“Barring some new, revelatory information, the Biden administration’s review of intelligence is unlikely to answer whether the virus came from a lab.”
Washington Post (June 15 2021)
June 07 2021 — The COVID pandemic has already claimed the lives of 3.5 million people worldwide and there is no end in sight to this global tragedy. Yet, nearly a year and a half since the first cases were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the origin of the virus remains a mystery. On May 26 2021, President Joe Biden announced that he had tasked the US Intelligence Community to prepare a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of COVID-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident. To be sure, there is no direct evidence of a lab-leak so far. But the Open Source Intelligence [OSINT] already available provides strong circumstantial evidence in favor of this theory. And the cover-up is very real. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
RELATED POST: The Wuhan Lab – Leak Theory : Did you say ‘Conspiracy Theory’?
RELATED POST: The Origin of Covid-19 — The Definitive Conclusion of the U.S. Intelligence Community 90-days Investigation [August 24 2021]
RELATED POST: Letter to a young investigator — Be suspicious of everything! [On the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic]
QUOTE #6
“Covid-19 was a wake-up call about the vulnerabilities of our modern, globalised societies to a novel respiratory virus. Preventing the next pandemic should be a priority for all countries. Ensuring that research with hazardous pathogens, especially those with potential pandemic properties, is conducted safely, securely and responsibly must be a key element of that strategy.”
Dr Gregory D Koblentz & Dr Filippa Lentzos (June 15 2021)
June 17 2021 — Dr Gregory D Koblentz is an associate professor at George Mason University, and Dr Filippa Lentzos is senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London.
They studied bio-security at the world’s most sophisticated laboratories, and they came to a rather simple and obvious conclusion.
“Whether Covid came from a leak or not, it’s time to talk about lab safety.”
The readers of this blog will remember that I had made that point in the discussion of Quote #5.
“We do not know that the pandemic began at the Wuhan lab, but we already know that it could have. Is this finding not worrisome enough to prompt serious actions?”
I recommend reading the full article but I would like to emphasize one point that the authors mention without going all the way to the logical conclusion.
“The vast majority of countries with BSL-4 labs do not conduct oversight of the type of gain-of-function research that has been a central feature in the debate on Covid-19’s origin, as potentially responsible for the possible leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
So even if you do not believe that the current pandemic was the result of a gain-of-function experiment gone wrong, it doesn’t mean that this type of work couldn’t be the source of the next pandemic.”
Accidents happen. That is a fact. Since 2003 — according to a database maintained by the American Biosafety Association — there have been four incidents of researchers being exposed while working in the most secured [BSL-4] laboratories.
Considering that accidents have happened and will happen again in the future, do you find it rational that three-quarters of these labs are located in urban areas?
Perhaps, the other central issue is this one. Should gain-of-function research be allowed at all? There is good reason to believe that the people who wanted to shut down the debate about a plausible Lab-Leak theory wanted first and foremost to keep this question out of the public debate. Of course, they also wanted to hide their financial interests in this research…
Let me repeat. We do not know that the pandemic began at the Wuhan lab, but we already know that it could have started from this lab. Just because we are not sure about the origin of this pandemic does not mean that we should allow the next one to occur as a result of a lab accident. There is plenty of work to be done. And not just in China.
QUOTE #5 :
“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
The Lancet (February 19 2020)
June 14 2021 — To any reasonable person, it seems rather logical to ask whether the virus causing the global pandemic was leaked — accidentally or intentionally — from one of the Wuhan’s labs.
However, this entirely plausible scenario was immediately dismissed as a Conspiracy Theory.
On February 19, 2020, The Lancet — among the most respected and influential medical journals in the world — published a statement “that roundly rejected the lab-leak hypothesis, effectively casting it as a xenophobic cousin to climate change denialism and anti-vaxxism.”
Signed by 27 scientists, the statement expressed “solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China” and asserted:
“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
The Lancet statement effectively ended the debate over COVID-19’s origins before it began.
The media ended all stories regarding this “Conspiracy Theory ” and we never heard about it again during the crucial next 15 months when a few brave men published the letter “Investigate the origins of COVID-19” in Science. (Quote #4)
Let me be very clear. Today, we do not know — and we may never know — if the pandemic began with a leak from the Wuhan Lab.
That does not mean that we are completely clueless… We already know for sure a certain number of things.
Similar accidents have happened in the past and the safety of the Wuhan lab is best described as a joke. Most people will agree that this kind of research should not have been conducted in level 2 laboratories.
We also know that a bunch of corrupted scientists decided to shut down a serious investigation despite knowing full well that it was a very plausible scenario.
And, sadly, the Main Stream Media accepted that this hypothesis was just another Conspiracy Theory. Instead of investigating the motivation of the Lancet Letter, they became part of the cover-up. Shame on them!
Last but not least, social media played their part in silencing honest science and research. Facebook simply banned all messages about the Lab-Leak Theory.
Thus, 15 crucial months have been lost. And the credibility of many actors has been shattered. Without a doubt, this fiasco will contribute to vaccine hesitancy all over the world.
Public trust and confidence in vaccines, science, and public health authorities is absolutely necessary. This trust and that confidence have been badly damaged.
This is no longer ‘just’ a health issue. What is at stake is fundamentally a matter of national security.
These findings are horrifying and they should prompt serious reflections about science and the media. The sooner, the better…
We do not know that the pandemic began at the Wuhan lab, but we already know that it could have. Is this finding not worrisome enough to prompt serious actions?
QUOTE #4 :
“Greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve. We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest. Public health agencies and research laboratories alike need to open their records to the public. Investigators should document the veracity and provenance of data from which analyses are conducted and conclusions drawn, so that analyses are reproducible by independent experts.”
Investigate the origins of COVID-19 — Science (May 14 2021)
JUNE 12 2021 –The reader has surely noticed a couple of oddities in US President Joe Biden’s statement.
First, a typo — “two elements in the IC leans” — which clearly reveals that this statement was rushed once the panic began to sink in the White House after top scientists published a letter in Science demanding greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic.
I received that report earlier this month, and asked for additional follow-up. As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios” but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.
Here is their current position: “while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”
And, of course, no one can ignore the fact that this investigation comes with a deadline. As a high ranking FBI agent once told me, when an investigation begins with a deadline, you can be certain that the conclusion has already been written.
Do you actually believe that the ‘redoubled’ effort will turn up any new revelations about the virus’s origin. Seriously?
Ask yourself a simple question. What prompted Joe Biden to request this 90 days investigation?
TIMELINE
May 11 2021 — Dr. Anthony Fauci finally acknowledges that scientists may ‘have been too definitive’ in previous public statements dismissing the Lab Theory.
May 14 2021 — Top scientists publish an open letter in Science: Investigate the origins of COVID-19
Sunday May 23 — Wall Street Journal report that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had symptoms consistent with Covid-19 and were hospitalized in November 2019.
Monday May 24 — Support is growing in Congress for a probe of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Democrats had previously dismissed the lab leak theory as a GOP talking point. But lawmakers from both parties are now giving the scenario renewed consideration.
Monday May 24 — CNN reveals that the Biden’s administration has shut down a closely-held State Department effort launched late in the Trump administration to prove the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab
Wednesday May 26 — The president announced that he had ordered the intelligence community to “redouble” efforts to look into the situation to “bring us closer to a definitive conclusion” and report back in 90 days.
Many would like to credit the Wall Street Journal Report for Biden’s decision. I am quite sure that this is NOT the case.
Firstly, the Biden’s administration had this ‘information’ all along. Secondly, and most importantly, I suspect that this information is false and Biden already knows that much.
There is no doubt in my mind that the letter “Investigate the origins of COVID-19” published in Science on May 14 2021 prompted the decision to launch an investigation.
QUOTE #3 :
“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. These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2.”
David Baltimore — Virologist and former president of the California Institute of Technology — 1975 Nobel Prize for his work with viruses
June 09 2021 — On November 17 2020, Dr Rossana Segreto and Dr Yuri Deigin published a very important essay: The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin.
The abstract reads:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2′s origin is still controversial. Genomic analyses show SARS-CoV-2 likely to be chimeric, most of its sequence closest to bat CoV RaTG13, whereas its receptor binding domain (RBD) is almost identical to that of a pangolin CoV.
Chimeric viruses can arise via natural recombination or human intervention. The furin cleavage site in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 confers to the virus the ability to cross species and tissue barriers, but was previously unseen in other SARS-like CoVs.
Might genetic manipulations have been performed in order to evaluate pangolins as possible intermediate hosts for bat-derived CoVs that were originally unable to bind to human receptors? Both cleavage site and specific RBD could result from site-directed mutagenesis, a procedure that does not leave a trace.
Considering the devastating impact of SARS-CoV-2 and importance of preventing future pandemics, researchers have a responsibility to carry out a thorough analysis of all possible SARS-CoV-2 origins.
Here is the key section:
SARS-CoV-2 differs from its closest relative RaTG13 by a few key characteristics. The most striking difference is the acquisition in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 of a cleavage site activated by a host-cell enzyme furin, previously not identified in other beta-CoVs of lineage b and similar to that of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus.
The ubiquitous expression of furin in different organs and tissues have conferred to SARS-CoV-2 the ability to infect organs usually invulnerable to other CoVs, leading to systemic infection in the body. (…) the polybasic furin site is essential for SARS-CoV-2′s ability to infect human lung cells.
The polybasic furin site in SARS-CoV-2 was created by a 12-nucleotide insert TCCTCGGCGGGC coding for a PRRA amino acid sequence at the S1/S2 junction (Figure 1). Interestingly, the two joint arginines are coded by two CGGCGG codons, which are rare for these viruses: only 5% of arginines are coded by CGG in SARS-CoV-2 or RaTG13, and CGGCGG in the new insert is the only doubled instance of this codon in SARS-CoV-2.
Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 remains unique among its beta CoV relatives not only due to a polybasic furin site at the S1/S2 junction, but also due to the four amino acid insert PRRA that had created it.
The authors conclude:
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 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.
QUOTE #2 :
“After discussions earlier today, [We] all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”
Pr. Kristian G. Andersen — Email to Tony Fauci (January 31 2020)
June 08 2021 — On January 31 2020, Kristian G. Andersen — an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research — contacted Dr. Fauci by email.
In this email, Andersen warned Fauci that the “unusual features” of the virus may indicate that the virus has been “engineered”.
Despite clear evidence, Kristian G. Andersen wrote the opposite conclusion in the journal Nature Medicine (May 17 2020) :
“By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes.”
“These two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD [receptor-binding domain] portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2.”
Likewise, for the next 16 months following the warning email, Fauci dismissed the man-made origin of the virus as a conspiracy theory.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, the scientific evidence is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated …
Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.”
The world had to wait until May 11 2021 for Dr. Anthony Fauci to finally acknowledge that scientists may ‘have been too definitive’ in previous public statements dismissing the Lab-Leak Theory.
US Senator Rand Paul has clashed with Dr Fauci in hearings on Capitol Hill on the issue of the US funding of the Wuhan Laboratory for ‘Gain-of-Function’ research. Rand Paul believes that this email (and many others) makes it “abundantly clear” that Dr. Fauci is “a massive fraud”.
QUOTE #1 :
“I think we need more slides like this… It is too cute!”
Patricia Conrad — Dr Tony Fauci’s Special Assistant (November 1, 2013)
June 07 2021 — Today, I will start this new series with a quote from Patricia Conrad — Dr Tony Fauci’s Special Assistant.
On November 1, 2013, Patricia Conrad received an email from NIH official Greg Folkers with a cartoon depicting a bat depositing coronavirus particles attacking human ACE2 receptor cells.
The email from Greg Folkers reads:
“Recently, the team led by Dr. Zhengli Shi from Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Peter Daszak from Ecohealth Alliance identified SL-CoVs [SARS-like coronavirus] in Chinese horseshoe bats that were 95% identical to human SARS-CoV and were able to use human angiotensin -converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for docking and entry.
Remarkably, they isolated the first known live bat SL-CoV that replicates in human and related cells.
Their findings provide clear evidence that some SL-CoVs circulating in bats are capable of infecting and replicating in human.”
And this is the cartoon — as well as its caption — attached to the email.
Bat SL-CoV-WIV1 uses ACE2 to directly infect human cells. — A newly isolated wild-type bat SL-CoV- WIV1 is found to use ACE2 as a cellular entry receptor and replicate in human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549), pig kidney-15 cells (PK15) and Chinese horseshoe bat kidney cells (RSKT). (Figure provided by Meng Wang. Wuhan Institute of Virology.)
Patricia Conrad replied:
“I think we need more slides like this… It is too cute!”
“There are unanswered questions, and a few human beings know the answers.”
Virginie Courtier — Paris Group co-founder
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes
“The most compelling evidence for a laboratory origin of COVID is that coronaviruses don’t have furin cleavage sites, and until last year, this trick has never evolved naturally.”– Josh Mitteldorf — Unthinkable Thoughts… (May 10 2021)
“Greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve. We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest. Public health agencies and research laboratories alike need to open their records to the public. Investigators should document the veracity and provenance of data from which analyses are conducted and conclusions drawn, so that analyses are reproducible by independent experts.” — Investigate the origins of COVID-19 — Science (May 14 2021)
“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. These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2.” — David Baltimore — Virologist and former president of the California Institute of Technology —1975 Nobel Prize for his work with viruses
“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days.” — President Joe Biden (May 26 2021)
“The Biden administration has now studied the mountain of disturbing evidence that we were confronted with in the last few months of the Trump administration. It is jaw dropping. And as they have noted, a great deal more needs to be assessed.” — David Asher, who led a state department investigation into the origins of Covid. (May 31 2021)
“Need any more evidence that the ‘Deep State’ is a real and anti-democratic force for misinformation and suppression of truth? They, like China, are doing everything they can to hide the truth about the Wuhan Lab.” — Patrick Moore — Co-founder of Greenpeace (June 4 2021)
“Those pursuing the investigation into COVID-19’s origins at the State Department say they were repeatedly advised not to open a ‘Pandora’s box’ or a ‘can of worms’—especially as it pertained to the U.S.’s own research funding.” — Vanity Fair (June 5 2021)
“But these days the consensus doesn’t consense quite as well as it used to. Now the media is filled with disturbing stories suggesting that Covid might have come — not from “populism” at all, but from a laboratory screw-up in Wuhan, China. You can feel the moral convulsions beginning as the question sets in: What if science itself is in some way culpable for all this?” — If the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis is true, expect a political earthquake –Thomas Frank
“Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory…” WSJ
“But, although the lab-leak scenario figures in many conspiracy theories, it is not itself a conspiracy theory; the consensus is that it is unproved, but plausible. That possibility alone should prompt serious reflection on the practices in virological labs. Yet what is striking is that none of the theories are reassuring. Each implicates something about how we, collectively, live on the planet. And each suggests that many things need to change.” — The Battle Over the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory — The New Yorker (June 13 2021)
To be updated… Stay tuned!
REFERENCES
Judicial Watch Obtains Records Showing NIAID under Dr. Fauci Gave Wuhan Lab $826k for Bat Coronavirus Research From 2014 to 2019 — JUDICIAL WATCH
=
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #1 : Patricia Conrad — Dr Tony Fauci’s Special Assistant]
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #2 : Kristian G. Andersen — Email to Tony Fauci (January 31 2020)]
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #3 : Pr. David Baltimore (Noble Prize 1975)]
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #4 : Investigate the origins of COVID-19 — Science (May 14 2021)]
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #5 : The Lancet (February 19 2020)]
The Origin of Covid-19 — The Truth in 90 Quotes [QUOTE #6 : “Time to talk about lab safety.” — Dr Gregory D Koblentz & Dr Filippa Lentzos]
Intel Today 