A 2006 paper authored by Dr. Ralph Baric—the University of North Carolina virologist widely recognized as the leading architect of chimeric coronavirus genomes and in silico viral assembly techniques—openly describes how synthetic viral genomics could be used to create viruses digitally, containing misleading genetic “fingerprints” designed to redirect investigators toward a false geographic or evolutionary origin.
The SARS-CoV-2 pathogen of the COVID-19 pandemic would be found to possess exactly the three signature spike features that Baric and his collaborators had explicitly proposed engineering into chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses in the 2018 DARPA/EcoHealth DEFUSE proposal: a furin cleavage site (PRRA) insertion at the S1/S2 junction, targeted human-optimizing mutations throughout the receptor-binding domain (including the critical Q498 residue), and the two-proline (V1060P/L1061P) substitution to stabilize the spike protein in its prefusion conformation.
Also in 2018, Baric was granted U.S. Patent 9,884,895 B2 for “Methods and compositions for chimeric coronavirus spike proteins,” which claims proprietary techniques for modular domain swapping and seamless synthetic computer assembly of coronavirus spikes.
Twelve years earlier, in the very same 2006 paper that first laid out the theoretical framework for such engineered viruses, Baric had already described how computer-designed genomes could be deliberately designed to serve as “scapegoats,” carrying misleading sequence signatures that would misdirect any investigation into their true origin.
The 2006 paper, titled Synthetic Viral Genomics: Risks and Benefits for Science and Society, was published as part of a broader biodefense and synthetic biology review examining the future risks posed by synthetic genomics, reverse genetics, and recombinant viral engineering.
Hellbound and Down 