Posted on 09/25/2020 9:17:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After nearly one year, questions remain unanswered about whether the Chinese coronavirus was natural or man-made and whether its release into the world was accidental or malicious.
Chinese scientist Li-Meng Yan has stirred up media attention with her claim that the coronavirus connected with COVID-19 is the result of Chinese bioengineering. She’s been saying this for a while, but the renewed attention follows a paper she and her coauthors uploaded to a public research repository. Tucker Carlson recently interviewed her on his popular Fox News show, where she went so far as to claim that Chinese authorities not only created the bug but released it on the world intentionally.
These claims, which we should treat separately, have been in the air for months. One online documentary that made the rounds in the spring got things started. It claimed that the cell-invading appendages (called spike proteins) on the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) are suspiciously like the appendages on the original SARS virus, which caused an outbreak in 2003. The claim seems to be that scientists engineered a coronavirus from bats so it would infect humans.
Like all proteins, these spike proteins are made in cells by linking amino acids to produce long chains that fold up into their working form. So if someone made the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by splicing pieces of the original SARS spike protein into the spike protein from a bat virus, we should see this. Specifically, when we examine the amino-acid sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, we should see pieces that match the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein, with the rest matching the bat spike protein.
As the figure below shows, we see nothing of the sort. There are only three extended regions in which the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein differs from what is reported to be the most similar bat virus spike protein (from bat coronavirus RaTG13). Even in these regions, the SARS-CoV-2 protein is more like the bat virus protein than the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein.
At the six key places for grabbing the appendages on human cells, the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is equally unlike the spike proteins from SARS-CoV-1 and the bat coronavirus (one in six matches either way). Bottom line: If someone tried to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein resemble the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein, they did a miserable job.
Full spike protein sequences for SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and bat coronavirus RaTG13 were aligned using Clustal Omega. Amino acids are represented by conventional 1-letter abbreviations. Using position numbering for SARS-CoV-2, region one runs from 438 to 455, region two runs from 477 to 506, and region three runs from 679 to 685. Dots indicate matching amino acids.
The SARS-CoV-1 sequence is greyed except where there is a match between the two SARS sequences and a mismatch between SARS-CoV-2 and the bat coronavirus. Boxes show positions known to be important for infecting human cells.
In June 2020, Tech Startups reported that Norwegian virologist Birger Sørensen had coauthored a peer-reviewed paper that “claimed the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is not natural in origin.” That’s not true. Rather, his paper’s acceptance in QRB Discovery gave Sørensen the opportunity to offer his hunch about the origin of the virus to the press.
His peer-reviewed paper, however, makes no such claim. It does talk about short pieces of sequence having been inserted into the spike protein, but this often happens naturally.
In their new paper, Yan and her colleagues attribute SARS-CoV-2 to “sophisticated laboratory modification.” The paper, though, hasn’t yet made it through peer review. In fact, much of the work they cite to make their case likewise sits in unreviewed repositories.
They blame censorship for this in the paper itself, saying, “It is noteworthy that scientific journals have clearly censored any dissenting opinions that suggest a non-natural origin of SARS-CoV-2.” They might be right that journals are avoiding papers that make this claim, but it’s hard to blame editors for not wanting to stand behind high-stakes accusations without strong evidence.
Yan and her colleagues base their case on the hypothesis that there is no natural RaTG13 coronavirus. They claim Chinese scientists falsely reported this as a natural bat virus to disguise the true origin of SARS-CoV-2 — namely, bat viruses that were engineered in obvious ways to infect humans. According to their paper, “[T]he theory that fabricated scientific data has been published to mislead the world’s efforts in tracing the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has become substantially convincing.”
What are we to think? The problem is that bias works both ways. Those who find that theory convincing can always find ways to confirm it, and the critics can always find a way to deny it. To us, it’s hard if not impossible to prove their case merely by comparing the viral genomes. Given the magnitude of the charge, then, the safer bet is still that the new coronavirus is the product of nature, not engineering.
Be that as it may, did Chinese authorities intend to release the coronavirus into the human population? This seems far-fetched. If they wanted to test it, they surely wouldn’t have picked an industrial center — Wuhan is often called China’s Chicago. They would have picked some obscure place in the far-flung northwest, set up controls, run the test, and buried the evidence. As things happened, the virus threw the regime into a tailspin and seriously damaged a reputation it spent decades and billions of dollars cultivating.
So what did happen? For a few months, the press and the World Health Organization went with the “Chinese wet market” story. Anyone who pointed to evidence that the coronavirus might have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was dubbed a conspiracy theorist.
The evidence kept growing, however, and finally overcame whatever spell corporate media was under. We know this lab studied bats infected with coronaviruses. Two years before the outbreak, U.S. Embassy officials had warned about lax safety standards at the lab. And in May 2020, NBC obtained a report from British and American intelligence that said that “there was no cellphone activity in a high-security portion of the Wuhan Institute of Virology from Oct. 7 through Oct. 24, 2019, and that there may have been a ‘hazardous event’ sometime between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11.”
Beijing deserves a generous portion of the blame for the spread of COVID-19, but so far there’s no proof that the coronavirus was a product of Chinese bioengineering or that Chinese authorities meant to expose the world to it.
These claims keep resurfacing because they confirm the (quite reasonable) hostility that many Americans, especially conservatives, have toward the Chinese leadership. But surely, the Chinese military understands this, giving us still more reason to exercise caution.
Might Yan actually be doing the bidding — wittingly or not — of the Chinese regime? What if this is itself a clever propaganda op hatched in Beijing? That’s what Jordan Schachtel suggests in a recent article.
After all, the coronavirus is a PR disaster for the Chinese Communists no matter how you slice it. Now that the coronavirus is out, though, Beijing could benefit by building the reputation of a scary research program that cooked up a bug to contaminate the world. If the rest of the world panics and shuts down their economies, all the better.
This is speculative, of course, but conservatives should focus, as much as we can, on the scientific evidence to settle these questions — no matter whose ox is gored.
You are correct and many points although I’ll have to say that in America you have the freedom to choose whether or not to wear a mask or get a vaccine or frankly to be afraid of this stupid virus or the H1n1 or anything for that matter biologically speaking
I’m at the conclusion that most of the people that get this information are TV watchers
It’s very hard to scare people through the radio
It would still be a Chinese bio weapon regardless of whether it may have escaped before they intended.
I watched and listened to Tucker Carlson interviewing her.
You want an "unfounded conspiracy theory? How about this assessment:
COVID-19 was an early-stage and very unstable prototype for a bio weapon which was accidentally released from the Wuhan laboratory in late September 2019.
The original virus was derived from a "gain-of-function" research program at the University in Toronto, Canada, which program was abandoned in 2015 because the sponsors considered it too dangerous to continue. Chinese scientists were hired from the Toronto lab to work on a continued program at the Wuhan lab.
The US Government contributed $3.7 million dollars in funding to the Wuhan laboratory. There has never been any public explanation for why this money was given.
By some accounts, a lab animal bit a technician, who died in October,from the resulting infection. That person has a name, which has been widely circulated in China. The Chinese Government claims she is still alive, but does not allow any current interviews with her.
The original infection appeared to be moderately contagious and 100% fatal. A number of other patients died in October and early November. The Chinese bureaucrats were terrified that they had loosed a "slate-wiper" in their own country. A great deal of finger-pointing and organizational paralysis ensured. Many phone calls were made. Many intemperate e-mails were sent.
Western National Intelligence agencies have thousands of such intercepts, as well as first-hand accounts from local assets.
Concealment programs were fully in place by December 2019. Civilian doctors who encountered patients were quickly and strictly ordered to keep silent. Some doctors ignored these orders and were sanctioned. That did not stop the rumors from spreading.
The virus was unstable, and appeared to be mutating into less-lethal forms. The bureaucrats concluded that it might not be the feared "slate-wiper", but locking down the country would limit the spread until they could determine what treatment options might be effective.
Cancelling travel before the Chinese New Year celebrations was a very big deal. The Government relaxed censorship restrictions and let rumors of the virus persist. That made it much easier to promote regional lock-downs. They did insert misdirection into the rumor streams, attributing the virus to US Army sources.
In a classic demonstration of vindictiveness, the Chinese Government allowed its citizens to travel internationally for the Chinese New Year celebration, while prohibiting such travel within the country. This was a deliberate policy to "spread the misery", by seeding the virus into Western countries. It worked. Serious outbreaks followed in Ecuador, Italy, and Iran with many fatalities. The virus spread rapidly to the rest of the world.
That last topic of assessment ("deliberate seeding")would constitute a biological weapons attack, and under long-standing US policy, would be regarded as equivalent to a nuclear weapons attack. The US policy for such events calls for immediate retaliation with nuclear weapons.
Nobody in authority wants to escalate to that level. For that reason alone, the "deliberate seeding" topic could never be allowed to be "proven" - even if there were direct evidence that such conversations and orders occurred.
The COVID-19 virus has mutated into at least six distinct strains, each one less lethal than its predecessors. The most common strain extant now creates no symptoms in over 50% of patients and requires a lab test to detect it. There are several cheap, effective medications which will stop the infection in vulnerable patients. These must be given within the first few days of symptom onset in order to work.
Leftist political authorities in every Western country have claimed new and unrestricted totalitarian powers over their subjects and have no incentive to relinquish them. They are determined to "never let a crisis go to waste".
This assessment is for entertainment purposes only. It was derived entirely from open-source information. You do not need to believe a single word of it.
There is ample evidence that the CCP decided to take advantage of the “outbreak”. They are bad faith actors and that is really all we need to take punitive actions against China.
naw, no way. its pure coincidence that the virus attacks Caucasians much much much more severely than Chinese/Asians (as has now been established with not one but two genetic markers, see yesterday’s news feed from Tel Aviv University)
pure coincidence (chance, about 1 percent or less imho since the virus eminated from a Communist Chinese bio weapons factory)
Oh look, no sources, nothing verifiable, no ACTUAL information. Unfounded conspiracy theory nonsense.
naw, no way. its pure coincidence that the virus attacks Caucasians much much much more severely than Chinese/Asians (as has now been established with not one but two genetic markers, see yesterday’s news feed from Tel Aviv University)
pure coincidence (chance, about 1 percent or less imho since the virus came from a Communist Chinese bio weapons factory)
Dismissing a topic as "conspiracy theory" is a standard technique to stop discussion of an unpopular assessment. It has been so over-used that it is no longer effective.
The repeatedly observable fact is that deliberate and concealed actions of a very small group of people commonly affect much larger groups of people. This is the source for all "conspiracy theories". And sometimes the theories turn out to be correct.
Who benefits if a theory is correct? Who benefits if a theory is wrong? It is hard to prove a theory, but what do you need to know that could disprove a theory? Answering those questions goes a long way toward cutting through the fog and distortion. There's something happening here But what it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware I think it's time we stop Children, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?
Buffalo Springfield,"For what its worth", 1966
No. All topics in that collection of BS have been widely made up with no substantiation then perpetuated by people who are too stupid to realize it’s a bunch of hokum.
It IS a conspiracy theory. You are NOT discussing, you are bringing forth fiction as fact.
There are no repeatedly observable deliberate concealed actions. Just idiots making up crap and then others rolling their eyes.
Who benefits by spreading fear based on lies?
Democrats.
whether it was a bioweapon or not, it was most certainly weaponized by Chicoms allowing a mass exodus of nationals across the globe to targeted countries, grabbing every scrap of PPE in the world, failing to openly share unedited data, and, when caught, producing and shipping, at inflated cost, defective PPE and test kits, under the guise of ‘humanitarian aid’.
Unfortunately, the chinese people, and their ‘white monkey’ expats, are brainwashed into thinking that the virus came into China, instead of the reverse, and so there is little to no hope that the chinese will overthrow their govt by force.
Leaving the western world with no other recourse than that of boycotting everything China produces until their economy is in the hopper for the next 50 years.
What do you call it?
They’re not the ones spreading the idea that it’s a bioweapon. Guess again.
Feces occurs. Really our various ailments are always mutating and changing and periodically one gets ugly and goes pandemic. It’s just part of life.
Hi.
I was looking to find Dr. Fauci” name and didn’t see it.
Nor the NIH or 0bama mentioned within.
What about Dr. Shi Zhengli? Was her name in the article?
*This is speculative, of course, but”
Indeed.
5.56mm
China needs to be rid of at least three-quarters of a billion people. A war could accomplish that, but would devastate the infrastructure. They found a virus which they thought could accomplish it; it killed mostly the elderly and medically compromised (the “useless eaters”) while the young and fit (the workers) usually recovered. It got loose, and they withheld information on it for at least six weeks to allow it to spread abroad.
It succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in harming their “enemy”.
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