Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on covi traceability
One of the authors of the paper, Christian Devaux, was involved in setting up the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Dr Devaux's involvement is listed in the paper's disclosures.
The WIV specialises in manipulating dangerous coronaviruses, in what's known as "gain-of-function" research.
The risky experiments involve engineering viruses to make them more infectious or lethal, in the hope of developing treatments and vaccines to get ahead of outbreaks.
One of covid's tell-tale symptoms is a dry cough, whereas the miners were found to be coughing up blood or mucus.
CT scans showed they also did not have the same lung scarring seen in many hospitalised covid patients.
All of the miners suffered from swelling of lymph nodes in their chest or 'water on the lungs', symptoms only reported in fewer than 0.01 per cent of covid patients.
The six miners struck down with the mystery pneumonia had been sent into the cave in Mojiang to clear bat guano in April 2012. They were aged between 30 and 63, and three died as a result of their infection.
The researchers wrote in the paper published in the journal Environmental Research, "We thus dismiss the Mojiang mine as the origin of SARS-CoV-2.'
Dismissing the Mojiang mine theory leaves the laboratory leak narrative without any scientific support thus making it simply an opinion-based narrative. However, the researchers were accused of failing to refute the central assertions of the lab leak theory.
News (3)
UK microbiologist not convinced by the lab leak theory but admits gain-of-function experiments occur in Wuhan lab
Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, said, "The (lab-leak) theory argues that this virus (which infected the miners) maybe was the progenitor of SARS-CoV-2... not that it was SARS-CoV-2 itself. So, some difference in pathology is not unreasonable."
He said that he was still was not convinced the lab leak theory was the most likely origin of the virus but he admitted there were some "remarkable coincidences".
He added, "The pandemic began in Wuhan, which is far from the bat caves of south China (and) does house the institute of Virology undertaking molecular work, including gain of function, on coronaviruses."
Professor Livermore added that the lab leak theory had turned from conspiracy to mainstream thought because extensive searches had failed to find any natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2.
News (4)
UK viologist: Possible covid's origins could be traced back to Mojiang and a lab leak accident
His comments were echoed by Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist from Warwick University, who said it was 'entirely possible' that Covid's origins could be traced back to the caves in Mojiang. He said, "While I still think that this is the result of natural spillover from an animal, a lab leak accident still can't be ruled out.'
News (5)
RaTG13 unlikely to have been used to create covid since it does not physically exist
The French researchers say RaTG13, the pathogen first discovered in horseshoe bats in Mojiang, is unlikely to have been used to create covid.
They said that while RaTG13 is real, the virus particles were not isolated from animals meaning researchers only have samples of its genetic code, and not physical copies of the virus itself.
They wrote in the study, "Therefore, there is no evidence that this sequence corresponds to any real and viable virus or even that all reads are coming from the same virus."
'RaTG13 has never been isolated as a virus and replicated in cell cultures. It has no physical existence and thus cannot leak from a laboratory.'
Questions still hang over the Mojiang caves. Attempts by Western journalists to visit the caves have been denied and the caves are closely monitored by CCP authorities.
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