International Did COVID come from a Lab in China? US Energy Dept asserts it was a lab leak [megathread]

[Armbars]

Looks like the noise about a lab escape contine to grow traction daily. Let's see where this goes.


Covid-19 was ‘made by Chinese scientists who tried to cover it up’, study claims
Chinese scientists created Covid-19 in a Wuhan lab and then tried to cover it up, an explosive new study has alleged.

British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen are about to publish their research which claims to have found ‘unique fingerprints’ in virus samples which point to manipulation in a laboratory.

The paper says scientists inside the lab were altering naturally-occurring viruses to make them more infectious in order to study their potential effects on humans.

They say Covid-19 was created by splicing a natural coronavirus ‘backbone’ found in Chinese cave bats onto it a new ‘spike’ and it escaped via lower-security areas of the institute.

Scientists then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it had evolved from bats, the research claims.


The study, seen by the Daily Mail, was spurned by mainstream journals and academics but is now set to be published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery.

It marks the latest sign that the theory that Covid 19 was made in a lab – until now dismissed as outlandish by politicians and scientists alike – is gaining traction.

The United States and Britain are stepping up calls for the World Health Organisation to take a deeper look into the possible origins of the virus, including a new visit to China.

Dalgleish and Sørensen allege the Wuhan institute was engaged in ‘Gain of Function’ research, a practice temporarily banned by the Obama administration in the US.

This involves tweaking naturally occurring viruses to make them more infectious, so that the potential effect on humans can be studied.

The study’s authors say a raft of new strains were suddenly entered into gene databases by mostly Chinese scientists in early 2020, years after they were recorded as being collected.

Dalgleish told DailyMail.com: ‘We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created. They’ve changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago.’

https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/29/covi...o-tried-to-cover-it-up-study-claims-14672640/

 

[Armbars]

EXCLUSIVE: COVID-19 'has NO credible natural ancestor' and WAS created by Chinese scientists who then tried to cover their tracks with 'retro-engineering' to make it seem like it naturally arose from bats, explosive new study claims

• An explosive new study claims researchers found 'unique fingerprints' in COVID-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory
• DailyMail.com exclusively obtained the new 22-page paper authored by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen set to be published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery
• The study showed there's evidence to suggest Chinese scientists created the virus while working on a Gain of Function project in a Wuhan lab
• Gain of Function research, which was temporarily outlawed in the US, involves altering naturally-occurring viruses to make them more infectious in order to study their potential effects on humans
• According to the paper, Chinese scientists took a natural coronavirus 'backbone' found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new 'spike', turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible COVID-19
• The researchers, who concluded that COVID-19 'has no credible natural ancestor', also believe scientists reverse-engineered versions of the virus to cover up their tracks
• 'We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created,' Dalgleish told DailyMail.com. 'They've changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago.'
• The study also points to 'deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data' in Chinese labs and notes that 'scientists who wished to share their findings haven't been able to do so or have disappeared'
• Until recently, most experts had staunchly denied the origins of the virus were anything other than a natural infection leaping from animals to humans
• Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci defended US funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying the $600,000 grant was not approved for Gain of Function research

An explosive new study claims that Chinese scientists created COVID-19 in a Wuhan lab, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.

The paper's authors, British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen, wrote that they have had 'prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China' for a year - but were ignored by academics and major journals.

Dalgleish is a professor of oncology at St George's University, London, and is best known for his breakthrough creating the first working 'HIV vaccine', to treat diagnosed patients and allow them to go off medication for months.

Sørensen, a virologist, is chair of pharmaceutical company, Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has share options in the firm.

The shocking allegations in the study include accusations of 'deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data' at Chinese labs, and it notes the silencing and disappearance of scientists in the communist country who spoke out.

The journal article, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com and slated for publication in the coming days, is set to make waves among the scientific community, as the majority of experts have until recently staunchly denied the origins of COVID-19 were anything other than a natural infection leaping from animals to humans.

While analyzing COVID-19 samples last year in an attempt to create a vaccine, Dalgleish and Sørensen discovered 'unique fingerprints' in the virus that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory.


They said they tried to publish their findings but were rejected by major scientific journals which were at the time resolute that the virus jumped naturally from bats or other animals to humans.

Even when former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove spoke out publicly saying the scientists' theory should be investigated, the idea was dismissed as 'fake news.'

Over a year later, leading academics, politicians and the media finally flipped, and have begun to contemplate the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China - a lab where experiments included manipulating viruses to increase their infectiousness in order to study their potential effects on humans.

This week, President Joe Biden ordered the intelligence community to re-examine how the virus originated, including the lab accident theory.

The announcement followed the revelation that a previously undisclosed intelligence report had been made to the White House, claiming that several researchers at the Wuhan institute were hospitalized with illness in November 2019. The document was uncovered this week by the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-lab-tried-cover-tracks-new-study-claims.html

 

[milliniar]

If true sanction China, and cut into profits/cash on hand to create production facilities outside of China.

 

[jrams]

This should be a pretty straightforward issue of looking at how something so damaging/life changing to our world happened and how we can prevent it in the future. Instead, it got warped into something weird where the actual pandemic is almost secondary to the fundamental trust of organizations. Does anyone trust anything the CCCP says? Does anyone trust the WHO? Does anyone trust the medias reporting on it? Does anyone trust the state departments info on it? The CCCP has always been lying and untrustworthy, so that's not a shock. What is a shock is that the origin of the virus got politicized, simply because Trump said something, that the hunt for the origin for the virus became some weird culture war thing where science, evidence, and most importantly questioning became non-starters.

It's not about being right about saying it was zoonotic or a lab leak; it's about honestly looking for that truth and not even willing to accept a line of questioning in the opposite direction. All of this evidence towards it being a lab leak could be proven anecdotal and debunked if we find a bat in some cave somewhere with a direct ancestor to the virus. That would be a good thing. Likewise, we could find lab logs showing that this was created in the Wuhan lab. That also would be a good thing. What wouldn't be good is refusing the truth, or even looking for the truth, because it is political/cultural inconvenient.

That has no bearing on how you should assess world events and the decisions our leaders make in response to them on an issue by issue basis.

He's a one note poster that can't think beyond Trump. He kept clinging to the Lincoln Project well after it came out they were scumbags, grifters, and had negligible effect simply because it made him feel good to see bad ads about Trump. His opinion and posts are worthless because they are just mainlined anti-Trump talking points, regardless of the topic.

 

[Damien Karras]

It's a paper that's been published and will be subject to further scientific scrutiny to validate its findings. Just being cautious before I buy into the claim.

Also, there needs to be a thorough investigation and countries need to put pressure on China to let them get access to their labs and data. China won't let them do it without a fight, but god dammit we can't let them off the hook

 

[west42]

Wait, were there people who thought it wasn't?

 

[Armbars]

It's a paper that's been published and will be subject to further scientific scrutiny to validate its findings. Just being cautious before I buy into the claim.

Also, there needs to be a thorough investigation and countries need to put pressure on China to let them get access to their labs and data. China won't let them do it without a fight, but god dammit we can't let them off the hook

Yeah agreed, its early days but credit to these guys for seeking the truth. But come on dude. Any data and evidence that may have existed of such a potential fuckup are long gone. Its the Chinese government we're talking about.

 

[SBJJ]

So....

CCP knew this was from the lab. Knew how dangerous it was. Knew how infectious it was. Stopped travel within their country. But knowingly let infected people travel internationally.

In a non bizarro world, this would be considered an act of war against the entire world.

Up to me. 100% decouple from China right now. Demand all allies do the same. It may hurt us, even hurt us bad. But the CCP must pay dearly for this. Let those motherfuckers rot

 

[thehighking]

I wouldn't be surprised if American intelligence agencies released it at the Wuhan World Military Games.

 

[TheGreatA]

I thought it was supposedly proven that there was no manipulation of the virus by humans. I guess we will see what this study amounts to.

If it's true then we have to start regarding most of our institutions as compromised by Chinese intelligence. No other reason why they would promote all these pro-Chinese narratives regarding COVID, otherwise.

 

[TheGreatA]

I think a good explanation is white supremacy.

White blood cell supremacy might explain this.

 

[Hadron90]

So....

CCP knew this was from the lab. Knew how dangerous it was. Knew how infectious it was. Stopped travel within their country. But knowingly let infected people travel internationally.

In a non bizarro world, this would be considered an act of war against the entire world.

Up to me. 100% decouple from China right now. Demand all allies do the same. It may hurt us, even hurt us bad. But the CCP must pay dearly for this. Let those motherfuckers rot

CCP covering up the virus isn't even remotely a conspiracy theory. Back in November 2019, a doctor at the Wuhan hospital sent out a memo to colleagues warning them that the new SARS-like disease could be transmitted person to person. The next day, police stormed his home and demanded he publically recant his statement, or be imprisoned. He later died of Covid treating patients in February 2020.

WHO did not update its guidance to admit person-to-person transmission until late January. This doctor tried to give the world over 2 extra months to prepare for the pandemic, and China threatened to imprison him for it. Considering the global impact Covid had, I find it unbelievably amazing that this sort of censorship of doctors and scientists isn't considered the greatest international incident of our generation.

 

[Hadron90]

I thought it was supposedly proven that there was no manipulation of the virus by humans. I guess we will see what this study amounts to.

If it's true then we have to start regarding most of our institutions as compromised by Chinese intelligence. No other reason why they would promote all these pro-Chinese narratives regarding COVID, otherwise.

No, that's just how the media misleads people using scientific claims. There was a single paper published by a single group that claimed to rule out artificial origins of the virus. The media of course blasted it out everywhere, with headlines like "Scientists prove COVID was not created in a lab". This creates the misleading impression that all the scientists got together and just came to a consensus on the subject or something...which isn't even remotely true. What the media published was the opinion of one group, it does not represent a scientific consensus. That paper investigated one specific type of way to artificially make viruses, and concluded that Covid could not have been made in that fashion. Tons of other scientists have pointed out that there are plenty of other ways to make artificial viruses that would not show the signs of manipulation that paper looked for. In fact, a scientist named Ralph Baric in the US had previously modified bat Coronaviruses to use Spike proteins to infect human cells. The specific variant he created has been ruled out by phylogenics, but he himself has said that Cov-19 could have been created using the same techniques he used.

 

[TheGreatA]

No, that's just how the media misleads people using scientific claims. There was a single paper published by a single group that claimed to rule out artificial origins of the virus. The media of course blasted it out everywhere, with headlines like "Scientists prove COVID was not created in a lab". This creates the misleading impression that all the scientists got together and just came to a consensus on the subject or something...which isn't even remotely true. What the media published was the opinion of one group, it does not represent a scientific consensus. That paper investigated one specific type of way to artificially make viruses, and concluded that Covid could not have been made in that fashion. Tons of other scientists have pointed out that there are plenty of other ways to make artificial viruses that would not show the signs of manipulation that paper looked for. In fact, a scientist named Ralph Baric in the US had previously modified bat Coronaviruses to use Spike proteins to infect human cells. The specific variant he created has been ruled out by phylogenics, but he himself has said that Cov-19 could have been created using the same techniques he used.

Sounds about right.

I guess that just leaves the media as mostly a suspect of being compromised by Chinese intelligence.

 

[ineverpost]

It's a paper that's been published and will be subject to further scientific scrutiny to validate its findings. Just being cautious before I buy into the claim.

Also, there needs to be a thorough investigation and countries need to put pressure on China to let them get access to their labs and data. China won't let them do it without a fight, but god dammit we can't let them off the hook

China's already expunged any evidence from the lab and most certainly sent any low level personnel with knowledge on permanent vacations. There is no point in pursuing this because the government is not capable. The two sides will simply turn anything into a conspiracy at this point to use against the American people instead of China. American business is too tied up in China to ever consider actually getting into a cold war with them. America is not even a country anymore, it is simply a tax code.

 

[The Big Bang]

White supremacy and systemic racism are to blame.

Keep crying and staying OFF TOPIC. Geez.

 

[The Big Bang]

China's already expunged any evidence from the lab and most certainly sent any low level personnel with knowledge on permanent vacations. There is no point in pursuing this because the government is not capable. The two sides will simply turn anything into a conspiracy at this point to use against the American people instead of China. American business is too tied up in China to ever consider actually getting into a cold war with them. America is not even a country anymore, it is simply a tax code.

VERY GOOD POINTS.

No one should be surprised if that is 100% true.

 

[ineverpost]

No, that's just how the media misleads people using scientific claims..

The media is all about fast reporting and bombastic claims because they compete directly social media. They don't have time to vet stories and their core audience doesn't demand they vet stories. What would you do if you thought a product was complete crap like the media? you'd stop using the product. the media phenomenon is that the crappier the product, the more people want to watch it just to complain about it

 

[DespicablePeep]

So....

CCP knew this was from the lab. Knew how dangerous it was. Knew how infectious it was. Stopped travel within their country. But knowingly let infected people travel internationally.

In a non bizarro world, this would be considered an act of war against the entire world.

Up to me. 100% decouple from China right now. Demand all allies do the same. It may hurt us, even hurt us bad. But the CCP must pay dearly for this. Let those motherfuckers rot

People make too much money with China to care, they have been buying influence around the world. Any blame on China was shot down from the get go, including in Sherdog.

 

[DespicablePeep]

The media is all about fast reporting and bombastic claims because they compete directly social media. They don't have time to vet stories and their core audience doesn't demand they vet stories. What would you do if you thought a product was complete crap like the media? you'd stop using the product. the media phenomenon is that the crappier the product, the more people want to watch it just to complain about it

China being responsible for the vírus WAS the most bombastic story, yet the media shot that down from the get go. Why do you think that?