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THREAD. It's beginning to look likely, even probable, that we owe the pandemic of COVID-19 to lax biocontainment of bat viruses at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
I do not say this lightly. It is a very horrific error if so...
I do not say this lightly. It is a very horrific error if so...
WIV was China's entry into the world of highest biosafety level of containment, the "Ebola" level, BSL4.
But international observers noted serious issues there that called WIV's BSL4 status into serious question...
But international observers noted serious issues there that called WIV's BSL4 status into serious question...
Our State Department relayed cables back home expressing grave concerns about WIV's staffing, given deadly seriousness of bugs they were propagating. Staff appeared woefully unqualified for high-level containment work... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/%3foutputType=amp
For several years, WIV had been publishing hits from a gold mine they had uncovered: a population of wild horseshoe bats that was rich with coronaviruses that, for the first time, were clearly capable of including SARS CoV, the "original" SARS of 2002-3...
The viruses were unmistakably SARS, with the added twist that bats were spreading a terrifyingly diverse array of SARS-like agents that undoubtedly included many potential novel human pathogens.... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5708621/
The paper above shows "sequence elements", or motifs that had been heretofore unique to SARS-CoV-1 proper, many of them, that appeared only in this particular group of 1 genus of bat, Rhinolophus, that WIV had uncovered...
Scientific and diplomatic visitors to WIV, upon reviewing its practices and research findings, specifically warned that WIV could accidentally release a SARS-like nCoV with pandemic potential YEARS before we saw COVID. (op cit, WaPo)
I KNOW!...
I KNOW!...
So. This situation exploits a weakness in virology. Everyone agrees that SARS is bad and should be subject to rather high levels of containment. But what of a bat virus, 90% identical to SARS, or whatever, that hasn't made anyone sick?
We don't know where to draw the line...
We don't know where to draw the line...
China has suddenly decided that government must review all efforts to identify the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Normally they'd want to know its origin as well.
But China is not prepared to really contain its labs pathogens.
Released SARS at least TWICE.
Insane. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416634/
But China is not prepared to really contain its labs pathogens.
Released SARS at least TWICE.
Insane. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416634/
Far be it for a virologist, even retired, to try to condemn other virologists for what appears to be a catastrophic error that will kill millions.
But I refuse to be stupid, or cover it up.
I am all but convinced that COVID-19 is the product of a lab accident.
END
But I refuse to be stupid, or cover it up.
I am all but convinced that COVID-19 is the product of a lab accident.
END
