Coronavirus: Thread

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The Lancet Opens Pandora's Box, Suggests COVID Could Have Originated In US Labs

https://covid19commission.org/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01585-9/fulltext

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/21/wuhan-scientists-planned-releaseskin-penetrating-nanoparticles/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/backlash-major-covid-origins-report-suggests-virus-could-have/
https://www.who.int/news/item/15-09-2022-who-responds-to-the-lancet-covid-19-commission
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/20/economist-calls-inquiry-whether-covid-leaked-lab/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/12/covid-made-us-lab-claims-aide-top-eu-diplomat/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30418-9/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01377-5/fulltext


After providing a platform for a massive 'Natural Origins' Covid-19
disinformation campaign by EcoHealth Alliance head Peter Daszak, The
Lancet appears to have done a 180 - suggesting Covid-19 may have
originated "in US laboratories engaged in the laboratory manipulation
of SARS-CoV-like viruses," among other possibilities.

"No independent, transparent, and science-based investigation has been
carried out regarding the bioengineering of SARS-like viruses that was
underway before the outbreak of COVID-19," writes The Lancet's
Covid-19 commission, following two years of work.

"Independent researchers have not yet investigated the US laboratories
engaged in the laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses, nor
have they investigated the details of the laboratory research that had
been underway in Wuhan. Moreover, the US National Institutes of Health
(NIH) has resisted disclosing details of the research on
SARS-CoV-related viruses that it had been supporting, providing
extensively redacted information only as required by Freedom of
Information Act lawsuits."

Regular readers will recall that four months before the Obama
administration outlawed 'gain-of-function' research on US soil,
EcoHealth landed a lucrative NIH contract to offshore the risky
research to Wuhan, China - where he was tasked with manipulating bat
COVID to be more transmissible to humans.

Daszak notably also wanted to create 'chimeric viruses, genetically
enhanced to infect humans more easily,' but his $14 million request to
DARPA was declined for being too risky.

    Angus Dalgleish, Professor of Oncology at St Georges, University
of London, who struggled to get work published showing that the Wuhan
Institute of Virology (WIV) had been carrying out “gain of function”
work for years before the pandemic, said the research may have gone
ahead even without the funding.

    “This is clearly a gain of function, engineering the cleavage site
and polishing the new viruses to enhance human cell infectibility in
more than one cell line,” he said. -Telegraph

And after Sars-CoV-2 broke out in the same town where Daszak was
manipulating Bat Covid, The Lancet published a screed by Daszak
(signed by over two-dozen scientists), which insisted Covid could have
only come from a natural spillover event, likely from a wet market,
and that the scientists "stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy
theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin." The
Lancet only later noted Daszak's conflicts of interest.

Now, The Lancet's Covid-19 Commission has kicked the door open to
several new theories, including that Covid-19 could have been
engineered in, or escaped from, US laboratories - and that the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) has "resisted disclosing the
details of its work."

The full section in question:

    As of the time of publication of this report, all three
research-associated hypotheses are still plausible: infection in the
field, infection with a natural virus in the laboratory, and infection
with a manipulated virus in the laboratory. No independent,
transparent, and science-based investigation has been carried out
regarding the bioengineering of SARS-like viruses that was underway
before the outbreak of COVID-19. The laboratory notebooks, databases,
email records, and samples of institutions involved in such research
have not been made available to independent researchers. Independent
researchers have not yet investigated the US laboratories engaged in
the laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses, nor have they
investigated the details of the laboratory research that had been
underway in Wuhan. Moreover, the US National Institutes of Health
(NIH) has resisted disclosing details of the research on
SARS-CoV-related viruses that it had been supporting, providing
extensively redacted information only as required by Freedom of
Information Act lawsuits.

    In brief, there are many potential proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2,
but there is still a shortfall of independent, scientific, and
collaborative work on the issue. -The Lancet

As The Telegraph notes, the Lancet report comes as controversy swirls
the Covid-19 Commission chair, economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, who said
at a conference in Madrid earlier this year that he was "pretty
convinced" Covid-19 "came out of a US lab of biotechnology, not out of
nature," a claim promoted by Chinese diplomats.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs

Sachs also appeared on an August podcast hosted by Robert F. Kennedy,
Jr. - who has been criticized over his prominent anti-vaccine stance.

"Sachs’ appearance on RFK Jr’s podcast… undermines the seriousness of
the Lancet Commission’s mission to the point of completely negating
it," said Prof Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and
Infectious Disease Organization in Canada. "This may be one of the
Lancet’s most shameful moments regarding its role as a steward and
leader in communicating crucial findings about science and medicine,"
she added.

Sachs stood by his previous comments, telling The Telegraph that he
personally "oversaw this part of the work" on the emergency of
Sars-Cov-2, after disbanding an initial task force headed by Daszak
which was never re-formed.

"Everybody has signed off on the final text. The question of a
possible laboratory release mostly involves the question of US-China
joint work that was underway on Sars-like viruses," he said.

The Lancet Commission's report also criticized the World Health
Organization over its slow reaction in the early days of the pandemic,
suggesting it "repeatedly erred on the side of reserve rather than
boldness," including a delay in calling a public health emergency, as
well as a "hesitancy" to report that Covid spread via airborne
transmission.

    The UN health agency also “fell victim to the increasing tensions
between the United States and China”, the commissioners warned, adding
that better international collaboration will be key to prevent
epidemics becoming pandemics in future.

    The WHO said it welcomed “the overarching recommendations”, but
said there were “several key omissions and misinterpretations” around
the agency's initial response.

    The researchers analysed the varying approaches to the disease
around the world, too. The Western Pacific “stands out for its very
low average mortality rate,” possibly as the region’s experience of
the Sars epidemic in 2003 had left it better prepared to tackle new
pathogens. -The Telegraph

According to a Lancet spokesperson, the journal "regularly evaluated
the work of each Task Force as scientific evidence about Covid-19
evolved, to ensure that the final peer-reviewed report will provide
valuable new insights to support a coordinated, global response to
Covid-19 as well as to prevent future pandemics and contain future
disease outbreaks."