Coronavirus: Thread

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US and Russia still running TOP-SECRET Bioweapons Programs


China Had Biological Weapons Ambitions Long Before Pandemic: House Intelligence

https://www.theepochtimes.com/china-had-biological-weapons-ambitions-long-before-pandemic-house-intelligence-committee-member_4935180.html

China had made clear its biological weapons ambitions long before the
outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Rep. Brad Wenstrup
(R-Ohio), a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Wenstrup together with Republicans on the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released a report (pdf) on the
origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dec. 14.

“Our State Department has put things out over the past, even going
back to 2005, that China is interested in offensive bioweapons,”
Wenstrup told the “Capitol Report” program on NTD, the sister media
outlet of the Epoch Times, on Dec. 16.

The lawmaker singled out the work of the People’s Liberation Army
(PLA)’s Fifth Institute of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences
(AMMS), the military’s top medical research body.

“In 2005, the U.S. State Department publicly stated the U.S.
assessment that China also operates an offensive biological weapons
program, specifically identifying two Chinese entities as likely
involved, one of which is the Fifth Institute. In a 2006 declaration
of compliance with the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention, China
acknowledged that the Fifth Institute specifically conducts research
on SARS coronaviruses,” the report reads.
Epoch Times Photo Doctor and Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio)
interview with NTD Capitol Report April 2, 2022.

Wenstrup also took note of the book titled “The Unnatural Origin of
SARS and New Species of Artificial Humanized Viruses as Genetic
Weapons,” released by AMMS in 2015.

“The book described how to create weaponized chimeric SARS
coronaviruses, the potentially broader scope for their use compared to
traditional bioweapons, and the benefits of being able to plausibly
deny that such chimeric coronaviruses were artificially created rather
than naturally occurring,” the report states.

The congressman, who is also a medical doctor, said that the military
research institute had also collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of
Virology, the body at the center of the lab leak theory of the
pandemic origins.

Wenstrup said there were “published articles with scientists from the
Fifth Institute, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) …
combining their military with their other areas of research.”

He further pointed to a scientist with the PLA’s Fifth Institute,
General Zhou Yusen, who had reportedly worked with the WIV for years
prior to the pandemic.

According to Wenstrup, Zhou was “heavy into the gain of function type
research or chimeric research.”

“Notably, in the spring of 2020, as global COVID-19 cases surpassed 7
million and COVID-19 deaths surpassed 400,000, General Zhou reportedly
died under mysterious circumstances,” according to the GOP report.
Challenging the Intelligence Community

The lawmaker noted that an update to the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence (ODNI)’s declassified assessment (pdf) of the
origins of COVID-19 released in October 2021 did not address important
information that indicates the Chinese regime’s interest in offensive
bioweapons.

“The declassified updated assessment also failed to address the AMMS’
publicly stated interest in the development of engineered
coronaviruses for biological weapons purposes,” the GOP report states.

“The IC [intelligence community] should be transparent regarding what
it does or does not know regarding the relationship between the PLA’s
Fifth Institute of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS),
which China has publicly admitted conducts bioweapons research and
coronavirus experiments, and the WI,” the report continues.

Wenstrup specifically pointed to Zhou’s death under questionable
circumstances, saying “We want to know what the intelligence community
knows about his work, and also about his untimely death and the
circumstances around that.”
Lack of Cooperation

The lawmaker highlighted that China has consistently failed to
cooperate with investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

“When they finally did let people come to China, they really didn’t
let them into the lab and to see everything. As a matter of fact, they
[investigation group] had to be held in quarantine for one or two
weeks before they even got to have a conversation,” he said, referring
to a team of World Health Organization-recruited scientists who
visited China in early 2021 to probe the pandemic origins.

“And interestingly, the only person they would allow from America was
a gentleman named Peter Daszak, who was with EcoHealth Alliance, who
was getting NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding, and then
working with the Chinese on coronavirus type of research,” he added.

Daszak is the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based
nonprofit that has drawn considerable scrutiny over funneling federal
funding to the WIV for research on coronaviruses, which some experts
say amounted to gain-of-function research.

Given the history of collaboration between Daszak and WIV, Wenstrup
said there was potential for bias.
Further Investigation

Wenstrup said that the committee would continue to probe the pandemic
origins, especially after the Republicans take the gavel in the new
year.

“We hope to move forward from here and bring people forward that have
been involved with [the Wuhan] Institute of Virology, and any other
people that have done this type of science and get their opinions and
get knowledge,” he said.

“These are always the concerns when it comes to weapons. So we need to
continue to delve in that direction. And as the Intelligence
Committee, we have the responsibility of oversight and to be aware of
the national security threats that may be out there,” he added.

It’s important to get to the bottom of this question so as to prevent
future pandemics from emerging, the congressman said.

“As a physician, I can tell you this is important because we have to
know about lab security around the world and for our own sake; we also
have to do more to make sure that we are prepared if something like
this should ever happen again,” he said.