News (1) to (4) / Research / Editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News (1)
Evidence: SARS-CoV-2's 'rare' genome shows it is engineered virus
Two U.S. experts have penned a damning essay stating the genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 strongly suggests that the virus was manufactured inside a Chinese laboratory.
Dr. Stephen Quay and Richard Muller, a physics professor at the University of California Berkeley, made the claim in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, amid growing speculation that the SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The experts wrote, "The most compelling reason to favor the lab leak hypothesis is firmly based in science. SARS-CoV-2 has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus."
Quay and Muller assert that the Wuhan lab was known for conducting 'gain-of-function' research where scientists would 'intentionally supercharge viruses to increase lethality'.
SARS-CoV-2 has the genome sequencing 'CGG-CGG' - one of 36 sequencing patterns. That combination is commonly used by scientists in gain-of-function research, but is otherwise considered extremely 'rare'.
The experts assert that no naturally occurring coronavirus - such as SARS-CoV or MERS virus - has ever had a CGG-CGG combination.
They wrote, "The CGG-CGG combination has never been found naturally. That means the common method of viruses picking up new skills, called recombination, cannot operate here."
They added, "A virus simply cannot pick up a sequence from another virus if that sequence isn't present in any other virus."
In the new essay, Quay and Muller go on to state that those who believe SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted from a bat via an intermediate host to humans 'must explain why it happened to pick its least favourite combination, CGG-CGG. Why did it replicate the choice the lab's gain-of-function researchers would have made?'
The experts conclude, 'Yes, it could have happened randomly, through mutations. But do you believe that? At the minimum, this fact—that the coronavirus, with all its random possibilities, took the rare and unnatural combination used by human researchers—implies that the leading theory for the origin of the coronavirus must be laboratory escape.'
In the new essay, Quay and Muller go on to state that those who believe SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted from a bat via an intermediate host to humans "must explain why it happened to pick its least favourite combination, CGG-CGG. Why did it replicate the choice the lab's gain-of-function researchers would have made?"
The experts conclude, "Yes, it could have happened randomly, through mutations. But do you believe that? At the minimum, this fact—that the coronavirus, with all its random possibilities, took the rare and unnatural combination used by human researchers—implies that the leading theory for the origin of the coronavirus must be laboratory escape."
The essay comes after an explosive study last week claimed that Chinese scientists created SARS-CoV-2 in the Wuhan laboratory, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.
News (2)
SARS-CoV-2 has "evidence of retro-engineering"
The paper's authors, British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sørensen, wrote that they have had 'prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China' for a year — but were ignored by academics and major journals.
That paper was authored by Professor Dalgleish, an oncologist at St George's University, London, and Dr Sørensen, a Norwegian virologist and chair of pharmaceutical company Immunor.
Although some experts still believe the virus was transmitted from a bat to some other species of animal, then to humans, its origins remain unproven.
News (3)
Facing the lab leak possibility, CCP rejected participation in further WHO virus investigations
In recent weeks, many of the world's top scientists have pushed to determine whether the virus was leaked from the WIV.
The lab leak theory was initially dismissed by many in the media and academic communities.
President Joe Biden last week ordered intelligence agencies to launch a probe into whether COVID was man-made after all.
Circumstantial evidence has long raised questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers were known to be conducting experiments on bat coronavirus strains similar to the one responsible for COVID-19.
China insisted early and often that the virus did not leak from the lab, claiming that crossover to humans must have occurred at a 'wet market' in Wuhan that sold live animals.
Perhaps driven by animosity for Donald Trump, who embraced the lab leak theory early on, the mainstream U.S. media and academics heaped scorn on the possibility, calling it an unhinged conspiracy theory.
But new evidence, including reports of three workers at the Wuhan lab who fell seriously ill with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019, has forced a sober reassessment among doubters.
Frustration with China increased this week after Beijing said that it would not participate in any further investigations by the World Health Organization.
Biden rebuked China in his announcement of the new intelligence review, calling on allies to help 'press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence.'
News (4)
Former FDA Head: Fauci told the world SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped from Wuhan lab
Meanwhile, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, has said Fauci told world leaders in the spring of 2020 that the coronavirus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
U.S. researchers around that time still were considering whether the virus came from a lab break, and Fauci told the health leaders gathered that the newly identified strain of the coronavirus 'looked unusual,' according to Gottlieb.
The disclosure from the former FDA chief comes as an increasing number of mainstream scientists and media figures no longer are parroting the line from the CCP that the virus came from a bat.
Even President Joe Biden has ordered government agencies to investigate the possibility that it might have come from a lab.
Now, Gottlieb says Fauci last year at least considered that SARS-CoV-2 could have come from a lab - before closing ranks around the idea that it occurred naturally.
Gottlieb, who served under President Donald Trump, said a former senior member of the Trump administration told him at the time of Fauci's 2020 talk. Gottlieb said he had recently reconfirmed with that person that Fauci had given the talk.
Gottlieb recalled Sunday on CBS Face the Nation, speaking of U.S. scientists, "I think early on, when they looked at the strain, they had suspicions. It takes time to do that analysis, and that dispelled some of those suspicions."
Gottlieb said that it is also important to look at the virus beyond a scientific perspective. It also needs to be examined from a national security lens.
He said, "A scientific mindset looks at the virus and the virus' behavior and draws a conclusion."
He added, "A national security assessment looks at that and then looks at the behaviour of the CCP government, the behaviour of the lab, other evidence around the lab - including the infections we now know took place - and that changes the overall assessment."
Refs: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9658851/Genome-sequencing-certainly-proves-COVID-deliberately-lab-experts-claim.html, https://www.ibtimes.sg/fresh-scientific-evidence-shows-coronavirus-was-made-lab-fresh-blow-china-57991?utm_source=izooto&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=57991
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