New Study Refutes China’s Narrative of COVID-19 Being a Natural Animal-to-Human Transmission

Gateway Pundit ^ | 07/22/2020 | Joe Hoft

[SeekAndFind]

Guest post by Lawrence Sellin

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party has desperately tried to convince the world that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, was naturally transmitted from animals to humans.

That is, SARS-CoV-2, over time, naturally mutated in animals until it attained structures capable of infecting humans.

A new scientific study, however, demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 could not have “jumped” from animals to humans in the way China claims, because it is probably incapable of infecting bats or pangolins (scaly anteaters), the only two animal hosts that could have harboured the virus.

The closest ancestor to SARS-CoV-2 so far identified by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology is the bat RaTG13 coronavirus with over 96% identity at the genomic level.

A newly reported bat coronavirus, RmYN02, also found by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, shares 93.3% nucleotide identity with SARS-CoV-2, but apparently lacks the ability to infect humans.

Besides bat coronaviruses, two pangolin coronaviruses share up to 90% and 85.2% sequence identity with SARS-CoV-2.

It is important to note, however, that, while SARS-CoV-2 appears to be of bat ancestry, there is still no definitive evidence of an intermediate host, such as pangolins, that could have transmitted the virus to humans.

When asked about that possibility of pangolins being the SARS-CoV-2 host, Dr Ralph Baric, a coronavirus expert from the University of North Carolina, in a March 15, 2020 interview, stated pangolins were not the source.

“Pangolins have over 3,000 nucleotide changes – no way they are the reservoir species [for SARS-CoV-2], absolutely no chance,” he said.

Most of the research on SARS-CoV-2 has been focussed on the cascade of events regulated by the protein part of the spike glycoprotein, or S-protein, which has two sections, S1, primarily responsible for binding to the human cell and S2, driving fusion with the cell membrane and entry.

The S1 section contains a sequence of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which defines the coronavirus’ ability to bind to the specific human angiotensin converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2).

Several scientific studies have demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 already demonstrated high-affinity human binding even in the earliest cases and that it appeared to be “pre-adapted” for human infection.

Between the S1 and S2 sections of SARS-CoV-2 is a furin polybasic cleavage site (amino acid sequence proline, arginine, arginine, alanine or PRRA), a distinctive feature widely known for its ability to enhance pathogenicity and transmissibility in coronaviruses , but NOT PRESENT in any closely related bat or pangolin coronavirus.

To summarise, it is believed that SARS-CoV binds to the human cell ACE2 receptor making the furin polybasic cleavage site more accessible to human cell protein cleavage enzymes. The cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 protein at the S1 and S2 junction facilitates the fusion of the SARS-CoV-2 membrane with the human cell membrane allowing the insertion of viral genetic material for subsequent virus replication and release.

The most astounding finding of the new study is that insertion of the PRRA polybasic cleavage site into the bat RaTG13 coronavirus, the closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2, but lacks the PRRA site, caused the modified RaTG13 to lose its ability to infect both bats and pangolins.

It is, therefore, highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated naturally in bats or pangolins, if the addition of the PRRA furin polybasic cleavage site selects against the survival of the virus in either animal.

This new study further confirms the claim that SARS-CoV-2, which appears to have the “backbone” of a bat coronavirus, must have been genetically manipulated in the laboratory.

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Lawrence Sellin, PhD is a retired US Army Reserve colonel. He has previously worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and conducted basic and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry.

(Note that we’ve reported since April 2020 that the coronavirus did not come from bat soup – it was man-made most likely at the Wuhan Instituted of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. – see below)

[ClearCase_guy]

“Thanks for the virus. Did you know we can manipulate the weather? Here — have some rain.”

[Secret Agent Man]

Thank you Dr Mengele Fauxci

His hands are all over this and so ‘s the blood

[Malsua]

Anyone that has been paying attention has known that the Polybasic Furin Cleavage site PRRA is the smoking gun. I knew about it probably 2-3 months ago, perhaps longer. Dr Chris Martenson discussed it on his SARS-COV-2 Daily update months ago.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Thank you Dr Mengele Fauxci

OK, I’m not understanding this accusation. How is Dr. Fauci involved in this?

[MAGAthon]

30 March: China Daily: Oxford professor praises role played by China
By ANDREW MOODY
Ian Goldin believes pandemics pose a risk to the world that is 1,000 times greater than wars.
The Professor of Globalization and Development at Oxford University also said they serve to demonstrate how interdependent the world has become.
“We can only combat these and other global threats, like climate change and antibiotic resistance, by coming together,” he said...

A former economic adviser to late South African president Nelson Mandela, Goldin predicted in his 2014 book The Butterfly Defect: How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, and What to Do about It that the next economic crisis would come from a pandemic.
“This disaster has been waiting to happen for a long time. It was merely a question of where and when it would start. China was one possible source, but it could have equally started in many, many other hundreds of thousands of cities around the world,” he said.

***Goldin predicted the likely cause of a pandemic would be animal-to-human transmission...

“It needn’t have been worse, but it is. China has acted quickly, but the problem is the rest of the world. The United States has been extremely erratic. The statements coming from the White House have been alarmingly unfocused, and blaming foreigners is hardly helpful...
Goldin, a regular visitor to China, said the world’s second-largest economy has demonstrated leadership and a willingness to help other countries.
“No country has done anything at the speed and on the scale that China has done. It has also mobilized medical supplies and personnel to Italy. We need to find a vaccine, and that means a global effort,” he said...

He said it could be dangerous for the world to push back from globalization just as global problems, including the current pandemic, need global solutions.
“There is no wall high enough that is going to keep out climate change, antibiotic resistance, or the next financial crisis or next pandemic. The idea that you can insulate yourself and have a wealthy, prosperous society as an island in a world which is systemically in crisis, is a complete fantasy,” he said...
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202003/30/WS5e816725a310128217282fbf.html

final part of a 3-part series, just broadcast. Goldin is the ultimate globalist:

AUDIO: 26m29s: 22 Jul: BBC: The Compass: The Pandemic that Changed the World
What will the world look like post-Covid? In an age of increasingly inward focus can a spirit of multilateralism prevail to meet the challenges posed by the reconstruction of national economies as well as the needs of poorer countries and the international organisations?

And does the post-Coronavirus moment provide an opportunity to think differently about other global challenges, the foremost being climate change? Will we be able to “build back better”?

Ian Goldin, Oxford University’s professor of globalisation and development draws on his experience as economic advisor to Nelson Mandela and vice president at the World Bank to argue that the gravest threat to humanity in a generation could be turned into an opportunity. But the challenges are many. He discusses them with - among others - pandemic expert Larry Brilliant; Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; the editor of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes; and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chair of GAVI, the vaccine alliance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct0whw

Wikipedia: Ian Goldin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Goldin

[Secret Agent Man]

The millions of dollars he sent to these labs to mess with this shiite. About 3.7 milion.

Go back and read up.

[doc maverick]

Yes, they found out a couple months ago that the virus was genetically altered at attachment sites. This was deliberately unleashed on us by deep state in collusion with China. You can be sure that they have other bio weapons.

[Reaganez]

IS this just the flu or a biological attack?

[Dave Wright]

The real impact of this should not be lost on the rest of the world. If the CCP is ruthless and inhuman enough to do this once and nobody holds them responsible they will certainly generate another variant to get around any vaccine. They have the perfect assassin’s mace to paralyze the world’s economy until we all accepts their rule.

[Grandpa Drudge]

You ask "How is Dr. Fauci involved in this?"

Check out the following two recent threads:

Did Fauci Warn Trump in 2017 That a ‘Surprise Outbreak’ Was Coming?

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3865030/posts

The Case Is Building That COVID-19 Had a Lab Origin

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3866562/posts

[Ben Hecks]

From your post at #6: And does the post-Coronavirus moment provide an opportunity to think differently about other global challenges, the foremost being climate change? Will we be able to “build back better”?

Isn't "build back better" Joe Biden's slogan?

[Grandpa Drudge]

This article is very informative:

Lab-Made? SARS-CoV-2 Genealogy Through the Lens of Gain-of-Function Research

https://medium.com/@yurideigin/lab-made-cov2-genealogy-through-the-lens-of-gain-of-function-research-f96dd7413748

An interesting excerpt:

"The fact that the deeper you dive into the research activities of coronavirologists over the past 15–20 years, the more you realize that creating chimeras like CoV2 was commonplace in their labs. And CoV2 is an obvious chimera (though not nesessarily a lab-made one), which is based on the ancestral bat strain RaTG13, in which the receptor binding motif (RBM) in its spike protein is replaced by the RBM from a pangolin strain, and in addition, a small but very special stretch of 4 amino acids is inserted, which creates a furin cleavage site that, as virologists have previously established, significantly expands the “repertoire” of the virus in terms of whose cells it can penetrate. Most likely, it was thanks to this new furin site that the new mutant managed to jump species from its original host to humans.

Indeed, virologists, including the leader of coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli, have done many similar things in the past — both replacing the RBM in one type of virus by an RBM from another, or adding a new furin site that can provide a species-specific coronavirus with an ability to start using the same receptor (e.g. ACE2) in other species. In fact, Shi Zhengli’s group was creating chimeric constructs as far back as 2007 and as recently as 2017, when they created a whole of 8 new chimeric coronaviruses with various RBMs. In 2019 such work was in full swing, as WIV was part of a $3.7 million NIH grant titled Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence. Under its auspices, Shi Zhengli co-authored a 2019 paper that called for continued research into synthetic viruses and testing them in vitro and in vivo:"

Note: That grant was sponsored by NIH/NIAID, managed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

[Grandpa Drudge]

Note: That grant was sponsored by NIH/NIAID, managed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Wonder if that has anything to do with the level of effort by the CDC to really track down the origin of this pandemic?

[Lumper20]

Bio warfare.

[TChad]

How is Dr. Fauci involved in this?

Sorry for the Newsweek link, but for them but this is an admission against interest. The left loves Fauci.

I have not seen a Fauci denial/explanation, but one probably exists.

https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741

[TChad]

but for them but this > but for them this

[kelly4c]

Bkmk

[Grandpa Drudge]

Good for Newsweek, with that bi-partisan support.

It doesn't surprise me that Fauci is not denying this (he actually can't).

What surprises me greatly is that no one in our government seems to care about this at all.

Everyone seems bent on blaming China for this, when it actually was a joint effort between China (Wuhan) WIV and the USA NIH / NIAID.

[PGalt]

Thanks Gramps. Thanks to all posters, educators...lovers of life, liberty and fun.

A Free Republic is a Fun Republic. Know the way.