Take a look at the largest virus bank in Asia

Wuhan Institute of Virology ^ | 04-06-2018 | Wuhan Institute of Virology

[Zhang Fei]

Take a look at the largest virus bank in Asia

Date：04-06-2018   |   【Print】 【close】

Recently, the National Health Commission of China officially designated the China Center for Virus Culture Collection (CCVCC) in Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as a "National-Level Culture Collection Center", which is an important milestone in the development of the Center's innovative construction.

The species and samples of pathogenic microorganisms are important strategic resources for ensuring national social security, economic security and biological safety. As a national-level culture collection center, the CCVCC will be oriented to national strategic needs and will play an indispensable and important supporting role in the fields of national security, life science research, public health and virology study.

CCVCC was established in 1979 and was registered under World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) in 1989. In 2015, the Center joined the European Virus Archive goes global (EVAg) project funded by European Commission's Horizon 2020 and successfully passed the highest rating of EVAg quality management system in October 2017. Therefore, it is a center focusing on virus resource collection, virus biotechnology, systematic virology and bioinformatics research. As an integrated center, it is also the largest virus bank in Asia.

With the official operation of the Wuhan National Biosafety (P4) laboratory of CAS, CCVCC has fully possessed the qualifications and conditions for collecting the bacteria species with the biohazard classification from level 1 to 4. In the future, the Center will receive, test, store and manage bacteria species in accordance with relevant national regulations, and legally provide the bacteria species to units engaged in experimental activities of pathogenic microorganisms. In addition, the Center will play a significant role in the technical research and training practice in the related area.

 

Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS in Central China's Hubei province preserves more than 1,500 different strains of virus. Image by China Daily.

[Zhang Fei]

Assuming these people are handling virus samples, is this the level of protection they should have? I had thought that you’d want to be in bunny suits. I’m getting the feeling that this is Chernobyl redux, in the sense of a half-assed, half-funded, seat-of-the-pants work environment leading to disaster. The difference is that radioactive ash doesn’t travel much - viruses do, through their human hosts.

It’s possible, of course, that virus samples are stored elsewhere. But the title of the page is “Take a look at the largest virus bank in Asia”. I've lifted the entire page from its Wuhan lab source URL just in case the Chinese government scrubs the page and the linked images.

[LeoWindhorse]

Ana Obama sent them millions

[Presbyterian Reporter]

I suggest you post this story again on Monday during prime time. By now we are weary from corona overload.

[thecodont]

Nice find. And yes, I noticed the lack of biohazard protective gear. You’d think they were putting away a pint carton of ice cream, not a virus sample.

I remember reading about the last surviving sample(s) of the almost-extinct smallpox virus and the great care used in keeping them secure.

[null and void]

You’d think they were putting away a pint carton of ice cream, not a virus sample.

I think nasty Nazi Nancy spent more on her freezer.

[Uncle Miltie]

Look at the frost around the edge. This freezer hasn't been defrosted in ages and the edges cannot be holding a seal. As pointed out elsewhere, this picture alone demonstrates unacceptable and shoddy biocontainment measures.

China: Sick Man of Asia.

[Secret Agent Man]

Nanzi has more germ protection in her freezer than this.

[caww]

I read an article the other day that their Level-4 labs are terrible on safety and careless/haphazard in how they handle these virus’s.

[caww]

official cables from American diplomats - who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology 'in 2018' - warned of inadequate safety and management issues at the research facility and 'called its work on bat coronaviruses risky'....

A 2017 'file photo' of researchers at a lab in the Wuhan Institute of Virology..

[caww]

People have also expressed doubts about the competency of Director-General of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, its leader, of having a weak academic background and ascending to her post through nepotism at a relatively young age. Some suspect Wang was only picked to lead the institute because of her husband, who is an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the virology institute’s former director.

A photo of 'Wang Yanyi', Director-General of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.....

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005169/wuhans-much-maligned-virology-institute-seeks-patent-on-us-drug

[caww]

[Zhang Fei]

[People have also expressed doubts about the competency of Director-General of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, its leader, of having a weak academic background and ascending to her post through nepotism at a relatively young age. Some suspect Wang was only picked to lead the institute because of her husband, who is an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the virology institute’s former director.

A photo of ‘Wang Yanyi’, Director-General of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.....]

---

Not a surprise there. They have plenty of raw talent. There should be no issues in terms of virus containment. I suspect it’s potentially a combo of budgetary and managerial issues.

It’s not as if US labs, which are crammed with Chinese talent, have seen any accidental virus leaks. Gilead, which has produced successful Hep C and HIV drugs and an abortive Ebola drug now being tested with coronavirus cases, has a 37% Asian workforce.

https://www.gilead.com/-/media/files/pdfs/yir-2017-pdfs/workplace.pdf?la=en&hash=0E47C476E665D00FE8FA9C34B43817FF

Of course, Gilead is a big drug company with a massive R&D budget - $3.7b in 2017, scaling up to $9.1b in 2019. It would not surprise me to hear that the Chinese government did Wuhan on a shoestring.

[caww]

Some scientists have suggested the Pangolin, the world's most trafficked mammal, could have been an intermediary for the coronavirus; the animals are smuggled from countries like Malaysia for their scales and meat....Scientists believe there was probably an intermediate host for the Corona virus before it made the leap to humans, as there was during the 2003 SARS outbreak.

[caww]

The question now is whether what happened with the coronavirus was a mistake that got out of control, or was it done deliberately? .....There’s a big difference between those two!

[caww]

Here's a photo of the Workers in protective suits disinfecting the Huanan seafood wet market, where the novel coronavirus is believed to have first surfaced....You would wonder what was in those bins they were hauling away?........

[Secret Agent Man]

latest article written on this aspect:

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/covid-19-man-made-virus-hiv-discoverer-says-could-only-have-been-created-lab

[caww]

......”It would not surprise me to hear that the Chinese government did Wuhan on a shoestring”.....

Well ‘Chinese Cheap’ has always been equated with their standards though in Some areas it’s improved over the years. The problem is nothing in China appears as it really is.

[caww]

I've been reading various articles on both side of this equation on how this happened.......then we have China blaming the US and the US blaming China for the outbreak.

It's pretty obvious China has a history of these viruses breaking out in their country so they're trying to lay blame on the US is actually pretty pointless.

The fact is the Coronavirus spread as no other of China's virus's and they lost complete control of it from the get go...be it by accident or on purpose... the world certainly has more than reeled from it.

[Uncle Miltie]

Did you say, “Wang Yoni”?