In a previous post, we noted collaboration between Josef Mengele–the infamous “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz–and the U.S. government, via Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Some of our discussion concerning “The Oswald Institute of Virology” might seem to some listeners to be “a long way from home,” so to speak. In FTR#1147, we noted that elements of U.S. intelligence appear to have protected Mengele, as part of their clandestine sponsorship of the postwar Nazi diaspora. We highlight this because Mengele was not an isolated example, but rather characteristic of a much larger and broad-based phenomenon. “. . . . By July 1945 Josef Mengele had been captured and identified at an allied prisoner-of-war camp. Forty years later an eyewitness told a congressional committee how guards knew Mengele’s name, and also the general nature of his crimes as doctor, experimenter, and executioner at Auschwitz.’ Also in 1985, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles released documents obtained from the U.S. Army under the Freedom of Information Act, according to which Mengele “may have been arrested by U.S. authorities in Austria in 1947 and subsequently released. ’ . . . .” In FTR#664, we noted testimony at the Nuremberg trials to the effect that Mengele filled out paperwork before his infamous experiments on twins, a copy of which went to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, which received a great deal of funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Mengele’s posting at Auschwitz was due to a superior/colleague at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, who suggested that it would be a good career move, as highlighted in, among other programs, FTR#908. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
With the escalating rhetoric and imposition of sanctions for China’s alleged genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang province, it is valuable to recall American-assisted atrocities during the Cold War.
In numerous programs, we have highlighted wholesale slaughter in Latin American countries, implemented by fascists operating in an international constellation coalescing around the USA.
That constellation was termed the International Fascista (or “Fascist International”) by Henrik Krueger, and is detailed in, among other programs, AFA #‘s 4, 19, and 22.
In addition, the role of the former World Anti-Communist League in the death squad activity in Central America was set forth in AFA #15.
In FTR#839, we presented Peter Levenda’s account of his visit to Colonia Dignidad in Chile–a Nazi encampment that served as an operational epicenter for Operation Condor, a CIA-assisted mass murder consortium composed of Latin American nations.
The essence of the Condor program was summed up by Argentinian General Antonio Domingo. (“Subversives” were killed for real or alleged: communism, atheism, Jewishness or union activities.) “. . . . First, we will kill all the subversives, then we will kill all of their collaborators, then those who sympathize with the subversives, then we kill those that remain indifferent, and finally we kill the timid. . . .”
A very, very important and superbly written and documented new book–The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins–chronicles the slaughter that the U.S. implemented in the developing world during the Cold War.
Listeners are emphatically encouraged to purchase and read the book.
Key Points of Discussion and Analysis Include: Review of the operational fundamentals of Operation Condor; the role of Colonia Dignidad as an epicenter of Condor activities; the 1976 Argentinian coup; the so-called “Dirty War” that followed that coup; the role in the Dirty War of Argentinian members of the P‑2 Lodge (Admiral Emilio Massera, Jose Lopez Rega); the assistance given by Ford Motor Company and Citibank in the murder of Argentinian union organizers; collaboration of the Argentinian and other Condor participants with the fascist “Stay Behind” armies set up by Frank Wisner; the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C.; The close relationship between the countries of Central America; the acceleration in the 1960’s of the terror that had gripped Guatemala since the 1954 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz; how the elimination of peaceful, pro-democracy activists and activism fed the growth of guerilla movements; the birth of the “White Hand” death squad; assistance given to the death squads by U.S. Green Berets; the practice of “disappearing” perceived political enemies or dissidents to terrorize their associates; the initiation of wholesale extermination of large populations of indigenous people; the nervousness and insecurity felt by the Guatemalan dictatorship following the ascent of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua; President Carter’s tamping down of U.S. assistance to Central American dictatorships; the pivoting of those dictatorships to gaining military aid and training from Israel and Taiwan; the training of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua by Argentine military death squad veterans; networking of Central American death squad personnel with Condor operatives in Franco’s Spain; Roberto D’Aubisson’s ascent in El Salvador; the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Romero; the massacre of over 900 residents of the El Salvadoran village of El Mozote; Ronald Reagan’s appointment of Elliot Abrams as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights; Abrams’ characterization of The New York Times’ reportage on the El Mozote as “communist propaganda;” the role of The School of the Americas in the training of death squads; the military coup that brought Evangelical Christian Efrain Rios Montt to power in Guatemala; Rios Montt’s special affinity with Ronald Reagan; Rios Montt’s implementation of so-called “Model Villages;” the systematic destruction of the Guatemalan town of Ilom—part of the genocidal program enacted by the Guatemalan government against the indigenous Mayan population (termed genocide by Amnesty International).
The program concludes with a presentation of the points of view of the Guatemalan survivors of the liquidation campaigns, perhaps most expressively communicated by one Domingo: “ . . . . I asked them what communism was. Domingo, the owner of the bus, had this answer: ‘Well, they said they were communists and communists were dangerous. But actually, the government are the ones who did all the killing. So if anyone was dangerous, if anyone was ‘communist,’ it must be them. . . .’”
In FTR #1127, we highlighted one of the multi-dimensional facets of the Covid-19 phenomenon–how the pandemic is fulfilling a eugenic agenda across many social strata and around the globe. Former German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble–the “Austerity Czar” of the EU–has enunciated the eugenic philosophy of Covid-19 policy. Schauble pursued a Social Darwinian policy following the 2008 financial collapse: ” . . . During the international financial crisis, when Schäuble was Germany’s Minister of Finance, his EU counterparts trembled: Schäuble wanted to force them to adapt harsh austerity measures. Because the foreseeable social consequences would cost lives, Schäuble’s tactics seemed to scare Europe with ‘traumatic effects’ and gave it a lesson in German economic ethics: Teutonic brutality and at all costs. ‘Terrifying,’ was the assessment the US Treasury Secretary made following his conversation with Schäuble. Paris and Madrid were also apprehensive; Athens called Schäuble an ‘arsonist,’ on a rampage through Europe. . . .” Schauble is now one of the most important figures in German government. He has expressed socio-economic policy with regard to treating those with Covid-19: ” . . . . Schäuble has elaborated in 2020 on what he had already made clear in 2012, during the international financial crisis: ‘If I hear that everything else must take a back seat to the preservation of life, I must say that this, in such unequivocalness, is not right.’ Protection of human life does not have an ‘absolute priority in our Basic Law.’ Death is coming sooner or later anyway. ‘We are all going to die.’ . . . . Schäuble’s statements are exemplary and are of ‘national significance’ declared the German Ethics Council. The council is government financed and prioritizes ‘economic rights.’ They should ‘not be unconditionally subordinated’ to the protection of human life. There is a sort of rivalry of values. If the value of life would have priority, ‘freedom’ would suffer, according to the unanimous judgment of the ethics department of the German Economic Institute (IW). . . . In fact, the government’s obligation to the constitution’s highest value — the protection of life — must be relativized, just as Schäuble is doing, confirm the majority of Germany’s government leaders. . . . a fellow Green municipal politician speaks in plain operational terms; ‘Let me tell you quite bluntly: We may be saving people in Germany, who, because of their age or serious previous medical conditions, may, be dead anyway in a half a year.’ . . . .”
This program examines one of the multi-layered effects of the Covid-19 “bio-psy-op.” We stress that the demarcation of these layers is for cognitive purposes–to enhance understanding. The layers are part of a unified whole.
In this broadcast, we focus on the eugenic effects of the virus. We have covered eugenics in many broadcasts over the decades. A few of those: FTR #‘s 1075, 1029, 908, 909, 32, 1013. FTR #1013 is of particular importance, as Trump has used the Covid-19 outbreak to halt immigration into the U.S.
Before delving into the eugenics manifestations of the Covid-19 outbreak, we highlight some of the recent developments in the pandemic:
1.–A recent report, based on random testing, indicated that up to one fifth of New Yorkers may have been infected by the virus. If accurate, this is an important piece of information, indicating that, from an epidemiological standpoint, the virus did NOT originate in China.
2.–We strongly suspect that New York was deliberately vectored by fascist elements associated with the Trump administration at one level, and the Underground Reich at another. This methodology would not be unprecedented: “. . . . In the summer of 1966, Special Operations men walked into three New York City subway stations and tossed lightbulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis, a benign bacteria, onto the tracks. The subway trains pushed the germs through the entire system and theoretically killed over a million passengers. . . .”
3.–We note increased finger-pointing at, scapegoating of, China for the pandemic, on the part of Britain, Germany and France, in addition to Trump and elements of the intelligence community: ” . . . .Washington is simultaneously spreading deliberate rumors that the virus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory. Whereas, scientists vehemently refute the allegations, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas declared, he ‘does not want to exclude’ that the WHO will have to deal with these issues. On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Beijing to show ‘transparency’ on the issue. . . . At the same time deliberate rumors are being spread in the United States that the Covid-19 virus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory — possibly in bioweapons lab. The US government indicated that it does not rule out this possibility; US intelligence services are currently investigating the issue. . . Leading British and French politicians have expressed similar views. British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab has repeatedly declared that China will be held responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron has now joined the campaign. Regarding the pandemic’s alleged origin, he declared, ‘there are clearly things that have happened’ in China ‘that we don’t know about.’ . . . . ”
4.–We also note a disturbing aspect of the symptoms of a cross-vectored, genetically-engineered virus that is the precipitating event for the Nazi takover in the US in Serpent’s Walk: ” . . . . Pacov‑1 produces only a mild, flu-like infection that disappears within a day or two. Public health authorities would overlook it, never consider it a serious epidemic, and even if they did they’d have to look carefully to isolate it. Once a victim is over the ‘flu,’ Pacov‑1 becomes dormant and almost undetectable. A month or two later, you send in the second stage: Pacov‑2 is also a virus, just as contagious as the first, and just as harmless by itself. It reacts with Pacov‑1 to produce a powerful coagulant. . . . you die within three minutes. . . .”
5.–The coagulating pathology produced by Pacov‑1 and Pacov‑2 in Serpent’s Walk is unnervingly similar to one of the many symptoms of Covid-19 infection: ” . . . . Doctors in hot spots across the globe have begun to report an unexpected prevalence of blood clotting among COVID cases, in what could pose a perfect storm of potentially fatal risk factors. . . . . . . It’s growing so common with severe COVID cases, doctors are recognizing it as a new pattern of clotting called COVID-19-associated coagulopathy, or CAC, which is notably associated with high inflammatory markers in the blood, like D‑dimer and fibrinogen. . . . ‘In the beginning of the outbreak, we started only giving them medicine to prevent clots. We saw that it wasn’t enough,’ Dr. Cristina Abad, an anesthesiologist at Hospital Clínicos San Carlos in Madrid, told ABC News. ‘They started having pulmonary embolisms, so we started [full] anticoagulation on everyone.’ . . .”
Eugenics, in its practice, might best be described as a pseudo-scientific doctrine attributing features of racial, ethnic and socio-economic prejudice to empirical scientific fact. ” . . . Eugenics is a set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population,[4][5] typically by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior, and promoting those judged to be superior. . . . Many countries enacted[49] various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions, segregation (both racial segregation and sequestering the mentally ill), compulsory sterilization, forced abortions or forced pregnancies, ultimately culminating in genocide. . . .”
Discussion of the eugenic aspects of the Covid-19 phenomenon include:
1.–De facto rationing of health care during the pandemic in such a way as to potentially lethally discriminate against those with disabilities.
2.–Infection and death rates disproportionately high among populations enduring the economic and physiological affliction deriving from prejudice and social darwinistic doctrine: African-Americans, people who work in low-paying jobs that require close human contact and living in conditions that do not permit social distancing.
3.–The economically degrading effect of GOP fiscal policy with regard to public transportation during the pandemic.
4.–New York City has been stigmatized during the pandemic, as has New York State. With large Jewish, African-American and Latino populations, a tradition of liberal politics, generous municipal union contracts, a free city university program, New York has long been viewed as “Jew York City” by fascist elements. Governors, as well as Trump himself, have proposed quarantining New York City and New Jersey. This further underscores the above speculation concerning the rate of infection in New York City. ” . . . . As President Trump put it in his short-lived bid to ‘QUARANTINE’ New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, ‘Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hot spot’ — the implication being that if New Yorkers could only be kept where they are, with checkpoints and guards if need be, Covid-19 could be stopped from spreading elsewhere in the country. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida set up checkpoints to stop cars with New York or Louisiana license plates, so that state troopers can warn drivers to self-quarantine or face 60 days in jail — even as he hesitated to put any social distancing in place or close the beaches for spring break. Instead of admitting the danger of community spread in Florida, the governor framed the problem as one of outsiders bringing germs in. Governors in Maryland and other states warned anyone arriving from the New York City area to isolate themselves. On Twitter, Covid-19 has taken on a new sobriquet: the ‘Cuomovirus.’ . . .”
Critical observations by Wolfgang Schauble, the German/EU “Austerity Czar” who wrought so much suffering following the 2008 economic collapse has clearly enunciated the functional and philosophical essence of “corporatist” and eugenic doctrine.
This, too, is reflected in the Trumpian “LIBERATE MICHIGAN etc.”
Some background on Schauble’s outlook: ” . . . . Hardly a German government representative is more notorious than Wolfgang Schäuble — worldwide. During the international financial crisis, when Schäuble was Germany’s Minister of Finance, his EU counterparts trembled: Schäuble wanted to force them to adapt harsh austerity measures. Because the foreseeable social consequences would cost lives, Schäuble’s tactics seemed to scare Europe with ‘traumatic effects’ and gave it a lesson in German economic ethics: Teutonic brutality and at all costs. ‘Terrifying,’ was the assessment the US Treasury Secretary made following his conversation with Schäuble. Paris and Madrid were also apprehensive; Athens called Schäuble an ‘arsonist,’ on a rampage through Europe. Schäuble has since climbed higher on the government ladder. Schäuble now ranks second, after the President, in the Federal Republic of Germany’s protocolary system. . . . .”
After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, he has redoubled his “Teutonic brutality:” ” . . . . In the midst of the Corona crisis, Schäuble initiated an interview, considered to be an unofficial guideline for the German state’s life and death decisions. Its tenor deserves attention, even beyond Germany’s borders.
“Should people have to die, because they are deprived of state resources, essential for the economic cycle, such as currently during the Corona crisis? Does the protection of human life have absolute priority in state policy? In the interview, Schäuble has elaborated in 2020 on what he had already made clear in 2012, during the international financial crisis: ‘If I hear that everything else must take a back seat to the preservation of life, I must say that this, in such unequivocalness, is not right.’ Protection of human life does not have an ‘absolute priority in our Basic Law.’ Death is coming sooner or later anyway. ‘We are all going to die.’ (April 26, 2020)
“Schäuble’s statements are exemplary and are of ‘national significance’ declared the German Ethics Council. The council is government financed and prioritizes ‘economic rights.’ They should ‘not be unconditionally subordinated’ to the protection of human life. There is a sort of rivalry of values. If the value of life would have priority, ‘freedom’ would suffer, according to the unanimous judgment of the ethics department of the German Economic Institute (IW). From the standpoint of German constitutional law, according to a former judge on the constitutional court, ‘the state’s efficiency’ would encounter its limits, if life were given top priority, where ‘everything else must lag arbitrarily far behind.’
“In fact, the government’s obligation to the constitution’s highest value — the protection of life — must be relativized, just as Schäuble is doing, confirm the majority of Germany’s government leaders. Prominent voices from the parliamentary opposition parties are also in agreement that the protection of human life, as the primary legitimized duty of the state is a ‘question of assessment.’ From this the FDP draws the conclusion: ‘therefore, please reopen the businesses.’ ‘Enable production.’ In harmony with Germany’s export economy lobbyists and the President of the Bundestag, the chair of the Greens is also one of the relativizers. He finds himself in an alleged ‘dilemma,’ when he thinks of the protection of life during the Corona crisis, while a fellow Green municipal politician speaks in plain operational terms; ‘Let me tell you quite bluntly: We may be saving people in Germany, who, because of their age or serious previous medical conditions, may, be dead anyway in a half a year.’ . . . .”
The broadcast concludes with an overview of New York Times headlines, illustrating various aspects of the socio-economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak, victimizing lower income people, reducing income and earning ability, educational opportunity, adversely affecting access to food and auguring catastrophe for Third World populations:
1.–“Colleges Running Out of Cash Worry Students Will Vanish, Too” by Anemona Hartocollis; The New York Times; 4/16/2020; pp. A1-A-15 [Western Edition].
2.–“Outbreak Strains States’ Finances” by Mary Williams Walsh; The New York Times; 4/16/2020; pp. B1-B6 [Western Edition].
3.–” ‘This Is Going to Kill Small-Town America’ ” by David Gelles: The New York Times; 4/16/2020; pp. B1-B5 [Western Edition].
4.–The New York Times [Western Edition] headline for 4/16/2020 said it all, as far as the fortunes of retail outlets. “Sales at U.S. Stores Hit ‘Catastrophic’ Depths” by Sapna Maheshwari and Ben Casselman; The New York Times; 4/16/2020.
5.– “Evidence of Virus Effect on Economy Grows More Ominous” [AP]; The New York Times; 4/15/2020.
6.– “135 Million Face Starvation. That Could Double” by Abdi Latif Dahir; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; pp. A1-A6; [Western Edition].
7.– “This Pandemic Is Bringing Another” by Nicholas Kristof; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; p. A23 [Op-ed–Western Edition].
8.– “Covid-19 Threatens Global Safety Net” Editorial; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; p. A22 [Western Edition].
9.–“How Government ‘Failed the Elderly’ ” Letter to the Editor; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; p. A22 [Western Edition].
10.– “A Limit on Trump’s Immigration Power” by Jennifer M. Chacon and Erwin Chermerinsky; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; p. A23 [op-ed–Western Edition].
11.– ” ‘The Food Supply Chain Is Breaking.’ Tyson Foods Warns of Meat Shortage as Plants Close Due to Covid-19” by Sanya Mansoor [Time] Yahoo News; 4/26/2020.
As noted in the program, the eugenic aspects of the pandemic and effects on the economically and socially disadvantaged inside and outside of the U.S. are inextricable with the weal-concentrating aspects of the pandemic. This will be the focus of our next program:
1.–“Banks Steered Richest Clients To Federal Aid” by Emily Flitter and Stacy Cowley; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; pp. A1-A14 [Western Edition].
2.–“Millions In Relief For Backer Of Resorts” by Jeanna Smialek, Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport; The New York Times; 4/23/2020; pp. B1-B5 [Western Edition].
In FTR #1126, we examined the Trump administration and GOP’s exploitation of the Covid-19 outbreak as a campaign tactic and right-wing hints that the virus escaped from a Chinese biological warfare laboratory. Now, Germany, France and Britain are joining with the Trump administration and the GOP in hinting that the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese biological warfare laboratory. As a “German Foreign Policy” article notes, the tone of American, British, French and German rhetoric concerning Covid-19 is reminiscent of the deliberate disinformation that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2002. A) ” . . . . Last weekend, US President Donald Trump warned the People’s Republic that it should face consequences if it was ‘knowingly responsible’ for the spread of the pandemic. Washington is simultaneously spreading deliberate rumors that the virus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory. Whereas, scientists vehemently refute the allegations, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas declared, he ‘does not want to exclude’ that the WHO will have to deal with these issues. On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Beijing to show ‘transparency’ on the issue. . . .”; B) ” . . . . At the same time deliberate rumors are being spread in the United States that the Covid-19 virus could have originated in a Chinese laboratory — possibly in bioweapons lab. The US government indicated that it does not rule out this possibility; US intelligence services are currently investigating the issue. Particularly given the lie about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, such an allegation must be perceived as a threat to lend legitimacy to new aggressions. . . .”; C) ” . . . . Already last week, German media organs have increasingly been calling China the ‘culprit’ behind the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. Under the headline ‘what China already owes us,’ Germany’s Springer press even called for ‘reparations.’ (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[5]) Leading British and French politicians have expressed similar views. British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab has repeatedly declared that China will be held responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron has now joined the campaign. Regarding the pandemic’s alleged origin, he declared, ‘there are clearly things that have happened’ in China ‘that we don’t know about.’[6] It is not clear how Macron can know something exists that he does not know about. It is however clear that he seeks to implicate Beijing. . . .” In fact–as we have seen, the DARPA has been doing extensive research into bat-borne coronaviruses. In addition, Fort Detrick was shut down in early August of 2019 for safety violations.
As discussed in FTR #1124–among other programs–it is now possible to create ANY virus from scratch, using “mail-order” or “designer” genes. Sadly predictable journalistic bromides that the Covid-19 coronavirus could not have been/was not made in a laboratory fly in the face of bio-technology that has existed for 20 years. In FTR #282–recorded in May of 2001–we noted the terrible significance of the development of such “Designer Gene” technology. A BBC story from 1999 highlights the fears of experts that the advent of such technology could enable the development of ethno-specific biological weapons: ” . . . . Advances in genetic knowledge could be misused to develop powerful biological weapons that could be tailored to strike at specific ethnic groups, the British Medical Association has warned. A BMA report Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity says that concerted international action is necessary to block the development of new, biological weapons. It warns the window of opportunity to do so is very narrow as technology is developing rapidly and becoming ever more accessible. ‘Recipes’ for developing biological agents are freely available on the Internet, the report warns. . . . The BMA report warns that legitimate research into microbiological agents and genetically targeted therapeutic agents could be difficult to distinguish from research geared towards developing more effective weapons. . . . Dr Vivienne Nathanson, BMA Head of Health Policy Research said: . . . ‘Biotechnology and genetic knowledge are equally open to this type of malign use. Doctors and other scientists have an important role in prevention. They have a duty to persuade politicians and international agencies such as the UN to take this threat seriously and to take action to prevent the production of such weapons.’ . . . ”
This program takes stock of some of the remarkable features of the Covid-19 coronavirus, to be seen in the context of a country whose political/intellectual elites have accepted the “Magic Bullet Theory.” (This is discussed in–among other programs–The Guns of November, Part 2.)
It is our considered opinion that the virus is part of the destabilization effort against China and is founded upon research highlighted in, among other programs, FTR #‘s 1119 and 1120.
As highlighted below, all of this must be evaluated in light of the fact that the coordinator of the anti-China effort–former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon–is a fascist.
In addition to reviewing how the Covid-19 virus infects human lung tissue and both the upper and lower respiratory tracts, we note:
1.–The virus appears to have been a bat virus and the random mutations seen are unlikely to be natural: ” . . . . What are the odds that a random bat virus had exactly the right combination of traits to effectively infect human cells from the get-go, and then jump into an unsuspecting person? ‘Very low,’ [Kristian] Andersen [of the Scripps Research Translational Institute] says . . . . ”
2.–The ability of this bat virus to infect ACE2 was present from day one. ” . . . . . The closest wild relative of SARS-CoV‑2 is found in bats, which suggests it originated in a bat, then jumped to humans either directly or through another species. . . . When SARS-classic first made this leap, a brief period of mutation was necessary for it to recognize ACE2 well. But SARS-CoV‑2 could do that from day one. ‘It had already found its best way of being a [human] virus,’ says Matthew Frieman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. . . .”
3.–Indeed, why was this “seventh virus” the one to infect humans “. . . . This family, the coronaviruses, includes just six other members that infect humans. . . . . Why was this seventh coronavirus the one to go pandemic? Suddenly, what we do know about coronaviruses becomes a matter of international concern. . . .”
4.–Perhaps the most notable observation made about this virus thus far: it doesn’t appear to be mutating in evolutionarily significant ways. Of the 100-plus mutations observed in the virus so far, none has emerged as evolutionarily dominant–unusual for a virus that only recently jumped to humans. and has spread prolifically. It’s as though the virus is already evolutionarily optimized for spreading among humans and there are no ‘gain-of-function’ mutations left for it acquire. As Lisa Gralinski, a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, described it, ‘The virus has been remarkably stable given how much transmission we’ve seen . . . . there’s no evolutionary pressure on the virus to transmit better. It’s doing a great job of spreading around the world right now.’ . . .”
5.–As discussed in other programs–including FTR #‘s 1117 and 1121, the “cytokine storms” that overwhelm the immune system of some Covid-19 victims are symptomatic of other viruses that have gone either “Gain-of-Function” alteration and/or genetic recovery and recreation–HN1 Avian Flu, SARS, and the 1918 “Spanish Flu” virus: ” . . . . These damaging overreactions are called cytokine storms. They were historically responsible for many deaths during the 1918 flu pandemic, H5N1 bird flu outbreaks, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. . . . .”
In addition, an article in Science Direct characterizes the advent of the furin-like cleavage site as a “gain-of-function” phenomenon. “Gain of Function” is a mechanism of action of an “Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogen.” Note the use of the word “strikingly” in this otherwise dry and pedantic academic presentation. It is VERY significant and–we suspect–betokens awareness on the part of the authors that “we aren’t in Kansas, anymore, Toto!” “. . . . STRIKINGLY [caps are ours–D.E.], the 2019-nCoV S‑protein sequence contains 12 additional nucleotides upstream of the single Arg↓ cleavage site 1 (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) leading to a predictively solvent-exposed PRRAR↓SV sequence, which corresponds to a canonical furin-like cleavage site (Braun and Sauter, 2019; Izaguirre, 2019; Seidah and Prat, 2012). This furin-like cleavage site, is supposed to be cleaved during virus egress (Mille and Whittaker, 2014) for S‑protein ‘priming’ and may provide a gain-of-function to the 2019-nCoV for efficient spreading in the human population compared to other lineage b betacoronaviruses. This possibly illustrates a convergent evolution pathway between unrelated CoVs. Interestingly, if this site is not processed, the S‑protein is expected to be cleaved at site 2 during virus endocytosis, as observed for the SARS-CoV. . . .”
The article also notes that the virus differs significantly from other coronaviruses of its type. ” . . . . Based on its genome sequence, 2019-nCoV belongs to lineage b of Betacoronavirus (Fig. 1A), which also includes the SARS-CoV and bat CoV ZXC21, the latter and CoV ZC45 being the closest to 2019-nCoV. . . . Since furin is highly expressed in lungs, an enveloped virus that infects the respiratory tract may successfully exploit this convertase to activate its surface glycoprotein (Bassi et al., 2017; Mbikay et al., 1997). Before the emergence of the 2019-nCoV, this important feature was not observed in the lineage b of betacoronaviruses. . . .”
The features of the virus noted above must be seen in the context of the DARPA research into bat coronaviruses:
1.–” . . . . the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), began spending millions on such research in 2018 and some of those Pentagon-funded studies were conducted at known U.S. military bioweapons labs bordering China and resulted in the discovery of dozens of new coronavirus strains as recently as last April. Furthermore, the ties of the Pentagon’s main biodefense lab to a virology institute in Wuhan, China — where the current outbreak is believed to have begun — have been unreported in English language media thus far. . . . For instance, DARPA spent $10 million on one project in 2018 ‘to unravel the complex causes of bat-borne viruses that have recently made the jump to humans, causing concern among global health officials.’ Another research project backed by both DARPA and NIH saw researchers at Colorado State University examine the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in bats and camels ‘to understand the role of these hosts in transmitting disease to humans.’ . . . For instance, one study conducted in Southern China in 2018 resulted in the discovery of 89 new ‘novel bat coronavirus’ strains that use the same receptor as the coronavirus known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). That study was jointly funded by the Chinese government’s Ministry of Science and Technology, USAID — an organization long alleged to be a front for U.S. intelligence, and the U.S. National Institute of Health — which has collaborated with both the CIA and the Pentagonon infectious disease and bioweapons research.. . . .”
2.–DARPA is doing this work, in part, at biological research facilities ringing both China and Russia. ” . . . . One of those studies focused on ‘Bat-Borne Zoonotic Disease Emergence in Western Asia’ and involved the Lugar Center in Georgia, identified by former Georgian government officials, the Russian governmentand independent, investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva as a covert U.S. bioweapons lab. . . . Another U.S. government-funded study that discovered still more new strains of ‘novel bat coronavirus’ was published just last year. Titled ‘Discovery and Characterization of Novel Bat Coronavirus Lineages from Kazakhstan,’ focused on ‘the bat fauna of central Asia, which link China to eastern Europe’ and the novel bat coronavirus lineages discovered during the study were found to be ‘closely related to bat coronaviruses from China, France, Spain, and South Africa, suggesting that co-circulation of coronaviruses is common in multiple bat species with overlapping geographical distributions.’ In other words, the coronaviruses discovered in this study were identified in bat populations that migrate between China and Kazakhstan, among other countries, and is closely related to bat coronaviruses in several countries, including China. . . .
The unusual features of the virus must also be seen in the context of the Steve Bannon-led anti-China destabilization effort. It is our opinion that the spreading of the virus is intended to provoke the “Whole-of-society” response. As discussed in FTR #947, the dominant intellectual and political influence on Bannon is the Italian fascist Julius Evola. Originally a supporter of Mussolini, he ultimately decided Mussolini was too moderate and in an ideological “Gain-of-Function” mutation, associated himself with the Nazi SS, who were financing his work by the end of World War II.
Bannon’s assessment of U.S.-China relations amounts to a declaration of “Totaler Krieg–Total War.” ” . . . ‘These are two systems that are incompatible,’ Mr. Bannon said of the United States and China. ‘One side is going to win, and one side is going to lose.’ . . . .”
The coronavirus attack we believe was unleashed on the U.S. and the world as a whole (to alienate it from China) and China itself (to inflect economic damage and stir up domestic unrest) is the manifestation of what the head of the FBI expressed: ” . . . . ‘I think it’s going to take a whole-of-society response by us.’ . . .”
Of paramount importance is the fact that statements being issued to the effect that the virus was not made in a laboratory are not just irrelevant, but absurd. ANY virus can be made in a laboratory, from scratch as is being done for the SARS-CoV‑2 (Covid-19) virus.
The bromides being issued–all too predictably–that the virus could not have been/wasn’t made in a laboratory are the virological equivalent of the Magic Bullet Theory.
We first discussed “Designer Genes” in FTR #282.
Ralph Baric–who did the gain-of-function modification on the Horseshoe Bat coronavirus, has been selected to engineer the Covid-19.
” . . . . The remarkable ability to ‘boot up’ viruses from genetic instructions is made possible by companies that manufacture custom DNA molecules, such as Integrated DNA Technology, Twist Bioscience, and Atum. By ordering the right genes, which cost a few thousand dollars, and then stitching them together to create a copy of the coronavirus genome, it’s possible to inject the genetic material into cells and jump-start the virus to life. The ability to make a lethal virus from mail-order DNA was first demonstrated 20 years ago. . . .”
Note what might be termed a “virologic Jurassic Park” manifestation: ” . . . . The technology immediately created bio-weapon worries. . . . Researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) drove that point home in 2005 when they resurrected the influenza virus that killed tens of millions in 1918–1919. . . .”
A key factor spurring our suspicion concerning genetic-engineering of one or more variant of the Covid-19 virus concerns a 2015 Gain-of-Function experiment done by the above Ralph Baric: “Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice. . . . The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells, validating concerns that this virus—or other coronaviruses found in bat species—may be capable of making the leap to people without first evolving in an intermediate host, Nature reported. They also reignite a debate about whether that information justifies the risk of such work, known as gain-of-function research. ‘If the [new] virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,’ Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature. . . .”
An interesting piece in “The Atlantic” describes how the SARS-CoV‑2 virus that causes COVID-19 differs from other coronaviruses known to infect humans. We present this as supplemental to discussion of DARPA research into bat-borne coronaviruses. The virus appears to have been a bat virus and the random mutations seen are unlikely to be natural: ” . . . . What are the odds that a random bat virus had exactly the right combination of traits to effectively infect human cells from the get-go, and then jump into an unsuspecting person? ‘Very low,’ [Kristian] Andersen [of the Scripps Research Translational Institute] says . . . . ” A) The SARS-CoV‑2 (Covid-19) virus is unusual in that it infects both the upper and lower respiratory tracts. The ‘spike’ part of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus is unusually good at latching into a protein called ACE2 which is found on the exterior of the cells in human airways. This ability appears to be fundamental to the virus’s ability to infect the upper respiratory tract. The virus appears to infect the upper airways first and then, as cells in them die and are sloughed off, it makes its way down to the lower respiratory tract and lungs where the deadly infections occur. This sequential pattern of infecting the upper respiratory tract prior to making its way down to the lungs enables it to silently spread asymptomatically before turning more lethal in the lower respiratory tract. B) We note that the ACE2 protein appears to manifest more heavily in the lung tissue of East-Asians. As indicated in the Whitney Webb article, genetic modification has been envisioned as applicable to biological warfare to create “ethno-specific” biological weapons. C) Another key feature of the virus’s ability to infect humans concerns a protein bridge connecting two halves of the virus’s spike. Activation of this spike causes the virus injects its nucleic acid into the cell. Activating the spike requires the cleavage of a protein bridge connecting the two halves of the spike. That cleavage is precipitated by the enzyme furin which is ubiquitous in human cells. In contrast, the coronavirus which caused SARS had a protein bridge that was less likely to be cleaved. SARS-CoV‑2 first latches onto to human upper airway cells and, once there, has the protein bridge linking the halves of the spike severed by the furin enzyme. D) Perhaps the most notable observation made about this virus thus far: it doesn’t appear to be mutating in evolutionarily significant ways. Of the 100-plus mutations observed in the virus so far, none has emerged as evolutionarily dominant–unusual for a virus that only recently jumped to humans. and has spread prolifically. It’s as though the virus is already evolutionarily optimized for spreading among humans and there are no ‘gain-of-fuction’ mutations left for it acquire. As Lisa Gralinski, a coronavirus expert at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, described it, “The virus has been remarkably stable given how much transmission we’ve seen . . . . there’s no evolutionary pressure on the virus to transmit better. It’s doing a great job of spreading around the world right now.” E) Gralinsky works closely with Ralph Baric’s lab. Recall that Baric is the researcher who constructed a chimeric virus out of a SARS virus and horseshoe bat coronavirus in 2015. When Gralinski observes that the virus wouldn’t feel any evolutionary pressure to spread because it’s already doing such a good job that is VERY significant. Evolution doesn’t stop just because the status quo of an organism is already effective. A mutation allowing the virus to spread even more readily would be expected. And normally such an event does happen. But it hasn’t happened so for SARS-CoV‑2 because it is already at something of a “coronavirus evolutionary peak”. In addition, an article in “Science Direct” characterizes the advent of the furin-like cleavage site as a “gain-of-function” phenomenon. “Gain of Function” is a mechanism of action of an “Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogen.” “. . . . Strikingly, the 2019-nCoV S‑protein sequence contains 12 additional nucleotides upstream of the single Arg↓ cleavage site 1 (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) leading to a predictively solvent-exposed PRRAR↓SV sequence, which corresponds to a canonical furin-like cleavage site (Braun and Sauter, 2019; Izaguirre, 2019; Seidah and Prat, 2012). This furin-like cleavage site, is supposed to be cleaved during virus egress (Mille and Whittaker, 2014) for S‑protein “priming” and may provide a gain-of-function to the 2019-nCoV for efficient spreading in the human population compared to other lineage b betacoronaviruses. This possibly illustrates a convergent evolution pathway between unrelated CoVs. Interestingly, if this site is not processed, the S‑protein is expected to be cleaved at site 2 during virus endocytosis, as observed for the SARS-CoV. . . .”
This broadcast updates, in a admittedly strident mode, the Covid-19 outbreak. We begin with discussion of Moderna, Inc.
Moderna Inc. is one of the DARPA-funded companies that has been authorized to begin testing of vaccines. As discussed by Whitney Webb, Moderna Inc. is getting a green light to develop its mRNA vaccine (mRNA 1273) for preventing Covid-19 infection. The Western Edition of The New York Times contains information NOT contained in the online manifestation of the article.
Although vaccines that inject nucleic acid–either DNA or messenger RNA–into cells have been seen as promising, they have NEVER been administered to humans. The trials for the Moderna vaccine appear to be “fast-tracked.”
We have done numerous programs about the polio vaccine and how that “fast-tracked” (and consequently insufficiently vetted) vaccine was contaminated with the SV40 cancer-causing monkey virus.
In the context of the destabilization of China (covered in many programs and a key element of analysis in assessing the Covid-19 outbreak), we note that the collapsing of economies abroad, including the U.S., will significantly and adversely affect China’s export-oriented economy.
It may lead to the collapse of the Chinese economy eagerly–and financially–anticipated by J. Kyle Bass, Tommy Hicks Jr. and Steve Bannon.
An op-ed column further develops the potential danger to China’s economy posed by the Covid-19 outbreak. ” . . . . While China is no longer center stage, as the virus spreads worldwide there are renewed fears that the crisis could circle back to its shores by hurting demand for exports. Over the last decade China’s corporate debt swelled fourfold to over $20 trillion — the biggest binge in the world. The International Monetary Fund estimates that one-tenth of this debt is in zombie firms, which rely on government-directed lending to stay alive. . . .”
Next, we tackle the subject of an escalating media war between China and the U.S.
Trump’s labeling of Covid-19 as “the Chinese virus” is apparently in response to suggestions in Chinese social media and some published material pointing to the U.S. and/or national security elements within and/or associated with it as the source of the virus.
In FTR #1109, we examined Donald Trump’s dealings with Deutsche Bank, key “suicides” in connection with the bank’s records on Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump’s claims of executive privilege in attempts to keep the records secret, the apparent destruction of those records by Deutsche Bank and the tracking of the case to a decision by the Supreme Court.
Now, the Covid-19 outbreak may delay that decision indefinitely.
As highlighted above, Donald Trump has been labeling Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” in response to Chinese intimations (correct in their main contention in our opinion) that the U.S. is the point of origin of the virus.
An article in The Asia Times provides more depth on the growing media war between the U.S. and China.
Key points of discussion and analysis:
1.–China now openly views the U.S. as a threat: ” . . . . For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the U.S. as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus. . . .”
2.–President Xi Jinping has dropped verbal clues as to the Chinese view of the origin of the Covid-19: ” . . . . Beijing is carefully, incrementally shaping the narrative that, from the beginning of the coronavirus attack, the leadership knew it was under a hybrid war attack. The terminology of President Xi Jinping is a major clue. He said, on the record, that this was war. And, as a counter-attack, a ‘people’s war’ had to be launched. Moreover, he described the virus as a demon or devil. Xi is a Confucianist. Unlike some other ancient Chinese thinkers, Confucius was loath to discuss supernatural forces and judgment in the afterlife. However, in a Chinese cultural context, devil means ‘white devils’ or ‘foreign devils’: guailo in Mandarin, gweilo in Cantonese. This was Xi delivering a powerful statement in code. . . .”
3.–A Chinese Foreign Ministry official cited the Military World Games in Wuhan as a possible vectoring point. (We believe this is possible, although we suspect the Shincheonji cult and a USAMRIID association with a Wuhan virological institute as other possible vectors.) IF, for the sake of argument, fascist elements (CIA, Underground Reich or whatever) chose the US military athletes as a vector, it would have been altogether possible to do so without attracting attention. Military athletes are in superb condition and, if infected with one of the milder strains of Covid-19, their robust immune systems might well leave them asymptomatic, yet still contagious, or mildly ill at worst. They could then communicate the virus to other military athletes, who would then serve as a vector for other countries. ” . . . . Zhao’s explosive conclusion is that COVID-19 was already in effect in the U.S. before being identified in Wuhan – due to the by now fully documented inability of the U.S. to test and verify differences compared with the flu. . . .”
4.–Author Pepe Escobar reiterates the contention that the variants of the virus in Italy and Iran are different from the variants that infected Wuhan, an interpretation whose significance is debated by scientists.
5.–The article highlights the shuttering of Ft. Detrick, which has now been partially re-opened. ” . . . . Adding all that to the fact that coronavirus genome variations in Iran and Italy were sequenced and it was revealed they do not belong to the variety that infected Wuhan, Chinese media are now openly asking questions and drawing a connection with the shutting down in August last year of the “unsafe” military bioweapon lab at Fort Detrick, the Military Games, and the Wuhan epidemic. Some of these questions had been asked– with no response – inside the U.S. itself. . . .”
6.–Escobar also notes Event 201, which we highlighted in FTR #‘s 1111 and 1112: ” . . . . Extra questions linger about the opaque Event 201 in New York on October 18, 2019: a rehearsal for a worldwide pandemic caused by a deadly virus – which happened to be coronavirus. This magnificent coincidence happened one month before the outbreak in Wuhan. Event 201 was sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the CIA, Bloomberg, John Hopkins Foundation and the UN. The World Military Games opened in Wuhan on the exact same day. . . .”
7.–We note that, although we have not been able to conclusively prove that CIA was one of the sponsors of the event, a former Deputy Director of the Agency was a key participant. Having reached such a level of prominence within the agency, one never “leaves” altogether. It is probable that there was Agency participation.
8.–Further discussion notes the possible use of a coronavirus as part of a psy-op: ” . . . . The working hypothesis of coronavirus as a very powerful but not Armageddon-provoking bio-weapon unveils it as a perfect vehicle for widespread social control — on a global scale. . . .”
9.–Escobar alleges that Cuba has developed an anti-viral that is promising against the virus: ” . . . . The anti-viral Heberon – or Interferon Alpha 2b – a therapeutic, not a vaccine, has been used with great success in the treatment of coronavirus. A joint venture in China is producing an inhalable version, and at least 15 nations are already interested in importing the therapeutic. . . .”
10.–Quoting Italian analyst Sandro Mezzadra, Escobar notes the Covid-19 outbreak as a social Darwinian psy-op: ” . . . .We are facing a choice between a Malthusian strand – inspired by social Darwinism – ‘led by the Johnson-Trump-Bolsonaro axis’ and, on the other side, a strand pointing to the “requalification of public health as a fundamental tool,’ exemplified by China, South Korea and Italy. There are key lessons to be learned from South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The stark option, Mezzadra notes, is between a ‘natural population selection,’ with thousands of dead, and ‘defending society’ by employing ‘variable degrees of authoritarianism and social control.’ . . .”
11.–Like many analysts, Escobar–correctly in our opinion–notes that the Covid-19 outbreak threatens the global economy and may collapse the derivative market. That this may be intended to mask an overvalued equities market seems probable to us.
OyaGen, Inc. has used a drug developed, tested and FDA-approved that successfully treats and–apparently–cures Covid-19. Interestingly and, perhaps, significantly, the trials were conducted at Fort Detrick. As seen in FTR #‘s 1119 and 1120, the military has been heavily involved in researching viruses of this type.
There continues to be enormous emphasis on Gilead Sciences by hedge funds including Renaissance Technologies. Robert Mercer stepped down as CEO of the firm at the end of 2017, as publicity around Cambridge Analytica and the fallout from the Charlottesville march made him something of a PR liability. Usually in such situations, people like Mercer remain as key investors.
In FTR #1118, we noted that the Board of Directors of the firm is “interesting.” The “disappointing” performance of Gilead Sciences changed dramatically with the Covid-19 outbreak. ” . . . . Until Monday, when it fell in a brutal market rout, Gilead’s stock price had defied the overall market decline of recent weeks, rising almost 20 percent from Feb. 21 to March 6, on hopes that the drug could provide the first treatment for covid-19. The lack of treatment helps explain why. The stock price increased 5 percent on Feb. 24 alone when a top official of the World Health Organization pinned much of the world’s hopes for a treatment on the drug. . . .”
Again, in FTR #‘s 1119 and 1120 we looked at the profound involvement of the Pentagon in researching coronaviruses like Covid-19, as well as DARPA’s deep involvement with companies approved to begin working on vaccines. Now, Medicago, another DARPA-funded company, claims to have a vaccine ready for trial. “. . . . Using plants and genetically engineered agrobacteria works faster than eggs also makes the vaccine much easier to produce at scale, which, in part, is why the U.S. military has invested in the company. In 2010, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, put together a $100 million program dubbed Blue Angel to look into new forms of vaccine discovery and production. A big chunk of that money went to Medicago to build a facility in North Carolina, where they showed that they could find a vaccine in just 20 days, then rapidly scale up production. . . .”
Next, we turn to an article noting that the characteristics of the COVID-19 disease has remarkable overlap with a hypothetical disease, dubbed “Disease X.” In 2018, the World Health Organization emphasized an alarming characteristic of “hypothetical” “Disease X” that appears to be shared with SARS-CoV‑2: the ability to rapidly morph from a mild to deadly disease. The sudden turn towards a deadly disease appears to be due, in part, to an overly aggressive immune response that ends up ravaging the lungs. As one expert points out, this is the same pattern seen in the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic.
In FTR #1117, we reviewed the fact that military researchers had successfully recovered DNA from that infamous 1918 flu virus. as will be seen below, that virus was re-created in a laboratory in 2005.
So the WHO warned a couple years ago about a hypothetical “Disease X” disease that was highly contagious with the ability to spread with asymptomatically, is mild in most cases but with the ability to suddenly turn deadly. And here we are two years later with a disease that fits that profile. It was a pretty prescient prediction.
Note, also, that Marion Koopmans–head of viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and one of the WHO personnel who opined that Covid-19 was “Disease X” worked at the same institution as the researchers who performed gain-of-function experiments on the HN51 Avian Bird Flu virus, adapting to ferrets and making it communicable through casual respiratory activity. Those GOF experiements were also discussed in FTR #1117.
” . . . . From recent reports about the stealthy ways the so-called Covid-19 virus spreads and maims, a picture is emerging of an enigmatic pathogen whose effects are mainly mild, but which occasionally — and unpredictably — turns deadly in the second week. . . . The doctor [Li Wenliang], who was in good health prior to his infection, appeared to have a relatively mild case until his lungs became inflamed, leading to the man’s death two days later, said Linfa Wang, who heads the emerging infectious disease program at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. A similar pattern of inflammation noted among Covid-19 patients was observed in those who succumbed to the 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic . . .”
We wonder if variants of the Covid-19 may have been modified to infect the upper respiratory tract and/or modified with DNA from the resurrected 1918 “Spanish Flu”?
Peter Daszak of the WHO once again, voiced the (self-fulfilling?) opinion/prophecy that Covid-19 is indeed “Disease X.”
A key factor spurring our suspicion concerning genetic-engineering of one or more variant of the Covid-19 virus concerns a 2015 Gain-of-Function experiment: “Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, last week (November 9) published a study on his team’s efforts to engineer a virus with the surface protein of the SHC014 coronavirus, found in horseshoe bats in China, and the backbone of one that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. The hybrid virus could infect human airway cells and caused disease in mice. . . . The results demonstrate the ability of the SHC014 surface protein to bind and infect human cells, validating concerns that this virus—or other coronaviruses found in bat species—may be capable of making the leap to people without first evolving in an intermediate host, Nature reported. They also reignite a debate about whether that information justifies the risk of such work, known as gain-of-function research. ‘If the [new] virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,’ Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature. . . .”
The above-mentioned Ralph Baric–who did the gain-of-function modification on the Horseshoe Bat coronavirus, has been selected to engineer the Covid-19.
Note what might be termed a “virologic Jurassic Park” manifestation: ” . . . . . . . . The technology immediately created bio-weapon worries. . . . Researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) drove that point home in 2005 when they resurrected the influenza virus that killed tens of millions in 1918–1919. . . .”
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