The “crazy conspiracy” theory that it is a Chinese lab containment error now seems very plausible.
Currently, we are going through one of the worst pandemics in modern history. Originated from Wuhan, China a coronavirus, currently named 2019-nCoV, infected over 2000 people and killed over 50 and is spreading rapidly.
The preliminary sequencing of the virus showed bat DNA and the culprit was chosen as a wet market. However, soon details emerged about a (not secret) level 4 biological lab only 20 minutes from the alleged ground zero.
The “crazy conspiracy” theory that it is a Chinese lab containment error now seems very plausible. Walk with me:
November 2015 — A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence
Writers Comment: This article is co-authored by Xing-Yi Ge; Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
“ Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone.
The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”
November 2015 — Lab-made coronavirus related to SARS can infect human cells.
“The findings reinforce suspicions that bat coronaviruses capable of directly infecting humans (rather than first needing to evolve in an intermediate animal host) may be more common than previously thought, the researchers say.
But other virologists question whether the information gleaned from the experiment justifies the potential risk. Although the extent of any risk is difficult to assess, Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that “grows remarkably well” in human cells. “If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” he says.”
https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky-research-1.18787
February 2017 — Inside the Chinese lab poised to study world’s most dangerous pathogens
“A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns.
But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says.”
November 2017 — Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus
Writers Comment: This research is done by the same Xing-Yi Ge as in 2015
“ Cell entry studies demonstrated that three newly identified SARSr-CoVs with different S protein sequences are all able to use human ACE2 as the receptor, further exhibiting the close relationship between strains in this cave and SARS-CoV. This work provides new insights into the origin and evolution of SARS-CoV and highlights the necessity of preparedness for future emergence of SARS-like diseases.”
May 2019 — Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory User Training Program, China
Writers Comment: China speeds up the program.
“ Experienced, qualified personnel certified to work in high-level biocontainment laboratories contribute to the safe operation of these facilities. China began a training program for laboratory users after establishing its first Biosafety Level 4 laboratory, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory (Level 4) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We provide an overview of the content of this training program, which can serve as a reference for developing national norms for high-containment laboratory training.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478205/
July 2019 — Chinese researcher escorted from infectious disease lab amid RCMP investigation
“A researcher with ties to China was recently escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg amid an RCMP investigation into what’s being described as a possible “policy breach.”
Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng and an unknown number of her students from China were removed from Canada’s only level-4 lab on July 5, CBC News has learned.
A Level 4 virology facility is a lab equipped to work with the most serious and deadly human and animal diseases. That makes the Arlington Street lab one of only a handful in North America capable of handling pathogens requiring the highest level of containment, such as Ebola.
Cheng also works at the lab as a biologist. He has published research papers on HIV infections, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), E. coli infections and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome.”
July 2019 — China’s Biological Warfare Programme and the Curious Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu
Writers Note: Husband of the woman in this feed Dr. Xianggou is:
Institute of Military Veterinary, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Changchun
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu Military Region
Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hubei
Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
“Experimental infections — including aerogenic ones — of monkeys with the most lethal viruses found on Planet Earth comprise nearly a routine therein. Four months earlier, a shipment of two exceptionally virulent viruses dealt with in the NML — Ebola and Nipah viruses — was on its way from NML, ended in China, and has thereafter been traced and regarded to be improper, specifically put as “possible policy breaches”, or rather but an “administrative issue”, ostensibly.”
https://idsa.in/cbwmagazine/chinas-biological-warfare-programme
October 2019 — Event 201
Writers Comment: Probably on alert, CDC runs a simulation of a possible breach.
“The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. The exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences.
Statement about nCoV and our pandemic exercise”
http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/
December 2019 — Containment Error.
— update —
Writers Comment: A study published on the Lancet finds no connection to the wet food market in 13 of the initial infected.
“… the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The earliest case became ill on 1 December and had no reported link to the seafood market, the authors report. “No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases,” they state. Their data also show that in total, 13 of the 41 cases had no link to the marketplace either. “That’s a big number, 13, with no link,” says Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Georgetown”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
— end update —
