Category: Gain of Function

Hurry up and wait!

To deal with the latest surge in cases, rapid Covid tests are finally being made widely available in Canada. About a year later than they should have been, but that’s how centrally planned systems function. Bureaucratic turf wars take precedence over satisfying obvious consumer demand.

The primary obstacle to implementing rapid tests in Canada has been the red tape provincial health authorities have put around using the tests — especially a rule that required the tests to be operated by health care professionals such as nurses. Such a rule makes widespread rapid testing effectively impossible, given Canada’s already limited health care resources.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

Grab a coffee.

If the case that SARS2 originated in a lab is so substantial, why isn’t this more widely known? As may now be obvious, there are many people who have reason not to talk about it. The list is led, of course, by the Chinese authorities. But virologists in the United States and Europe have no great interest in igniting a public debate about the gain-of-function experiments that their community has been pursuing for years.

Nor have other scientists stepped forward to raise the issue. Government research funds are distributed on the advice of committees of scientific experts drawn from universities. Anyone who rocks the boat by raising awkward political issues runs the risk that their grant will not be renewed and their research career will be ended. Maybe good behavior is rewarded with the many perks that slosh around the distribution system. And if you thought that Dr. Andersen and Dr. Daszak might have blotted their reputation for scientific objectivity after their partisan attacks on the lab escape scenario, look at the 2nd and 3rd names on this list of recipients of an $82 million grant announced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in August 2020.

The US government shares a strange common interest with the Chinese authorities: neither is keen on drawing attention to the fact that Dr. Shi’s coronavirus work was funded by the US National Institutes of Health. One can imagine the behind-the-scenes conversation in which the Chinese government says “If this research was so dangerous, why did you fund it, and on our territory too?” To which the US side might reply, “Looks like it was you who let it escape. But do we really need to have this discussion in public?”
Dr. Fauci is a longtime public servant who served with integrity under President Trump and has resumed leadership in the Biden Administration in handling the Covid epidemic. Congress, no doubt understandably, may have little appetite for hauling him over the coals for the apparent lapse of judgment in funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

To these serried walls of silence must be added that of the mainstream media. To my knowledge, no major newspaper or television network has yet provided readers with an in-depth news story of the lab escape scenario, such as the one you have just read, although some have run brief editorials or opinion pieces. One might think that any plausible origin of a virus that has killed three million people would merit a serious investigation. Or that the wisdom of continuing gain-of-function research, regardless of the virus’s origin, would be worth some probing. Or that the funding of gain-of-function research by the NIH and NIAID during a moratorium on such research would bear investigation. What accounts for the media’s apparent lack of curiosity?

In the acknowledgements, he credits the same Yuri Deigin essay we introduced here a year ago.

Wuhan Flu: Lung Disease Or Blood Disease?

And the winner is!

Scientists have known for a while that SARS-CoV-2’s distinctive “spike” proteins help the virus infect its host by latching on to healthy cells. Now, a major new study shows that they also play a key role in the disease itself.

The paper, published on April 30, 2021, in Circulation Research, also shows conclusively that COVID-19 is a vascular disease, demonstrating exactly how the SARS-CoV-2 virus damages and attacks the vascular system on a cellular level. The findings help explain COVID-19’s wide variety of seemingly unconnected complications, and could open the door for new research into more effective therapies. […]

In the new study, the researchers created a “pseudovirus” that was surrounded by SARS-CoV-2 classic crown of spike proteins, but did not contain any actual virus. Exposure to this pseudovirus resulted in damage to the lungs and arteries of an animal model—proving that the spike protein alone was enough to cause disease. Tissue samples showed inflammation in endothelial cells lining the pulmonary artery walls.

What could possibly go wrong?

Read that press release from top to bottom and search for the dog that’s not barking.

Related.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

Yuri Deigin:

We examined public sequencing data from Wuhan and discovered contamination of agricultural datasets by viral sequences. We were even able to pull out two novel MERS-like coronaviruses, one of which was in a reverse genetics backbone.
 
So much for “they would have used a known backbone” argument of Andersen. Our findings confirm the following:

• there was massive work on many viruses in Wuhan
• novel CoVs and backbones remain unpublished
• biosafety guidelines were potentially breached
 
Read and shiver.

Unexpected novel Merbecovirus discoveries in agricultural sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China

In this study we document the unexpected discovery of multiple coronaviruses and a BSL-3 pathogen in agricultural cotton and rice sequencing datasets. In particular, we have identified a novel HKU5-related Merbecovirus in a cotton dataset sequenced by the Huazhong Agricultural University in 2017. We have also found an infectious clone sequence containing a novel HKU4-related Merbecovirus related to MERS coronavirus in a rice dataset sequenced by the Huazhong Agricultural University in early 2020. Another HKU5-related Merbecovirus, as well as Japanese encephalitis virus, were identified in a cotton dataset sequenced by the Huazhong Agricultural University in 2018. An HKU3-related Betacoronavirus was found in a Mus musculus sequencing dataset from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017. Finally, a SARS-WIV1-like Betacoronavirus was found in a rice dataset sequenced by the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in 2017. Using the contaminating reads we have extracted from the above datasets, we were able to assemble complete genomes of two novel coronaviruses which we disclose herein. In light of our findings, we raise concerns about biosafety protocol breaches, as indicated by our discovery of multiple dangerous human pathogens in agricultural sequencing laboratories in Wuhan and Fouzou City, China.

Oh.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

Well, when you put it that way…

DR. GOTTLIEB: It looks like the WHO report was an attempt to try to support the China narrative, Chinese narrative around this- this origin of the vaccine. You know, the lab leak theory doesn’t seem like a plausible theory unless you aggregate the biggest collection of coronaviruses and put them in a lab, a minimum-security lab in the middle of a densely populated center and experiment on animals, which is exactly what the Wuhan Institute of Virology did. They were using these viruses in a BSL-2 lab and, we now know, infecting animals. So that creates the opportunity for a lab leak. It might not be the most likely scenario on how this virus got out, but it has to remain a scenario. And I think at the end of the day, we’re never going to fully discharge that possibility. What we’re going to have here is a battle of competing narratives.

That would be former-head-of-the-FDA Dr.Scott Gottlieb.

They can say what they want about SDA, but we have a track record of being ahead of the curve. In this case, nearly a year ahead.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

Hot off the peer-reviewed press: Should we discount the laboratory origin of COVID-19?”

There is a near-consensus view that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, has a natural zoonotic origin; however, several characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 taken together are not easily explained by a natural zoonotic origin hypothesis. These include a low rate of evolution in the early phase of transmission; the lack of evidence for recombination events; a high pre-existing binding to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2); a novel furin cleavage site (FCS) insert; a flat ganglioside-binding domain (GBD) of the spike protein which conflicts with host evasion survival patterns exhibited by other coronaviruses; and high human and mouse peptide mimicry. Initial assumptions against a laboratory origin by contrast have remained unsubstantiated. Furthermore, over a year after the initial outbreak in Wuhan, there is still no clear evidence of zoonotic transfer from a bat or intermediate species. Given the immense social and economic impact of this pandemic, identifying the true origin of SARS-CoV-2 is fundamental to preventing future outbreaks. The search for SARS-CoV-2′s origin should include an open and unbiased inquiry into a possible laboratory origin.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

What conflict?

World Health Organization COVID-19 investigator Peter Daszak has worked on over 20 research endeavors that list “affiliations” with Chinese Communist Party-linked entities, including studies funded by the Chinese government and co-authored by military-linked researchers, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.
 
Daszak appears as an author on at least 25 studies “affiliated” with a funding entity or author linked to a Chinese Communist Party think tank, university, or government ministry.
 
The unearthed studies follow National Pulse reporting highlighting Daszak’s involvement with the Chinese government and promotion of Chinese state-run media outlets.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

A funny thing happened on the flight home from Alaska. The lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy no more.

Out: “China Virus”

In: “Made in China Virus”

Science, like journalism, is supposed to be about facts and about getting to the truth. But those who dare seek answers to reasonable questions about any lab accidents in Wuhan are accused of peddling conspiracies.
 
Let me be clear: Labs in Wuhan might not have played any role in the origin of the pandemic. But a year later, no source has been found, and the world deserves a thorough, unbiased investigation of all plausible theories that is conducted without fear or favor.

Via our oft-cited Yuri Deigin, co-author of this recent publication: The genetic structure of SARS‐CoV‐2 does not rule out a laboratory origin

Nikolai Petrovsky also bucked the narrativeMore than a year into the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, some scientists say the possibility of a lab leak never got a fair look.

I’ve added Yuri and Alina to the sidebar as your best follows on the developments.

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

@McWLuke — Here’s the moment @PeterDaszak confirms he DID NOT ask for the data from the MISSING BAT VIRUS DATABASE.

 
Details at Daily Caller;

The Wuhan Institute of Virology deleted public databases containing information on at least 16,000 virus samples in September 2019, but the World Health Organization did not even request to review the data as part of their investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in China in early 2021.
 
The sole U.S. member of the WHO team, EcoHealth Alliance president Dr. Peter Daszak, revealed during a panel discussion Wednesday that they did not request to see the deleted WIV databases because he personally vouched for the lab, saying the data did not contain relevant information on the pandemic’s origins.
 
“We did not ask to see the data,” Daszak said during a panel discussion organized by Chatham House. “A lot of this work is work that has been conducted with EcoHealth Alliance. I’m also part of those data and we do basically know what’s in those databases … I got to talk with both sides about the work we’ve done with Wuhan Institute of Virology and explained what’s there.”

Thread: “Many inconsistencies in that statement by P. Daszak: about one per sentence”.

The same Peter Daszak;

Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
 
The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement, and that he intended it to “not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person” but rather to be seen as “simply a letter from leading scientists”. Daszak wrote that he wanted “to avoid the appearance of a political statement”.

Program notes: I’ve started downloading video from Twitter to the SDA server. They may take a little longer to load.

Fryer Ferret, In The Fridge, With A Furin Cleavage Site

World experts condemn WHO inquiry as a ‘charade’

The World Health Organisation’s inquiry into the source of the pandemic is a ‘charade’ to appease China, leading experts on biosecurity and infectious diseases have told The Mail on Sunday.
 
Instead of seeking the truth, last week’s initial findings, they say, were a political stunt that help the Beijing government in its desperation to be exonerated.
 
The scientists accuse the UN body of brushing aside concerns over a possible lab leak in Wuhan to push ‘fanciful’ theories that Covid-19 emerged outside China and could have been imported into the city on frozen food.

Peter Daszak — again.

Yuri Deigin has captured an enlightening exchange on the cozy relationship between investigators and investigatees.

Flashback: WHO waits for China to approve pandemic origins investigators

One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest

National Pulse;

A high-profile member of the World Health Organization’s recent “investigative” trip to Wuhan to uncover the origins of COVID-19 has accepted research grants from the Chinese Communist Party and runs a controversial U.S.-based organization which collaborates with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Peter Daszak’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party call into question the validity of his and the World Health Organization (WHO) investigative team which concluded that it is “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 came from a Chinese Communist Party lab. Their claims echo Chinese Communist Party narratives, and Daszak himself implored the world to not “rely” on U.S. intelligence for it is “wrong on many aspects” and “politically charged.”

More than that.

From November;

Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
 
The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement, and that he intended it to “not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person” but rather to be seen as “simply a letter from leading scientists”. Daszak wrote that he wanted “to avoid the appearance of a political statement”.

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