Posted on 01/11/2023 8:37:05 AM PST by bitt
On January 10, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 365 to 65 in favor of a resolution to establish the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI). The following information is worthy of further investigation by that committee.
SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 disease and pandemic, possesses a number of unusual structural features, which make a natural origin highly unlikely.
The spike protein, which extends outward from the body of the virus and modulates the binding and fusion of the virus with the human cells, has components that appear to be unique to SARS-CoV-2 and not a consequence of a normal evolutionary process.
Foremost among the unusual genetic features of the virus is a small structure called a furin polybasic cleavage site, which can be considered one of several pieces of “smoking gun” evidence for the laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2.
Already in 2005, subsequent to the first 2002-2004 SARS pandemic (SARS-CoV-1), furin and other protein cleavage processes were known to increase both the transmissibility and pathogenicity of coronaviruses.
The presence of the furin polybasic cleavage site may enhance the ability for SARS-CoV-2 to infect multiple human organ systems.
Identified already by mid-February 2020 (5), the furin polybasic cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is a four amino acid sequence, Proline-Arginine-Arginine-Alanine or PRRA at the junction of the S1 and S2 components of the spike protein, a structure that is not found in any animal coronavirus from which SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved.
Furthermore, the RR part pf the PRRA furin polybasic cleavage site is coded by the gene sequence CGG-CGG, an extremely rare double codon , not found elsewhere in SARS-CoV-2 or in any coronavirus from which SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved, a fact even recognized by Chinese scientists by June 2020.
Remarkably, the exact reverse genetic sequence of the furin polybasic cleavage site found in SARS-CoV-2 is also found in a 2016 patent filed by the vaccine-maker Moderna.
The calculated probability of the furin polybasic cleavage site appearing in SARS-CoV-2 and its reverse genetic sequence present in the Moderna patent occurring as two independent events is infinitesimally small, which makes it virtually impossible that the PRRA insertion could have occurred naturally.
...more
p
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.