Kim Iverson interviews Jeffrey Sachs on Sar2's origin, including the possible US role.
-
WHO chief pushes China for ‘full access’ to determine COVID’s origins, Financial Times reports
Reuters
September 17, 20233:21 AM CSTUpdated a day ago
WHO's Tedros visits mRNA vaccine technology transfer site in Cape Town
Sept 17 (Reuters) - The chief of the World Health Organization urged Beijing to offer more information on the origins of COVID-19 and is ready to send a second team to probe the matter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
"We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — to urge Beijing to co-operate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the newspaper.
...
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/TJ6EUYTOCNNNZJBDZZ4TGCOTPA.jpg)
----------------------------------
WHO chief pushes China for ‘full access’ to solve Covid’s origins
Donato Paolo Mancini in Geneva SEPTEMBER 16 2023
...
“Unless we get evidence beyond reasonable doubt, we cannot just say this or that,” he said. But he believes “we will get the answer. It’s a matter of time.”
...
“If we know [the origin], then we can prevent the next one. So it’s science,” he said. “It will not be morally correct if we don’t know what happened.”
...
Leave a comment:
-
US government suspends funding so that Wuhan lab ‘does not receive another dollar’ over stonewalling COVID probe
By David Propper
July 18, 2023 10:21pm Updated
The US government has scraped funding for the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has long been scrutinized as the possible origin of COVID-19, after the facility didn’t fork over documents about safety and security, according to a report.
...
The Department of Health and Human Services informed the Wuhan lab of its determination and is looking to completely stop any future funds from going to the lab, the memo indicates.
After a review that started in September, the agency found the lab is not compliant with federal regulations.
“This action will ensure that [Wuhan Institute of Virology] does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson told the outlet.
...
-------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Office of the Secretary Washington, D.C. 20201
Action Referral Memorandum for Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)
On behalf of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), I hereby suspend and propose the debarment of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Capital Construction ( WIV from participating in United States Federal Government procurement and nonprocurement programs. This action is initiated pursuant to 2 C.F.R. Part 180. HHS adopted and gave regulatory effect to 2 C.F.R. Part 180 at 2 C.F.R. Subpart 376.10.
...
Leave a comment:
-
First People Sickened By COVID-19 Were Chinese Scientists At Wuhan Institute Of Virology, Say US Government Sources
The three scientists were engaged in “gain-of-function” research on SARS-like coronaviruses when they fell ill
MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, MATT TAIBBI, AND ALEX GUTENTAG
JUN 13, 2023
After years of official pronouncements to the contrary, significant new evidence has emerged that strengthens the case that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
According to multiple U.S. government officials interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation by Public and Racket, the first people infected by the virus, “patients zero,” included Ben Hu, a researcher who led the WIV’s “gain-of-function” research on SARS-like coronaviruses, which increases the infectiousness of viruses.
...
Sources within the US government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus.
...
When a source was asked how certain they were that these were the identities of the three WIV scientists who developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the fall of 2019, we were told, “100%”
“Ben Hu is essentially the next Shi Zhengli,” said Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and coauthor with Matt Ridley of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid19. Shi is known as “the bat woman of China,” and led the gain-of-function research at the WIV. “He was her star pupil. He had been making chimeric SARS-like viruses and testing these in humanized mice. If I had to guess who would be doing this risky virus research and most at risk of getting accidentally infected, it would be him.”
Hu and Yu researched the novel lineage of SARS-like viruses from which SARS-CoV-2 hails, and in 2019 coauthored a paper with Shi Zhengli that described SARS-like lineages they had studied over the years.
Jamie Metzl, a former member of the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on human genome editing who raised questions starting in early 2020 about a possible research-related pandemic origin, said, “It’s a game changer if it can be proven that Hu got sick with COVID-19 before anyone else. That would be the ‘smoking gun.’ Hu was the lead hands-on researcher in Shi’s lab.”
...
Leave a comment:
-
HAZARD ZONE Scientists at Wuhan lab were mixing world’s most deadly coronaviruses to create a new mutant strain, investigators say
Ed SouthgateJames Liveris
Published: 15:31, 11 Jun 2023 Updated: 15:38, 11 Jun 2023
SCIENTISTS were working with the Chinese military to create a mutant virus and pursue bioweapons just as the pandemic started, investigators believe.
They were running secret dangerous experiments combining the most deadly coronaviruses, which reportedly caused a leak from a Wuhan lab.
And it is believed vaccine research was going on there in the autumn before the outbreak, pertinent to the Covid-19 vaccination.
The findings follow a team of US investigators who combed through top-secret intercepted communications and research.
They say there is no published information on the work because it was done with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding the projects.
Evidence suggested researchers working on the experiments were taken to hospital with Covid-like symptoms in November 2019, just a month before the West became aware of the pandemic.
...
An investigator said: "We were rock-solid confident that this was likely Covid-19."
...
Dr Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016 and served as vice president from 2015, worked on the classified side of the research programme as a US government scientist.
...
He claimed: "China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent.
...
Leave a comment:
-
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65708746
Covid: Top Chinese scientist says don’t rule out lab leak
Published 1 day ago
By John Sudworth & Simon Maybin
BBC News
The possibility the Covid virus leaked from a laboratory should not be ruled out, a former top Chinese government scientist has told BBC News.
As head of China's Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Prof George Gao played a key role in the pandemic response and efforts to trace its origins.
China's government dismisses any suggestion the disease may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
But Prof Gao is less forthright....Leave a comment:
-
Association between SARS-CoV-2 and metagenomic content of samples from the Huanan Seafood Market
View ORCID Profile
Jesse D. Bloom
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.25.538336
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review
80001901146ABSTRACT
The role of the Huanan Seafood Market in the early SARS-CoV-2 outbreak remains unclear. Recently the Chinese CDC released data from deep sequencing of environmental samples collected from the market after it was closed on January-1-2020 (Liu et al. 2023a). Prior to this release, Crits-Christoph et al. (2023) analyzed data from a subset of the samples. Both studies concurred that the samples contained genetic material from a variety of species, including some like raccoon dogs that are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. However, neither study systematically analyzed the relationship between the amount of genetic material from SARS-CoV-2 and different animal species. Here I implement a fully reproducible computational pipeline that jointly analyzes the number of reads mapping to SARS-CoV-2 and the mitochondrial genomes of chordate species across the full set of samples. I validate the presence of genetic material from numerous species, and calculate mammalian mitochondrial compositions similar to those reported by Crits-Christoph et al. (2023). However, the number of SARS-CoV-2 reads is not consistently correlated with reads mapping to non-human susceptible species. For instance, 14 samples have >20% of their chordate mitochondrial material from raccoon dogs, but only one of these samples contains any SARS-CoV-2 reads, and that sample only has 1 of ∼200,000,000 reads mapping to SARS-CoV-2. Instead, SARS-CoV-2 reads are most correlated with reads mapping to various fish, such as catfish and largemouth bass. These results suggest that while metagenomic analysis of the environmental samples is useful for identifying animals or animal products sold at the market, co-mingling of animal and viral genetic material is unlikely to reliably indicate whether any animals were infected by SARS-CoV-2.
source: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...04.25.538336v2Leave a comment:
-
I hope he wasn't dismissed because he was in the way of using the lab leak theory as war propaganda against China.
WHO scientist who doubted Covid lab leak theory sacked for sexual harassment
Peter Ben Embarek, who contests the accusation of misconduct, led WHO's mission to China to investigate Covid's origins
By Nick Allen Washington 3 May 2023 • 11:04pm
A senior World Health Organisation scientist, who concluded it was "extremely unlikely" Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory, has been dismissed for sexual misconduct.
The UN agency said Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish scientist, was removed from his post last year.
Dr Embarek said he contested the accusation of harassment and was challenging his dismissal.
He previously led WHO's "One Health" initiative on diseases jumping from animals to humans.
Dr Embarek was the most senior WHO representative on a mission to China in 2021 to investigate where Covid-19 came from.
It determined that a leak from the laboratory in Wuhan was "highly unlikely" despite calls from other scientists to investigate that possibility...
Leave a comment:
-
True origins of Covid may never be revealed, says Chinese doctor there 'at the very beginning'
...
By
Paul Nuki,
GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY EDITOR, LONDON
14 April 2023 • 8:09pm
...
Dr George Fu Gao, who is thought to know more about the origins of the disease than any other scientist, has told the Telegraph he is “not optimistic” the origin of the virus will ever be known, citing both political and scientific obstacles.
“It’s too sensitive; too politicised,” he said.
...
On the science, Dr Gao added that the theory that there was an intermediate animal species between bats and humans that provided a “reservoir” of the virus might be wrong.
“I too thought there must be an intermediate host - a reservoir - but now I’m not so sure. It’s possible there is no animal reservoir,” he said.
...
Dr Gao, who appeared good humoured and gregarious, has a political tightrope to walk at home and is almost certain to know more about Covid’s origins than he lets on.
No doubt aware that China had officially apologised for its slowness in dealing with the 2002/3 SARS epidemic, he was careful to claim the country had acted promptly on SARS-Cov-2.
China’s CDC had been the first to detect, isolate and share the genetic sequence of the virus, he told the London conference.
...
Leave a comment:
-
Chinese scientist claims COVID-19 may have originated from humans
...
Emre Aytekin |
10.04.2023 - Update : 11.04.2023
BEIJING
...
China's State Council's Information Office held a press conference in Beijing on Saturday to discuss latest findings in the origins-tracing of the virus.
Scientists claimed that the DNA data shared in Nature, an international scientific journal, showed that strains found in samples from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where the first cases emerged, are more likely to have come from humans.
Researchers analyzed more than 1,300 DNA samples collected from animals and the environment in the market.
There was no coronavirus in any of the 457 animal samples examined, which invalidates the possibility of transmission from animals.
“These findings indicate that in the cases on the market, the virus was transmitted from other people, not from animals sold,” said Tong Yigang of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
There was not yet sufficient evidence to back up recent studies that had suggested raccoon dogs were the origin of the coronavirus, he added.
...
Leave a comment:
-
Adding Genbase sequences to usher #337
aviczhl2 opened this issue Apr 10, 2023
Starting from March 2023, China began to upload most of its sequences not to GISAID but to a self-developed platform called GenBase. Sequences are free to download on NGDC by selecting dataset ”GenBase".
Leave a comment:
-
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/china-blasts-...172435281.html
China blasts WHO chief over ‘offensive’ comments on COVID-19 origin search
Olafimihan Oshin
Sun, April 9, 2023 at 1:24 PM EDT·2 min read
Chinese health officials have called out the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for his “offensive” comments in the ongoing search for the origins of COVID-19.
Speaking at a news conference, the director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shen Hongbing said that Ghebreyesus’ recent remarks were “offensive and disrespectful,” accusing the health agency of “attempting to smear China” and said it should avoid helping others “politicize COVID-19.”
In remarks made last month, Ghebreyesus said that the newly disclosed genetic material gathered in Wuhan, China should’ve been publicly shared three years ago.
The genetic material mentioned by Ghebreyesus was uploaded recently to a global database, being collected three years ago at a Wuhan-based wildlife market where wildlife was sold.
“As a responsible country and as scientists, we have always actively shared research results with scientists from around the world,” Shen said at a news conference...Leave a comment:
-
SARS-CoV-2′s claimed natural origin is undermined by issues with genome sequences of its relative strains
Deigin, Y., & Segreto, R. (2021). SARS-CoV-2′s claimed natural origin is undermined by issues with genome sequences of its relative strains. BioEssays, 43:e2100015. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202100015
Abstract
RaTG13, MP789, and RmYN02 are the strains closest to SARS-CoV-2, and their existence came to light only after the start of the pandemic. Their genomes have been used to support a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 but after a close examination all of them exhibit several issues. We specifically address the presence in RmYN02 and closely related RacCSxxx strains of a claimed natural PAA/PVA amino acid insertion at the S1/S2 junction of their spike protein at the same position where the PRRA insertion in SARS-CoV-2 has created a polybasic furin cleavage site. We show that RmYN02/RacCSxxx instead of the claimed insertion carry a 6-nucleotide deletion in the region and that the 12-nucleotide insertion in SARS-CoV-2 remains unique among Sarbecoviruses. Also, our analysis of RaTG13 and RmYN02's metagenomic datasets found unexpected reads which could indicate possible contamination. Because of their importance to inferring SARS-CoV-2′s origin, we call for a careful reevaluation of RaTG13, MP789 and RmYN02 sequencing records and assembly methods.Leave a comment:
-
Law, Policy, & AI Update: China Requires AI Watermarks, ChatGPT Won’t Make it to U.S. Courtrooms. Feb 6, 2023 | Peter Henderson
... China enacted new regulations on deep-synthesis technology, including deepfakes and other types of generative AI systems in January, issued by the Cyberspace Administration. The rule places significant restrictions on AI-generated media, including the requirement of carrying identifiers, like watermarks. This comes as several new tools (including ones from OpenAI and Stanford, among others) launched to identify AI-generated content, which could be used for cheating on exams, spreading disinformation, and more. ...
-
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/covid-lab-l...ar-war-1787390
'I Suspected a China Lab Leak Early on—but My Research Was Rejected'
Dr Steven Quay
On 3/21/23 at 4:30 AM EDT
I became aware of SARS-CoV-2 in late December of 2019. I happened to hear a news report about a new unknown virus coming out of China and the next day saw an unusual clinical case report about a family in Wuhan Central Hospital.
The mother and father both had this really strange pneumonia. Their son had no symptoms, but his own X-rays showed his lungs had exactly the same lesions.
Their doctor, Ai Fen, knew immediately this was a new form of coronavirus—it clearly passed from human to human and there was clearly an asymptomatic form of the virus—but, she claims, nobody listened to her warnings.
When I initially saw the viral genome, in January 2020, I noticed a pretty esoteric thing. The virus we would later call SARS-CoV-2 has something called a furin cleavage site (FCS).
The FCS, which had never before been seen in a SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus, is a genetic feature that makes it easier for a virus to infect human cells. So, when I saw this FCS on SARS-CoV-2, I knew it was going to make it easier to infect cells and easier to evade the immune system by tunneling into neighboring cells.
Knowing FCSs were not found in nature in these SARS-related viruses I also knew that for years scientists have been artificially putting new FCSs into viruses to see what they do, and in every case I have seen, in which they published their results, it has increased infectivity, transmissibility, pathogenicity, or a combination of them.
I found that when you looked at this virus, it had none of the properties of natural infection and it still doesn't to this day. I have not found a single shred of actual evidence that supports the idea SARS-CoV-2 is a type of spillover infection that we have ever seen in the past.
To me, it looks much more like what would happen as the result of a lab accident.
In late 2020, I conducted an analysis in which I determined there was a 99 percent probability that SARS-CoV-2 was not a natural zoonosis, but was instead laboratory-derived.
While I believe very few people were focused on theories about where this virus came from at the time, I am one of the many people in my field who received a lot of pushback about this premise.
I did a lot of television and radio interviews at the time but, despite testifying in Congress about my findings, was never invited by any of the left-leaning mainstream media outlets.
Throughout my career, I have written 390 peer-reviewed papers and reports. Normally, the process involves sending in a paper to be reviewed by journal editors and expert scholars. The paper is then reviewed; it is heavily criticized in a back-and-forth process, and in most cases, it is then published. My papers are always better because of this peer review system.
But in 2020, both myself and colleagues who were saying similar things were sending out papers to be peer-reviewed, but getting rejected without any review of the merits of the data and by who knows whom at the journals. In these cases, there were never comments or scientific criticism offered, they just said effectively: "We're busy, we can't be bothered to send it for peer review."
While my papers have since started to get peer-reviewed, at that stage, it felt like they were refusing to engage with this type of research, and then in public were saying: "Well there's no peer-reviewed data that shows SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab."...Leave a comment:
Leave a comment: