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The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ^ | May 5, 2021 | Nicholas Wade

Posted on 05/07/2021 2:35:38 PM PDT by consult

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: The political agendas of governments and scientists have generated thick clouds of obfuscation, which the mainstream press seems helpless to dispel.

In what follows I will sort through the available scientific facts, which hold many clues as to what happened, and provide readers with the evidence to make their own judgments. I will then try to assess the complex issue of blame, which starts with, but extends far beyond, the government of China.

By the end of this article, you may have learned a lot about the molecular biology of viruses. I will try to keep this process as painless as possible. But the science cannot be avoided because for now, and probably for a long time hence, it offers the only sure thread through the maze.

The virus that caused the pandemic is known officially as SARS-CoV-2, but can be called SARS2 for short. As many people know, there are two main theories about its origin. One is that it jumped naturally from wildlife to people. The other is that the virus was under study in a lab, from which it escaped. It matters a great deal which is the case if we hope to prevent a second such occurrence.

I’ll describe the two theories, explain why each is plausible, and then ask which provides the better explanation of the available facts. It’s important to note that so far there is no direct evidence for either theory. Each depends on a set of reasonable conjectures but so far lacks proof. So I have only clues, not conclusions, to offer. But those clues point in a specific direction. And having inferred that direction, I’m going to delineate some of the strands in this tangled skein of disaster.

A tale of two theories. After the pandemic first broke out in December 2019, Chinese authorities reported that many cases had occurred in the wet market — a place selling wild animals for meat — in Wuhan. This reminded experts of the SARS1 epidemic of 2002, in which a bat virus had spread first to civets, an animal sold in wet markets, and from civets to people. A similar bat virus caused a second epidemic, known as MERS, in 2012. This time the intermediary host animal was camels.

The decoding of the virus’s genome showed it belonged a viral family known as beta-coronaviruses, to which the SARS1 and MERS viruses also belong. The relationship supported the idea that, like them, it was a natural virus that had managed to jump from bats, via another animal host, to people. The wet market connection, the major point of similarity with the SARS1 and MERS epidemics, was soon broken: Chinese researchers found earlier cases in Wuhan with no link to the wet market. But that seemed not to matter when so much further evidence in support of natural emergence was expected shortly.

Wuhan, however, is home of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a leading world center for research on coronaviruses. So the possibility that the SARS2 virus had escaped from the lab could not be ruled out. Two reasonable scenarios of origin were on the table.

From early on, public and media perceptions were shaped in favor of the natural emergence scenario by strong statements from two scientific groups. These statements were not at first examined as critically as they should have been.

“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” a group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened. Scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” they said, with a stirring rallying call for readers to stand with Chinese colleagues on the frontline of fighting the disease.

Contrary to the letter writers’ assertion, the idea that the virus might have escaped from a lab invoked accident, not conspiracy. It surely needed to be explored, not rejected out of hand. A defining mark of good scientists is that they go to great pains to distinguish between what they know and what they don’t know. By this criterion, the signatories of the Lancet letter were behaving as poor scientists: They were assuring the public of facts they could not know for sure were true.

It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”

For more see link. https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bioweapon; covid19; fauci; gainoffunction; scamdemic; virus; wuflu; wuhan
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1 posted on 05/07/2021 2:35:38 PM PDT by consult
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To: consult
The origin story is already well established:

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a bird; How absurd to swallow a bird! She swallowed the bird to catch the spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a cat; Fancy that! She swallowed a cat! She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady that swallowed a dog; What a hog, to swallow a dog! She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a goat; She just opened her throat and swallowed a goat! She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’ll die! There was an old lady who swallowed a cow; I don’t know how she swallowed a cow! She swallowed the cow to catch the goat, She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, She swallowed the cat to catch the bird, She swallowed the bird to catch the spider That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her! She swallowed the spider to catch the fly; I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – Perhaps she’s dead There was an old lady who swallowed a horse; …She’s dead, of course!

2 posted on 05/07/2021 2:45:24 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: consult
China has polluted the air over the entire world. It's no longer safe to breathe without protective equipment.

If (God forbid) the United States had been responsible for this catastrophe, you know perfectly well that's what the other countries of the world — led by the United Nations and the World Health Organization — would be saying.

They would also be saying that American Capitalism had caused this disaster, and that the Constitution is causing death and poverty for the entire population of the world.

We here at home would be watching as our politicians — and a large percentage of our population and opinion leaders — nodded in agreement.

America would be on the hook for trillions of dollars of "reparations" to be paid out on the basis of population to every country on earth.

You know it and I know it. Why does China skate free on this?

3 posted on 05/07/2021 2:45:54 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Steely Tom; monkeyshine

This article is groundbreaking in it’s depth. It is a must read for anyone interested in the science and politics of the origin.

By Nicholas Wade is a science writer, editor, and author who has worked on the staff of Nature, Science, and, for many years, the New York Times.

https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/

Here are some of the interesting facts I have picked out of it. Moslty the politial spin that was put on it. I spare you the details of the second half of the article that really dissects the virus....it gets very sciency.

Misconstrued truth #1: The viruse came from wet market meat. After the pandemic first broke out in December 2019, Chinese authorities reported that many cases had occurred in the wet market — a place selling wild animals for meat — in Wuhan. This reminded experts of the SARS1 epidemic of 2002, in which a bat virus had spread first to civets, an animal sold in wet markets, and from civets to people. A similar bat virus caused a second epidemic, known as MERS, in 2012. This time the intermediary host animal was camels. The decoding of the virus’s genome showed it belonged a viral family known as beta-coronaviruses, to which the SARS1 and MERS viruses also belong. The relationship supported the idea that, like them, it was a natural virus that had managed to jump from bats, via another animal host, to people. The wet market connection, the major point of similarity with the SARS1 and MERS epidemics, was soon broken: Chinese researchers found earlier cases in Wuhan with no link to the wet market. But that seemed not to matter when so much further evidence in support of natural emergence was expected shortly.

Misconstrued truth #2: This viruse was of natural origin.

“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” a group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened. Scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” they said........It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2820%2930418-9/fulltext

Misconstrued truth #3: This virus did not come from a lab.

A second statement that had enormous influence in shaping public attitudes was a letter (in other words an opinion piece, not a scientific article) published on 17 March 2020 in the journal Nature Medicine. Its authors were a group of virologists led by Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute. “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the five virologists declared in the second paragraph of their letter.

Unfortunately, this was another case of poor science, in the sense defined above. True, some older methods of cutting and pasting viral genomes retain tell-tale signs of manipulation. But newer methods, called “no-see-um” or “seamless” approaches, leave no defining marks. Nor do other methods for manipulating viruses such as serial passage, the repeated transfer of viruses from one culture of cells to another. If a virus has been manipulated, whether with a seamless method or by serial passage, there is no way of knowing that this is the case. Andersen and his colleagues were assuring their readers of something they could not know.

The discussion part of their letter begins, “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus.” But wait, didn’t the lead say the virus had clearly not been manipulated? The authors’ degree of certainty seemed to slip several notches when it came to laying out their reasoning.

The reason for the slippage is clear once the technical language has been penetrated. The two reasons the authors give for supposing manipulation to be improbable are decidedly inconclusive.....
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

Misconstrued truth #4: These labs cannot leak viruses. Regarding the safety arrangements at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Daszak was possibly unaware of, or perhaps he knew all too well, the long history of viruses escaping from even the best run laboratories. The smallpox virus escaped three times from labs in England in the 1960’s and 1970’s, causing 80 cases and 3 deaths. Dangerous viruses have leaked out of labs almost every year since. Coming to more recent times, the SARS1 virus has proved a true escape artist, leaking from laboratories in Singapore, Taiwan, and no less than four times from the Chinese National Institute of Virology in Beijing.

One reason for SARS1 being so hard to handle is that there were no vaccines available to protect laboratory workers.


4 posted on 05/07/2021 2:50:45 PM PDT by consult
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To: consult

5 posted on 05/07/2021 2:55:26 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: consult; null and void; aragorn; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; Black Agnes; blueyon; ...
.

PING

Check out # 4.

6 posted on 05/07/2021 2:56:57 PM PDT by LucyT
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To: LucyT
It gets into the weeds enough to look at the furin cleavage site

(necessary for the virus go open the ACE2 receptor and get into human cells, and no related coronaviruses have it, just COVID);

further, that the spike is coded for by a 12-codon INSERT;

last that the spike has two copies of the amino acid arginine in a row;

but the codons in the virus which tell them to appear,

are the codons most often used by humans to code for arginine, and not by coronaviruses.

Nobel Prize winner David Baltimore (and IIRC, former President of CalTehc) called that a "smoking gun".

7 posted on 05/07/2021 3:00:29 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: Steely Tom
The contempt the CCP has for the lives for non-Han is astonishing. It’s shown in its covering up COVID during those critical early months, its cheapass and significantly problematic vaccines, its contemptible indifference to the rockets it sends into space and allows to fall back to earth wherever they may, its conduct in Xinjiang (https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-genocide), and who knows where else.

And who’s going to do anything about it? Joe Biden? The Third World leaders the CCP buys off so easily?

8 posted on 05/07/2021 3:03:16 PM PDT by untenured
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To: consult

Does anyone have accurate statistics of regular seasonal flu, pneumonia, cold and all other trends of disease and deaths. We have been had.


9 posted on 05/07/2021 3:04:10 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: consult

We’ve known since March 2020 the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQFCcSI0pU


10 posted on 05/07/2021 3:04:38 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: consult

“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” a group of virologists and others wrote in the Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened. Scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” they said........It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak’s organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet’s readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, “We declare no competing interests.”

One has to wonder how much propaganda, misdirection, and misinformation has been foisted on the public by a media which for the most part is incurious, ignorant, or financially compromised in their reporting.


11 posted on 05/07/2021 3:05:30 PM PDT by Flick Lives (“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.”)
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To: consult

I guess it is just me, but I am sick and tired of hearing about Rona. Yes, I could have scrolled past this article. I’m an older woman. I don’t mask myself for any reason. Rant off/


12 posted on 05/07/2021 3:05:56 PM PDT by PeachyKeen
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To: consult

HerrDoktor FauxiMengeleGates to Terre Haute


13 posted on 05/07/2021 3:06:38 PM PDT by A strike ( Barr to Gitmo, Fauxi to Florence supermax, Roberts to Terre Haute)
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To: consult

Nonsense! The Wuhan Lab is a top notch viral gain of function research facility with excellent safety protocols in place. The virus came from the old lady who swallowed a bat. She was so fat to swallow a bat. She swallowed the bat to catch a bug that rubbed and tugged and hugged inside her...


14 posted on 05/07/2021 3:07:55 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: consult

Still wondering what American companies and universities with boots on the ground in Wuhan knew in late 2019 and early 2020...


15 posted on 05/07/2021 3:11:55 PM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: consult

16 posted on 05/07/2021 3:17:23 PM PDT by RC one (When a bunch of commies start telling you that you don't need an AR15, you really need an AR15)
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To: consult

Excellent, in-depth, no-propaganda article. It lays out a strong case that COVID-19 originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and it names the people — including Anthony Fauci — who probably deserve blame for creating this global disaster. The article also exposes the cover-ups that have kept the public from learning the truth.


17 posted on 05/07/2021 3:24:12 PM PDT by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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To: grey_whiskers

You are right on the insert. It is extremely odd and astronomically implausible that a long stream of point mutations could account for this.


18 posted on 05/07/2021 3:24:29 PM PDT by packagingguy
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To: packagingguy

Slight typo. The 12-codon-insert is for the furin cleavage.
Got too excited while typing.:-)


19 posted on 05/07/2021 3:26:23 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: monkeyshine

She swallowed the bat to catch a bug that rubbed and tugged and hugged inside her...

Leave Hunter Biden out of this!


20 posted on 05/07/2021 3:28:33 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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