptors in the cells of humans, bats, and other animals. That year, she created a number of chimeras by inserting different segments of the SARS-CoV S spike protein into that of a bat virus (SL-CoV S) which was used as a backbone.

The conclusion of Shi's team was that a minimal insert region (amino acids 310 to 518) was enough to "convert the SL-CoV S from non-ACE2 binding to human ACE2 binding." In other words, as far back as 2007, the lab had discovered how to convert a virus that only infected bats into one that could infect humans.

In 2014, Shi, Hu, and other WIV scientists began taking part in gain of function (GoF) experiments with Ralph S. Baric of the University of North Carolina.

After the WIV experimented with Vero E6 cells, they used transgenic "humanized mice" from Baric's lab, meaning the rodents had been genetically modified to express the human ACE2 protein. In 2019, just before the known start of the pandemic, Hu began his work on a project titled "Pathogenicity of 2 new bat SARS-related covs to transgenic mice expressing human ACE2."

According to Bostickson, "This research involved 'novel' bat coronaviruses inoculated into immuno-suppressed mice with humanised features, such as hACE2, and possibly humanised lungs, bone marrow, etc..."

No information about this research has been released to the public since the start of the pandemic, including data on the eight chimeric viruses the WIV had been infecting the mice with. In fact, all of the institute's databases have been offline since the start of the pandemic for alleged "cybersecurity issues," including 100 unpublished sequences of bat betacoronaviruses, which need to be sequenced by international scientists, according to Bostickson.

 

[revealer3k]

While questioning the origin of Covid-19, people seemed to forget to ask a question - are the mutations of Covid-19 all natural ?

How Will the Coronavirus Evolve?

If we’re lucky, mutations will make SARS-CoV-2 less lethal, as happened with the 1918 flu—but there’s no guarantee of that

www.scientificamerican.com

If we’re lucky, SARS-CoV-2 will evolve, like the 1918 virus dubbed the “Spanish flu,” to become less lethal. After infecting an estimated 500 million worldwide and killing at least 50 million, the 1918 flu virus receded.

But in fact, the new mutations of Covid-19 are more and more lethal. Are they really naturally evolved ?

Why Covid-19 mutates so suddenly and quickly, and the mutations becoming more and more deadly ? Is this really natural ?

One possible scenario is, the researchers had created many variants of Covid-19 in the lab, some guys fetched the viruses, and then released them one by one.