Brunei Darussalam has recorded four new inbound covid cases on Tuesday (20 July 2021) raising the national tally of confirmed cases to 309.
Cases 306 to 308 arrived in the country from Singapore by sea on 9 July. Contact tracing found 15 close contacts.
Case 306 is a 43-year-old Indonesian man who has had fever, cough and flu since 11 July and Case 307 is a 47-year-old Filipino man who has had headache since 15 July.
Case 308 is a 35-year-old Filipino man with fever, cough, flu and diarrhoea since 18 July.
Case 309 is a 42-year-old Filipino woman who arrived in the country from Manila on 7 July. She showed no signs of infection and contact tracing found no close contacts.
All new cases were detected while under quarantine and their travel arrangements follow standard operating procedure.
41 active covid cases are receiving treatment at the National Isolation Centre. They are all in stable condition.
The country recorded no local transmissions of the virus for 440 days.
Some 788 individuals are undergoing mandatory self-isolation at government monitoring centres after arriving from abroad while 22,137 have completed their stint since March 2020.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) obtained 269 samples for testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the past 24 hours and carried out 148,578 tests since January 2020.
In the national covid vaccination programme, 3,681 individuals were inoculated on 19 July 2021.
As of 19 July, 113,703 individuals or 25.1% of Brunei population have received at least one dose of the covi vaccine, while 20,802 (4.6%) had their second jab.
Information can be obtained from MoH official website at www.moh.gov.bn, Health Advice Line at 148 or through the BruHealth app or healthinfo.gov.bn web app.
Source : Borneo Bulletin
News (2)
Fall in inbound covid cases since 19 July 2021, no cases on 21 July 2021 for Brunei
The Ministry of Health of Brunei Darussalam reveals that there are 14 inbound covid cases from Singapore on 19 July 2021. These cases are Indonesians on transit to Brunei via Singapore. The number of covid cases from abroad fell to 4 on 20 July and no local or inbound covid cases are reported on 21 July 2021.
Three of the 14 cases on 19 July have signs of infection, including flu and fever before or after their arrival while the other 11 cases display no signs of infection.
Investigation and contract tracing have confirmed no close contacts for these cases. All of the patients were detected when they were undergoing their quarantine in Bandar Seri Begawan.
The new cases are being treated and monitored at the National Isolation Centre with 31 other active patients, who are all in a stable condition.
Brunei has banned Indonesians from entering the country.
News (3)
Covid tally of Asia on 20 July 2021
| Country/Region | New Cases | Total Cases | Recovered | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 34,257 | 2,911,733 | 2,293,875 | 74,920 |
| India | 29,424 | 31,173,019 | 30,346,131 | 414,513 |
| Iran | 25,441 | 3,548,704 | 3,152,653 | 87,374 |
| Bangladesh | 13,321 | 1,117,310 | 941,343 | 18,125 |
| Thailand | 11,784 | 415,170 | 289,651 | 3,422 |
| Malaysia | 10,972 | 927,533 | 791,388 | 7,148 |
| Iraq | 9,883 | 1,501,595 | 1,364,545 | 17,892 |
| Turkey | 7,667 | 5,537,386 | 5,390,739 | 50,604 |
| Philippines | 5,642 | 1,513,387 | 1,439,013 | 26,786 |
| Kazakhstan | 5,317 | 494,222 | 431,956 | 4,997 |
| Myanmar | 5,189 | 234,710 | 164,670 | 5,281 |
| Vietnam | 4,195 | 58,025 | 11,047 | 334 |
| Japan | 3,251 | 841,685 | 799,062 | 15,048 |
| Pakistan | 2,452 | 991,727 | 920,066 | 22,811 |
| Nepal | 1,642 | 668,751 | 633,332 | 9,582 |
| UAE | 1,508 | 662,486 | 640,248 | 1,900 |
| Sri Lanka | 1,487 | 286,419 | 261,848 | 3,827 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1,293 | 510,869 | 492,149 | 8,089 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 1,287 | 150,316 | 126,450 | 2,186 |
| S. Korea | 1,252 | 179,203 | 159,630 | 2,058 |
| Israel | 1,220 | 852,943 | 838,953 | 6,450 |
| Mongolia | 1,171 | 148,424 | 134,101 | 740 |
| Kuwait | 1,107 | 386,869 | 368,420 | 2,238 |
| Cyprus | 1,056 | 92,252 | 74,714 | 390 |
| Afghanistan | 915 | 142,414 | 89,706 | 6,266 |
| Georgia | 848 | 388,329 | 366,250 | 5,566 |
| Jordan | 803 | 762,028 | 743,866 | 9,910 |
| Cambodia | 790 | 67,971 | 60,017 | 1,128 |
| Uzbekistan | 585 | 119,973 | 114,865 | 801 |
| Lebanon | 215 | 551,157 | 535,485 | 7,886 |
| Singapore | 172 | 63,245 | 62,532 | 36 |
| Azerbaijan | 148 | 338,586 | 331,350 | 4,994 |
| Maldives | 140 | 76,019 | 73,321 | 216 |
| Qatar | 124 | 224,402 | 222,257 | 599 |
| Lao People’s Democratic Republic | 114 | 3,540 | 2,174 | 5 |
| Tajikistan | 99 | 14,177 | 13,758 | 112 |
| Armenia | 92 | 227,522 | 218,427 | 4,569 |
| Palestine | 71 | 315,761 | 310,601 | 3,589 |
| Bahrain | 67 | 267,949 | 265,759 | 1,380 |
| China | 31 | 92,277 | 87,076 | 4,636 |
| Taiwan | 21 | 15,429 | 13,570 | 769 |
| Timor-Leste | 14 | 10,142 | 9,350 | 26 |
| Brunei | 4 | 309 | 260 | 3 |
| Bhutan | 6 | 2,427 | 2,125 | 2 |
| Syrian Arab Republic | 6 | 25,840 | 21,920 | 1,905 |
| Yemen | 6 | 6,987 | 4,162 | 1,370 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 11,959 | 11,686 | 212 |
| Macau | 0 | 55 | 53 | 0 |
| Oman | 0 | 289,042 | 263,752 | 3,498 |
, 
News (11) to (18), (20) / Host : Li Muyang / Publisher : News Insight / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/07/22/a103171433.html
News
(11)
Has
the flood receded once in five thousand years? Official media blow up netizens
Checking out the flood news in Zhengzhou, Henan Province
on 21 July, a news from the official media Zhongxin.com jumped into the line of
sight, "A direct hit on the streets of Zhengzhou, Henan after the flood
subsided." The article said, "After one night of rescue, the water
accumulation in the water supply section has dropped significantly, but there
are still serious water accumulations on the streets."
Judging from the pictures distributed by the official
media, it really looks like the flood has subsided. I feel very surprised
because in the early morning of 21 July local time, the Henan Water Resources
Department issued a message that the heavy rainfall this time was "once in
5,000 years." The heavy rainfall that has occurred once in 5,000 years has
subsided so quickly?
We do not know how the Henan Water Conservancy Department
came to the conclusion of the "once in 5,000 years". Anyway, netizens
are furious. Many netizens angrily denounced the CCP for being
"shameless" and "throwing the pot to God." A netizen
pointed out, "This kind of description, after a little bit of thought,
will know that it cannot be argued. Besides wanting to attribute all the
responsibility to force majeure, what else does it do?"
The floods in Zhengzhou had not completely receded but
only slightly eased. In fact, they are still serious. It's just that
Chinanews.com is selectively reporting, specifically selecting content that is
not painful or itchy to report. Moreover, the local meteorological department
forecasts that there will still be heavy rains in the area today. We remind the
local people to take precautions early or move to a safe area as soon as
possible.
Not only is Chinanews.com telling lies and whitewashing
peace, almost all of the CCP's official media are lying collectively. Today's
"People's Daily" front page does not see any words about the
devastating floods in Zhengzhou. You have to turn to the seventh page to see
the headline: "Henan is experiencing heavy rainfall, and many places and
departments have taken countermeasures."
The article emphasized that "all parties went all
out" to rescue, but did not mention the disaster situation or the number
of casualties, and only said that "about 100,000 people were transferred
to avoid danger."
Hai Xia, the "moral model" of CCTV, was born in
Zhengzhou, Henan. Her hometown was hit by floods, and she told the world that
Zhengzhou, Henan "had a very good response this time."
Singing hymns for the CCP, Haixia was quickly criticized
by netizens. Afterwards, she changed her face, pretended to be sad, cheering
for Henan, cheering for Zhengzhou and so on.
News
(12)
Is
Xi Jinping scared? Is Zhengzhou "waterlogged"?
On 21 July morning, Xi Jinping made "important instructions" for flood prevention and relief work, emphasizing that the protection of the people's lives and property should be the first priority, and more importantly, to prevent the return of poverty due to disasters and major epidemics after major disasters.
Xi Jinping said that Henan and other places continue to
rain heavily, Zhengzhou and other cities have "severe waterlogging",
and some rivers have over-warranty water levels. Caused heavy casualties and
property losses, the flood control situation is very severe.
Judging from the "important instructions"
issued by Xi Jinping, it seems that he was "scared" by the huge
disaster brought about by the huge rainfall but it is strange that he did not
admit that the flood occurred in Zhengzhou, only that it was "severe
waterlogging."
According to Wikipedia, waterlogging refers to the
accumulation of water in the city due to the inability of rainwater to drain
through the drainage system in time.
However, a large number of pictures and videos show that
the accumulated water on the road has submerged above people's chest. Is this a
"severe waterlogging" or a flood? Is it because the leaders of
Beijing have a problem with their perceptions, or are they deliberately
downplaying the severity of the disaster?
News
(13)
317
West Lakes dumped into Zhengzhou? Post-disaster notification and flood release
Agence France-Presse quoted news from the Chinese
Communist Party that the Yihetan Dam in Luoyang City, Henan Province broke
about 20 m in the early morning of today (21st). At 5-6 in the morning,
the authorities carried out two blastings.
In fact, there are still about 30 large and medium-sized
reservoirs in Henan whose water level exceeds the warning line, and the
situation is extremely critical. At 3 am of 21 July, the Henan Flood Control
Department has upgraded the emergency response level from Level II to Level I.
The Meteorological Department reported that Zhengzhou
dropped 201.9 millimetres of rainfall in one hour from 4 to 5 pm yesterday
(20th), breaking the record of 198.5 millimetres in Henan Linzhuang in 1975.
The Zhengzhou Meteorological Bureau stated that the rain
had begun at night of 17 July. From 8 pm on the 17th to 8 pm on 21 July, the
rainfall for three days reached 617.1 mm, which is equivalent to the rainfall
of the previous year.
Based on the total area of 7,446 square kilometres in
Zhengzhou, the Meteorological Department said that a total of 4.594.9 million
cubic meters of water was dropped in three days. The authorities also made a
comparison. The storage capacity of Hangzhou West Lake is approximately 14.48
million cubic meters. The three days of precipitation in Zhengzhou is
equivalent to dumping 317 West Lakes into Zhengzhou.
This time Zhengzhou suffered heavy rainfall. This is an
undeniable fact. But at noon of 20 July, a Zhengzhou citizen found out that the
entire road was suddenly flooded in just about half an hour during a real shot
in the city centre. Radio Free Asia pointed out that it proves that the floods
were not caused by heavy rains, but because of sudden floods.
At around 1 am of 21 July, the authorities informed that
the Changzhuang Reservoir, located in the upper reaches of Zhengzhou, was in
serious danger and the flood was released at 10 am on the 20th.
Zhengzhou Disaster Prevention Service Desk “Zhengzhou
Release” said at one o'clock in the morning on Wednesday that Zhengzhou’s flood
control situation at Changzhuang Reservoir was extremely severe due to the
largest continuous heavy precipitation in history in Zhengzhou and the large
amount of upstream water.
The report stated that flood discharge began at 10.30 am
on 20 July. As of 9.34 pm, the real-time water level of the Changzhuang
Reservoir was 130.54 m, and the water level exceeded the flood limit of
3.05 m. The highest water level of the day had fallen by 70 cm.
Checking the map shows that the Changzhuang Reservoir is at most 11.6 km away from Zhengzhou and only 2 km away from the West Ring Road of Zhengzhou. The reservoir dam has an elevation of 99 m and a height of 36.74 m from the ground at the Erqi Tower in the city centre, and an elevation of 83 meters and a height difference of 52.74 meters from the ground level of New Zhengdong District.
Ms. Wang, a resident of Zhengzhou, told Radio Free Asia
that if the rain is heavy and the water level rises slowly, it cannot be so
severe in an hour. Because many people were not prepared, even the subway was
not spared.
The flood was released in the morning, and the report was
announced in the early hours of the next morning. Is the disaster in Zhengzhou
a natural disaster or a man-made disaster? People with normal minds should have
a basic judgment.
News
(14)
Authorities
strictly control information, lawyers evacuated 2 times
In addition, as for the real situation of the disaster, it
is impossible to gather the truth from the CCP media. Radio Free Asia found that Zhengzhou has
completely suppressed information about the flood disaster. The media is not
allowed to report on the flooding of the subway, let alone the details of the
flood discharge of the Changzhuang Reservoir.
On 21 July a netizen said, "No comparison, no
harm." Except for this sentence, there is only a screenshot of a mobile
phone.
According to the screenshot, a friend named "Lawyer
Zhang Xiaoli" wrote on Weibo, "At that time, the following circle of
friends was posted. Unexpectedly, someone called me to delete it early this
morning, saying that it was my circle of friends that have spread widely the
post and has caused adverse effects."
"Lawyer Zhang Xiaoli" wrote in Moments like
this: Evacuate. Thanks to my relatives and friends for caring, I have already
left the subway station, the subway door opened, and the staff told everyone to
evacuate. The last time I evacuated from the subway was in Taiwan because of
the earthquake, this time I evacuated from the subway in Zhengzhou because of
flooding. The difference is that when evacuating from Taiwan, the subway
security checkpoint is fully opened, and the evacuation speed is very fast
without the need to swipe the card. However, Zhengzhou has to swipe the cards
one by one, which is not conducive to the evacuation of the crowd as soon as
possible.
Therefore, one cannot help but raise doubts. Are there
really only 25 people who died in Zhengzhou? The subway was flooded, really
only 12 people died? I hope that the death toll is as small as possible, but
what I have learned may be more serious.
News
(15)
Frightened
in the carriage for 4 hours, someone confessed what happened
On 20 July in the program, I already mentioned the
flooding of Zhengzhou subway, hundreds of passengers were trapped in subway
cars. Later we got news that most of the passengers in the carriage had been
rescued, but there were also people who were unfortunately killed.
According to someone who had witnessed it, at 9 pm of 20
July, the water outside the train window was already as high as one person, the
water in the carriage also overflowed the chest, and the slightly shorter
passengers had already flooded their necks. It took about 4 hours before and
after rescuers to chisel open the glass windows.
In the early morning of 21 July, the authorities reported that more than 500 people were evacuated in the subway, 12 of whom died after rescue and 5 were injured and sent to the hospital.
A netizen who escaped from the dead wrote on Weibo that
after being trapped in the car, water slowly seeped in from the crack of the
door. In the end, even if the passenger stood on the seat of the car, the water
overflowed to the chest and even to the neck.
However, the netizen pointed out that the sight of all
the passengers approaching the ceiling and raising their heads and breathing
quickly really scared him. The most terrifying thing is not the water, but the
less and less air in the carriage. "Many people have difficulty
breathing."
At this time, someone had already called his family to
explain what was going on. The witness also realized this problem, so he called
his mother, who was on the edge of "collapse", and said, "Mom, I
might be dying, I'm a little scared." But he said, "Slowly there is
no need to collapse, because I also fainted due to lack of oxygen."
Fortunately, his phone rang suddenly, and his mother called
again, which awakened him. Fortunately, the rescuers arrived at this time and
broke the glass of the carriage, so that he was finally rescued when he was
dying.
Another netizen who was rescued told the China Youth
Daily, “Some people around me have symptoms of hypoxia and hypoglycemia, and
some are shaking, panting, and retching.”
Judging from the recollection of this person who
personally experienced the robber, hundreds of people in the entire carriage
were suffering from severe hypoxia at that time.
A Zhengzhou netizen sent me a live video. The scene may
be a subway station in Zhengzhou. The screen shows that emergency personnel are
doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation for several people. There are still some
people lying on the ground, it seems that they may have lost consciousness.
In the last part of the film, it may be that the
videographer is talking to someone, saying "No, nothing, nothing,
nothing", and the speech has been a little stuttered. The hand
photographed in the picture is clenched into a fist, and it seems to be shaking
uncontrollably.
News
(16)
3
subway lines flooded, real casualties become a mystery
When Radio Free Asia reposted the online video, the tweet
pointed out that "Zhengzhou Metro was completely", "Zhengzhou
Metro was completely lost, the entire line 5 was flooded, at least 20 people
were killed, many people were missing, and at least hundreds were trapped. On
the platforms Many corpses were placed".
Some netizens also calculated based on the video that the
death toll was “by no means the 12 people notified for the first time”.
Local citizen Mr. Zhang said, "The official report
was 12 people. I don't know if it is accurate or not." Mr. Zhang
emphasized that the key is to not see other statistics.
Ms. Liu, a former judicial system official in Zhengzhou,
revealed that the public is not allowed to discuss the casualty figures except
for official announcements. She said, "I don't know what's going on in the
subway, and no one knows whether anyone was resuced or not. We won't let you
talk about it here."
Senior media person Hong Tao also told Radio Free Asia
that the official media said "people are already safely estranged" as
early as 8 o'clock. In fact, "until 9 o'clock, there are still people
calling for help. These news are always good news reporting worry. The subway
company admitted that it was 12 people, and it was not accurate. This is hard
to say."
A 34-year-old Mr. He told Southern Weekend that he had
been crying for an hour when he walked to Shakou Road Station to save his wife.
After arriving there, he found that the rescuers were seriously insufficient
and could not rescue everyone. So he also joined the rescue team. He carried a
man on his back but the man later died.
Mr. He said, “Most people either vomit, have headaches,
suffocate, or fainted due to lack of oxygen. The situation is very terrible.”
At around 11.40 am on 21 July, a Zhengzhou netizen broke
the news to me that it is not only Line 5 that is flooded in Zhengzhou subway,
it is just that the news on Line 5 spread widely, so people only noticed this
line. In fact, 3 lines in Zhengzhou were flooded.
A netizen said, "Hello Muyang, the devil released a
message saying that 12 people were killed and 5 people were injured. This is
really a perverted government. My friend just got off the subway and the water
was submerged, and three lines were submerged. At the peak period! 1,200 deaths
are possible ."
In the screenshot of this netizen’s chat with his
friends, his friends said that “a lot of people were drowned on 20 July, all
drowned in the subway”, “three lines were flooded”, “Yesterday afternoon, They
all go home from get off work", "you have to drown if you don't
suffocate."
I emphasize again that I hope that the number of deaths
is as small as possible, and the losses are as small as possible. But I firmly
do not believe the CCP's nonsense.
News
(17)
China
has another epidemic, will humans return to the origin?
Let's pay attention to the epidemic situation again.
Nanjing announced on 21 July that as of 1 pm local time, a total of 17 confirmed
covid cases had been found. These 17 patients were all cleaning staff at
Nanjing Lukou Airport and were discovered during routine inspections.
From the analysis of the case situation, there may be a
cluster infection at Nanjing Airport, so Lukou Airport has cancelled all
flights.
Mr. Zhao, a citizen near Lukou Airport, told The Epoch
Times on 21 July, “The roads around the airport are all closed. It was an
unexpected situation today and was only scheduled today. All airport flights
have been cancelled, and there are none today."
Jiangning District of Nanjing, where Lukou Airport is
located, started a nucleic acid test for all employees on 21 July, and the
city's personnel may be subjected to nucleic acid tests later. The authorities
require that all residents of the city are not allowed to go out unless
necessary, and they do need to leave the city, and they need to hold a nucleic
acid negative certificate within 48 hours.
Xiecun Community, Baiyun Road Community, Shinian Village,
Lukou Street, Jiangning District, and Maojiaxu Natural Village, Jiutang
Administrative Village, Shiqiu Street, Lishui District, were adjusted from
low-risk areas to medium-risk areas. Lukou Street is a closed area.
The CCP has long boasted that it has contained the
epidemic, but now the local epidemic has suddenly risen. I said in the
membership program that the epidemic in mainland China may be more serious than
people think. Just because the CCP's blockade is too strict, it is difficult
for the outside world to know the real situation.
In other words, it is not clear to the outside world what
wave of the epidemic is in mainland China. But people should see a problem. The
vaccine has not stopped the epidemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a
meeting on 21 July that "the world is heading for failure." More than
4 million people have died, and the number is still rising. The death toll this
year is twice that of 2020.
Tedros believes that as long as one of the variant
viruses renders the vaccine ineffective, the greater the possibility that all
human beings will "return to square one." "Until everyone is
safe, no one is safe."
What he said "return to the original point"
actually refers to the stage when the CCP virus has just broken out globally.
At that time, people did not know what happened, what the deadly virus was, or
how to deal with it.
In fact, for now, human beings do not really understand
the CCP virus. Even if the virus came from the Wuhan laboratory, there is still
no consensus.
News (18)
The P4 director knew there was a problem and once emailed
to the U.S.
Yuan Zhiming’s paper published in the English journal
"Biosafety and Biosecurity Journal" wrote: "Laboratory biosafety
is at risk." "The sources of investment, affiliation and management
systems are different. Implementation is facing difficulties in achieving
standards and cooperation workflows."
Yuan Zhiming, who has a background in scientific
research, asserted in the article that the situation of Wuhan P4 laboratory is
worrying. The biosafety of the laboratory should be managed by professionals or
engineers, not by part-time researchers.
"This makes it difficult to identify and mitigate potential safety hazards
in the operation of facilities and equipment."
In fact, as early as 2016, Yuan Zhiming also asked the
National Institutes of Health for help. The non-profit organization
"Judicial Observation" found that in the emails between the National
Institutes of Health and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Yuan Zhiming had
asked for help in finding disinfectants to disinfect the closed safety clothing
and indoor surfaces of the P4 laboratory.
According to the "Freedom of Information Act",
"Judicial Watch" checked these emails and found that the Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the National Institutes of Health of the
United States, through the "Ecological Health Alliance" organization,
provided China with 9 grants for research on bat coronaviruses.
The U.S. attaches great importance to Yuan Zhiming's request. Kuhn, a virologist at the National Institutes of Health, who contacted Yuan Zhiming, marked Yuan Zhiming's mail as "highly important" when reporting to his superiors.
New York virologist Rutham told VOA, "Yuan Zhiming
is a field expert at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Obviously, he is very
concerned about the biosafety of the laboratory under supervision."
"Laboratory leaks are not uncommon worldwide. In light of these
statements, it would not be surprising if a virology laboratory in Wuhan
leaked."
News
(20)
After
the congressional conflict, will Fauci be sentenced?
The Head of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, under the National Institutes of Health, is Dr. Fauci, the chief
infectious disease expert in the United States. "Judicial
Observation" pointed out that the Institute provided 9 grants to China
through the "Ecological Health Alliance" for research on bat
coronaviruses. This is likely to become Dr. Fauci's weakness, and he has been
criticized by people.
At night of 20 July, Republican Senator Rand Paul told
the U.S. conservative media "The Gateway Pundit" that he was writing
to the Justice Department requesting a criminal investigation of Fauci. The
reason is that Paul believed that Fauci funded the Wuhan P4 laboratory to
conduct "gain-of-function" research and lied to Congress.
Yesterday morning, Paul and Fauci had a heated argument
at the Congressional hearing. Paul reminded Fauci at the time that lying to
Congress is a crime and will face criminal punishment. He asked Fauci if he had
retracted the May 11 statement that he had never funded a functional
enhancement study conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Viology.
Then Fauci was furious, saying that he had never lied in
Congress and would not take back that sentence. He said "Senator Paul,
frankly, you don't know what you are talking about".
Paul then read an evaluation report aloud to confirm that the National Institutes of Health funded the mysterious laboratory in China. Paul criticized Fauci about him, “trying to evade responsibility for the 4 million lives that died from the epidemic around the world.” He bluntly stated that “everyone who funded the laboratory, including yourself (Fauci), is responsible.”
After facing the conflict, Paul decided to ask the Ministry of Justice to investigate Fauci. Nobody knows what will happen. If the Department of Justice investigation proves that Fauci has indeed lied to Congress, then according to US law, this is a felony and he will face up to 5 years in prison.
See Also : https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/07/henan-disasters-blasts-heard-4-miles.html, https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/07/sars-like-coronavirus-found-in-uk.html
Scientific experts from Communist China decline CCP's responsibility for SARS-CoV-2
Zeng
Yixin: So far, no one at WIV has been infected with the novel coronavirus
Publisher : China News Network via ScienceNet / http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2021/7/461824.shtm
"So far, none of the staff and graduate students of
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)has been infected with the novel coronavirus
(SARS-CoV-2, CCP virus, covi)." Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the
National Health Commission, pointed out on 22 July 2021.
The Information Office of the State Council held a press
conference today to introduce the traceability of the CCP virus. Zeng Yixin
made the above statement when answering related questions from reporters.
"To be honest, when I first saw the WHO's second
phase traceability plan, I was very surprised. Because in this plan, the
hypothesis of ‘China's violation of laboratory procedures causing virus
leakage' was one of the research priorities. From this point, I can feel the
disrespect for common sense and the arrogant attitude towards science revealed
in this plan.” In response to the issue of the second phase of the virus
traceability plan released by the WHO on 15 July, Zeng Yixin said, first of
all, some rumours about the WIV, "For example, three employees contracted
the disease, for example, the WIV carried out the covi function gain
experiment, which is the gain of function experiment. These have been clarified
long ago. It's purely a rumour."
"Secondly, the most recent sequence of the
coronavirus and covi in the bat specimens collected by the Wuhan Institute of
Virology is RaTG-13, which has only 96.2% homology." Zeng Yixin pointed
out that some people once considered whether the novel coronavirus is a
man-made virus. Is there such a
possibility? "There used to be an Indian scholar, because he discovered
that there was a part of the sequence in the covi, which had a certain
similarity with HIV, so he speculated that the CCP virus may be man-made. He
wrote this as a paper, but this paper is in anticipation. At the printing
stage, it was criticized by international colleagues. Later, the author took
the initiative to retract the manuscript. Because there are similar sequences
in many other viruses, we cannot use this to infer that the novel coronavirus
is artificial. There will be more later. Experts in, conducted an in-depth
analysis and believed that the novel coronavirus has no traces of artificial
modification. We comrades doing genetic engineering know that the artificial
modification of the virus will definitely leave traces, and the new coronavirus
does not have such traces, so the possibility of artificial viruses is
fundamentally denied ."
Zeng Yixin emphasized that so far, none of the staff and
graduate students of Wuhan Institute of Virology has been infected with the CCP
virus. WIV has not conducted research on the benefits of coronavirus, and there
is no so-called man-made virus. "So where did the virus leak due to
violation of laboratory procedures? So this formulation violates common sense
and violates the laws of science. It is particularly important that the WHO
expert team personally went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct
on-site investigations and concluded that the virus extremely unlikely leaked
by the laboratory. The experts are all very authoritative and experienced in
various fields, and they are all experts carefully selected by the WHO.
Therefore, we should respect their conclusions. So this time the world so-called
second-stage traceability plan announced by the WHO, in some respects, it can
be said that it neither respects common sense, but also violates science. It is
impossible for us to accept such a traceability plan."
Zeng Yixin pointed out that the traceability of the CCP
virus must be a scientific issue, and the Chinese government has always
supported scientific traceability of the virus. However, we are opposed to
politicizing the traceability work. We believe that the second phase of virus
traceability should be extended on the basis of the first phase of virus
traceability, and resolution WHA73.1 should be used as a guide, after full
discussion and consultation by member states. We have already carried out the
first phase of virus traceability, especially if we have reached a clear
conclusion, we should not repeat it. On the basis of full and extensive
consultations among member states, we should promote early case search,
molecular epidemiology, and animal (intermediate) host traceability in multiple
countries and regions around the world.
"Our practice of traceability research in the first
phase of the cooperation between WHO and China has fully proved that the
scientific and reasonable working method is carried out after the WHO and the
host country have fully agreed on traceability research. This not only reflects
the respect for sovereign countries , which is more conducive to promoting the
orderly, smooth, high-quality and high-efficiency traceability work." Zeng
Yixin said.
Zeng Yixin said that we should summarize and absorb the
successful practice experience of the first stage, and carry out work on this
basis. Therefore, on July 4th, our Chinese expert group put forward the Chinese
proposal for the second phase of traceability to the WHO and communicated with
WHO experts. "This draft proposal reflects our considerations and core
views. We hope that the WHO can seriously consider the considerations and
suggestions put forward by Chinese experts, truly treat the traceability of the
new coronavirus as a scientific issue, get rid of political interference, and
actively and steadily promote it. To continue to carry out traceability in many
countries and regions around the world, it is necessary to strengthen the
cooperation and exchanges of traceability research between countries, to find
the most likely source of the virus as soon as possible, and to do our best to
prevent similar epidemics from recurring."
"What is the purpose of our traceability? It is to
find out the source of the virus, and then we can take effective measures to
prevent similar epidemics from recurring. Therefore, we must promote this work
in accordance with scientific principles and scientific rules. This is the
Chinese government's Attitude." Zeng Yixin said.
News (22) to (25) / Reporter : Li Chenyang / Publisher : China Science News / http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2021/7/461824.shtm
Taiwan scientist's views on covi origin traceability
News (23)
Regarding the covi origin, more than 20 Chinese
scientists have solemnly spoken out!
Where does SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus, covi) come from? Is it natural or man-made?
This is a serious scientific issue concerning the overall situation of the global fight against the pandemic. However, we regret to see that some politicians and the media are ignoring the spirit of science, deliberately hyping the source of the virus, and targeting professional scientific research institutions.
On 16 July 2021, 21 Chinese scientists and a British scholar working in China jointly published a titled "On the origin of SARS-CoV-2—The Origin of SARS-CoV-2—The Science China Life Sciences (English version of "Science China: Life Sciences"). The "blind watchmaker argument" opinion article uses the classic evolutionary theory-"blind watchmaker" to effectively demonstrate why covi can only be derived from nature, and cannot be manufactured by man.
China Science News interviewed Wu Zhongyi,
the first author and corresponding author of the paper, a professor at the
School of Life Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University, and an academician of
Taiwan's "Chinese Academy of Sciences".
In the interview, he said that Chinese scientists have
put forward a series of models and hypotheses regarding the source of the
epidemic. He also expects international colleagues to show a scientific
attitude, discuss objectively, brainstorm ideas, and find a way to the truth.
"Since the 21st century, we have encountered three
epidemics caused by the coronavirus. So we better figure out where they came
from. This is about the destiny of all mankind." Wu Zhongyi said.
News (24)
Wu Zhongyi: Voices of science and scientists are too weak
China Science News: "In the current environment, what are your thoughts on co-publishing this paper with many scientists?"
Wu Zhongyi: "The main reason why the global epidemic is
out of control is that the voices of science and scientists are too weak. If
the world can actively respond with a scientific attitude, the covid epidemic
might have ended in May last year.
In the context of the global defeat in the fight against
the epidemic, why can China win the extremely severe virus encounter? Because
we are doing things strictly in accordance with scientific rules.
The main purpose of our publication of this paper is to call on the global society to return to rationality and science, and the scientific exploration of the origin of the virus is the first step."
News (25)
Wu Zhongyi: Covi cannot evolve from animal markets or be produced in laboratories
China Science News: "This paper clearly stated
that SARS-CoV-2 can only originate from nature, and it cannot evolve
from the animal markets in big cities, let alone be produced in laboratories.
Why do you dare to say such things?"
Wu Zhongyi: "Our article explores this issue from two
aspects. First, why can such a virus evolve in nature? Second, why can't human
beings create such a virus?
To explain these two points clearly, we have to mention
the classic discussion between "watchmaker" and "blind
watchmaker" in the history of science.
We have seen that all kinds of creatures in nature are
perfectly adapted to their respective living environments. In 1794, an English
priest, William Paley, proposed that the complex and perfect adaptability of
natural creatures is like a delicate clock. You can't imagine it comes from
nature. Behind this, there must be a watchmaker (creator) who designed and
manufactured it.
When Paley made this point, Darwin was not yet born.
Nearly 200 years later, the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins
refuted this view with the book "The Blind Watchmaker". Dawkins
emphasized that the evolution of species has no special purpose. If nature is a
watchmaker, it can only be said to be a blind watchmaker. A species that is
perfectly adapted to the environment is not created all at once, but over a
long period of time, a large number of random mutations have accumulated step
by step, but they can improve the adaptability of changes.
When some people promote the "artificial
theory", "conspiracy theory" and "laboratory leak
theory", one of the main points is that a virus that is so perfectly
adapted to the human body like the covi can come from a
"blind" and aimless large nature? This is a terrible retrogression in
scientific thinking-suddenly back to the thinking of a priest more than 200
years ago.
What we want to say is that just because covi is the most
"perfect" virus that mankind has ever witnessed, it must be a product
of natural evolution. Because even the top human scientist, when he wants to
"make" a virus that is perfectly adapted to the population, he
actually does not know what to make. It's like even the most technical and
experienced electronic product company, it is impossible to design a world's
most popular mobile phone at one time-the most "perfect" product must
be born out of market inspection and repeated polishing .
Some ongoing research work also proves this from the
side: mice cannot be infected with covi but scientists have used artificial
selection methods to find a covi strain that can infect mice. Even so, these
artificially screened strains cannot cause such a large-scale epidemic in the
mouse population.
Therefore, we infer that before the outbreak of the covid
epidemic, related viruses have experienced repeated mutual infections in wild
animals and humans, and gradually accumulated mutations adapted to the human
body in the process. In the process of invading the human world, the virus has
repeatedly failed and fought until it has evolved into a state that is
extremely adaptable to crowd transmission today.
The evolutionary history of human coronaviruses (OC43,
229E and NL63) related to the common cold also supports this view. These
coronaviruses have been infecting and spreading between humans and wild animals
for hundreds of years before they spread globally."
News (26)
Wu Zhongyi: A model for virus traceability is necessary
China Science News: "What guiding significance
do the above inferences have for the development of virus traceability?"
Wu Zhongyi: "There must be a model for virus traceability.
Because when researchers conduct empirical investigations, they need to know
what they are searching for.
For example, if the police want to catch a suspect who
robbed a bank, they must have at least one portrait of the suspect and know
what he might look like. If you don't know it, you won't recognize this person
even if he is sitting next to you.
Nowadays, many traceability work seems to have fallen
into a misunderstanding: it is trying to find a virus strain in a certain wild
animal that is very similar to covi that infects humans. This
logic is messed up. Because with the current covi spread, if
you find such an animal, there is a high probability that it was passed on to
them by humans, not from them to humans.
We need more scientifically guiding theories and models."
Chinese scientists are actively proposing various models
and hypotheses. This year, our team published a paper in "Science
Bulletin": "Theoretical Discussion on the Origin and Early Evolution
of the Pandemic".
This paper proposes a progressive evolution model of covi.
In this model, the PL0 (place of origin) of the virus should be sparsely human
and the habitat of the animal host, where the virus can start an "arms
race" with its animal host. Subsequently, the virus accidentally spread to
people without herd immunity. The first outbreak site (ie, PL1) is exactly
different from PL0. The reason is that the population in PL1 is not immune to
the virus, indicating that the population has not been exposed to the virus
beforehand. The "Spanish flu" of 1918 and the AIDS epidemic all
illustrate the possibility of this situation.
At the same time, a large number of seemingly unrelated
reports also hinted that there may be PL0 different from PL1.
For example, IgG antibodies corresponding to covi were detected in samples collected in the United States in December
2019. Earlier in 2019, there were scattered suspected cases of covid in
different regions. Although these records are difficult to verify one by one,
these reports are consistent with our guess: the virus should have experienced
many failures before successfully invading from PL0 to PL1. Some previous
accidental contact between covi and humans has been ignored
because it did not cause large-scale serious consequences."
China Science News: "So what we are looking
for now is PL0 (the place of origin)? How to find?"
Wu Zhongyi: "If you want to draw a portrait of PL0, it
should meet the following characteristics: there are a large number of wild
animals, especially wild bat populations; sparsely populated and relatively
closed, but a small number of people have close contact with bats; the local
population is relatively close to the new crown before mutation The virus has a
certain degree of herd immunity, so in the early stage of the new crown
epidemic, these places may not be affected significantly, but with the emergence
of mutant strains and Delta variant in the UK, the epidemic in these
places may escalate."
China Science News: "Can we come up with
scientific evidence to prove that a place is PL0 (the place of origin)?"
Wu Zhongyi: "Considering that the population in these
areas is likely to have established herd immunity against the new coronavirus
for a long time, the memory of this herd immunity is more likely to be stored
in T cells rather than reflected in antibodies. This brings great challenges to
our existing detection technology but I believe that we can solve this problem
technically sooner or later.
China Science News: "We have seen that the
list of authors of this paper is very long. Why are so many famous scientists
using their professional background to endorse this point of view?"
Wu Zhongyi: "What we are proposing is a very basic
scientific point of view. Almost all scholars in the field of evolution will
agree with this point of view: It is nature, the "blind watchmaker"
who creates "perfect" creatures, not some clever 'creator' ".
Now some people take the opportunity to attack some
research institutions. This is to regard the laboratory as a 'god',
which is very ridiculous in nature."
China Science News: "Regarding the issue of
virus traceability and this paper, what else do you want to emphasize?"
Wu Zhongyi: "Virus traceability is a serious scientific
issue. But the current situation is that when we talk about science, some
people don't talk about science with us. It's like "a talent meets a
soldier", it's impossible to talk about it at all.
The covid epidemic is related to the lives and health of
countless people and it is related to the global community with a shared
future. We hope that on this issue, the global society can return to scientific
rationality as soon as possible, face the problem squarely, and find the truth."
Now, Chinese scientists have come up with a traceability
model. If anyone is unconvinced, please come up with your own scientific
hypotheses, discuss them together, and find a way to the truth!
Paper link:
https://www.sciengine.com/publisher/scp/journal/SCLS/doi/10.1007/s11427-021-1972-1?slug=fulltext
News (27)
Latest research from Italy: Has covi spread in Europe in
October 2019?
Publisher : China Science News / http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2021/7/461803.shtm
According to the British newspaper Financial Times, the
latest research by Italian research institutions shows that covi may have
appeared in Italy in October 2019 but there is no conclusion yet.
According to reports, scientists from the Milan Cancer
Research Center-the National Cancer Institute (Istituto Nazionale Tumori) wrote
in a new paper published on 19 July local time that the two laboratories
collected a small amount of blood samples before the outbreak of the covid
epidemic. Re-testing was carried out. The results show that there are
antibodies that are usually observed after a novel coronavirus infection.
One of the researchers, Giovanni Apollon, said, "The
results of this retest seem to indicate that the condition of asymptomatic
patients we previously reported is a credible signal that the virus has spread
in Italy very early."
He further explained, "If this is confirmed, this
will explain the surge in symptomatic cases observed in Italy in 2020. The novel
coronavirus or earlier versions have been quietly spreading."
According to reports, Italian researchers initially
screened 959 lung cancer patients before the covid pandemic. In 2020, they
tested these samples again, looking for antibodies related to the coronavirus,
and said they had found traces of infection.
At the request of the World Health Organization, the
VisMederi laboratory in Siena, Italy and the WHO affiliated institution of
Erasmus University in the Netherlands retested the samples.
Marion Koopmans, Head of Virology at Erasmus University,
said these new results are "interesting." However, at the same time,
she also warned that although there is some evidence of antibodies, according
to the school's strict standards, none of the samples provided conclusive
evidence of previous covi infections.
"We have used a fairly strict threshold and cannot
rule out that some of the observed responses are real," she said.
"However, in order to confirm early circulation, we recommend conducting
virological confirmation studies on patients with unexplained diseases."
The laboratory retested 29 original Italian samples, some
of which were positive, some were negative, and 29 control cases in 2018.
From the test, the scientists found that 3 samples were
positive for the covi-related antibody IgM, which is usually a sign of recent
infection. Among them, the earliest sample was collected on 10 October 2019.
The sample taken on 5 February 2020 also showed that the neutralizing antibody
was positive. However, none of the samples contained the level of antibodies
that could be considered as evidence of infection with the new coronavirus.
Sozi, one of the Italian researchers, believes that
before the covid pandemic, the virus may not be as aggressive or contagious,
which makes "despite the risk of detecting 'false positive' cases, it is
still necessary to use highly sensitive tests." ".
Koopmans said that the strict standards of Erasmus
University are necessary to finally show whether the pandemic started earlier
than currently thought. "This does not mean that it is impossible."
The Financial Times pointed out that this Italian paper has not been peer-reviewed and did not answer questions about the covi origin but these findings may raise questions about whether covi was in Italy or before the first confirmed covid case in Wuhan in December 2019. Debates spread elsewhere.
According to the WHO, the results highlight the challenge
of conducting antibody testing on samples starting in 2019. "Thanks"
to the scientists who tried to advance the issue of the origin of SARS-CoV-2.
News (28)
The CCP officials talk about the tracing of SARS-CoV-2: To
"see the origin", don't limit your vision
Reporter : Li Chun / Editor : Jiang Yuwei / Publisher : China News
Network /
In response to the current global covi spread, the
Chinese leader of the China-WHO Novel Coronavirus Traceability Joint Research
Expert Group, Liang Wannian, said in Beijing on 22 July that the next step of
virus traceability is inseparable from the joint research in many countries and
places around the world.
On the same day, the State Council Information
Office of China held a press conference on the covi traceability. Liang Wannian
said at the meeting that as scientists from many countries continue to study
the traceability of covi, there have been many research results showing that
the emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, covi) in many places around
the world is earlier than our previous known time.
He listed a number of specific cases:
In November 2019, a skin biopsy of an Italian woman revealed
multiple reactivity of the novel coronavirus in situ hybridization.
On 27 November 2019, the genetic material of the novel
coronavirus was detected in a wastewater sample collected in a city in Brazil.
From 13 December 2019 to 17 January 2020, in 9 states in the
United States, there were 106 routine blood donation archive samples that
tested positive for new coronavirus antibodies.
The early gene sequences from Iran, Brazil and Italy
sampled on 24 December 2019 have been uploaded to the national database.
In
mid-December 2019, France reported an increase in the prevalence of
neutralizing antibodies.
On 27 December 2019, a throat swab sample from a
hemoptysis patient in France was tested by RT-PCR, and the new coronavirus
nucleic acid test was positive.
In January
2020, a wastewater sample collected in Barcelona, Spain, tested positive for
the covi nucleic acid.
From 2 January to 18 March 2020, among 24,079 blood
samples from 50 U.S. states, 9 samples tested positive for covi antibodies.
Regarding the cases obtained by scientists from the
above-mentioned countries through research, Liang Wannian said that this
indicates that Wuhan may not be the first site for covi to break through the
interface. After the transmission of the novel coronavirus exists in humans or
animals, it is transmitted from person to person and from person to person in a
cycle mode.
Liang Wannian pointed out that the next step, whether
it is early cases, biological samples, genetic sequences, natural hosts,
intermediate hosts, or cold chains, cannot be separated from the joint research
of multiple countries and multiple places around the world; it is necessary to
understand that it may cause the virus to spread across species and then spread
globally. In the entire scientific process, it is necessary to deeply
understand the diversity of viruses and their evolution in animal hosts, the
interaction between animals, the environment, and humans, and the factors that
contribute to the spread of viruses between humans.
He emphasized that the virus is the common enemy of mankind. Whether it is prevention or treatment, we need to unite to deal with it. On the scientific issue of traceability, the cooperation of scientists from all over the world is needed, and the joint efforts and cooperation of governments and all people of all countries are also needed.
Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, president of Peking Union Medical College, and director of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, said that the traceability process is so complicated and diverse. Important directional issues of multi-point, multi-directional, and three-dimensional traceability should be carried out all over the world.
News (29)
Public health experts
told White House Republicans Forum SARS-CoV-2 'likely originated' in lab leak
Reporter : Mark Tapscott, The Epoch Times PREMIUM / Image courtesy : Hector Retamal / Getty Images
A panel of public health experts told a Republican-sponsored congressional forum that SARS-CoV-2 [Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus] which is also known as the novel coronavirus (covi), “likely originated” with a leak from China’s Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV).
A memorandum written by Republican staffers on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and released July 20 said the five main conclusions of the experts were:
·
CCP virus likely originated in the WIV.
·
The virus was likely modified through dangerous
“gain-of-function” research.
·
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) likely continue to be
involved in dangerous research in China.
·
The World Health Organization (WHO) didn’t conduct an
impartial investigation of the origins of the virus.
·
The CCP and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have an
advanced biological weapons research and development program that may be
functioning within or in coordination with the WIV.
The June 29 forum’s witnesses
included Adm. Brett Giroir, who, as assistant secretary for health at the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Trump administration,
managed the development of the first tests used to detect the presence of the
virus in an individual.
The second expert witness testifying was Dr. David Asher,
a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, who, while working under Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo, led the State Department’s investigation of the virus’s
origins.
The other expert witnesses included Dr. Richard Muller,
emeritus professor of physics at the University of California–Berkeley, and Dr.
Steven Quay, founder of Atossa Therapeutics, a
Seattle-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical research firm.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH, and Dr. Anthony
Fauci, director of the NIAID, were invited to testify but declined.
“Every scientific test that distinguishes between the
zoonotic and lab leak origins gives results that highly favor the lab origin.
We have found no credible evidence that favors zoonotic origin,” Muller told
the forum, according to the memorandum.
Giroir agreed, saying, “I assess that the most likely
origin was an accidental infection of laboratory personnel from the [WIV lab],
with secondary transmission to the local population, and subsequent spread to
hundreds of millions of people around the world.”
Among the evidence they pointed to in support of their
conclusion was that while more than 80,000 samples were taken from more than
200 animal species linked to the Wuhan open-air meat market near the WIV and
elsewhere in China, none tested positive for the virus. The only animals not
tested were the humanized mice being used at the WIV in gain-of-function
experiments, they said.
In addition, the witnesses noted that a study of the
earliest known victims of the virus in China hadn’t visited the Wuhan market,
and the CCP acknowledged in May 2020 that the market wasn’t the source of the
virus jumping from bats to humans, as both the Chinese regime and the WHO had
originally claimed.
The witnesses also said the evidence was overwhelming
that gain-of-function research was being conducted at the WIV for some time
prior to the original outbreak of the virus in China in November 2019. The first
confirmed case appeared in the U.S. in January 2020.
News (30)
WIV inserted 'CGG-CGG dimer' into
the virus
Quay told the forum that the virus “has a unique trigger
on its surface called a ‘furin cleavage site’ and a unique code for that site,
called a ‘CGG-CGG dimer … in gain-of-function experiments, the WIV … [has]
inserted furin sites into viruses.
“It is the only sure method that always works and makes
viruses more infectious. And the CGG-CGG code found in [the virus] is commonly
used in the laboratory; you can literally order it on the internet.”
The virus, he added, was “pre-adapted for human-to-human
transmission from the first patient. Specifically, the part of the virus that
interacts with human cells was 99.5 percent optimized.”
Giror cited a 2015 Nature Medicine publication in which
WIV researchers reported “the creation of a new, hybrid bat coronavirus that
could bind to and infect human airway cells.”
All of the witnesses noted that NIH and NIAID funding
went to the WIV via sub-grants from the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth
Alliance for gain-of-function research prior to and during a three-year
moratorium on such activities from 2014 to 2017.
“After 2017, the pause was lifted and replaced with an
impartial oversight body, the P3. According to recently released emails, the
NIH bypassed the P3 to continue funding gain-of-function research at the WIV,”
the memorandum said.
“No coronavirus work has gone through P3 oversight
process. In fact, since 2017, not a single grant, for any research, has gone
through P3 oversight process,” the memorandum pointed out.
“It’s unbelievable to me that coronavirus work would not
get even into the [P3] process,” Giroir told the forum. “If you look at the
abstract from the latest grant that was done to EcoHealth, it talks about using
protein sequence data, infectious clone technology … this is all
gain-of-function.”
In a related development on July 20, House Democrats
defeated a Republican motion to bring a proposal to a floor
vote that would require the Director of National Intelligence to make public
evidence held by the intelligence community on the origins of the virus. The
GOP motion, which had passed the Senate unanimously, was defeated in the
House on a party-line vote of 216-207.
News (31) to (32) / Reporter : Brian Trusdell, Newsmax
News (31)
Sen. Rand Paul: Fauci's lies come from elitism
Reporter : Brian Trusdell, Newsmax
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul accused National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci of lying to Congress, telling Newsmax on Wednesday that “much of his dishonesty comes from elitism.”
The remarks were the latest charges leveled by the Republican senator at Fauci, specifically for denying that the National Institutes of Health funded “gain-of-function” research, experiments that were designed to increase the transmissibility of viruses, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China where many believe the COVID-19 virus originated.
“It is a crime,” Paul said on "Greg Kelly Reports." “It's a felony to lie to Congress. And without question he is lying. Yes, he funded gain-of-function research in there.
“Look at it this way, in 2014 they had a pause in funding gain-of-function research. How can you pause funding if you were never doing it? He says that he never has funded gain-of-function research. And yet there was a pause on it for three years.”
Paul said earlier Wednesday that he was asking the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation on Fauci.
Fauci sparred with Paul on Tuesday at a Senate Health Committee hearing, with both accusing the other of lying. Paul accused Fauci of lying about authorizing funding to the WIV by the National Institutes of Health, which the NIAID is a part of, through the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.
Specifically, he said Fauci was lying by not admitting the type of research was for gain-of-function experimentation.
Fauci countered by calling Paul a liar, pointing his finger at him for labeling the research incorrectly and accusing the NIH of funding it.
Paul pointed to a paper co-authored by Dr. Shi Zhengli at the WIV in 2015 in which she claims to have taken a bat virus and made it transmissible to humans.
“We didn't argue that the research involved and published by Dr. Shi…Shi didn’t admit to creating COVID,” Paul said. “So in her research, Shi created a novel virus that wasn't known to man, did not exist in nature. It wasn't COVID-19. We're not saying she created and admitted it.
“We're saying that Shi was doing the type of research that could have created COVID-19, and that may well have, and that they may not have been honest or forthcoming about it. But what we do know publicly is that Dr. Shi, the bad scientist from Wuhan, published a paper in which she lists the NIH as funding her paper. She lists the grant number for goodness sakes. So there's no question the NIH funded it. The question that Dr. Fauci is trying to misdirect us with is that he's saying it wasn't gain of function.”
However, Paul insisted the Fauci was intentionally not telling the truth.
“Much of his dishonesty comes from elitism,” Paul added. “He believes that the common man's not smart enough to know things so he may have to lie on occasion. This is what Plato called noble lies. He lies. With good intentions.”
News (32)
Sen. Paul wants DOJ to investigate Fauci for lying to Congress
Reporter : Brian Freeman, Newsmax
Sen. Rand Paul wants the Department of Justice to probe Dr. Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress, Newsmax White House Correspondent Emerald Robinson tweeted.
"Senator Rand Paul has announced that he's sending a criminal referral to the DOJ to investigate Dr. Fauci for the crime of lying to Congress," Robinson wrote on Twitter.
The Kentucky Republican told Fox News’ "Hannity" that he believes the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director lied before Congress and broke the law, saying "I will be sending a letter to Department of Justice asking for a criminal referral, because he has lied to Congress. We have scientists that were lined up by the dozens to say that the research he was funding was gain of function."
On Tuesday, Paul and Fauci clashed at a Senate Health Committee hearing after the senator implied that Fauci previously lied to Congress about the role the National Institutes of Health (NIH) played in funding controversial research in Wuhan, China, the National Review reported.
Paul implied that Fauci misled Congress during May testimony, in which Fauci said that the United States had never funded Wuhan Institute of Virology gain-of-function projects, which involves making viruses more contagious or deadly in a laboratory.
Fauci rejected Paul's claims at the hearing on Tuesday and said the senator does not know what he is talking about.
Paul explained on "Hannity" that Fauci is throwing baseless accusations at him, because the doctor "has a self interest to cover his tracks and to cover his connection to Wuhan lab."
The senator conceded that Fauci does not deserve all the blame for the pandemic, as "there's still some conjecture as to whether or not it came from the lab. But he's lying about whether or not he funded gain of function research, and yes, he should be punished."
News (33)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci “has been all over the map” when it comes to comments and testimony about the novel coronavirus, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Braun, who appeared on “Stinchfield,” portrayed Fauci as dishonest at minimum following testimony earlier in the day at a Senate Health Committee hearing in which Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., traded accusations of lying in an exchange about the origins of the virus and possible U.S. involvement in it.
“Well, he was definitely grouchy Fauci after Rand Paul was through with him, and I always follow Rand by a senator or two and generally get him in a little more subdued mood,” Braun,who serves on the health committee with Paul said. “But my main beef with him is…he has been all over the map, on spacing, 3 feet, 6 feet, methodology.
“I mean you can pick at any point in time where he said something that was completely rebutted or refuted later.”
Braun appeared to endorse Paul’s accusations made during Tuesday’s hearing that Fauci has lied about his involvement in the origins of the novel coronavirus through National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Paul’s charges referred to funding by the NIH through a third party to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, where many believe the COVID-19 pathogen was generated in “gain of function” research, experiments that essentially make viruses more transmissible.
Fauci in May denied that the NIH funding assisted in the research and repeated that claim on Tuesday.
“(Fauci) was on the record, you know, 1½ million to 2 million deaths in the U.S. and down to 150,000. And sure, you're going to probably be OK somewhere in between, the way it ended up,” Braun said. “But there especially, the NIH? His involvement through his particular agency. That doesn't pass the smell test. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.,) and I simply asked the government to release the classified information that we hold and they won't do it.
“So that is probably the thing that he is most culpable of. It's the origination of it and how he seems to be protecting China.”
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Rubio defends right to refuse vaccine
Reporter : Theodore Bunker, Newsmax
Image : Sen. Marco Rubio (Graeme Jennings/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Wednesday defended the right not to get vaccinated against COVID-19, though he stressed that "people should get vaccinated" as delta variant case numbers rise in his home state.
Rubio said on CBS "This Morning" that "at the end of the day, it’s up to people to make that decision," whether to get vaccinated.
He added that "the government, in a free society such as ours, there’s only so much that they can do. They can provide information. We can debunk things that aren’t true. We can provide access. It’s ultimately up to people individually to make that decision."
When asked about recent polling showing that almost one-third of Republicans refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Rubio said, "I don’t think the skepticism is just among Republicans. I see all kinds of voices that I don’t even think are ideological. People decided they wanted to believe something they read somewhere."
Rubio went on to say that "there are also communities, some African American and Hispanic communities in Florida where there’s a high hesitancy to get the vaccine as well for a whole variety of reasons.
"It’s really not a partisan issue. I don’t care what the polling says," he said. "At the end of the day, the vaccine is the vaccine. It’s a human thing and you either take it, or you don’t. There are some people who don’t want to be vaccinated, and you won’t convince them. I have family members; I have friends that I’ve known for a long time. Smart, educated people who just refuse to do it."
Rubio did note that "people should get vaccinated. The government’s been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t smoke, that it causes cancer and heart disease and people decide to do it. The numbers have come down, but people still do it."
He added, "They tell us to watch what we eat. If you’re overweight, you can develop diabetes and heart disease, but it still happens. And my whole point here is that I think everyone who wants — everyone should be vaccinated. There’s no reason not to be vaccinated. I’m vaccinated. My family’s vaccinated. People shouldn’t listen to the people that tell them not to. All these things out there that are being said are just not accurate."
News (35)
Israel PM: Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine significantly 'less effective' against Covi72
Reporter : Jack Phillips, The Epoch Times PREMIUM
“We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told reporters and cabinet members on July 17. He didn’t elaborate.
The Delta strain, which was first identified in India, now makes up a significant portion of the new COVID-19 cases in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to health officials.
Bennett said that in “Britain, in recent days, we have seen a jump in the number of children who are being hospitalized on a daily basis.”
“This is a development that we are aware of; we are dealing with it rationally and responsibly,” he said.
For months, Israel has relied heavily on administering Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, which uses mRNA technology. Officials have said that more than 5.7 million Israelis have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Pfizer officials didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about Bennett’s claims.
The Delta variant, meanwhile, has prompted concerns that governments around the world may reimpose strict lockdowns or face-mask requirements in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. For months, officials in the United States and elsewhere promised that mass vaccination campaigns would bring an end to the months-long lockdowns and other COVID-19-related requirements. Now with the rise of Delta infections among vaccinated individuals, it’s unclear what the next steps will be.
COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Lockdowns have been flagged as being ineffective in several recent studies. One conducted by the University of Southern California and the RAND Corp. found that shelter-in-place (SIP) orders didn’t actually save lives.
“We use an event study framework to quantify changes in the number of excess deaths after the implementation of a SIP policy. We find that following the implementation of SIP policies, excess mortality increases,” the researchers wrote in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
In the UK, researchers with several top universities said that about five times as many children died from suicide or related trauma than from COVID-19. They specifically concluded that lockdowns are far more detrimental to children’s health than the virus itself.
According to anonymously sourced reports, Israel is considering a new lockdown due to the variant.
During his remarks on July 17, Bennett said that “our goal is to allow routine life to continue with adjustments to the coronavirus,” although it’s not clear whether that includes lockdowns.
“We all hope to see a slowdown, but the facts at the moment are that there isn’t a slowdown—not here and not around the world,” he said.
Another Israeli official said lockdowns aren’t on the table.
“I don’t know how we’ve come to talk of lockdowns,” Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel’s head of public health, told Channel 12. “We are not at a place of [considering] a lockdown during the holiday period [in September].”
In other parts of the world, lockdowns are being implemented again. On July 18, Thailand’s government announced restrictions—including curfews—in Bangkok and other areas while suspending most domestic flights.
And in Australia on July 17, Sydney ordered harsh new restrictions, shutting down construction on buildings, banning nonessential retail, and threatening to fine employers who don’t comply.
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