Posted on 02/08/2020 6:38:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Corona virus developed in Canada and stolen by China? reads the headline of this article from January 22, 2020. It appears to be the first of a series of such claims about the novel coronavirus, which caused an outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading elsewhere in the country and around the world.
Other social media users soon shared similar versions of the claim, referring to the investigation of two Chinese virologists in Canada in 2019. Kyle Bass, an American hedge fund manager who is currently shorting Hong Kongs currency, falsely claimed on Twitter that a Chinese spy team sent pathogens to the Wuhan facility. He was retweeted 12,000 times, and screenshots of the tweet were shared on Facebook.
The claims appear to be based on a mischaracterization of August 2019 reports about a transfer of Ebola and Nipah viruses from a Canadian lab to Beijing, and an apparently separate issue involving two Chinese researchers at Canadas National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, in the central province of Manitoba.
(Excerpt) Read more at factcheck.afp.com ...
In July 2019, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that two researchers with ties to China were removed from the NML in Winnipeg by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for a possible policy breach. The article did not mention the coronavirus.
Robert Cyrenne, spokesman for the RCMP in Manitoba, told AFP by email that there is no connection between the outbreak in China and any RCMP investigation. Any reporting of such is misinformation.
Cyrenne confirmed to AFP that the investigation involving the researchers is still ongoing.
Dr Xiangguo Qiu, who helped develop a treatment for the Ebola virus, her husband Keding Cheng, a biologist who has published papers on coronavirus strains such as SARS-CoV, and Chinese students working under them had their security access revoked for Canadas only level-4 lab, a facility equipped for research on the deadliest diseases.
Strange how, when you ask the spies, they always claim they did nothing.
Claims that the novel coronavirus was created in Canada refer to another report involving the NML. One month after Qiu, Cheng and the students were escorted off premises, CBC reported that live Ebola and Nipah viruses had been shipped to Beijing in March 2019 for research.
PHAC officials told CBC that all procedures were followed for the shipment of those level-4 pathogens, the deadliest. But the short interval between the Air Canada flight they were transported on and Qiu and Chengs removal led to suspicion that the two events could be connected.
The RCMP declined to comment on any potential connection between the investigation and the virus shipment to Beijing.
Basss tweet claims that Qiu was suspended for sending pathogens to Wuhan. In fact, the two pathogens were sent to Beijing, and were not coronaviruses.
The University of Manitoba, with which Qiu and Cheng were affiliated, has ended their non-salaried appointments and re-assigned the students working with them, a spokesperson told the Canadian Press.
The RCMP did not comment on the current whereabouts of Qiu and Cheng for privacy reasons.
The Trump impeachment had no basis in fact. That did not stop every Democrat except one from voting the articles out of the House and every Democrat plus one RINO skank from voting to convict in the U.S. Senate.
Agree, CM.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Or maybe they are telling the truth.....technically.
Perhaps the one discovered in Wuhan is a DIFFERENT coronavirus. Maybe the one created in Canada and stolen by spies is somewhere else. There’s more than one coronavirus, you know. Dozens of ‘em.
Maybe the whole Canada/Chinese spy thing is a cover story for something worse.
These “fact checkers” and “fact check” websites are all suspect. Just because the word “fact” or “check” is in the title does not authenticate their veracity. Snopes was highly regarded until it was learned of their leftist bias. Who checks the “fact checkers?”
the researcher there that just died was a specialist in HIV/AIDS/Ebola.
Perhaps it is a big ole coincidence that some researchers thought there was an HIV connection but then the paper got pulled because they made mistakes....or something....
nothing to see here, please pay no mind
The denials were far too quick on this one.
“Perhaps the one discovered in Wuhan is a DIFFERENT coronavirus. Maybe the one created in Canada and stolen by spies is somewhere else. Theres more than one coronavirus, you know. Dozens of em.”
They mutate faster than jihadi muslims(SPIT!).
I am so sick and tired of these media crap that they do over and over again SARS Ebola. It’s always nothing.
AfP, the French tass/pravda
They are covering to the fact it is the French who built that level 4 bio lab in China. This virus has no natural evolutionary link. It is an accelerated mutation resulting in an advanced generation compared to the nearest cousin virus
The bat soup has also been ruled out.
but the pangolins ... now we’re talking
Mmmmmmmkay.
I think it’s far more likely that the virus originated in a Comm. Chinese lab and that the state saw the virus as a twofold opportunity:
1. Population reduction in China
2. An unguided weapon against the rest of the world.
China is nothing it it’s not aggressive and they really don’t care who they hurt but obviously hope to damage the U.S. and/or Russia.
My 2 cents worth.
There is the misrepresentation of the source material and official statements, without any real effort to understand them. This is what the AFB article explains.
One of my issues with conspiracy theories is how the conspiracy is supposed to work is a series of assumptions that are rarely fully explained. If those assumptions were explained, then the conspiracy falls apart. The risk and chance of failure are so high no one would attempt it.
The title is "Corona virus developed in Canada and stolen by China?" by Eeyore. This is an accusation posed as a question, which the author does not try to answer. It is true that Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and several students were removed from her job at Canada's BSL-4 lab, and that is worth noting right now. The title implies that she stole the Coronavirus which caused the current epidemic.
I'm going to spell out how the conspiracy that Eeyore does not:
1. Dr. Qui smuggled infectious material out of the lab, without being detected.
2. No one at the lab noticed material or a experiment was missing.
3. Somehow it got to Wuhan from Canada without getting found or (4) accidentally released.
5. Somehow it was released in Wuhan, when precautions were taken to get it to Wuhan.
6. There was a reason to get Coronavirus samples from Canada, when there are two BSL-4 labs in Wuhan.
Which makes this pretty far fetched.
Completely agree.
Snopes is a fact checker too. Just sauin
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