by Jeffrey D. Sachs, Daily Sceptic:
The U.S. Government (USG) funded and supported a programme of dangerous laboratory research that may have resulted in the creation and accidental laboratory release of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the outbreak, the USG lied in order to cover up its possible role. The U.S. Government should correct the lies, find the facts and make amends with the rest of the world.
A group of intrepid truth-seekers — journalists, scientists, whistleblowers — have uncovered a vast amount of information pointing to the likely laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2. Most important has been the intrepid work of the the Intercept and U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), especially investigative reporter Emily Kopp at USRTK.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Based on this investigative work, the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is now carrying out an important investigation in a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. In the Senate, the leading voice for transparency, honesty and reason in investigating the origin of SARS-Cov-2 has been Republican Senator Rand Paul.
The evidence of a possible laboratory creation revolves around a multi-year U.S.-led research program that involved U.S. and Chinese scientists. The research was designed by U.S. scientists, funded mainly by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defence, and administered by a U.S. organisation, the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), with much of the work taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The U.S. owes the full truth, and perhaps ample financial compensation, to the rest of the world, depending on what the facts ultimately reveal.
Here are facts that we know as of today.
First, the NIH became the home for biodefence research starting in 2001. In other words, the NIH became a research arm of the military and intelligence communities. Biodefence funding from the Defence Department budget went to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s division, the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Second, NIAID and DARPA (in the Defence Department) supported extensive research on potential pathogens for biowarfare and biodefence, and for the design of vaccines to protect against biowarfare or accidental laboratory releases of natural or manipulated pathogens. Some of the work was carried out at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories of the NIH, which manipulated and tested viruses using its in-house bat colony.
Third, NIAID became a large-scale financial supporter of Gain of Function (GoF) research, meaning laboratory experiments designed to genetically alter pathogens to make them even more pathogenic, such as viruses that are easier to transmit or more likely to kill infected individuals. This kind of research is inherently dangerous, both because it aims to create more dangerous pathogens and because those new pathogens can escape from the laboratory, either accidentally or deliberately (e.g. as an act of biowarfare or terrorism).
Fourth, many leading U.S. scientists opposed GoF research. One of the leading opponents inside the Government was Dr. Robert Redfield, an army virologist who would later be the Director of the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) at the start of the pandemic. Redfield suspected from the start that the pandemic resulted from NIH-supported research, but says that he was sidelined by Fauci.
Fifth, because of the very high risks associated with GoF research, the U.S. Government added additional biosafety regulations in 2017. GoF research would have to be carried out in highly secure laboratories, meaning at Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) or Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4). Work in a BSL-3 or 4 facility is more expensive and time-consuming than work in a BSL-2 facility because of the added controls against an escape of the pathogen from the facility.
Sixth, one NIH-backed research group, EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), proposed to move some of its GoF research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). In 2017, EHA submitted a proposal to the U.S. Government’s Defence Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) for GoF work at WIV. The proposal, named DEFUSE, was a veritable ‘cookbook’ for making viruses like SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory. The DEFUSE plan was to investigate more than 180 previously unreported strains of Betacoronavirus that had been collected by WIV, and to use GoF techniques to make these viruses more dangerous. Specifically, the project proposed to add protease sites like the furin cleavage site (FCS) to natural viruses in order to enhance the infectivity and transmissibility of the virus.
Seventh, in the draft proposal, the EHA director boasted that “the BSL2 nature of work on SARSr-CoVs makes our system highly cost effective relative to other bat-virus systems”, prompting the lead scientist on the EHA proposal to comment that U.S. scientists would “freak out” if they learned of U.S. Government support for GoF research at WIV in a BSL2 facility.
Eighth, the Defence Department rejected the DEFUSE proposal in 2018, yet NIAID funding for EHA covered the key scientists of the DEFUSE project. EHA therefore had ongoing NIH funding to carry out the DEFUSE research programme.
