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Discussion: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Wuhan has been working with bats and coronavirus for many years - DNA manipulations, cloning....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his government is trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing “needs to come clean” on what they know....https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-he...1Y011?rpc=401&
.....The report said the virus was first transmitted from bat-to-human and “patient zero” was a lab employee who was accidentally infected before spreading the disease outside the lab. Records outlining initial reactions at the lab as well as early attempts to contain the virus are said to exist. Sources also characterized the World Health Organization as being part of a cover-up from the very beginning.
Fox News reporter John Roberts added more details while asking President ***** about the claims during Wednesday’s White House coronavirus task force press briefing.
“Multiple sources are telling Fox News today that the United States now has high confidence that, while the coronavirus is a naturally occurring virus, it emanated from a virology lab in Wuhan, that, because of lax safety protocols, an intern was infected, who later infected her boyfriend, and then went to the wet market in Wuhan, where it then began to spread,” Roberts said......
.......A report by Yahoo News on Tuesday cited nine current and former national security officials who confirmed U.S. spy agencies are looking into whether the novel coronavirus started as an inadvertent lab escape.
The New York Timesreported that Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, also suspected the coronavirus may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, told the Washington Examiner, “The first human infection could have occurred as a natural accident, with a virus passing from bat to human, possibly through another animal.” But the professor added, “The first human infection also could have occurred as a laboratory accident, with a virus accidentally infecting a laboratory worker.”......https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-escape-report
FluTrackers posted an article on a professor from Mexico who visited Wuhan in December and presented COVID symptoms upon returning to Mexico. Is it possible he is associated with Wuhan lab/university....The patient is of Asian descent and is a researcher of viral and bacterial pathogenesis at the IPN genomic biotechnology laboratory in Reynosa. (bat specific) also Singapore University.
A professor at a National Polytechnic Institute campus in Tamaulipas may be the first case of the coronavirus in Mexico, according to a health official.
Originally posted January 22, 2020 by Shiloh on FluTrackers
Last edited by gjs47; April 16, 2020, 03:03 PM.
Reason: To correlate a FluTrackers post
more concerning than these stories from US-News agencies was the report of
Shi Zhengli's reaction when on a conference in Shanghai, her boss on the cellphone reported
about the cases in Wuhan. "Why Wuhan", she thought, considering the prevalence of bats
and coronaviruses, "could it have escaped from our lab ?"
[unconfirmed story, I think I read it in some Chinese newspaper some days ago]
Later on Feb02, when she knew the sequences, she said :
"nature punishing the uncivilized habits and customs of humans",
[I'm willing to] bet my life that [the outbreak] has nothing to do with the lab."
---------------------------
I think, all the Chinese reactions and comments would have been different, if they had indeed known about this virus before.
But could it have been done without their knowledge ? Some secret (military?) authority using an extra freezer, extra facilities
outside the usual research for a new virus that they had accidently found somewhere ...
-----edit-------------
I found it here : https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...onavirus1/?amp
Shi breathed a sigh of relief when the results came back: none of the sequences matched
those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves. “That really took a load off my mind,
” she says. “I had not slept a wink for days.”
so, before seeing the sequences, she had considered it quite possible, that the virus had escaped
their lab and caused the outbreak.
This already shows, that it was too risky and that they didn't care enough about security.
The science was more important.
----------------------------------
I do recall this feeling from the H5N1 discussion back in 2012
[Fouchier,Kawaoke gain of Function experiments , Racaniello,Palese vs. Ebright,Osterholm,]
and from reading the reports about the Taubenberger 1918 publishings.
I had missed the H1N1 discussion, when I first entered flublogia in Dec2005 , but found it
later in the archives. It was much material, I spent many hours reading them, searching for more
resources etc. I must have threads here and at TBM still available. Also likely somewhere on my HD.
And it became clear to me, that the whole Taubenberger-logic was flawed.
(Wasn't Fauci one of the main proponents for publishing, playing down the risk ?)
I don't remember the details and why I became convinced.
Not mainly about the magnitude of the risk, but rather about the arguments, the logics,
the process how the decisions and conclusions were achieved.
And I can well imagine that such things are even a lot worse in China.
Looks like you could weaponize a bat coronavirus pretty easily with trypsin. Maybe an accidental spill in a contaminated area could do it.
Trypsin Treatment Unlocks Barrier for Zoonotic Bat Coronavirus Infection
Vineet D. Menachery, Kenneth H. Dinnon III, Boyd L. Yount Jr., Eileen T. McAnarney, Lisa E. Gralinski, Andrew Hale, Rachel L. Graham, Trevor Scobey, Simon J. Anthony, Lingshu Wang, Barney Graham, Scott H. Randell, W. Ian Lipkin, Ralph S. Baric
Journal of Virology Feb 2020, 94 (5) e01774-19; DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01774-19
If you sampled human workers for emerging viruses in these labs and other animal interface situations, that would seem more efficient in preventing new human diseases than sampling every bird or mammal on the planet.
"...there’s an obvious contest that’s happening between different sectors of the colonial ruling class in this country. And they would, if they could, lump us into their beef, their struggle." ---- Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Socialist Party
(My posts are not intended as advice or professional assessments of any kind.) Never forget Excalibur.
China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days
April 15, 20203:25 am Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public.
Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them...https://kwwl.com/2020/04/15/china-di...or-6-key-days/
China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days
April 15, 20203:25 am Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public.
Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them...https://kwwl.com/2020/04/15/china-di...or-6-key-days/
On the site the following information posted by various members of our team - publicly available:
The gap started when Wuhan municipal government made a notice on January 5 - where they reported 59 cases link
The next official announcement about the status was on January 11 - where they reported 41 cases link
I know...the case count went down...?
Then on January 12 they said there were no new cases. link
On January 13, again, they said there were no new cases. link
January 14, again, they said there were no new cases link
January 15, again, they said there were no new cases, reported a 2nd death link
January 16, 4 new cases were announced for a new total of 45 link
so, this was Hubei, not Beijing. Beijing fired the top Hubei officials for that some weeks later (AFAIR).
They clearly wanted to contain it. They had the plan in place. Why should they have waited then ?
It became harder and costlier every day
-----------edit------
I hadn't read the full story about the AP secret documents ... read it now here:
Days after Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic, Wuhan hosted a mass banquet for thousands of people, a report shows.
still could have been Wuhan/Hubei who misinformed Beijing
China’s decision to pursue market reform in the late 1970s brought about notable changes in the nature of central–provincial relations. To encourage the provinces to pursue economic development, the reformers adopted the two-pronged strategy of decentralizing power to subnational units and deepening integration with the global economy. The combination of decentralization and globalization, however, has given the problem of localism a new dimension, challenging central supremacy and national unity (Zheng 2006; Sheng 2010).
by i Fan 1,2,Kai Zhao 1,2,Zheng-Li Shi 1,2 andPeng Zhou 1,2,* 1
CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China 2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China *
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Viruses2019, 11(3), 210; https://doi.org/10.3390/v11030210 Received: 29 January 2019 / Revised: 26 February 2019 / Accepted: 26 February 2019 / Published: 2 March 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Viruses and Bats 2019) Download PDF Browse Figures Cite This Paper Abstract
During the past two decades, three zoonotic coronaviruses have been identified as the cause of large-scale disease outbreaks–Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome (SADS). SARS and MERS emerged in 2003 and 2012, respectively, and caused a worldwide pandemic that claimed thousands of human lives, while SADS struck the swine industry in 2017.
They have common characteristics, such as they are all highly pathogenic to humans or livestock, their agents originated from bats, and two of them originated in China. Thus, it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China. Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China. The purpose of the review is to summarize the current knowledge on viral diversity, reservoir hosts, and the geographical distributions of bat coronaviruses in China, and eventually we aim to predict virus hotspots and their cross-species transmission potential. Keywords: coronavirus; bat; epidemiology; cross-species; zoonosis 1. Introduction
Fifteen years after the first highly pathogenic human coronavirus caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) outbreak, another severe acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) devastated livestock production by causing fatal diseases in pigs. Both outbreaks began in China and were caused by coronaviruses of bat origin [1,2]. This increased the urgency to study bat coronaviruses in China to understand their potential of causing another virus outbreak.
In this review, we collected information from past epidemiology studies on bat coronaviruses in China, including the virus species identified, their host species, and their geographical distributions. We also discuss the future prospects of bat coronaviruses cross-species transmission and spread in China.2. Why Study Bat Coronaviruses in China?
2.1. Coronavirus Taxonomy
Coronaviruses (CoVs) belong to the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae in the family Coronaviridae and the order Nidovirales. CoVs have an enveloped, crown-like viral particle from which they were named after. The CoV genome is a positive-sense, single-strand RNA (+ssRNA), 27–32 kb in size, which is the second largest of all RNA virus genomes. Typically, two thirds of the genomic RNA encodes for two large overlapping polyproteins, ORF1a and ORF1b, that are processed into the viral polymerase (RdRp) and other nonstructural proteins involved in RNA synthesis or host response modulation. The other third of the genome encodes for four structural proteins (spike (S), envelope (E), mem.....https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/11/3/210/htm
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Photos have resurfaced from 2018 showing a warped seal on a freezer door as suspicions grow that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could have started at a poorly managed virology lab in Wuhan.
The official Chinese government explanation of the coronavirus pandemic is that it began in the city of Wuhan at a wet market known as the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. However, another theory to emerge recently is that the virus first made the jump to humans in one of two labs in Wuhan, where bat viruses were being studied.
Photos posted by the China Daily in early March, before later being scrubbed, show a seal around a freezer door looking dangerously warped. The original tweet proudly proclaimed the photos as being of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where it said 1,500 viruses are kept.
On March 10, Twitter user John Pollizzi reposted one of the photos showing a badly bent seal and quipped: "I have seen better seals on my refrigerator in my kitchen." The image went viral, as many other netizens were equally horrified by the apparently lax safety measures, and was published on British media on Sunday (April 19).
EXCLUSIVE - The thesis of a manipulated virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory: the pavement in the pool of Pr Luc Montagnier
By Th. B.
...
Posted on 04/16/2020 at 6:00 p.m. | |
THE ESSENTIAL
Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize laureate, says that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China
Chinese researchers reportedly used this coronavirus as part of work to develop an AIDS vaccine
HIV DNA fragments allegedly found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome
We knew the Chinese version of the emergence of the coronavirus more and more undermined, but here is a thesis that tells a whole different story about the Covid-19 pandemic already responsible for more than 120,000 deaths in the world. According to Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for having "co-discovered" the HIV causing the AIDS epidemic with Fran?ois Barr?-Sinoussi today affirmed that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus and accidentally left a laboratory in Wuhan, China during the last quarter of 2019. This laboratory known to work on coronaviruses, according to Professor Montagnier, sought to use one of these viruses as an HIV vector as part of the looking for an AIDS vaccine!
"With my colleague, the bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we looked closely at the description of the genome of this RNA virus," explained Luc Montagnier, interviewed by Dr. Jean-Fran?ois Lemoine for the daily audio journal of Pourquoi Doctor , adding that others had already explored this track: "Indian researchers had already tried to publish the results of analyzes showing that this genome harbored sequences of another virus which is ... HIV, the virus of AIDS, but they were forced to retract, the pressures were too strong! ".
"To insert an HIV sequence into this genome, you need molecular tools"
Faced with these assertions by a professor who is sometimes challenged following iconoclastic positions, in particular on vaccination, one might also think that these conclusions are due to chance and that the coronavirus examined could have been taken from a patient otherwise afflicted with HIV. "No, replies Luc Montagnier, to insert an HIV sequence into this genome, molecular tools are needed, this can only be done in the laboratory".
According to the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the explanation is due to an "industrial accident" at the Wuhan laboratory. "The history of the fish market is a beautiful legend ... The assumption is that this virus left the laboratory because it escaped its promoters, it is a work of apprentice-sorcerer!", Estimates he promoting the thesis that the object of this work was the search for an AIDS vaccine.
"The truth always ends up breaking out"
This thesis defended by Professor Luc Montagnier generates in any case "reassuring" information. According to him, the altered elements of this virus eliminate themselves as it spreads: "Nature does not admit any molecular construction, it eliminates these foreign bodies ... even if nothing is done, things will get better, but after many deaths ...", he announces by advancing a solution. To stop the pandemic, Luc Montagnier says that by using "interfering waves, we could eliminate these sequences".
This is enough to fuel famous debates! To the point that Professor Montagnier's assertions could also classify him in the category of "conspirators": "Conspirators, it's the opposite camp, the one who hides the truth", he replies without wanting to accuse anyone but hoping that the Chinese would recognize what he said happened in their laboratory. "Anyway, the truth always ends up coming out, it's up to the Chinese government to take responsibility."
Le coronavirus responsable de la pandémie de Covid-19 : un virus échappé d'un laboratoire chinois et qui abriterait des séquences d'ADN du VIH ! C'est le pavé dans la mare lancé par le Professeur Luc Montagnier, prix Nobel de médecine en 2008 pour ses travaux sur le virus du SIDA, mais contesté pour des prises de positions qui ont parfois choqué la communauté scientifique..
"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -Nelson Mandela
Chinese Ambassador to U.S. Urges ‘Serious Rethinking’ of Ties
2020-04-22 06:09:29.947 GMT
By Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. called
for a “serious rethinking” of relations between the world’s
biggest economies in the face of the global coronavirus
pandemic.
“I think I should be hoping for more than just a pause in
tensions, but really a serious rethinking of the very
foundations of this important relationship,” Cui Tiankai said in
response to a question on U.S.-China ties during a Bloomberg New
Economy webcast on Tuesday.
Relations between the countries have continued to
deteriorate even after President Donald Trump and his Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping agreed last month in a phone call to dial
down hostilities.
The U.S. leader, who is facing re-election this year, again
fanned speculation about the origins of the virus last weekend
when he said China should face consequences if it was “knowingly
responsible” for the outbreak. Missouri this week sued the
Chinese government for what it alleged was covering up the
extent of the coronavirus epidemic. China has denied those
claims, saying it has been transparent about the virus all
along.
Cui defended China’s record on transparency, saying the
country has shared all information it has with the World Health
Organization. He went on to criticize some U.S. politicians for
not paying enough attention to views from scientists, instead
being “preoccupied in their efforts for stigmatization and
groundless accusation.” He added that he’s concerned with the
“anything but China” mindset, in response to criticism that
Beijing has used medical donations for geopolitical purposes.
‘Shared Vulnerability’
Cui also rejected the idea that U.S.-China ties should be
defined as a strategic rivalry, particularly as the countries
are now faced with “shared vulnerability” amid the virus.
“Hopefully this pandemic will teach all of us a good lesson,” he
said, adding that the relationship should “be based on a more
realistic, forward-looking foundation.”
Cui said that China has done its best to achieve trust with
the U.S., and stands for dialogue as more discussion is needed.
“Fortunately at the top level, there has been a good working
relationship between the two presidents,” Cui said. “But of
course we have to do more at lower levels.” Cui has emerged as a voice of caution on U.S.-China
relations. In March, he distanced himself from tweets by foreign
ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who speculated that the U.S.
Army may have brought the virus to Wuhan. Cui described such
speculation as “very harmful” and said investigations of the
virus’s origin were best left to scientists. Zhao has since
stopped promoting such claims.
Rare Spat Between Chinese Diplomats Signals Split Over
Trump
Cui added that China’s development has not come at the
expense of the U.S., saying China wants “nothing to do with U.S.
domestic politics, we can’t even make sense of it,” in response
to a question on who China would prefer to win the presidential
election in November.
“American people are most concerned about their own daily
lives, and don’t want to make China the centerpiece of their
domestic political debate,” he said.
EXCLUSIVE - The thesis of a manipulated virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory: the pavement in the pool of Pr Luc Montagnier
By Th. B.
...
Posted on 04/16/2020 at 6:00 p.m. | |
THE ESSENTIAL
Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize laureate, says that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China
Chinese researchers reportedly used this coronavirus as part of work to develop an AIDS vaccine
HIV DNA fragments allegedly found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome
We knew the Chinese version of the emergence of the coronavirus more and more undermined, but here is a thesis that tells a whole different story about the Covid-19 pandemic already responsible for more than 120,000 deaths in the world. According to Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for having "co-discovered" the HIV causing the AIDS epidemic with Fran?ois Barr?-Sinoussi today affirmed that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus and accidentally left a laboratory in Wuhan, China during the last quarter of 2019. This laboratory known to work on coronaviruses, according to Professor Montagnier, sought to use one of these viruses as an HIV vector as part of the looking for an AIDS vaccine!
"With my colleague, the bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we looked closely at the description of the genome of this RNA virus," explained Luc Montagnier, interviewed by Dr. Jean-Fran?ois Lemoine for the daily audio journal of Pourquoi Doctor , adding that others had already explored this track: "Indian researchers had already tried to publish the results of analyzes showing that this genome harbored sequences of another virus which is ... HIV, the virus of AIDS, but they were forced to retract, the pressures were too strong! ".
"To insert an HIV sequence into this genome, you need molecular tools"
[snip]
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection represents one of the major health threats in the developing world. The costly treatment of infected individuals with multiple highly efficient anti-HIV drugs is only affordable in industrialized countries. Thus, an efficient vaccination strategy is requi …
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection represents one of the major health threats in the developing world. The costly treatment of infected individuals with multiple highly efficient anti-HIV drugs is only affordable in industrialized countries. Thus, an efficient vaccination strategy is required to prevent the further spread of the infection. The molecular biology of coronaviruses and particular features of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV 229E) indicate that HCoV 229E-based vaccine vectors can become a new class of highly efficient vaccines. First, the receptor of HCoV 229E, human aminopeptidase N (hAPN or CD13) is expressed mainly on human dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages indicating that targeting of HCoV 229E-based vectors to professional antigen presenting cells can be achieved by receptor-mediated transduction. Second, HCoV 229E structural genes can be replaced by multiple transcriptional units encoding various antigens. These virus-like particles (VLPs) containing HCoV 229E-based vector RNA have the ability to transduce human DCs and to mediate heterologous gene expression in these cells. Finally, coronavirus infections are associated with mainly respiratory and enteric diseases, and natural transmission of coronaviruses occurs via mucosal surfaces. In humans, HCoV 229E causes common cold by infecting the upper respiratory tract. HCoV 229E infections are mainly encountered in children and re-infection occurs frequently in adults. It is thus most likely that pre-existing immunity against HCoV 229E will not significantly impact on the vaccination efficiency if HCoV 229E-based vectors are used in humans.
HIV gp120 and gag discussed above and in retracted study.
We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses. Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV-1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV, all of which have identity /similarity to amino acid residues in key structural proteins of HIV-1 is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature. This work provides yet unknown insights on 2019-nCoV and sheds light on the evolution and pathogenicity of this virus with important implications for diagnosis of this virus.
"Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV-1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV, all of which have identity /similarity to amino acid residues in key structural proteins of HIV-1 is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature."
It would be a total screw-up to mix up a common cold virus and a novel bat virus.
"...there’s an obvious contest that’s happening between different sectors of the colonial ruling class in this country. And they would, if they could, lump us into their beef, their struggle." ---- Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Socialist Party
(My posts are not intended as advice or professional assessments of any kind.) Never forget Excalibur.
Is considering a genetic-manipulation origin for SARS-CoV-2 a conspiracy theory that must be censored?
Rossana Segreto1#(Ph.D.)
Abstract
The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is still controversial. Comparative genomic analyses have shown that SARS-CoV-2 is likely to be chimeric, most of its sequence being very close to the CoV detected from a bat, whereas its receptor binding domain is almost identical to that of CoV obtained from pangolins. The furin cleavage site in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 was previously not identified in other SARS-like CoVs and might have conferred ability to cross species and tissue barriers. Chimeric viruses can be the product of natural recombination or genetic manipulations. The latter could have aimed to identify pangolins as possible intermediate hosts for bat-CoV potentially pathogenic for humans. Theories that consider a possible artificial origin for SARS-CoV-2 are censored as they seem to support conspiracy theories. Researchers have the responsibility to carry out a thorough analysis, beyond any personal research interests, of all possible causes for SARS-CoV-2 emergence for preventing this from happening in the future.
It is not a theory that must be censored, it is however a conspiracy theory that must be debunked and squashed as without scientific merit of any kind.
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