The WSJ reports Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin
Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.
The details of the reporting go beyond a State Department fact sheet, issued during the final days of the Trump administration, which said that several researchers at the lab, a center for the study of coronaviruses and other pathogens, became sick in autumn 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.”
“The information that we had coming from the various sources was of exquisite quality. It was very precise. What it didn’t tell you was exactly why they got sick,” he [someone familiar with the report] said, referring to the researchers.
Shi Zhengli, the top bat coronavirus expert at WIV, has said the virus didn’t leak from her laboratories. She told the WHO-led team that traveled to Wuhan earlier this year to investigate the origins of the virus that all staff had tested negative for Covid-19 antibodies and there had been no turnover of staff on the coronavirus team.
No Comments From Biden
Not commenting on the alleged intelligence is problematic.
“We’re not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2,” the spokeswoman said. “As a matter of policy we never comment on intelligence issues.”
If US intelligence has facts disputing what Shi Zhengli has to say, then it would be better to see the report than for people to speculate on what it is hiding.
One Biden administration official said that by highlighting data that pointed to the lab leak hypothesis, Trump administration officials had sought “to put spin on the ball.” Several U.S. officials described the intelligence as “circumstantial,” worthy of further exploration but not conclusive on its own.
Asked about the Jan. 15 statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “A fact sheet issued by the previous administration on January 15 did not draw any conclusions regarding the origins of the coronavirus. Rather, it focused on the lack of transparency surrounding the origins.”
In Hunt for Covid-19 Origin, Patient Zero Points to Second Wuhan Market
On February 26, the WSJ reported In Hunt for Covid-19 Origin, Patient Zero Points to Second Wuhan Market
World Health Organization investigators are seeking information about a second food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan after the first officially confirmed Covid-19 case, dubbed patient zero, told them his parents had shopped there.
The putative patient zero met the WHO investigators during their recent four-week visit to Wuhan, and told them that his parents had visited another local community food market, according to three team members.
The investigators’ interest in patient zero’s parents was first reported by CNN in an interview with Peter Daszak, a WHO team member who said the parents had tested negative but Chinese authorities should still trace their contacts at the market. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“There is clear evidence of simultaneous transmission of the virus in other places outside the market,” Thea Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist on the WHO team, told reporters in Wuhan. “It seems less likely that the market is the source of the virus epidemic.”
Political Bias
Twitter banned discussion of lab-based origins.
But now that Biden calls for further look by the WHO into what happened, Twitter is OK with such discussion.
Trump’s Accusations
In April of 2020, Trump accused China of unleashing the virus. He labeled Covid-19 the “China Virus.”
Is it any wonder China did not want to cooperate with officials?
I doubt they would have cooperated anyway, but pointed allegations do not help scientific investigation.
What We Know
- It’s possible the virus came from the lab
- It’s possible the virus didn’t come from a lab.
- It’s even possible the virus was accidentally introduced into the lab from the outside.
- The WHO is not credible.
In short, we do not know much, including what the intelligence reports actually say.
If the WHO releases another report, why should anyone believe what it says?
And many will doubt denials from China and the WHO even if the denials are true.
What We May Never Know
- What Happened
Politics has spoiled any serious investigation attempt.
If the virus did originate in the Wuhan lab, China will do it’s best to suppress that data.
If the WHO again concludes the virus did not not originate in a Chinese Lab, there would be no particular reason to believe the report, even if the report was accurate.
Meanwhile, the longer it takes to get a credible investigation underway, the less likely the investigation will turn up anything.
It may be too late already, even if the next investigation is an honest one.
Only if China steps up and admits the virus came from the Wuhan lab and supplies the details, will we know what happened.
Mish
“These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may have been introduced into the United States prior to 19 January 2020.”
“China is still struggling to deal with the fact that it is held responsible for the “original sin” of the outbreak, which undercuts virtually every effort to salvage its image,”
“Recent months have shown what a catastrophic impact the pandemic has had for China in international public opinion.”
No doubt in the minds of senior Chinese leadership about the origin of the virus, and sees the focus on reporting possible alternative origins as a propaganda campaign.
Unfortunately, for now Beijing seems more focused on the question of who should carry blame for the disease, than on understanding where it came from.
“What we’re seeing at the moment is indicative of where the Chinese government wants all this to come out – and that place is certainly not an open, accountable effort to determine what went wrong and ensure that it never happens again,”
“There’s just no excuse for this nonsense” or a cover up, since so many lives were destroyed during lockdowns. And people are being forced to take a vaccine for their freedoms.
Grace Young, a Chinese American award-winning author of https://www.graceyoung.com/cookbooks/ devoted to Chinese cuisine, is documenting the impact of the pandemic in Chinatown’s businesses and restaurants.
Initially, Young, together with videographer https://danielyahn.com/, spoke to business owners on March 15 and found out that about 70% of storefronts had already been shut down
“In January, Chinese locals were already beginning to shelter in place”
She immediately suggested going into Chinatown and recording the stories of the mom-and-pop businesses that had been suffering since January. Due to COVID-19, tourism from China had ceased and Chinese locals were already beginning to shelter in place.
The officials declined to describe the new evidence. But the revelation that they are hoping to apply an extraordinary amount of computer power to the question of whether the virus accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory suggests that the government may not have exhausted its databases of Chinese communications, the movement of lab workers and the pattern of the outbreak of the disease around the city of Wuhan.
In addition to marshaling scientific resources, Biden’s push is intended to prod American allies and intelligence agencies to mine existing information — such as intercepts, witnesses and biological evidence — as well as hunt for new intelligence to determine whether the Chinese government covered up an accidental leak.
Biden on Thursday committed to making the results of the review public, but he added a caveat: “unless there’s something I’m unaware of.”
His call for the study has both domestic and international political ramifications. It prompted his critics to argue that the president had dismissed the possibility that the lab was the origin until the Chinese government this week rejected allowing further investigation by the World Health Organization. And, administration officials said, the White House hopes U.S. allies will contribute more vigorously to a serious exploration of a theory that, until now, they considered at best unlikely, and at worst a conspiracy theory.
The effort to glean evidence from intercepted communications within China, a notoriously hard target to penetrate, has yielded little. Current and former intelligence officials say they strongly doubt anyone will find an email or a text message or a document that shows evidence of a lab accident.
Biden under the bus for canceling a State Department effort launched
under Trump to get to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19, the Biden administration has backpedaled – and has ordered the US intelligence community to conduct a 90-day investigation into how the pandemic began.”
Another scandal in the making.
by CNN in an interview with Peter Daszak, a WHO team member…..”
than 100 new SARS-like coronaviruses capable of infecting humans.”
“The WHO is not credible.
In short, we do not know much, including what the intelligence reports actually say.
If the WHO releases another report, why should anyone believe what it says?”
“The move in North Dakota is absolutely crazy. It would prohibit masks even in nursing homes.
Mish (March 6 2021)
New COVID-19 death reported in North Dakota; active virus cases continue dropping
Bismarck Tribune staff May 27, 2021
But those of us who don’t want to get vaccinated, are ostracized and
ridicule
d !
I would never ridicule anyone who doesn’t want to get vaccinated. That’s a personal choice. That said, however, I think that Federal payment for Covid treatment should cease immediately. If someone chooses not to get vaccinated, and ends up with a bad case, they should pay for it themselves.
The biggest social media platforms “fact checked” these stories out of existence and the big state-sponsored organizations are beholden to the states that sponsor them (duh).
So, we have 2 options for how this occurred. One, transferred across species. No real evidence to support when and how this happened. It’s the natural story that would result in perhaps the most minimalistic response from other countries.
What We Know
It’s possible the virus came from the lab……..and there is a MOUNTAIN of circumstantial evidence for this, that anybody with a rudimentary understanding of virology and reasonable critical thinking skills can see.
It’s possible the virus didn’t come from a lab. But there is not one shred of credible evidence for this, and the arguments that were made early on to defend the POV were made by people who might have had culpability. The arguments being made now are even more pathetic….like this one. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/new-york-times-covid-reporter-says-its-racist-discuss-wuhan-lab-leak-theory
It’s even possible the virus was accidentally introduced into the lab from the outside. But highly unlikely, because of geography and bat habitat.
The WHO is not credible. Because The WHO is a weak, political organization beholden to China.
The only smoking gun here is the very obvious (and successful) move by the Chinese military to destroy whatever physical and archival evidence that might have made a real investigation possible…..and the disappearance and possible imprisonment of honest Chinese people involved who might have shed some light on what really happened.
This pandemic was most likely the result of a phenomenon that involved American corporate money chasing big bucks in vaccine and/or other virus related gain-of-function research that was farmed out to China to keep it cheap and behind doors far from prying eyes in the US.