356 replies to this topic

[bladedmind]

NYT AND WASHINGTON POST ON LAB LEAK

 

If you are curious about the origins issue, this new NYT op-ed by Zeynep Tufekci is the best summary I’ve seen.  Dispassionate, detailed, exact, and fair.  She does not say that lab-leak is more supported by evidence than zoonotic.  But, in my estimation, the many different points she raises lean towards lab-leak, especially past lab-leak incidents and the obfuscation and deception by the China government.

Where Did the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling

 

 

Washington Post Opinion: Doubts about China’s transparency on the pandemic origins are piling up

 

We already know of China’s attempt to cover up the early outbreak, punish Wuhan doctors who were alarmed about it, and withhold information from the population about the human transmissibility of the virus. China took offline a major database at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and imposed gag orders on medical workers and others. It has steadfastly denied that any kind of laboratory accident contributed to the pandemic and repeatedly suggested that the origins are outside its borders. Dr. Bloom’s discovery just adds to the pile of questions about whether China is hiding something. It is time to launch a serious, sustained investigation.

 

Meanwhile, a new group, Scientists for Science (!), calls for MORE gain-of-function research.  Better termed  gain-of-threat research.  It's science! Don’t ask questions!

 

And. Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research / Scientists express horror over the creation of a virus that could render the human immune system defenceless
 

Some members of the audience, however, were shocked and astonished at his latest and most audacious work on flu viruses, which follow on from his attempts to re-create the 1918 flu virus and an earlier project to increase the transmissibility of a highly lethal strain of bird flu….

 

“He left no doubt in my mind that he had achieved it. He used a flu virus that is known to infect humans and then manipulated it in such a way that it would effectively leave the global population defenceless if it ever escaped from his laboratory,” he said.

 

“He’s basically got a known pandemic strain that is now resistant to vaccination. Everything he did before was dangerous but this is even madder. This is the virus,” he added.

 

Greater detail.  His research was suspended in 2014, but HHS approved its resumption in January, 2021, although the cost-benefit rationale for its approval is denied to the public.  To question Fauci is to question science! 

[Daniel Cooper]

NYT AND WASHINGTON POST ON LAB LEAK

 

If you are curious about the origins issue, this new NYT op-ed by Zeynep Tufekci is the best summary I’ve seen.  Dispassionate, detailed, exact, and fair.  She does not say that lab-leak is more supported by evidence than zoonotic.  But, in my estimation, the many different points she raises lean towards lab-leak, especially past lab-leak incidents and the obfuscation and deception by the China government.

Where Did the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling

 

 

Washington Post Opinion: Doubts about China’s transparency on the pandemic origins are piling up

 

 

Meanwhile, a new group, Scientists for Science (!), calls for MORE gain-of-function research.  Better termed  gain-of-threat research.  It's science! Don’t ask questions!

 

And. Controversial US scientist creates deadly new flu strain for pandemic research / Scientists express horror over the creation of a virus that could render the human immune system defenceless
 

 

Greater detail.  His research was suspended in 2014, but HHS approved its resumption in January, 2021, although the cost-benefit rationale for its approval is denied to the public.  To question Fauci is to question science! 

 

I actually heard Fauci say in an interview - "If you attack Tony Fauci, you're not attacking me.  You're attacking the science.".

 

Apparently he's Anthony Science Fauci.  Science is his middle name.

 

 

[Hebbeh]

https://www.business...loomberg-2021-6

An Australian scientist who was the only foreigner at the Wuhan virus lab says she never got COVID-19 and doesn't believe the center leaked it

An Australian scientist who was the only remaining foreigner at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has said that she never contracted COVID-19 and doesn't believe the novel coronavirus leaked from the lab.

Danielle Anderson worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology until late 2019.
She told Bloomberg she doesn't believe the novel coronavirus leaked from her old workplace.

On Sunday, Bloomberg News published an interview with Danielle Anderson, a 42-year-old expert in bat-borne viruses, who worked at the institute's BSL-4 lab until November 2019.

As Anderson described her workplace: "It's not that it was boring, but it was a regular lab that worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab."

"What people are saying is just not how it is."

In late May, The Wall Street Journal uncovered a US intelligence report that said three researchers at the Wuhan lab were so sick in November 2019 — a month before the novel coronavirus was first found in Wuhan — that they had to go to the hospital.

However, Anderson told Bloomberg that she was not aware of anyone at the Wuhan lab falling ill at that time.

"If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn't," she said.

"I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it."

In December, Anderson said, she was reunited with many of her colleagues from Wuhan at a conference in Singapore, and that that none of them reported anything out of the ordinary at the lab.

"There was no chatter," Anderson said. "Scientists are gossipy and excited. There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here."

Anderson also told Bloomberg that the lab had stringent safety protocols, and that she didn't believe the virus had leaked from there.

Anderson said that she and her colleagues had to complete 45 hours of "very, very extensive" training to be permitted to work alone in the lab, Bloomberg reported.

"The pandemic is something no one could have imagined on this scale," she said.

Complete story at link

[Advocatus Diaboli]

"If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn't," she said.

 

That quote from the article in post #123 tells me all I need to know about this "scientist" and how I should assess the coherence of her claims.

 

 

 

[Daniel Cooper]

"If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn't," she said.

 

That quote from the article in post #123 tells me all I need to know about this "scientist" and how I should assess the coherence of her claims.

 

I personally know a couple of families living together where one person got covid and none of the rest ever did.  And no, they were not wearing masks at home.

[pamojja]

LOL. If I worked at Wuhan Lab at the time, I on the contrary honestly would admit any lab-leak

[Daniel Cooper]

Top Gain of Function Scientist Ralph Baric Admitted Viruses Can Be Lab Engineered 'Without a Trace'

[Dorian Grey]

News Flash...  The DRASTIC group has some distressing news: 

 

https://www.yahoo.co...-145326380.html

 

Wuhan scientists planned to release coronaviruses into cave bats 18 months before outbreak

 

Wuhan scientists were planning to release enhanced airborne coronaviruses into Chinese bat populations to inoculate them against diseases that could jump to humans, leaked grant proposals dating from 2018 show.

New documents show that just 18 months before the first Covid-19 cases appeared, researchers had submitted plans to release skin-penetrating nanoparticles containing “novel chimeric spike proteins” of bat coronaviruses into cave bats in Yunnan, China.

They also planned to create chimeric viruses, genetically enhanced to infect humans more easily, and requested $14million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to fund the work.

 

Papers, confirmed as genuine by a former member of the Trump administration, show they were hoping to introduce “human-specific cleavage sites” to bat coronaviruses which would make it easier for the virus to enter human cells.

When Covid-19 was first genetically sequenced, scientists were puzzled about how the virus had evolved such a human-specific adaptation at the cleavage site on the spike protein, which is the reason it is so infectious.

The documents were released by Drastic, the web-based investigations team set up by scientists from across the world to look into the origins of Covid-19.

In a statement, Drastic said: “Given that we find in this proposal a discussion of the planned introduction of human-specific cleavage sites, a review by the wider scientific community of the plausibility of artificial insertion is warranted.”

The proposal also included plans to mix high-risk natural coronavirus strains with more infectious but less dangerous varieties.

The bid was submitted by British zoologist Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, the US-based organisation, which has worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researching bat coronaviruses.

Team members included Dr Shi Zhengli, the WIV researcher dubbed “bat woman”, pictured below, as well as US researchers from the University of North Carolina and the United States Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Centre.

Darpa refused to fund the work, saying: “It is clear that the proposed project led by Peter Daszak could have put local communities at risk”, and warned that the team had not properly considered the dangers of enhancing the virus (gain of function research) or releasing a vaccine by air.

Grant documents show that the team also had some concerns about the vaccine programme and said they would “conduct educational outreach … so that there is a public understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it, particularly because of the practice of bat-consumption in the region”.

Angus Dalgleish, Professor of Oncology at St Georges, University of London, who struggled to get work published showing that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had been carrying out “gain of function” work for years before the pandemic, said the research may have gone ahead even without the funding.

“This is clearly a gain of function, engineering the cleavage site and polishing the new viruses to enhance human cell infectibility in more than one cell line,” he said.

Daszak was also behind a letter published in The Lancet last year which effectively shut down scientific debate into the origins of Covid-19.

Viscount Ridley, who has co-authored a book on the origin of Covid-19, due for release in November, and who has frequently called for a further investigation into what caused the pandemic in the House of Lords, said: “For more than a year I tried repeatedly to ask questions of Peter Daszak with no response.

“Now it turns out he had authored this vital piece of information about virus work in Wuhan but refused to share it with the world. I am furious. So should the world be.

“Peter Daszak and the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) proposed injecting deadly chimeric bat coronaviruses collected by the Wuhan Institute of Virology into humanised and ‘batified’ mice, and much, much more.”

A Covid-19 researcher from the World Health Organisation (WHO), who wished to remain anonymous, said it was alarming that the grant proposal included plans to enhance the more deadly disease of Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers).

“The scary part is they were making infectious chimeric Mers viruses,” the source said.

“These viruses have a fatality rate over 30 per cent, which is at least an order of magnitude more deadly than Sars-CoV-2.

“If one of their receptor replacements made Mers spread similarly, while maintaining its lethality, this pandemic would be nearly apocalyptic.”

EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been aproached for comment.

[Dorian Grey]

This looks like the detail from D.R.A.S.T.I.C

 

https://drasticresea...021/09/20/1583/

 

"The actual DEFUSE Proposal Documents will be published in due course."

[Dorian Grey]

Here's yer deep dive with Dr Chris Martenson (PhD / Pathology)

 

 

Unbelievable amount of evidence!  

[Daniel Cooper]

I was initially skeptical of the Wuhan Lab leak theory and made posts here to that effect. But based on the available evidence, I personally consider the idea that covid-19 inadvertently escaped from the WIV to be in the "more likely than not" column. 

 

WIV was definitely doing gain of function research on coronaviruses, making changes of the sort that are notable in covid-19's ability to infect humans, notwithstanding Fauci's denial that the US in any way funded gain of function research in that lab. 

 

There were many routes that WIV might have created covid-19. They were doing direct genetic manipulation, but they were also repeatedly running unmodified bat corona viruses through generations of mice with humanized immune systems and that in an of itself might have created covid-19 without direct genetic manipulation. 

 

The circumstantial case is pretty compelling at this point. 

 

This was once a verboten topic in the press and on social media. That is a dangerous prohibition on what are allowable areas of public debate. Gain of function research is something that needs to be heavily scrutinized.  As bad as covid-19 has been in terms of death toll, we could well be even more unlucky in the future if this happens again. 

[bladedmind]

THE ULTIMATE LAB LEAK HYPOTHESIS

 

The Ethical Skeptic offers a bold lab leak hypothesis, in exhaustive detail.   I'm not advocating it, just passing it along.

 

https://theethicalsk...-as-march-2018/

 

SUMMARY

 

In the January to March timeframe of 2018, the People’s Republic of China experienced a biosafety level (BSL) lab leak of a furin cleavage and otherwise 4+% modified, human-optimized SARS coronavirus. The Chinese Communist Party mandated that this release be kept confidential because the virus contained an inactivated biowarfare peptide (proline-weakened staphylococcal enterotoxin B – or ‘SEB’) in its RNA. Their hope was that the virus would just burn out through excessive mutation, as did SARS-CoV-1. The virus ended up spreading more quickly than they had anticipated however, propagating through central Africa and the longitude East 65 through 180 contiguous set of nations – a common geographic corridor through which novel flu and cold viruses have initially propagated in the past.

 

    This proto-SARS-CoV-2 virus accelerated in its human-adaptation and infected a much larger host base than the CCP had anticipated, conferring an extraordinarily high degree (47 to 1) of natural immunity to the virus inside more than 66 mostly contiguous nations initially infected. This less virulent form of proto-Covid was dangerous primarily to those over age 85 and was interpreted by apportionment sentinel sampling as high rates of influenza in both 2018 and 2019. Given the younger population demographic comprised by most those nations initially infected, along with the virus’ high percentage of asymptomatic transmission, the proto-Covid illness proliferated undetected by its victim nations while its human host antibodies waned over the ensuing two years.

 

    Unfortunately for the CCP, the virus consequently broke through to a more virulent (full strength SEB peptide) and deadly form (first Wuhan or ‘wild’ variant) during a mid-2019 tail outbreak in Hubei province. By October of 2019, following significant unrest in a suffering Wuhan city, and under the impending realization that they could no longer conceal an outbreak of such virility, the CCP formulated an elaborate obfuscation campaign and coronavirus mitigation charade. A scheme crafted to both minimize China’s culpability before the international community and furthermore tender the appearance that the resulting catastrophic harm to the rest of the world had resulted from merely a freak occurrence of natural virus evolution. That plan launched on 31 December 2019, when the PRC informed the World Health Organization of a novel pneumonia of unknown etiology which had been detected at the Huanan wet-food wholesale market in Wuhan City, Hubei Province….

 

https://i0.wp.com/th...ional-Map-4.png

[Mind]

Congress releases emails showing Dr. Fauci was aware of gain of function research being funded in Wuhan. He denied knowledge of this previously.

[Daniel Cooper]

Congress releases emails showing Dr. Fauci was aware of gain of function research being funded in Wuhan. He denied knowledge of this previously.

 

Of course Fauci knew that NIAID was funding gain of function research. It's obvious by the way he has increasingly restricted his definition of what constitutes GoF, not to mention his statements after the federal ban that GoF was worth the risk "even if it causes a pandemic".

 

Someone really needs to be held to account for this. This is very risky research for a very nebulous payoff. Apparently they think we can anticipate how a virus will evolve in the wild and we'll be ahead of the game since we've already made and studied it in the lab. Color me skeptical.

 

The next time one of these engineered viruses escapes a lab, we may not be so lucky as to measure the death toll in single digit millions.

[Daniel Cooper]

Research on Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus: The Way Forward - Dr. Anthony Fauci

 

Fauci discusses gain of function research in this paper in 2012.

 

Money quote:

In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic? Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario—however remote—should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?

Scientists working in this field might say—as indeed I have said—that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks. It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature, and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky.

 

 

Edited by Daniel Cooper, 12 January 2022 - 09:50 PM.

[bladedmind]

I am passing along some sensational info not yet widely broadcast.  If you’re in the lab leak thread but not interested in lab leak, just hoof along to happier pastures.

 

Dr. Andrew G. Huff was an Associate Vice President under Peter Daszak at EcoHealth Alliance (I’m assuming the reader knows the alleged culpability of EHA in the genesis of Covid-19).  He authored several research articles at EHA:  https://www.research...Huff-2108147738

 

He was hospital epidemiologist at MSU

 

Dr. Andrew Huff is a multidisciplinary scientist and conducts research in high performance computing, risk analysis, bioterrorism, spatial analysis, modeling and simulation, epidemiology, emerging infectious disease ecology, and environmental health as it relates to agricultural and biological food production systems, biosurveillance systems, and public health. Dr. Huff was a member of the U.S. Army where he served two combat tours as an infantryman and has been an active participant in government committees and private sector organizations that work to establish safe and effective policies for food production systems, the environment, and public health systems. Science based policy is imperative to effectively and efficiently combat the difficult challenges our society faces. Challenges like climate change, human overpopulation, and environmental degradation are particularly complex and worrisome, and the Environmental Science and Policy Program at MSU provides the opportunity for students and faculty from different disciplines to work together to create impactful science based policy recommendations.

 

Now at the firm MTRX https://mtrx.io/

 

Out of the blue, in June 2012, Andrew Huff posted some inflammatory claims at his Linkedin account, reported by DRASTIC tweeter Billy Bostickson.  https://twitter.com/...268001496649728   Huff:

 

Anyone care to speculate why Fauci FOIA emails to non-government individuals (especially to Zuckerberg and Daszak) are heavily redacted with these codes? (b)(4), (b)(6), (b)(7)(A)

 

2. (b)(4) Reveal information that would impair the application of state-of-the-art technology within a U.S. weapon system

 

3. (b)(6) Reveal information, including foreign government information, that would cause serious harm to relations between the United States and a foreign government, or to ongoing diplomatic activities of the United States

 

4. (b)(7)(A) Reveal information that would impair the current ability of United States Government officials to protect the President, Vice President, and other protectees for whom protection services, in the interest of national security, are authorized

 

Since I directly reported to PD [Peter Daszak], worked on this project & in that classified space, my guess is that the derivative classifier is worried that the combined information from those emails will reveal derogatory information about US Gov

 

1. Dual Use Research of Concern- research at WIV paid for by NIH and managed by EcoHealth Alliance could have been mirrored in the classified space in the US.

 

2. The gross negligence and mismanagement of research sponsored by NIH via EcoHealth Alliance at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, undermines state level relations between the US and China.

3. Confirm that NIH was grossly negligent, or was directly knowledgeable, in mismanagement of funds directed to WIV through EcoHealth Alliance & did not properly manage obvious risks nor did they effectively oversee contract funds related to high risk DURC

4. That NIH and FB and EcoHealth Alliance directly engaged in a cover-up scheme, where further investigations into the cover up will reveal classified research or intelligence, peripheral to the primary investigation of the cover up activity.

I guess that I could have also added biowarfare countermeasures but that could fall under bioweapons/DURC. There is probably some interesting backstory to the development of mrna vaccines pre covid

 

It would be interesting to know who, or if anyone, at Pfizer or Moderna, have security clearances, at what level, & when they were granted

 

IC is pretty good at collaborating on R&D with industry via back channels, & hopefully the IC was not that stupid

 

No more public presence, then Huff surfaced with a twitter account at the end of October 2021.  https://twitter.com/AGHuff  He engaged with DRASTIC and other internet sleuths who work on the lab leak hypothesis, and on similar topics.  He dropped enticing hints about Daszak and EHA, said he is working with DC lawmakers, and complained of harassment.  His twitter went silent from Dec 24 to Jan 12.  He’s back now and complains of intrusive surveillance and harassment by the intelligence community.  Either he is having a psychotic break, or this is a major national scandal.  He is now more forthcoming about what he knows directly and what he infers from it.

 

For the Record: In 2015, Dr. Peter Daszak stopped me as we were leaving work late at night, and asked me if he should work with the CIA. I was shocked given my experience in security. Over the next 2 months he gave me updates on 3 separate occasions about his work with the CIA.

 

When he asked me the question I stated "Peter, it never hurts to talk with them and there could potentially be money in it." Meanwhile, I was cringing that he told me this, in a non classified setting (a SCIF), to a person that was not "read-in," and to a un-cleared person (me).

 

Then, over the next two months at the break area while getting coffee, or between meetings, he stated that they were interested in the places that we were working, the people involved, the data that we were collecting, and that the work with them was proceeding.

 

Looking back, I now believe that EcoHealth Alliance was a CIA front organization to collect viral samples and to collect intelligence on foreign laboratory capacity. There was no way that the data collected or the models being developed, could predict transmission or pandemics.

 

Contextually, EcoHealth was barely solvent and it was common place to lay off employees with the ebb and flow of federal and private funding. Peter would do anything or say anything to obtain funding. Intelligence organizations often target people in financial distress.

 

From the CIA's perspective, it was a great plan in my opinion, if what Dr. Peter Daszak said was true. Since it was common place for Peter to lie, I didn't necessarily believe him when he told me. However...

 

Based on the past two months of the US government spending millions of dollars surveilling me and MTRX INC employees, including military aircraft, attempting to destroy my house, bugging everything in it, stealing my property, and hacking all my devices, I believe that the...

 

...worst is likely true. EcoHealth Alliance is likely a CIA front organization. COVID-19 is the biggest intelligence failure since 9/11. The coverup is the greatest in US History, far worse than the Iran-Contra scandal. The truth is coming out and I will testify this under oath.

 

I have been asked the question several times: What is the end game? My goals are 1. To have an international ban on Gain on Function Research. 2. To ratify a new International Bioweapons Treaty that has a Ban on Dual Use Research of Concern related to...

 

... (2) Gain of Function Research that is enforceable (has teeth). and now 3. A repeal of provisions of the Patriot Act to prevent the attack that happened to myself, my family, and MTRX INC employees.

 

Speculation: I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA / IC community orchestrated the COVID coverup acting as an intermediary between Fauci, Collins, Daszak, Baric, and many others. At best, it was the biggest criminal conspiracy in US history by bureaucrats or political appointees.

 

 

Edited by bladedmind, 14 January 2022 - 12:33 AM.

[bladedmind]

Out of the blue, in June 2012 2021

 

His twitter was silent from Dec 24  Dec 4 to Jan 12

Edited by bladedmind, 14 January 2022 - 05:06 AM.

[Mind]

Of course Fauci knew that NIAID was funding gain of function research. It's obvious by the way he has increasingly restricted his definition of what constitutes GoF, not to mention his statements after the federal ban that GoF was worth the risk "even if it causes a pandemic".

 

Someone really needs to be held to account for this. This is very risky research for a very nebulous payoff. Apparently they think we can anticipate how a virus will evolve in the wild and we'll be ahead of the game since we've already made and studied it in the lab. Color me skeptical.

 

The next time one of these engineered viruses escapes a lab, we may not be so lucky as to measure the death toll in single digit millions.

 

This is an important discussion which might deserve it's own thread or even sub-forum. If you read through the FOIA emails/docs released in regards to GOF research conducted/funded by Google/Fauci/EcoHealth, they were working on stuff a lot worse than COVID-19. There are health impacts (how to survive/combat the engineered viruses) and public policy questions. If this research is going to be conducted, it needs to be much more transparent with greater oversight.

[bladedmind]

Mind, Covid-19 aside, preventing mad-scientist disease outbreaks is a legitimate longevity concern.  I wish I knew more about international and national policy debates on biowarfare and gain-of-function experimentation.

 

In my twitter dabbling into the lab leak hypothesis, Alina Chan seems more grounded and also is offers ideas about achieving better regulation.   More senior and more internationally prominent scholars harping on this are Richard Ebright and Jamie Metzl. 

 

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan

https://twitter.com/R_H_Ebright

https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl

 

 

[Daniel Cooper]

Mind, Covid-19 aside, preventing mad-scientist disease outbreaks is a legitimate longevity concern.  I wish I knew more about international and national policy debates on biowarfare and gain-of-function experimentation.

 

In my twitter dabbling into the lab leak hypothesis, Alina Chan seems more grounded and also is offers ideas about achieving better regulation.   More senior and more internationally prominent scholars harping on this are Richard Ebright and Jamie Metzl. 

 

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan

https://twitter.com/R_H_Ebright

https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl

 

The thing about achieving better regulation - you can put all sorts of international agreements and treaties and verification programs in place. And if a country is of a mind to continue this sort of research they will mean nothing. This sort of stuff is too easy to do clandestinely and if you get an agreement for periodic inspection of facilities you simply will never be allowed to visit the facility where the real research is being done. These were the routine results of these sorts of treaties and inspection programs when it came to bioweapons research in the USSR.

 

What you can do is make it very painful for a country that performs this type of research and lets it out of their lab.

 

This is why the world's response to covid-19 vis-à-vis China and the Wuhan Institute of Virology is so disturbing.

 

Do we here on this forum know that the virus escaped the WIV? No. There is an excellent circumstantial case to be made. And lest we forget - people get convicted and imprisoned on circumstantial evidence all the time. But, I'm going to guess that the intelligence apparatus in the US and probably a few other countries as well know pretty definitively whether this virus originated from the WIV. There have been whispers and leaks that US photoreconnaissance satellites noted that the parking lots at WIV were empty in the weeks before China claims to have discovered the first covid infection in the wild. If that is true, then that's pretty compelling evidence that WIV had a leak.

 

But, because this occurred in an election year, and it was widely perceived that acknowledging that a pandemic had been started from a leak from China would advantage a certain widely hated presidential candidate, merely suggesting that this virus had originated from a lab in China was enough to get one banished into outer darkness - banned from all social media, disparaged publicly, and if at all possible fired from one's employment.

 

It wasn't until months after the election that the idea that covid had originated from the WIV became a respectable position able to be uttered in polite company after the publication of Nicolas Wade's article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Suddenly you could talk about it without getting kicked off of Facebook and Twitter and being labeled a kook on the pages of the New York Times.

 

Later we learned from FOIA disclosures that scientists in Dr. Fauci's orbit also thought early on that the virus was likely engineered, mere days before publishing papers that said exactly the opposite.

 

Because politics had clearly been allowed to intrude into a matter of science, China was essentially let off the hook for any serious investigation or repercussions. Not only has China not suffered any political or economic consequences, it's entirely possible that ultimately China has benefited economically by supplying medical material and other supplies necessitated by the pandemic.

 

This is why Anthony Fauci's pleas to "trust the science" ring so hollow - because this pandemic and the science around it were so clearly politicized from the get go. And that politicization may result in China and other would be gain of function researchers concluding that it's possible to create a pandemic that kills millions and more or less get away with it.  

 

This is a very dangerous precedent to set.

Edited by Daniel Cooper, 16 January 2022 - 12:39 AM.

[xEva]

Very well said!

xcpt:

Why only China is to blame? Who ordered and financed those studies? Who built that very lab?

Why, the US and the EU, led by France, accordingly. 

 

Seems to me  it was an international "effort".

Edited by xEva, 16 January 2022 - 11:01 PM.

[Daniel Cooper]

Very well said!

xcpt:

Why only China is to blame? Who ordered and financed those studies? Who built that very lab?

Why, the US and the EU, led by France, accordingly. 

 

Seems to me  it was an international "effort".

 

Certainly there is blame to go around. China gets most of it, it was after all their lab run by their rules. But certainly the US and possibly some European countries were funding pieces of it, some in violation of their own laws and regulations (I'm looking at you Fauci and Collins).

 

In fact, as far as I can tell Fauci hasn't changed his position on the wisdom of gain of function research. And why should he? He still supports the idea that this virus most likely jumped into humans of it's own accord.  If this pandemic had nothing to do with GoF, then why not keep doing it? 

 

Which is why this whole political manipulation of "The Science" is such a dangerous thing.

 

 

[Daniel Cooper]

The Telegraph - Scientists believed Covid leaked from Wuhan lab - but feared debate could hurt ‘international harmony’

 

But a leading scientist told Sir Jeremy that “further debate would do unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular”. Dr Collins, the former director of the US National Institutes of Health, warned it could damage “international harmony”.

 

Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: the search for the origin of Covid, said: “These emails show a lamentable lack of openness and transparency among Western scientists who appear to have been more interested in shutting down a hypothesis they thought was very plausible, for political reasons.”

 

______

 

Scientists were particularly concerned by a part of Covid-19 called the furin cleavage site, a section of the spike protein which helps it enter cells and makes it so infectious to humans.

 

Summarising Professor Farzan’s concerns in an email, Sir Jeremy said: “He is bothered by the furin site and has a hard time (to) explain that as an event outside the lab, though there are possible ways in nature but highly unlikely.

 

[Mind]

One of the initial investigators says the investigation has been a whitewash of science. I agree.

[Daniel Cooper]

Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists - How COVID-19’s origins were obscured, by the East and the West

 

Quotes:

 

The conference was held to discuss the unanimous view of a group of virologists that the SARS2 virus had been manipulated in a lab. Yet within a few days of the meeting, the virologists abruptly reversed their conclusion. The meeting’s participants were later involved in two letters to scientific journals that stated the virus must have emerged naturally and that condemned any suggestion of manipulation as a conspiracy theory. These two letters, to The Lancet and Nature Medicine, shaped the views of the mainstream media for more than a year.

 

Even today, no one can say for sure whether the SARS2 virus emerged naturally or escaped from a lab. Much less could anyone have been sure back then. If the conferees had stuck to known facts, they would have left the question open to the two hypotheses, and the full exploration of the virus’s origins might not have been sidetracked for over a year.

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At 10:32 p.m. on the evening before the February 1 conference, Fauci had received an electrifying memo from Kristian G. Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research institute in California. Andersen reported that the virus seemed to be man-made. “The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome,” he wrote, referring presumably to a genetic component known as a furin cleavage site, which greatly enhances the virus’s infectivity, “so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.”

 

Andersen went on to note that “after discussions earlier today, Eddie, Bob, Mike and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory”— meaning that, in their unanimous view, the virus didn’t come from nature. “Those opinions could still change,” Andersen added. Eddie is Edward C. Holmes of the University of Sydney. Bob is Robert F. Garry of Tulane University. Mike is Michael Farzan at Scripps Research.

 

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At the conference there was a notable imbalance of power between the virologists and the officials. Fauci and Farrar together control a large portion of the funds available for virological research in the Western world. A virologist keen to continue his career would be very attentive to their wishes. Two of the conference participants had multimillion-dollar grant proposals under final review with NIAID at the time of the call.

 

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I missed this article when it came out this last summer. Nicholas Wade has done real yeoman's work in trying to peel back the layers of how the early stages of the official response to covid occurred in the West.  And of course, Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists is hardly a right wing outlet. It has been consistently associated with the left since inception.

 

 

 

 

[Mind]

It is not a conspiracy. It seems Fauci, Collins, Daszak, and a few other highly placed bureaucrats have been "shaping the narrative" (lying in front of congress at times) on COVID from the beginning. I suspect they are counseling the anonymous fact-checkers (narrative managers) who have censored rational scientific discussion on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. for the last two years.

[Daniel Cooper]

It is not a conspiracy. It seems Fauci, Collins, Daszak, and a few other highly placed bureaucrats have been "shaping the narrative" (lying in front of congress at times) on COVID from the beginning. I suspect they are counseling the anonymous fact-checkers (narrative managers) who have censored rational scientific discussion on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. for the last two years.

 

The thing is, none of these people were disinterested parties in this debate. It seems pretty clear that Fauci and Collins both didn't want "the science" to get a black eye by having anyone talk about the possibility that scientific research had lead to a worldwide pandemic. And the NIAID (i.e. Fauci) at least had clearly been skirting restrictions on funding gain of function research by channeling money through EcoHealth Alliance (Peter Daszak). Francis Collins may well have been doing something similar over at NIH.

 

So the major players in the U.S. - Fauci, Collins, and Daszak were all very personally invested in determining that covid-19 had arisen naturally without any assist from the Wuhan Institute of Virology which ultimately lead back to them.

 

Some want to think that the guys in the white lab coats are some sort of modern priestly caste that are only motivated by a thirst for knowledge and the betterment of mankind. But scientists are just as human as the rest of us with the same faults and foibles. Furthermore, Fauci and Collins are more aptly described as bureaucrats than scientists. Yes, they have strong scientific backgrounds and at various points in their careers could accurately be called scientists, but you don't get to their lofty perches in the federal scientific machinery by spending lots and lots of hours back in the lab. You get there with a lot of ambition and a keen political acumen.

[bladedmind]

Following up Mind 146 and Daniel Cooper 147 on lab leak, Fauci, Collins, Baric, Peter Daszak.

 

The lab leak scandal is reaching the boiling point. 

 

This substack ties together most of the pieces known as of yesterday.   It's breathless and overconfident, several links in the chain of reasoning are only suggestive.   But it indicates where things are heading, and Huff added more today.  https://grayfox.subs...ii-the-coverup 

 

https://twitter.com/aghuff Recall that Andrew Huff worked under Daszak at Eco Health Alliance and is now blowing the whistle.  Some of his tweets today (Wed Jan 26):

 

I suspect in late February that we will begin to witness the denial, anger, depression, and shock of millions of people as they realize that the COVID panic is over and that they have been lied to by authority figures globally....

 

It seems like they are now throwing Fauci under the bus to save Peter, Baric, and the program. At EHA I spoke out against multiple aspects of the PREDICT program related to biosecurity, biosafety, and risk management in foreign labs. Peter was not the slightest bit concerned.

 

Why does Huff say that Fauci is being thrown under the bus?  Because of newly released info about formation of the notorious anti-lab-leak proximal origins paper, including "Docs Reveal Fauci Gave 4 Scientists Who Pushed ‘Natural Origins’ Narrative $50M in Grant Funding":  Start about 9:40. 

 

More Huff:

Not only did a former CIA director say that the US was to blame for the emergence of COVID due to US funded programs overseas going back to 2014, I am saying it too. Peter Daszak told me about his involvement with the program.@LeeSmithDC and @tabletmag article coming soon.

 

Former CIA director admitting US involvement in April 2020. The program began in 2014. See the IC community coverup in Politico.

 

Politico, April 2020,  Former Acting CIA Director

Morell noted separately on Thursday that if the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab, the U.S. would shoulder some of the blame since it funded research at that lab through government grants from 2014-2019

 

Israeli military officers' analysis of US intelligence community product on Covid-19.  https://www.idsa.in/...-pandemic-virus

 

Juicy!

 

Edited by bladedmind, 27 January 2022 - 07:29 AM.

[Dorian Grey]

If I live to see Fauci crash & burn, my life will be complete. 

 

The exaltation of remdesivir and demonization of HCQ was all I needed to see the blackness of his soul back in 2020.  

 

Would love to see him hung up by his heels in the town square like Mussolini.  

 

Don't know whether he's just a goofy old Gus, or truly evil, but the blood of millions is on his hands.  

 

Leaving millions to suffer alone, with no treatment outside of hospital. 

 

Outside, a path to knowledge.  Inside, a waste of cells.  A serpent with a head, full of lead.  

Edited by Dorian Grey, 27 January 2022 - 07:56 AM.

[bladedmind]

Superb excoriation, Dorian Grey.

 

What was Fauci's main business at the end of January 2020 when it was becoming clear that a full blown pandemic was on its way to the US?   Public health mobilization?  No.  Suppressing the idea that it could have been a lab leak.  Over a few days consulted scientists suspecting a lab origin suddenly converged on natural origin, and later they get millions in extra grants. 

 

Tony Fauci, "I represent science."

 

Tony Soprano, "I'm the mfing fing one that calls the shots."