Tag: china

Chinese military ‘engineered mice with humanized lungs’ in 2019 to test viruses on them – just months before the pandemic erupted

Medical researchers with the Chinese army engineered mice with humanized lungs in 2019 to test viruses on them, it has been reported. 

The mice, developed using CRISPR gene-editing technology, were mentioned in an April 2020 study which researched their susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness, Vanity Fair revealed in its bombshell investigation.

Of the study’s 23 co-authors, 11 of them worked for the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, the medical research institute for the Chinese army.

Investigators with the U.S. National Security Council, researching the origins of the pandemic, determined that the mice referenced in the study were created in the summer of 2019 – just months before the emergence of the pandemic.

The National Security Council investigators also reportedly believed they had ‘uncovered important evidence’ supporting the theory that COVID-19 had leaked from a lab and began reaching out to other federal agencies, Vanity Fair reported.

‘We were dismissed. The response was very negative,’ said Anthony Ruggiero, the a senior director at the National Security Council.

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The FBI’s Strange Anthrax Investigation Sheds Light on COVID Lab-Leak Theory and Fauci’s Emails

One of the most significant events of the last two decades has been largely memory-holed: the October, 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S. Beginning just one week after 9/11 and extending for another three weeks, a highly weaponized and sophisticated strain of anthrax had been sent around the country through the U.S. Postal Service addressed to some of the country’s most prominent political and media figures. As Americans were still reeling from the devastation of 9/11, the anthrax killed five Americans and sickened another seventeen.

As part of the extensive reporting I did on the subsequent FBI investigation to find the perpetrator(s), I documented how significant these attacks were in the public consciousness. ABC News, led by investigative reporter Brian Ross, spent a full week claiming that unnamed government sources told them that government tests demonstrated a high likelihood that the anthrax came from Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons program. The Washington Post, in November, 2001, also raised “the possibility that [this weaponized strain of anthrax] may have slipped through an informal network of scientists to Iraq.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on The David Letterman Show on October 18, 2001, and said: “There is some indication, and I don’t have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.” Three days later, McCain appeared on Meet the Press with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and said of the anthrax perpetrators: “perhaps this is an international organization and not one within the United States of America,” while Lieberman said the anthrax was so finely weaponized that “there’s either a significant amount of money behind this, or this is state-sponsored, or this is stuff that was stolen from the former Soviet program” (Lieberman added: “Dr. Fauci can tell you more detail on that”).

In many ways, the prospect of a lethal, engineered biological agent randomly showing up in one’s mailbox or contaminating local communities was more terrifying than the extraordinary 9/11 attack itself. All sorts of oddities shrouded the anthrax mailings, including this bizarre admission in 2008 by long-time Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen: “I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it.” At the very least, those anthrax attacks played a vital role in heightening fear levels and a foundational sense of uncertainty that shaped U.S. discourse and politics for years to come. It meant that not just Americans living near key power centers such as Manhattan and Washington were endangered, but all Americans everywhere were: even from their own mailboxes.

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Wuhan Lab Director Told NIH Conference Of ‘No Regulation’ On Chinese Bat Virus Manipulation, Gain-Of-Function Experiments.

The National Institutes of Health hosted Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers at a 2011 conference focusing on scientific research that could pose a “significant threat” to human health  – including manipulation of bat coronaviruses. At the event, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Deputy Director repeatedly asserted that his controversial lab had “no regulation” on this form of risky research, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.

The 2011 event – Continuing the Global Dialogue with the Scientific and Science Policy Community with a Focus on Asia and the Western Pacific – was sponsored by the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and sought to provide participants with a “greater understanding” of Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC).

Defined by the NIH as research “that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety,” DURC encompasses gain-of-function studies, which have come under increased scrutiny due to their role in potentially spawning COVID-19.

Among the event participants were Wuhan Institute of Virology Deputy Director Yuan Zhiming, NIH Associate Director for Science Policy Amy Patterson, and top American researchers and scientific advisory board members. The NIH’s unearthed role in hosting the event follows National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci denying his agency’s relationship to the Wuhan lab.

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Email Shows Researcher Who Funded Wuhan Lab, Admits Manipulating Coronaviruses, Thanked Fauci For Dismissing Lab-Leak Theory

Dr Fauci’s emails have been released via a Freedom of Information Act request, and there is some pretty interesting stuff in them, particularly one email where a researcher who funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology thanks Fauci for publicly dismissing the lab leak theory early on during the pandemic.

The email from Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, a group that has extensive ties to the Wuhan lab gain of function research, sent the email to Fauci on April 18, 2020, roughly six weeks after the outbreak had taken hold.

The email states:

“As the Pl of the ROl grant publicly targeted by Fox News reporters at the Presidential press briefing last night, I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

From my perspective, your comments are brave, and coming from your trusted voice, will help dispel the myths being spun around the virus’ origins. Once this pandemic’s over I look forward thanking you in person and let you know how important your comments are to us all.”

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Former State Department Official Says Idea COVID-19 Emerged Naturally is “Ridiculous”

A former State Department official says that the idea the COVID-19 virus emerged naturally out of a zoonotic situation is “ridiculous.”

David Asher told Fox News that the scientific community consensus that the virus emerged in Wuhan as a result of a mutation in animals is completely inaccurate.

“We were finding that despite the claims of our scientific community, including the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Fauci’s NIAID organization, there was almost no evidence that supported a natural, zoonotic evolution or source of COVID-19,” said the former State Department official.

“The data disproportionately stacked up as we investigated that it was coming out of a lab or some supernatural source,” he added.

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New York Times COVID Reporter Says It’s “Racist” To Discuss Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

A New York Times reporter who specializes in COVID-19 coverage tweeted that it was “racist” to even talk about the Wuhan lab leak theory.

The lab leak issue has received a wave of attention following the Biden’s administration’s announcement that a 90 day investigation would be conducted into its veracity.

The NYT itself also reported yesterday that the U.S. intelligence community has been sitting on a “raft” of evidence pertaining to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

However, Apoorva Mandavilli, who in her bio says she reports for the NYT “mainly” on COVID, asserted in a tweet that even discussing the issue was “racist.”

“Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here,” tweeted Mandavilli.

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Biden gives intel agencies 90 days to pinpoint Covid origins – after report he torpedoed Trump-era probe of Wuhan lab leak theory

President Joe Biden ordered a new analysis of how Covid-19 originated and said he will press China for transparency – one day after CNN reported that he killed a Trump-era probe into whether the virus started in a Wuhan lab.

“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,” Biden said on Wednesday in a statement. He added that other agencies, including US National Labs, will contribute to the study, which may include “specific questions for China.”

Biden addressed the issue of how the pandemic began after CNN reported late Tuesday that his “team” shut down a State Department investigation that was launched last fall by former President Donald Trump’s administration to prove that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab with links to the Chinese military. The article, which cited “sources familiar with the decision,” said there were concerns about the quality of evidence and possible “cherry-picking” of facts.

The Biden administration has faced increasing pressure over its efforts – or lack thereof – to investigate Covid-19’s origin after the Wuhan lab theory gained traction in recent days. Mainstream media outlets that had previously dismissed and mocked the Wuhan lab theory, such as the Washington Post, acknowledged in the past week that it had suddenly become “credible.”

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated that Washington is relying on the World Health Organization to oversee an international investigation into Covid-19’s origins. The WHO had previously echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s assertion that the virus spread naturally from animals to humans, and it dismissed the lab theory.

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More Scientists Demand Lab Leak Investigation; Claim They Were Ostracised For Presenting Research Backing The Scenario

More prominent scientific figures have thrown their weight behind calls for investigating the lab leak theory as the cause of the coronavirus pandemic, with some revealing they were previously ostracised for presenting research that suggested the scenario was realistic.

The Daily Mail reports that British vaccine researcher and professor of oncology Angus Dalgleish struggled to find a publisher for his paper suggesting the virus’s spike protein contains artificially inserted sequences.

The report notes that the professor “said the research was shunned by the scientific community, who did not want to threaten China or be seen to be agreeing with President Donald Trump — who was a big advocate for the theory the virus was leaked from a lab at the time.”

Dalgleish noted in an interview with the Times of London (paywall) that his research has led him to believe that “The changes [in the bat coronavirus] required to infect humans are extremely unlikely to have occurred naturally.”

“I was basically ostracised. I was fearful — really frightened by the way I was being treated. I was told I was not an expert on coronaviruses and I should just shut up,” the professor claimed.

He added that he and his research team “couldn’t believe people with whom we’d collaborated and published papers with in the past would shun us — I was warned I was out of my depth and I shouldn’t get into this and I’d make a fool of myself.”

In addition, yet more scientific figures have demanded that the lab leak theory be investigated, with professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge Ravi Gupta noting that the scenario has not been ‘adequately explored’.

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