Coronavirus: Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Thu Dec 16 01:14:49 PST 2021


Still fucking with and releasing their latest Corona concoctions from
the labs...



Taiwanese Lab Leak Sharpens Debate On Pandemic Origin

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/taiwanese-lab-leak-sharpens-debate-on-pandemic-origin_4157452.html

On Dec 9, 2021, Taiwan announced that a researcher working in a
Biosafety-level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in Taipei had tested positive for
the Delta variant of COVID-19 “while experimenting on the virus in the
lab.” Chen Shih-chung, the head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command
Center (CECC) confirmed that the female researcher had tested positive
for COVID-19 after being “exposed to the pathogen” during research
that was conducted in mid-November at the Academia Sinica’s Genomics
Research Center in Taipei.

Notably, Taiwan has not experienced any recent cases of COVID-19, a
fact noted by Chen who said, “We believe the possibility of infection
from the workplace is higher because we have zero confirmed infections
in the community.”

It was later reported that the researcher had been bitten by a mouse
during two separate incidents. Taipei’s deputy mayor Huang Shan-shan,
who described the woman as a “research assistant,” said that she had
been bitten by a laboratory mouse carrying the Gamma strain of the
virus on Oct. 15, but subsequently tested negative for infection.

Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung arrives at a
press conference at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease
Control in Taipei on March 11, 2020. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

However, a little more than a month later on Nov. 19, she was again
bitten by a mouse in the lab. This time, for reasons that remain
unknown, the researcher did not undergo testing after the second bite
until well after she had developed physical symptoms. According to
Taiwan News, the woman developed a cough in late November, which
intensified during the first week of December, but she did not seek
out testing until Dec. 8.

James Liao, the president of Academia Sinica, cited six separate
failures that contributed to the infection incident. These included
the “failure to duly report a scientist being bitten by lab mice; not
working with lab mice in a biosafety cabinet; not following protocols
in removing hazmat suits; new personnel not receiving adequate
training; lack of supervision and monitoring during experiments; and
lax management in lab practices.”

Academia Sinica’s Genomics Research Center in Taipei, Taiwan, on Feb.
6, 2018. (Lysimachi/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Taiwan Leak Occurred Despite Use of High Security Lab

Taiwan’s lab leak of COVID-19 took place at a BSL-3 lab, which
mandates the use of personal protective equipment, biosafety
cabinet​s, sustained directional airflow without recirculation, as
well as self-closing and interlocked doors. By contrast, the
gain-of-function experiments being conducted on coronaviruses at the
Wuhan Institute of Virology were done at much less secure BSL-2 labs.

As context, Rutgers University biologist Richard Ebright has stated:
“BSL-2 is the biosafety level of a US dentist’s office (i.e., lockable
door, screened windows, sterilizer, gown, and gloves).” Ebright told
the Financial Times: “If [coronavirus] work was happening, it should
definitely not have been happening at BSL-2, that is roughly
equivalent to a standard dentist office.”

The use of BSL-2 labs for gain-of-function experiments by the Wuhan
Institute of Virology has been heavily criticized by many scientists.
Michael Lin, a bioengineer at Stanford University, told MIT Technology
Review that allowing work on potentially dangerous bat viruses at
BSL-2 is “an actual scandal.”

And a prominent and early supporter of the natural origins narrative,
Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin, changed his mind about the
virus’s origin after the Wuhan Institute admitted it conducted its
coronavirus experiments at a BSL-2 lab.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” Lipkin stated. “People should not be
looking at bat viruses in BSL-2 labs.”

Lipkin said that he now considers a lab leak to be a viable theory,
saying that his “view has changed.”
Taiwan Leak Response Stands in Stark Contrast to CCP’s Wuhan Response

Additionally, the open and immediate manner in which the Taiwanese
government handled its lab leak incident contrasts sharply with
China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) officials refused to acknowledge the outbreak until Taiwan
notified international authorities on Dec. 31, 2019. But despite the
CCP’s refusal to acknowledge an outbreak, there were earlier warnings
from those stationed in Wuhan.

According to the U.S. Consul General in Wuhan, the city was hit by an
unusually vicious flu-like outbreak in October 2019. And a November
2019 intelligence report by the U.S. military’s National Center for
Medical Intelligence reportedly warned of a contagion and stated that
“it could be a cataclysmic event.” Chinese authorities have reportedly
traced early cases of COVID-19 to mid-November.

A man wears a mask while walking in the street in Wuhan, China on Jan.
22, 2020. (Getty Images)

Notably, at the same time that the outbreak in Wuhan appeared to be
reaching a critical juncture, the Wuhan Center for Disease Control,
which was conducting coronavirus research alongside the Wuhan
Institute of Virology, suddenly moved its lab’s location on Dec. 2,
2019, to a spot just a few hundred yards from the Huanan Seafood
market—which would initially be cited as the origin of the early
COVID-19 cases. The CDC’s new location for its lab was also directly
adjacent to another hotspot of later COVID-19 cases, the Union
Hospital, where a group of doctors first became infected.

The genomic sequence of COVID-19 was discovered no later than Dec. 27,
2019. Both Chinese and Western scientists obtained copies at that
time. But, under pressure from the CCP, neither Chinese nor Western
scientists shared the information publicly. When a Chinese scientist
from Shanghai finally released the sequence on Jan. 11, 2020, the CCP
shut down his lab.

The CCP’s cover-up and the capitulation by scientists allowed the
virus to continue to spread at a critical time. It also gave the CCP
additional time to obfuscate the virus’s origins and create a Natural
Origins narrative centered around the Huanan Seafood Market.

Additionally, although the World Health Organization’s (WHO) initial
report on the origins of the outbreak stated that a lab leak was
extremely unlikely, the lead investigator of that report, Peter Ben
Embarek, told a Danish documentary team that the lab leak theory was
probable, and suggested that a Chinese researcher could have been
infected by a bat while taking samples in connection with research at
a Wuhan lab.

A sign of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on
April 24, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Embarek also admitted that a deal had been struck between the WHO’s
investigative team and their Chinese counterparts. The lab leak theory
could be mentioned in the WHO’s final report, but only on the
condition the report didn’t recommend any specific studies to further
that hypothesis.

China’s censorship has taken many forms. Recently, Peter Daszak, the
president of EcoHealth, the body through which Dr. Anthony Fauci
funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) that he was unable to hand over requested genetic
sequence data from his gain-of-function experiments to the NIH because
the data was going through an approval process by CCP authorities.

WHO team member Peter Daszak leaves his hotel after the World Health
Organization (WHO) team wrapped up its investigation into the origins
of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province
on February 10, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

This arrangement with the CCP is a breach of the terms and conditions
of Daszak’s NIH grant, which specifically required that all genetic
sequence data be made publicly available. CCP oversight and control
was not part of Daszak’s agreement.

The fact that genetic sequence data that may relate directly to the
origin of the pandemic remains under the control of the CCP also
raises questions about the claims of both Daszak and NIH that their
Wuhan experiments could not have caused the pandemic.
Lab Leaks Common

The incident in Taiwan has renewed the debate over the origin of the
pandemic. According to Yanzhong Huang, a Chinese public health expert
at the Council on Foreign Relations, “if the lab worker is confirmed
to have been infected at her workplace, then this will add credibility
to the lab leak theory.”

Although this case is raising new questions about the likelihood of a
lab as the origin of the pandemic, lab leaks are not as rare as the
media would have the public believe.

The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic marked the first appearance of the H1N1
virus. Although the initial outbreak was natural, the virus’s sudden
reappearance in the late 1970s was actually due to a laboratory leak
of a stored strain of the H1N1 virus. We know this because the genetic
sequence of the virus in the 1970s outbreak was nearly identical to
the sequences of decades-old strains. Put another way, the virus was
not evolving during this time, it was sitting in a lab. Indeed, the
NIH notes that a “biosafety lapse in a research laboratory is now most
often cited as the cause of the 1977-1978 reemergence of the H1N1
influenza virus strain.”

Seattle policemen wear white cloth face masks during the Spanish flu
pandemic, Dec. 1918. (Public Domain)

In 1979, spores of anthrax leaked from a lab in the Soviet Union,
killing scores of people. At the time Soviet authorities covered up
the origins of the outbreak, claiming that it came from contaminated
meat. In a twist eerily reminiscent of the World Health Organization’s
COVID-19 origins investigation, a molecular biologist from Harvard
University, Matthew Meselson, was allowed to travel to the Soviet
Union to investigate the outbreak.

Upon his return, he issued a report that backed the Soviet version of
events, claiming that the outbreak started at a contaminated meat
processing plant. Meselson stated that that explanation was “plausible
and consistent with what is known from medical literature and recorded
human experiences with anthrax.” In another parallel to the natural
origins narrative for COVID-19, where illegal wildlife markets were
initially blamed for the pandemic, Meselson claimed that the outbreak
was caused by “the illegal sale of meat.”

After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was finally revealed in 1992
that the outbreak had in fact originated at a military research
facility.

The original Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003
made headlines across the world. However, a lesser known fact is that
the SARS virus has subsequently leaked out of various labs at least
six times. The first incident occurred in Singapore—a country known
for its meticulousness and attention to detail—shortly after the
initial outbreak ended. There were subsequent SARS lab leaks in
Beijing as well as in Taiwan in 2003 and 2004.

The years 2013 and 2014 were particularly bad for lab accidents.
Notably, many of the accidents that happened during this period took
place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where lab
mice escaped the university’s lab on at least eight occasions,
including mice that were infected with SARS and H1N1 viruses. In
response, the NIH stated that “it appears the measures taken by the
University of North Carolina to reduce the likelihood of these events
have not been effective.”

Poor biosafety at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is all
the more notable in light of the fact that the university houses Ralph
Baric’s lab. In 2015, Baric, who is a pioneer of gain-of-function
experiments, famously collaborated with the director of the Wuhan
Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli, to create a hybrid version of a
bat coronavirus that had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic
human disease.

Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli is seen inside the P4 laboratory in
Wuhan, capital of China’s Hubei Province, on Feb. 23, 2017. (Johannes
Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

Richard Ebright, who warned in 2015 that the only impact of
gain-of-function work was “the creation, in a lab, of a new,
non-natural risk,” has stated that these prior leaks underscore the
fact that it “is eminently plausible that a Wuhan laboratory worker
handling Sars-related coronaviruses was infected and then transmitted
the infection to the general public, sparking the pandemic.” Notably,
Ebright’s 2015 warning was in response to the experiments carried out
by Baric and Shi Zhengli.

Incidents of lab leaks in just the last 10 years have involved notably
dangerous pathogens, including Dengue, Anthrax, H5N1, smallpox, Ebola
and Zika.

Although there are far too many incidents of lab leaks to list here,
one event is particularly relevant—the November 2019 lab accident in
China when nearly 200 staff at the Lanzhou Veterinary Research
Institute became infected with brucellosis, also known as
Mediterranean Fever. Subsequently, thousands of residents of Lanzhou
reportedly also fell ill. CCP authorities have denied that the
Veterinary Research Institute was responsible, blaming the outbreak on
polluted waste gas from a pharmaceutical facility which was allegedly
carried by wind to the research institute. Ironically, even if the
CCP’s version of events is accurate, it would still have been a lab
accident.
Taiwan’s Leak Refocuses Debate on COVID-19 Origin

The Lanzhou outbreak, which happened at almost exactly the same time
as the Wuhan outbreak, should have served as an immediate red flag for
anyone looking into the origins of COVID-19. But the Lanzhou Outbreak
has been largely ignored by the media. The incident underscored not
only that laboratory accidents happen with disturbing regularity but
also that the CCP has a history of covering them up.

In 2019, Yuan Zhiming, the vice-director of the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, wrote a review of the many safety deficiencies within
China’s many laboratories. He noted that “several high-level BSLs have
insufficient operational funds for routine yet vital processes,”
noting that many of China’s BSL-3 laboratories “run on extremely
minimal operational costs or in some cases none at all.”

Just one year earlier, in 2018, U.S. Embassy officials visited the
Wuhan Institute of Virology and warned the State Department that there
was “inadequate safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies
on coronaviruses from bats.” They also reported that there was a lack
of trained staff at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

FDA Commissioner-designate Scott Gottlieb testifies during a Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol
Hill in Washington on April 5, 2017. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration head Scott Gottlieb has
stated that “lab leaks happen all the time.” During a May 2021
interview on Face the Nation, Gottlieb noted, “In China, the last six
known outbreaks of SARS-1 have been out of labs, including the last
known outbreak, which was a pretty extensive outbreak that China
initially wouldn’t disclose that it came out of a lab.” Gottlieb said
that “It was only disclosed finally by some journalists who were able
to trace that outbreak back to a laboratory.”

The transparency and responsiveness with which Taiwan handled its
recent biosafety lapse contrasts sharply with China’s ongoing efforts
to impede any investigation into the origins of the pandemic. China’s
efforts to thwart any true investigation of the virus’s origin also
raise questions as to why the United States was providing technology
and funding for gain-of-function experiments to a communist regime
that is known for its lack of transparency.

Former-MI6 chief, Sir Richard Dearlove recently summed up China’s
approach to the pandemic when he told the Australian, “I’m pretty sure
that the Chinese after the outbreak in Wuhan, and they’re very good at
doing this, sat down and developed their own information campaign and
this was almost certainly driven by the Ministry of State Security and
run out of the PRC leadership to make sure that there was suppression
of any suggestion that their narrative was not the correct one.”

Dearlove echoed the concerns of many when he ominously noted that
”what concerns me and what worries me is the extent to which the West
went along with this.”


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