Bret Baier, on Fox News, has recently reported over the course of the past week, "increasing confidence" that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic that Beijing has attributed to a bat source in a Wuhan, China wet market was instead accidentally leaked from a nearby government virology research laboratory.
According to Fox, the multiple unnamed information sources indicated that the release of the deadly virus most likely resulted when a lab intern at the top biosafety level-4 Wuhan Virology Institute, became accidentally infected due to lax safety protocols, then later infected her boyfriend.
As reported in The Washington Post, U.S. embassy officials in China had raised concerns regarding "risky" biosecurity conditions in the lab two years ago.
According to the Post, one "sensitive but unclassified" State Department cable warned in 2018 about a "serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory."
None of those familiar with the circumstances suggested there was any biological warfare intent behind the development or release of the highly infectious and deadly novel virus.
Many did, however, believe that the subsequent cover up of how it happened, and the tragic pandemic consequences of delayed reporting by Chinese officials and the World Health Organization (WHO), was nevertheless homicidally criminal.
Gao Fu, director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention had claimed that "The origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market."
Several media and other public information sources seriously doubt that assertion.
The New York Times reported that Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, believes the coronavirus may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory. Yahoo News reports that nine current and former national security officials have confirmed that U.S. spy agencies are looking into whether the novel coronavirus started as an inadvertent lab escape.
Let’s review some background facts warranting such investigations:
The first COVID-19 case was detected in Wuhan on Nov. 17, 2019.
There was reportedly no link between the first patient and later cases. By Dec. 10, according to Lancet, 13 of 41 total cases were determined to have no relation to the seafood market.
In short, there was no cluster outbreak that would have been expected around that alleged epicenter location. In addition, it's known that no bats were then being sold at the market.
According to Radio Free Asia, Wuhan doctor Ai Fen, head of emergency at Wuhan Central Hospital, brought several coronavirus cases to the attention of some of her colleagues, eight of whom were called in by police.
On Dec. 30, Dr. Li Wenliange, one of Dr. Fen's confidants who had warned fellow med school grads to wear protective clothing, was accused of lies that "severely disturbed the social order." Dr. Wenliange later died of the virus.
Dr. Fen and others reportedly "disappeared."
On Jan. 2, 2020 the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s lab director prohibited staff from releasing any information. All lab samples were destroyed. International experts weren’t allowed into Wuhan, and foreign reporters were sent out.
A week later, on Jan. 10, (in a remarkably short time), China published the full SARS-COV-2 genome sequences from infected people that were determined to be closely similar to those found with horseshoe bat samples taken from a cave about 400 miles away.
The bat virus which was being studied at the nearby Wuhan research laboratory was known to have a spectacularly rapid reproduction rate. However, it had lacked the very unique "S" spike protein "key" necessary to plug into a "locked" human ACE-2 cell receptor.
The Wuhan lab had reportedly been researching horseshoe bat viruses for many years - presumably in order to develop vaccines or cures.
But why work to develop remedies for a then-non-existent Frankenvirus disease?
Many taxpayers might also wonder – why did the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) support bat research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the tune of $3.7 million?
So when and how did WHO enter this mystery?
On Jan. 13, WHO had claimed that there was no evidence that medics were contracting COVID-19. A week later they recognized (or admitted) that human-to-human transmission was occurring, although China had publicly denied the fact for six urgently time-critical weeks.
Beijing officials were well aware of the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan sometime in the autumn, possibly in November — if not earlier — because there is two-to-three-week-long incubation time between infection and symptoms surfacing. Had they warned the WHO — or if the organization reported it — an estimated 95% of the global deaths might have been avoided.
Instead, upon returning from meetings in China on January 30, WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus reported, "The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken. . . . I left in absolutely no doubt about China's commitment to transparency."
Ghebreyesus also praised China for setting "a new standard for outbreak response," and the speed with which China "sequenced the genome and shared it with WHO and the world." That sharing, however, didn't occur until Jan. 12.
Meanwhile, China shut down domestic flights from Wuhan, but allowed about 5 million people to leave on international flights. The airport had remained open, and many residents went to Italy. On Jan. 31, the first case was detected in the UK.
Ghebreyesus had also stated that "WHO doesn't recommend limiting trade and movement."
Fortunately disputing that bad advice, President Trump shut down flights from China the very next day. That swift and decisive action saved tens of thousands — perhaps millions — of American lives. However, Ghebreyesus had warned that such a ban would increase "fear and stigma, with little public health benefit."
There’s little wonder then, why President Trump announced plans to immediately halt all further WHO funding until this murky mystery is sorted out.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in space architecture. He is the author of several books, including "Cyberwarfare: Targeting America, Our Infrastructure, and Our Future" (2020), "The Weaponization of AI and the Internet: How Global Networks of Infotech Overlords are Expanding Their Control Over Our Lives" (2019), "Reinventing Ourselves: How Technology is Rapidly and Radically Transforming Humanity" (2019), "Thinking Whole: Rejecting Half-Witted Left & Right Brain Limitations" (2018), "Reflections on Oceans and Puddles: One Hundred Reasons to be Enthusiastic, Grateful and Hopeful" (2017), "Cosmic Musings: Contemplating Life Beyond Self" (2016), "Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom" (2015) and "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax" (2011). He is currently working on a new book with Buzz Aldrin, "Beyond Footprints and Flagpoles." To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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