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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....

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  • Alex Washburne



    19h • 24 tweets • 7 min read Bookmark Save as PDF My Authors
    Pre-print:

    Endonuclease fingerprint indicates a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2

    A collaborative product by @VBruttel, @tony_vandongen, and myself.

    Here's what we found:

    biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh…

    1/
    The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is unknown.

    Some hypothesized 2 spillover events at the wet market, but methodological flaws make that work inconclusive.

    biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

    Unroll available on Thread Reader

    We need to know the true origin of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent pandemics.

    2/

    Statistical challenges for inferring multiple SARS-CoV-2 spillovers with early outbreak phylodynamicsUnderstanding how SARS-CoV-2 entered the human population, thereby causing the COVID-19 pandemic, is one of the most urgent questions in science today. Two hypotheses are widely acknowledged as being …https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...10.10.511625v1
    We examined whether SARS-CoV-2 was synthesized in a lab.

    We studied a common method for synthesizing CoVs in the lab.

    This method was thought to not leave a fingerprint.

    We found the fingerprint.

    That fingerprint is in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

    3/
    Here's how you make a CoV in the lab:

    To make a 30kb RNA virus in the lab, you need a 30kb DNA clone

    To assemble a 30kb DNA clone, scientists glue together several smaller fragments

    A popular method for DNA assembly is ‘golden gate assembly’

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ga…
    4/

    Golden Gate Cloning - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Cloning
    Golden gate assembly requires the DNA sequence have special “cutting” sites (type IIS restriction sites).
    Cutting sites creates 3-4 nt “sticky ends”

    Sticky ends help you ‘paste’ DNA segments together, ensuring faithful assembly of your 30kb DNA copy of a viral genome.

    5/
    RNA viruses like CoVs are not under selection specifically for this kind of cutting & pasting.

    So, wild viruses tend to have cutting/pasting sites randomly scattered in their genome.

    Researchers building viruses in a lab will often add/remove cutting sites…

    6/
    We collected examples of CoV infectious clones assembled with these type IIS cutting/pasting systems from 2000-2019.

    We found a clear pattern in how researchers tended to add/remove cutting/pasting sites.

    7/
    Researchers tend to turn randomly-spaced restriction maps into regularly-spaced ones (A-B).

    Regular spacing comes from desiring fewer fragments (typically 5-8) while keeping the longest fragment lengths low.

    8/
    Digesting 70 CoVs with 200+ restriction enzymes yields a “wild type distribution”, a null model for how long the longest fragment may be as a function of the number of fragments.

    The red box is the ideal range for reverse genetic systems used to make infectious clones

    9/
    CoVs engineered to be infectious clones will move from having restriction maps falling within the wild type distribution…

    To being outliers under the wild-type distribution, falling within the lab-ideal range of fragment number & low longest-fragment-length

    10/
    Having found this fingerprint, we examine specific cutting/pasting sites in the SARS-CoV-2 genome (BsaI/BsmBI)

    BsaI + BsmBI are very popular enzymes for this kind of in vitro assembly

    They also have many conserved sites in CoVs. Very useful for making chimeras.

    11/
    The SARS-CoV-2 BsaI/BsmBI restriction map falls neatly within the ideal range for a reverse genetic system

    It is an anomaly (bottom 1%) amongst wild type CoVs.

    It is a midpoint amongst engineered CoVs.

    12/
    Digesting CoVs with only type IIS enzymes that could be used for assembly, SARS-CoV-2 is an even greater outlier

    It’s in the bottom 1% max-fragment-length for all restriction enzymes

    It’s the single largest outlier (<0.07%) of 1491 type IIS digestions

    13/
    We then tested the lab-assembly hypothesis

    If SARS2 has a synthetic origin via golden gate assembly, several other criteria must be met.

    For example: all sticky ends must be unique, non-palindromic, and contain at least one A/T.

    SARS2 passed this test (60% chance of this)

    14/
    The mutations separating SARS-CoV-2 BsaI/BsmBI sites from its close relatives must all be silent mutations.

    All 14 mutations in BsaI/BsmBI sites are silent.

    84% of mutations in SARS2 & close relatives are silent, so 9% chance all 14 distinct mutations will be silent.

    15/
    There’s a significantly higher concentration of silent mutations per nucleotide within BsaI/BsmBI recognition sequences than in the rest of the genome

    P=0.004 for BANAL52-SARS2

    P=9e-8 for RaTG13-SARS2

    16/
    Such an idealized reverse genetic system is unlikely to evolve by chance from the close relatives of SARS-CoV-2.

    There’s a 1% of random RaTG13 mutants having as great or greater z-score

    and 0.1% chance for BANAL52.

    17/
    Testing this from multiple angles, we could not reject the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 has a synthetic origin.

    Each test also decreased the odds of SARS-CoV-2 having a natural origin

    The BsaI/BsmBI fingerprint of SARS-CoV-2 indicates synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2.

    18/
    Please read our MS for our careful language & limitations. These are important.

    For example, our results are independent of the Furin Cleavage Site.

    While the RBD is docked in fragment 5, we shine no light on the origin of the FCS.

    19/
    Our research does not identify the lab

    We hypothesize this restriction map would enable construction of chimeric viruses...

    much like the recent controversial work done in Boston (but with a different method for in vitro assembly)

    vox.com/future-perfect…

    20/

    Why do labs keep making dangerous viruses?A controversial new study involving an engineered version of Covid’s omicron variant raises new questions about research oversight.https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2...emic-biosafety
    Our theory of a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2 can & should be tested.

    Further tests may reject our theory

    We welcome these tests.

    Our code is available on GitHub and we point to future research that can reject our hypothesis and/or refine our understanding of this issue.

    21/
    Making chimeric viruses in vitro carries risks

    We encourage transparency from researchers studying CoVs in Wuhan.

    We strongly encourage global coordination on biosafety.

    22/
    We encourage open, civil, and compassionate discourse on this important topic

    This pre-print was not rushed.

    It was reviewed by many colleagues, truly world experts.

    We thank them all immensely for their feedback.

    23/
    For a popular science write-up of our work, see below.

    I’m eternally grateful for colleagues like @VBruttel and @tony_vandongen. This has been an incredible project.

    Yet, for obvious reasons, this is the saddest paper I’ve ever written.

    alexwasburne.substack.com/p/a-synthetic-…

    24/24

    A synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2What we know, and what we don'thttps://alexwasburne.substack.com/p/...-of-sars-cov-2
    • • •

    Comment


    • sharon sanders
      sharon sanders commented
      Editing a comment
      There is a rebuttal to this paper in post #701 below.

  • Source: https://zenodo.org/record/7212687#.Y1KpvVLMJa4

    October 9, 2022 Journal article Open Access
    Zoonosis at the Huanan Seafood Market: A Critique

    Zhang, Daoyu; Demaneuf, Gilles; Jones, Adrian; Massey, Steven E; Quay, Steven; Deigin, Yuri; Nemzer, Louis

    Here we review data supporting a zoonosis hypothesis at the Huanan Seafood Market (HSM). We undertake statistical analysis of case locations and wildlife stall locations. We additionally analyze environmental sampling and review the likelyhood of susceptible animals carrying a SARS-CoV-2 projenitor virus causing a spillover in Wuhan and only Wuhan of all locations in China. We find insufficient data to support a zoonosis hypothesis and instead conclude that the most likely scenario is that an infected person brought SARS-CoV-2 to the HSM, sparking a superspreader event...

    Comment




    • An Infectious cDNA Clone of SARS-CoV-2

      13 May 2020



      XupingXie1 AntonioMuruato12 Kumari G.Lokugamage2 KrishnaNarayanan2 XianwenZhang1 JingZou1 JianyingLiu2 CraigSchindewolf2 Nathen E.Bopp3 Patricia V.Aguilar345 Kenneth S.Plante24 Scott C.Weaver245678 ShinjiMakino2510 James W.LeDuc29 Vineet D.Menachery257 Pei-YongShi 158101112

      Highlights

      •A reverse genetic system has been established for SARS-CoV-2
      •Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 replicates as efficiently as the original clinical isolate
      •A stable mNeonGreen reporter SARS-CoV-2 has been developed
      •The mNeonGreen SARS-CoV-2 can be used to screen antiviral inhibitors

      Summary

      The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), underscores the urgency to develop experimental systems for studying this virus and identifying countermeasures. We report a reverse genetic system for SARS-CoV-2. Seven complimentary DNA (cDNA) fragments spanning the SARS-CoV-2 genome were assembled into a full-genome cDNA. RNA transcribed from the full-genome cDNA was highly infectious after electroporation into cells, producing 2.9 × 106 plaque-forming unit (PFU)/mL of virus. Compared with a clinical isolate, the infectious-clone-derived SARS-CoV-2 (icSARS-CoV-2) exhibited similar plaque morphology, viral RNA profile, and replication kinetics. Additionally, icSARS-CoV-2 retained engineered molecular markers and did not acquire other mutations. We generated a stable mNeonGreen SARS-CoV-2 (icSARS-CoV-2-mNG) by introducing this reporter gene into ORF7 of the viral genome. icSARS-CoV-2-mNG was successfully used to evaluate the antiviral activities of interferon (IFN). Collectively, the reverse genetic system and reporter virus provide key reagents to study SARS-CoV-2 and develop countermeasures.

      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312820302316?via%3Dihub

      Comment


      • Here is a rebuttal to the paper in post #698:

        Flo Débarre



        3h • 13 tweets • 5 min read Bookmark Save as PDF My Authors
        Here is a curated collection of threads and tweets rebutting a preprint that made the rounds, illustrating the many ways in which the study is problematic. ▫️1/n
        Before we start:

        - Disclaimer: I am a "dry-lab" evolutionary biologist. Part 3️⃣ is outside my strict domain of expertise.

        - If you are unfamiliar with the names of the different restriction enzymes, here is how to pronounce them (sound on)▫️2/n

        international.neb.com/products/restr…

        https://international.neb.com/produc...-endonucleases
        1️⃣ Evolution

        SARS-CoV-2's BsaI/BsmBI restriction sites are consistent with expectations from evolutionary theory. They do not look anomalous.

        1a) 🧵 ▫️3/n

        Unroll available on Thread Reader

        1b) 🧵▫️4/n

        Unroll available on Thread Reader

        1c) a tweet complementing to the two previous threads with another close relative of SARS-CoV-2 that was omitted by the preprint authors ▫️5/n


        2️⃣ Statistics

        2a) The statistical analysis done in the preprint is an example of P-hacking*

        *If you think they got the restriction enzymes right on their first try, see part 3 ▫️6/n


        2b) The preprint authors are looking for even spaced fragments, but did their stats only on the length of the longest fragment. ▫️7/n


        Endonuclease fingerprint indicates a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2To prevent future pandemics, it is important that we understand whether SARS-CoV-2 spilled over directly from animals to people, or indirectly in a laboratory accident. The genome of SARS-COV-2 contai…https://disq.us/p/2rj2xh2
        3️⃣ Molecular biology

        3a) The standard way of using the restriction enzymes picked in the preprint would not lead to SARS-CoV-2, because the restriction sites would be gone in the final product…▫️8/n

        Unroll available on Thread Reader

        3b) … as exemplified by a reference (erroneously) chosen by the authors to back up their claim ▫️9/n


        3c) Even the lengths of some fragments do not make sense▫️10/n



        4️⃣ People

        So far we have only concentrated on the preprint’s arguments. But an exhaustive description should include a presentation of its authors. Have a look at their Twitter profiles to understand where these authors are talking from, ▫️11/n
        … and to understand why researchers expressed frustration to have to spend time on the preprint, which got attention essentially because it was an extraordinary claim retweeted by big Twitter accounts, and not because it was sound work. ▫️12/n

        Comment


        • sharon sanders
          sharon sanders commented
          Editing a comment
          A paper only has to provide a small chance of probability that SARS-CoV-2 could have been created in a lab for credibility. There can be every rebuttal in the world but the chance that it was a lab manipulation still exists - hence, it was possible.

          For example:

          Role of spike in the pathogenic and antigenic behavior of SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 Omicron
          "We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant."
          The recently identified, globally predominant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1) is highly transmissible, even in fully vaccinated individuals, and causes attenuated disease compared with other major viral variants recognized to date[1][1]–[7][2]. The Omicron spike (S) protein, with an unusually large number of mutations, is considered the major driver of these phenotypes[3][3],[8][4]. We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant. The Omicron S-bearing virus robustly escapes vaccine-induced humoral immunity, mainly due to mutations in the receptor-binding motif (RBM), yet unlike naturally occurring Omicron, efficiently replicates in cell lines and primary-like distal lung cells. In K18-hACE2 mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80%. This indicates that while the vaccine escape of Omicron is defined by mutations in S, major determinants of viral pathogenicity reside outside of S. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-7 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #ref-8

        • Emily
          Emily commented
          Editing a comment
          Good to see a big, bad 'domain expert' and busy scientist get that off his chest. I'm suitably impressed.

          ETA: The link removed by Sharon was to a video of a big gorilla beating its chest to intimidate other gorillas. It was relevant because that is my impression of Anderson's communication on Twitter that you posted. If he actually has something better to do than promote how wonderful he is on Twitter, he should be doing it instead of cursing about other scientists.
          Last edited by Emily; October 31, 2022, 04:03 PM. Reason: Removing the video made my statement unclear.

      • Source: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health...ublican-report

        Covid ‘Lab Leak’ Theory Gets Boost From Senate Republican Report
        Oct. 27, 2022, 1:01 PM

        GOP senator says report should guide further research
        • Most scientists suspect the virus originated in animals

        Senate Republicans who investigated the origin of the virus that caused Covid-19 lay out how it could have started from a laboratory leak, although they underscore the findings lack indisputable evidence.
        The report Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released Thursday is the latest GOP attempt to pressure the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to consider more seriously the theory that Covid started in a lab.
        Questions about the origins of Covid-19 have become an increasingly partisan issue. House Energy and Commerce Republicans have pressed the National Institutes of Health on the lab leak theory.
        However, most scientists support the conclusion in a Science Magazine paper published in August that the virus jumped from animal to human, likely in the crowded wet markets in Wuhan, China.
        “I worry, because the crowd that is pushing this narrative is not motivated by scientific fact,” Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said about the lab leak theory before seeing the report. She said her work concluded the science behind an animal trade origin is “very solid.”
        The Senate HELP report summarizes publicly available, open-source information related to the potential origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the panel’s ranking member, said he hopes the report will guide the World Health Organization and other international institutions and researchers...




        Comment


        • Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022...tion-wuhan-lab

          COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab
          The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge biotech facility at the center of swirling suspicions about the pandemic’s onset, was far more troubled than previously known, explosive documents unearthed by a Senate research team reveal. Following the trail of evidence, Vanity Fair and ProPublica provide the clearest picture yet of a laboratory institute in crisis.
          By Katherine Eban and Jeff Kao
          October 28, 2022

          Toy Reid has always had a gift for languages—one that would carry him far from what he calls his “very blue-collar” roots in Greenville, South Carolina. In high school, Spanish came easily. At nearby Furman University, where he became the first person in his family to attend college, he studied Japanese. Then, “clueless but curious,” as he puts it, he channeled his fascination with the Dalai Lama into a master’s degree in East Asian philosophy and religion at Harvard. Along the way, he picked up Khmer, the national language of Cambodia, and achieved fluency in Chinese.

          But it was his career as a China specialist for the Rand Corporation and as a political officer in East Asia for the US State Department that taught him how to interpret a notoriously opaque language: the “party speak” practiced by Chinese Communist officials.

          Party speak is “its own lexicon,” explains Reid, now 44 years old. Even a native Mandarin speaker “can’t really follow it,” he says. “It’s not meant to be easily understood. It’s almost like a secret language of Chinese officialdom. When they’re talking about anything potentially embarrassing, they speak of it in innuendo and hushed tones, and there’s a certain acceptable way to allude to something.”

          For 15 months, Reid loaned this unusual skill to a nine-person team dedicated to investigating the mystery of COVID-19’s origins. Commissioned by Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the team examined voluminous evidence, most of it open source but some classified, and weighed the major credible theories for how the novel coronavirus first made the leap to humans. An interim report, released on Thursday by the minority oversight staff of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP), concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic was “more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident.”

          As part of his investigation, Reid took an approach that was artful in its simplicity. Working out of the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, and a family home in Florida, he used a virtual private network, or VPN, to access dispatches archived on the website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). These dispatches remain on the internet, but their meaning can’t be unlocked by just anyone. Using his hard-earned expertise, Reid believes he unearthed secrets that were hiding in plain sight....

          Comment


          • Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/china-di...port-1.1839434

            1h ago
            China Dismisses ‘Fabricated’ Virus Leak Theory Revived by Report
            Bloomberg News, Bloomberg News

            (Bloomberg) -- China lashed out at a report about a lab in the city of Wuhan where the coronavirus first appeared, saying it was driven by politics in the US.

            “US politicians are rehashing the lab-leak theory to smear China in disregard of facts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. “Such acts are driven by ill-intentions. This will only hamper science-based origins tracing and undermine international anti-Covid cooperation.”

            The Asian nation has “made it clear on multiple occasions that the lab-leak theory from Wuhan is nothing but a lie fabricated by anti-China forces for political purposes and it has nothing to do with science,” he said.

            Vanity Fair and the investigative news outlet ProPublica published an article on Friday that alleged that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was more troubled than previously known. It also says Chinese President Xi Jinping may have been briefed on problems at the facility in November 2019, months before the virus was first detected in Wuhan.

            Zhao sidestepped a question about Xi and the lab at the press briefing...

            Comment



            • Sen. Cotton to Newsmax: White House Attempting to 'Silence Dissent'

              By Luca Cacciatore | Wednesday, 02 November 2022 06:23 PM EDT
              Sen. Tom Cotton told Newsmax that the Biden administration is still attempting to "silence dissent" through Big Tech even after tabling the Department of Homeland Security's disinformation board.

              During a Wednesday interview on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," the Arkansas Republican recalled his own experiences in receiving backlash for questioning the accepted narrative on COVID-19's origins.

              "In the earliest days of the pandemic, when I was trying to ring the alarm ... I said ... 'This probably didn't originate in a food market in Wuhan. If anything, it likely originated in the labs of Wuhan where they are researching coronaviruses,'" Cotton explained.

              But President Joe Biden and top Democrats claimed that "it was nativist and xenophobic and racist when in reality most people ... look at the facts now and say, 'It almost certainly came from those labs,'" he added...
              _____________________________________________

              Ask Congress to Investigate COVID Origins and Government Response to Pandemic.

              i love myself. the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution ever. ---- nayyirah waheed

              "...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.

              Comment



              • ‘Gain of function’ research can create experimental viruses. In light of COVID, it should be more strictly regulated – or banned

                Published: November 14, 2022 9.07pm EST

                Colin D. Butler
                Honorary Professor, Australian National University

                The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a scientific review that looks at environmental threats and risks in light of the COVID pandemic. It analyses links between human infectious diseases and nature and what we know about how diseases (zoonoses) can transfer from animals to humans.

                The report (which I wrote) argues laboratory procedures (including “gain of function” research) should be recognised as one potential driver of zoonotic “spillover”...
                _____________________________________________

                Ask Congress to Investigate COVID Origins and Government Response to Pandemic.

                i love myself. the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution ever. ---- nayyirah waheed

                "...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.

                Comment


                • Published December 1, 2022 2:39pm EST

                  Fauci says 'it's very important' to learn COVID origin, explains what to do if lab leak theory proven true
                  ...
                  Ronn BlitzerBy Ronn Blitzer | Fox News
                  ...
                  "As you know, there's this debate of whether it is a lab leak from something that was going on in a Chinese lab or a natural occurrence."

                  Fauci added that data in peer reviewed journals "strongly indicate but don't absolutely prove" that it came from a natural occurrence, specifically going from a bat to an "intermediary host" and then to a human. He then acknowledged that "there's also the possibility… that we don't know precisely what the origin is. It could have been something like studying a virus that they got out of the environment and perhaps having it leaked out into the community."
                  ...
                  He then described what steps could be taken if the lab leak theory is proven true.

                  "If it turns out that it's a lab leak, then you want to do everything you can to have a lot of restrictions and guidelines about the kinds of things that could be done in the lab," Fauci said.
                  ...

                  "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

                  Comment


                  • Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/e...origins-report

                    Editor’s Note: A Review of Criticisms of a ProPublica-Vanity Fair Story on a COVID Origins Report
                    by Stephen Engelberg
                    Nov. 30, 11 a.m. EST


                    On Oct. 28, ProPublica and Vanity Fair published a story about an interim report on the origins of COVID-19 released by the Republican oversight staff of a Senate committee. The interim report was the product of a far-reaching investigation into the question of how the pandemic began, and we wanted to give readers an inside view of the team’s work and share independent experts’ views of its findings.

                    The debate over COVID-19’s origins has been contentious from the start, and the report’s conclusion that the pandemic was “more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident” triggered criticism. Scientists, China observers and others questioned the Senate team’s findings and our reporting about them.

                    Over the past several weeks, reporters and editors at both publications have taken a hard look at those criticisms.

                    Our examination affirms that the story, and the totality of reporting it marshals, is sound...

                    Comment


                    • Source: https://www.city-journal.org/emails-...al-covid-story

                      Proximal Orchestrations
                      Newly released emails cast more doubt than ever on the official story of Covid-19 as a naturally occurring virus.
                      Nicholas Wade
                      December 4, 2022 Covid-19

                      The scientists who assured the world that the Covid-19 virus could not have been engineered in a laboratory based their pivotal decision on a single piece of flawed evidence. Their discussion of the scientific facts was interspersed with frequent speculation about the public impact of their findings. Theirs was no openminded search for the truth; one scientist expressed his determination from the start to disprove the possibility of a lab leak. In the rush to publish their predetermined conclusion, they ignored a critical viral feature that points to manipulation.

                      These departures from customary scientific procedure are evident from a new batch of emails released to Jimmy Tobias, a freelance writer, after litigation to block the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from making extensive redactions. The emails were exchanged principally between Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a branch of the NIH, and Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a large medical research foundation in London. Other participants were Francis Collins, then director of the NIH, Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientist to the British government, and two groups of virologists, one largely U.S.-based and the other from Europe.

                      The new emails date from the first nine days of February 2020. They record the participants’ discussions of how to frame a report discrediting the idea that the Covid virus, SARS-CoV2, could have escaped from a lab. Just such a proposal had been outlined by the American virologists in a January 31 email to Fauci. Strangely, two of the American group soon began to lead the charge against their own proposal. Their efforts led to preparation of an article, overseen by Farrar, Fauci, and Collins, in which the American virologists reversed themselves entirely, declaring it impossible that the virus could have been engineered. The article, known as the Proximal Origins paper, was posted in near-final form as soon as February 17. It was published in the journal Nature Medicine on March 17, 2020, and proved widely influential in promoting the view that SARS-CoV2 had evolved naturally.

                      The emails begin with vigorous statements by the American virologists explaining their initial view that the virus had indeed been concocted in a laboratory. Mike Farzan of Scripps said that he was “bothered by the furin site” and had “a hard time explaining that as an event outside the lab.” The SARS-CoV2 genome, some 30,000 nucleotide units in length, contains a 12-nucleotide insert, known as a furin cleavage site, which greatly enhances its infectivity. Closely related viruses frequently exchange genetic material, so it would be easy to see SARS-CoV2’s furin cleavage site as having a natural origin if any other viruses in its group possessed one. But none does. Hence Farzan’s perplexity and his inference that the furin site must have been engineered into the virus...

                      Comment


                      • Government source.

                        Beijing releases specific rules on COVID-related experiments to enhance lab biosafety

                        By Global Times
                        Published: Feb 01, 2023 07:24 PM
                        Updated: Feb 01, 2023 08:32 PM

                        Beijing released specific rules on experiments relating to COVID-19 and banned any activities that fall beyond regulatory approval, the capital's health authority said in a newly released notice, in a move to further strengthen COVID-19 laboratory biosafety.

                        Activities such as novel coronavirus cultivation, experiments on animal infection and nucleic acid testing can only be carried out after receiving approval from the National Health Commission (NHC) or Beijing Municipal Health Commission, the capital's commission said in the notice.

                        Special storerooms shall be set up to store COVID-19 strains and samples and those storerooms should be guarded by at least two personnel and two locks and equipped with monitoring equipment, the notice read.

                        more...

                        zhttps://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202302/1284608.shtml

                        Comment


                        • There's another infectious diseases lab in Wuhan, the German-Chinese Joint Laboratory of Infection and Immunity.

                          The Other Lab in Wuhan: The German-Chinese “Laboratory for Virus Research”
                          By Robert Kogon December 19, 2022

                          The “lab-leak” theory is enjoying a strong revival at the moment, thanks in part to Elon Musk having obliquely endorsed it in a Tweet while clearly point the finger at Anthony Fauci: “As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people.”

                          This despite the fact that an article in Science appeared to have already put the theory to rest over a year ago by showing that the initial cluster of Covid-19 cases in Wuhan was located on the opposite (left) bank of the Yangtze River from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is commonly supposed to be the pandemic’s epicenter according to the “lab-leak” theory.

                          But unbeknownst to most observers, there was in fact another infectious diseases lab in Wuhan, the German-Chinese Joint Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, and it is located on the same side of the river in the cluster...
                          _____________________________________________

                          Ask Congress to Investigate COVID Origins and Government Response to Pandemic.

                          i love myself. the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution ever. ---- nayyirah waheed

                          "...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.

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                          • 14 February 2023

                            WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation

                            Sensitive studies in China were intended to pinpoint the source of the pandemic virus.

                            The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly shelved the second phase of its much-anticipated scientific investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China, Nature has learned.

                            Researchers say they are disappointed that the investigation isn’t going ahead, because understanding how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 first infected people is important for preventing future outbreaks. But without access to China, there is little that the WHO can do to advance the studies, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. “Their hands are really tied.”

                            In January 2021, an international team of experts convened by the WHO travelled to Wuhan, China, where the virus that causes COVID-19 was first detected. Together with Chinese researchers, the team reviewed evidence on when and how the virus might have emerged, as part of phase one. The team released a report in March that year outlining four possible scenarios, the most likely being that SARS-CoV-2 spread from bats to people, possibly through an intermediate species. Phase one was designed to lay the groundwork for a second phase of in-depth studies to pin down exactly what happened in China and elsewhere.

                            But two years since that high-profile trip, the WHO has abandoned its phase-two plans. “There is no phase two,” Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, told Nature. The WHO planned for work to be done in phases, she said, but “that plan has changed”.
                            ...

                            "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

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