Questions about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 continue to swirl as Chinese officials delete some 300 coronavirus studies, including all of the papers published by Shi Zhengli, the bat coronavirus researcher at the center of this drama. As reported by the Daily Mail, January 9, 2021:1
The data deletion came on the heels of President Xi Jinping’s decision to block World Health Organization investigators from entering China. State media have also reportedly published “hundreds of stories” claiming SARS-CoV-2 did not originate in Wuhan. Mounting Evidence Points to Lab LeakMeanwhile, evidence that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab in China continues to mount — this according to U.S. deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger.2 According to a January 2, 2021, Mail Online article:3
According to the Daily Mail, the WHO — already accused of being too accommodating to China — has raised additional controversy with its decision to not include the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in its investigation, despite the fact that the WIV is the lab with the highest biosecurity in China and the most likely source.4 Conflicts of Interest Taint Investigations Into OriginThe WHO is also under critique for its decision to include Peter Daszak, Ph.D., in its investigative committee.5 Daszak is the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on pandemic prevention that has worked closely with the WIV. When SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in Wuhan, the EcoHealth Alliance was actually providing funding to the WIV to collect and study novel bat coronaviruses. Daszak is also heading up a second commission to investigate the origin of the virus, The Lancet COVID-19 commission,6 despite having openly and repeatedly dismissed the possibility of the pandemic being the result of a lab leak.7 Importantly, correspondence obtained by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) show Daszak played a central role in the plot to obscure the lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 from the very beginning by crafting a scientific statement condemning such inquiries as “conspiracy theory.”8,9 This manufactured “consensus” was then relied on by the media to counter anyone presenting theories and evidence to the contrary. Critics Call on Daszak to Step DownDaszak’s blatant conflicts of interest were highlighted in a second January 9, 2021, Daily Mail article.10 “How can Peter Daszak, a British scientist who helped fund controversial experiments on coronaviruses by China’s Batwoman, be part of WHO’s team investigating the original source of the outbreak?” the Daily Mail asked. According to the article, Daszak is now “facing calls to step down” from both investigative committees. As reported by the Daily Mail:11
Daszak Has Previously Warned About Lab Escape DangersStrangely enough, according to the Daily Mail,12 in an October 2015 article in the journal Nature, Daszak actually warned a global pandemic might occur from a laboratory incident and that “the risks were greater with the sort of virus manipulation research being carried out in Wuhan.” Earlier that year, he was also a key speaker at a National Academies of Science seminar on reducing risk from emerging infectious diseases. Among the material Daszak presented at that meeting was a paper titled, “Assessing Coronavirus Threats,” which included an examination of the “spillover potential” from “genetic and experimental studies” on viruses. In particular, he highlighted the danger of experimenting on “humanized mice,” meaning lab mice that have been genetically altered to carry human genes, cells or tissues. Such concerns were apparently swept under the rug, because January 2, 2020, Daszak sent out a tweet announcing he’d successfully isolated SARS coronaviruses “that bind to human cells in the lab,” and that the work of other scientists show some of these viruses have pandemic potential as they can infect humanized mice.13
Is SARS-CoV-2 the Result of Passage Through Transgenic Mice?Might SARS-CoV-2 be the result of close ancestor viruses being passed through transgenic mice equipped with human ACE2 receptors? This is one of the latest hypotheses raised in recent weeks.15 As reported by The Jackson Laboratory,16 structural differences between the mouse ACE2 and the human ACE2 proteins make regular lab mice unsuitable for research relating to SARS-CoV-2, as the virus cannot readily infect them. However, there are transgenic mice that express human ACE2. The first of these transgenic mice, known as K18-hACE2, was developed in 2007. Other transgenic mice with human ACE2 have been created since then. At least two recent studies have shown that transgenic mice with human ACE2 are easily infected and killed by SARS-CoV-2: • The first, published in the July 8, 2020, issue of Cell Host & Microbe found transgenic mice with human ACE2 of all ages had far higher viral loads in the lungs, trachea and brain than wild-type mice. While none died, older transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2 came down with pneumonia and had elevated cytokines. The virus was found to produce “productive infection” both via intranasal and intragastric infection.17 • The second, published in the July 9, 2020, issue of the journal Cell found SARS-CoV-2 infected HFH4-hACE2 transgenic mice, causing death. The infection was primarily localized to the lungs, causing interstitial pneumonia similar to that seen in COVID-19 patients. Low levels of viral RNA were also found in the eyes, heart and brain in a small number of animals.18 Zhengli Experimented on Humanized MiceIn response19 to questions for a July 31, 2020 Science article, WIV researcher Zhengli stated that:20,21
So, Zhengli admits experiments were done on transgenic mice using a bat-derived SARS-related coronavirus — which closely resembles SARS-CoV — as recently as 2018 and 2019. (SARS-CoV is the virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), that broke out in 2003.) Could this be the missing intermediate species that explains why SARS-CoV-2 is so well-adapted to infecting humans via the ACE2 receptor? As reported by Taipei News, January 11, 2021:22
Bostickson is a researcher with the Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19 (DRASTIC). DRASTIC has created a petition23 to the WHO COVID-19 International Investigation Team, asking for answers to 50 key questions about the outbreak. They’re also requesting access to the currently missing WIV database and lab records spanning two decades. The Qingdao OutbreakIn the featured video above, Dr. John Campbell reviews the latest updates on the investigation into the origin of the pandemic. This includes findings from an investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak in Qingdao that occurred in October 2020.24 According to Wu Zunyou, a researcher with the Chinese equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak was traced back to imported frozen cod. According to Wu, the virus can infect people after extended periods of deep freeze, which Campbell agrees is logical from a virological perspective. However, while being a weak argument, to say the least, the Chinese are using this finding as evidence that the virus did not originate in Wuhan but, rather, was imported from overseas. Campbell goes on to review some of the background of the WIV, which is located 11 miles from the open market initially identified as “ground zero” for the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s an interesting coincidence, and since even the Chinese authorities have now dismissed the market as being the source, the possibility of the virus originating in WIV seems all the more plausible. Importantly, the WIV specializes in the study of bat-borne viruses. WIV has also collaborated with U.S. researchers, and has received study grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (some of it being funneled through the EcoHealth Alliance). What’s more, in 2018, U.S. state department officials who had inspected the lab warned there were safety weaknesses that might facilitate the emergence of a SARS-like pandemic,25 which is precisely what we’ve been dealing with for the past year. Can We Get to the Truth?Whether either of the two investigative commissions will actually unearth the truth about SARS-CoV-2’s origin or simply bury it deeper remains to be seen, but based on key members’ clear conflicts of interests, it doesn’t look promising. Daszak — who is part of both of these investigations — has every reason to make sure that a) SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t get traced back to the WIV, seeing how he’s been working with them, and b) the virus is declared a natural occurrence, since his own livelihood as a scientist would otherwise be threatened. Still, as noted by Campbell, we must try to get to the bottom of where SARS-CoV-2 came from, even if efforts to obfuscate the truth are at work. It’s really crucial if we are to prevent a similar pandemic to erupt in the future. As noted by the National Review:26
Historical facts tell us accidental exposures and releases have already happened, and we only have our lucky stars to thank that none have turned into pandemics taking the lives of millions. From my perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic is a clarion call to the research community and the public alike. Over the past year, we’ve seen a relatively nonlethal virus sweep the globe causing unprecedented damage in myriad ways. By continuing gain-of-function research on lethal pathogens, we may be sealing our own fate. Considering safety breaches at these labs number in the hundreds,27,28,29,30 it’s only a matter of time before something really nasty gets out. The question is, will we make the right choice and ban this kind of research before it’s too late? from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/01/23/peter-daszak-coronavirus-origin.aspx
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