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Why I Think The Wuhan Virus Was Likely Man-Made But Escaped By Accident: A suspicious gene sequence, the location of the COVID-19 epicenter, lab funding, and missing scientists
The Federalist ^ | 10/13/2020 | David Willhite

Posted on 10/13/2020 8:28:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Chinese scientist Li-Meng Yan recently published a paper claiming SARS-COV-2 was engineered in a Wuhan lab and released intentionally. Several other papers have emerged on the origin of the novel coronavirus, with some claiming the origin was natural. Online rebuttals to Yan’s work have also come out, including one recently featured in The Federalist, which took a skeptical tone to Yan’s claims.

If we want to engineer a virus, we manipulate the biological sequence. A sequence means the order in which the basic biological “letters” occur, and this order determines the function or purpose of the sequence, just as the meaning of words is based on the order of letters.

DNA and RNA are the code that produces proteins, which are more like a paragraph’s worth of letters, and we don’t understand this code well enough to make something from scratch. To engineer, we must either copy something that is already in nature by recombining it or making a recombinant gene, or we must use natural selection to evolve a desirable sequence. Recombination often leaves signs that it was done, almost like a paragraph that has been inserted from another story.

Jay W. Richards, Douglas Axe, and William Briggs rightly point out in their article in The Federalist that Yan’s claim about the coronavirus spike protein is not a smoking gun showing engineering. This and each of Yan’s claims can be explained as possible evidence of natural origin — except for one.

GenBank is a database of DNA, RNA, and protein sequences curated by the National Institutes of Health, possibly the most useful data set ever assembled. Scientists have submitted a few hundred thousand virus sequences to this database. The virus we are all interested in has 10 proteins it produces, from 10 genes. One simple search tool, NCBI BLAST, allows people to find similar sequences in the database to one of interest.

As published by Yan, such a search shows that the viral envelope protein found in the novel coronavirus is 100 percent identical to two other strains in the database, ZC45 and ZXC21. These strains are the ones Yan mentions as the foundation for the new strain and were submitted to GenBank more than five years ago. This gene looks like it was copied from one of the two coronavirus strains and placed into SARS-CoV-2.

The Gene Sequence Is Suspect

One hundred percent identity is rare across animal species, is nearly unknown across virus species, and rarely occurs among different viral strains. To understand why, consider the number of generations, or replication cycles, a virus goes through. Each cell it infects in a single host represents a new generation, and it will do this at least dozens or hundreds of times in a host, infecting millions of cells before being passed to a new host.

Viral genes evolve rapidly, and the corona E gene that codes for the envelope protein has already shown mutations in the current outbreak (many identical samples are submitted in a pandemic, all from the same strain). If the novel coronavirus were closely related to ZC45 and ZXC21 in the other nine genes as well, it might explain the 100 percent identity of one gene, but this is not the case.

One possible explanation is that a rare recombination event occurred naturally. It is hard to imagine that a viral gene replicating in bats, collected more than five years previously, would retain protein identity and all but three nucleotides in the wild, but the possibility should be entertained. The other anomalies in the viral genome Yan mentions have explanations with varying degrees of plausibility as to why they might have occurred naturally. It is impossible to “prove” that something occurred naturally, however, and the attempts leave me puzzled.

For example, Yan points to the presence of two restriction sites, EcoRI and BstEII, present at convenient locations in the novel coronavirus genome. Molecular biologists routinely use these enzymes to cut DNA and insert DNA into a plasmid or genome. EcoRI was especially popular due to the reliability of the enzyme.

Today, however, there are better methods to do these insertions. If one were working on a bioweapon and did use such a site, he would simply erase the evidence prior to releasing the virus. The presence or absence of such sites is meaningless.

Similarly, why would someone leave a 100 percent sequence identity in a bioweapon? Even if the function of a gene is not understood, a person can make a few alanine-valine substitutions, which are protein components that are similar to each other, in areas predicted not to have an effect, and there goes the smoking gun from the evidence room. A competent bioweapon engineer could erase any solid evidence from the genome, and it would not take more than a week to do so. It is therefore baffling that anyone would attempt even to conjecture a natural origin when it could easily be made to look so.

It certainly appears in this case that the coronavirus E gene is solid evidence of unnatural origin. It was likely lifted from one of the strains, either ZC45 or ZXC21, and recombinantly placed, or “engineered,” into the novel coronavirus. But let’s just accept this as highly suspicious, not proof.

Pay Attention to Proximity

We now must combine this with knowledge of the location of the outbreak epicenter. There are two labs, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, eight miles and 300 yards from the officially claimed epicenter of the seafood market, respectively. It strains credulity that we have a rare natural recombination event that just so happened to occur very near a lab that was performing recombinant experiments on coronaviruses.

The virus was almost certainly created for research purposes. Why am I so confident of this? The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease provided funds to the lab in Wuhan through the EcoHealth Alliance to perform gain-of-function research (grant #R01AI110964). These types of experiments involve using a strain that is able to infect humans, systematically taking genes from it, and inserting them into a strain that cannot infect humans.

This kind of research might prove very valuable. If we understood exactly what sequences or sequence motifs to be concerned about, environmental sampling could warn us before a jump to a human host occurs. Recent events have curbed my enthusiasm for such projects. Nonetheless, if the lab in Wuhan was not producing recombinant strains of coronaviruses, then they were defrauding the U.S. government. I therefore strongly suspect that the novel coronavirus strain was accidentally released from the lab in Wuhan.

So why not just ask the Chinese scientists, Jing-Yun Ma or Zheng-Li Shi, who headed research funded under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease project? These scientists and others associated with the project are either missing or have not been made available for comment. Yet scientists with such relevant expertise ought to be front and center of any response.

It Appears a Man-Made Virus Escaped

Given that China is willing to go to such lengths to hide the origins of the virus, could it perhaps be because it was engineered as a bioweapon, and scientists didn’t think to modify the genome as suggested earlier? It is speculation, but if it were released intentionally, why not do so in New York City? And if it were a bioweapon, why submit the ZC45 and ZXC21 “weapons program” gene samples to GenBank?

Four points indicate that the novel coronavirus was produced in and escaped from the lab in Wuhan:

Any two of the above points should be adequate to draw the conclusion. We should accept that the outbreak originated from an accidental release. Should we fear the Chinese Communist Party’s will, or their incompetence?

Chernobyl answered that question regarding Russia. Perhaps coronavirus has answered it for the CCP.


Dr. Willhite is a molecular biologist. His doctoral training at the University of Houston focused on infectious disease. In work as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at Yale University School of Medicine, he used viruses to study neuroanatomy. He has engineered dozens of viruses, all of which are harmless to humans. He has since left scientific research.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: bioweapon; ccpvirus; chinavirus; coronavirus; kungflu; manmade; origins; wuhan
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1 posted on 10/13/2020 8:28:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It escaped accidentally on purpose. This is Peter Strzok’s insurance plan. The Chinese want bad deal Biden as US president so they can go back to stealing our jobs.


2 posted on 10/13/2020 8:33:26 AM PDT by Prolixus (In all seriousness:)
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To: SeekAndFind

Escaped by accident, yes... BUT INTENTIONALLY ALLOWED TO BE CARRIED TO THE WEST. No doubt about the Chicom’s evil intent.


3 posted on 10/13/2020 8:34:03 AM PDT by House Atreides
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To: Prolixus

RE: It escaped accidentally on purpose.

Isn’t that an oxymoron?


4 posted on 10/13/2020 8:35:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Before the virus was out in the world, various people seem to have been talking about it. There were warnings of a coming pandemic (Fauci gave the warning). Bill Gates had funded some big convention to study a hypothetical coronavirus pandemic.

The ground was prepared.

And THEN the virus was accidentally released.

For me, it was no accident at all.


5 posted on 10/13/2020 8:38:46 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: SeekAndFind
This misses 2 ridiculously obvious points.

One, the virus was similar enough to other coronavirus sui generis to accurately predict its vector -- the elderly and the infirm, which China has a surplus of. China is very regimented about eliminating surplus; further, China could also then project the amount of damage such a weaponized virus type would do in the US, which values its aged and infirm far, far beyond China's even ability to grasp the marginal sanctity of human life.

Two, China had years to perfect this virus with its HIV spike envelope, in perfect sync with communist's long-term horizon outlook, and thus the CCP could calculate exactly when the release of the virus would cause the most damage to China's enemies versus the least damage to China. So with Chinese AI and control of their people nearly perfected -- thus no chance of civil uprise and the likelihood of knocking out HK's civil uprise -- the time was right to cripple the US economy in a re-election season, in order to negotiate more favorable terms/boost demand for their monopoly on items like PPE and medications.

6 posted on 10/13/2020 8:40:40 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (I've got your Third Rail of Politics right here.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s like the Obama manufactured birth certificate.

Much of the claim that it was manufactured would be harder to prove IF not for one thing- they forgot to compress the document into on layer before they released it.

So the PDF file had layers - you could see which parts were edited, and you could see the security paper underneath.

The ‘OCR’ claim was complete lies.

And then the posse created by Sherriff Joe Arpaio actually found the source documents (the documents it was copied from)


7 posted on 10/13/2020 8:41:11 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: SeekAndFind

Fauxcy’s Fault.


8 posted on 10/13/2020 8:41:51 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: SeekAndFind

We should accept that the outbreak originated from an accidental release.

**********************************

Why?


9 posted on 10/13/2020 8:42:35 AM PDT by bramps (It's the Islam, stupid! Any good prices on a colonoscopy come Black Friday and words mean absolutely)
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To: House Atreides

That’s my belief too, HA. It was created intentionally — it may not even have been “finished” — but got out by accident. Once the commies realized they had a mess on their hands, they saw to it that carriers spread that mess as far and wide as possible across the West, and to the U.S. in particular.


10 posted on 10/13/2020 8:42:41 AM PDT by Blurb2350
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To: SeekAndFind

Man made. Let loose on the world intentionally. Anyone who thinks differently is very naive.


11 posted on 10/13/2020 8:43:05 AM PDT by JudyinCanada (Aim low, avoid disappointment.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“... it was engineered as a bioweapon...”

Makes sense, because if none of the other irregularities happened, it could easily be interpreted AS an actual nasty flu and dismissed that way.


12 posted on 10/13/2020 8:43:26 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Barbarism is the absence of standards to which an appeal can be made" Y Gasset)
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To: StAnDeliver
Finally, the CCP release of their engineered, bioweapon virus also revealed to them exactly how countries will react when the Chinese then 'accidentally' set off a nuke. China will react to their "mistake" just like this "mistake" -- not an apology with a deep kowtow -- but rather clamor for more-centralized world government controlled by patented, expensive, spyware Chinese AI.

And if any of you don't see that coming, you're fools.

13 posted on 10/13/2020 8:45:06 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (I've got your Third Rail of Politics right here.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe I missed it, but what was the reason Fauci was connected to the lab in Wuhan?


14 posted on 10/13/2020 8:45:21 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Until I see them breaking rocks in the hot sun I'll be cleaning my guns!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I agree

Accidentally or premature escape before fully weaponized.....
...
....was to be intentionally released Weaponized closer to election....my opinion

BUT the Dems are using the fear of it to hinder election


15 posted on 10/13/2020 8:46:28 AM PDT by Guenevere (**See you at the Franklin Graham Prayer March in DC on September 26!**)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Before we were worrying about the next Spanish Flu, not a Bioweapon Virus


16 posted on 10/13/2020 8:52:08 AM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: StAnDeliver

I haven’t seen much discussion regarding the Oriental concept of face. China lost in their negotiations with PDJT. Whether accidentally or on purpose, once it’s out there “never let a crisis go to waste.”

I also don’t see anything about how AIDS could be hanging around bats to enable such a “natural” combination. Corona as a lethal cold virus? Sure. But how the heck did an AIDS spike get in there?


17 posted on 10/13/2020 8:52:34 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Sorry, your race card has been declined. Can you present any other form of argument?")
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To: SeekAndFind
I pointed to some recent Trump comments in a recent post where Trump almost seemed to inadvertantly say what he already knows but can't say right now. This is what it sounded like he was about to say.

Even if not released intentionally, this crap has to stop. It's more dangerous than a nuke.

18 posted on 10/13/2020 8:56:04 AM PDT by tinyowl (A is A)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Used bats for sale. Get yer used bats here!”
wuhan wet market ad.


19 posted on 10/13/2020 8:57:24 AM PDT by dynachrome (The panic will end, the tyranny will not)
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To: Prolixus

The writer is accepting the “proximity of the epicenter” of the virus-— WHICH WAS: announced BY the CHi-Coms, Wuhan Wet Market-— which it WAS NOT! The patient zero, if one pays attention was discovered in Guangdong— 500 miles from Wuhan. A person who was affiliated with military who had come from... the Uygher camps.

No- the Lab created it- with material stolen from Chapel Hill,NC and Edmonton, ONT level 4 labs (he gets the insertion enzymes correct— and the sourcing of Bat and let’s not forget.. Ebola virus RNAs) virus was taken to the Mongolian border and tested on Uyghurs in two major labor/concentration camps there. NOAA and nuclear treaty satellites in mid January to early February 2020 detected sulphur dioxide plumes (huge plumes of smoke with it) over these sites.

Estimates were of more the 65,000 bodies being burned— documented from prior satellite analysis used for example from the aftermath of Bangladesh typhoon deaths (again, bodies burned which were not islamic- and many who were- there being no ground to bury them).

A major flaw in the “oh, it occurred naturally”— cover story still being pushed by China and the WHO (who recently flipped on “lockdown”-— to aid Biden no less). It was NOT natural.

Tested on Uyghurs— released in Hong Kong and then..intended for Taiwan...... the “LONG MARCH” virus of chi-com asymmetric warfare along with worldwide fraudulent propaganda.


20 posted on 10/13/2020 8:59:23 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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