An Insecure Lab and Millions of Deaths Worldwide

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the “risky” research was conducted with US funding. AFP via Getty Images

 

"The SARS-like virus that caused the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, the city where the world's foremost research lab for SARS-like viruses is located."

"Ultimately, a never-before-seen SARS-like virus with a newly introduced furin cleavage site, matching the description in the Wuhan Institute's Defuse proposal, caused an outbreak in Wuhan less than two years after the proposal was drafted."

"Not a single infected animal has ever been confirmed at the [Wuhan] market or in its supply chain. Without good evidence that the pandemic started at the Huanan Seafood Market, the fact that the virus emerged in Wuhan points squarely at its unique SARS-like virus laboratory." 

"Investigators have either failed to collect or report key evidence that would be expected if COVID-19 emerged from the wildlife trade."

"Whether the pandemic started on a lab bench or in a market stall, it is undeniable that U.S. federal funding helped to build an unprecedented collection of SARS-like viruses at the Wuhan Institute, as well as contributing to research that enhanced them."

"Advocates and funders of the Institute's research, including Dr. Fauci, should co-operate with the investigation to help identify and close the loopholes that allowed such dangerous work to occur."

"The world must not continue to bear the intolerable risks of research with the potential to cause pandemics."

Alina Chan, molecular biologist specializing in gene therapy and cell engineering, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

"Yes, China has the right to set their own policy."

"You believe this was appropriate containment if you want, but don't expect me to believe it."

"Moreover, don't insult my intelligence by trying to feed me this load of BS [that it would be sufficiently 'safe' with the work at Wuhan being undertaken by BSL-2 standards]."

U.S. Coronavirus expert Ralph Baric

Dr. Alina Chan concluded in her in-depth analysis of COVID-19’s origin that the deadly virus “most likely” escaped from a research lab in Wuhan, China. Future Publishing via Getty Images

Dr. Chan's guest essay appeared in the The New York Times' Sunday edition, with the title Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, at the very time that the United States' COVID-period chief epidemiologist is testifying before a Congressional Committee delving into the American response to the global pandemic that took countless lives before it settled in as a permanent, less threatening virus. The emergence of SARS-2 remains a mystery even while among a minority of scientists the belief is that COVID spread in humans contracted from infected animals.

 

Dr. Chan identifies the world's foremost virus research lab in Wuhan, China as the source of the pandemic, pointing out that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been researching SARS-like viruses for at least a decade. The lead investigator at the Wuhan lab was Dr. Shi Zhengli, famous for her work with bats as carriers of viruses. Dr. Chan cites Dr. Shi's public speculation whether the outbreak might have emanated from her lab, when the pandemic began.

 

The Wuhan Institute had been collaborating with American partners the year before the outbreak, on creating viruses with defining features like SARS-CoV-2 that produced the COVID-19 virus.  A grant proposal for a research project named Defuse, aiming to create a SARS-like virus with a unique feature called a furin cleavage site enhancing infectiousness in humans was revealed in 2018. That is the very feature that SARS-CoV-2 has, with genetic data suggesting the feature was gained just prior to the pandemic.

What has long been known is that the Wuhan lab though high-security was not capable of containing an airborne virus infectious to the degree of the COVID-19 virus emanating from SARS-CoV-2. There are four recognized biosafety levels for labs working with live viruses; BSL 1 represents the lowest level of protection while BSL-4 is the most stringent. A scientist working at a BSL-3 laboratory in Taiwan became infected with the COVID virus two years into the pandemic. It seems that as a cost-saving measure the Wuhan lab was permitted to operate at a BSL-02 level.

The claim that the COVID-19 virus arose from contact with an infected animal at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is rejected by Dr. Chain who stated the claim "is not supported by strong evidence, in part because Chinese investigators assumed initially the market to be the source, so they overlooked potential evidence that would dispute the theory." Moreover, Chinese authorities blocked reporting of early cases that had no link to the market and destroyed some early patient samples.

The report debunks the theory involving the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, pictured here, AP

 

"I have repeatedly stated that I have a completely open mind to either possibility [the theory that SARS-2 resulted from laboratory experiments; conversely that the COVID pandemic resulted from the coronavirus naturally leaping from infected animals to humans], and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will readily accept it."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, American infectious disease official during the COVID pandemic

Dr. Fauci grilled by lawmakers on origins of COVID   The New York Times