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Did Covid19 escape from a laboratory?

Having a braai with a friend of over 40 years is a special occasion. But it gets more special when the friend is a scientist and he alerts you to the existence of the theory that the Cov19 virus, probably DID escape from a Chinese laboratory.

Img: Smithsonian Magazine
Perspective

This blog post was written in Sep 2021. I wrote it so I could clarify my thinking and understand the matter better. Much information (and the truth) will eventually be revealed. I made use of publications to which my friend referred me, as well as others, but all based on what can be considered as reliable sources at the time of writing. At the time of writing, there is still not enough evidence to prove the theory. But, it will come.

Background

Img: Wikipedia

Premise

  • The virus that caused the pandemic is known officially as SARS-CoV-2, but can be called SARS2 for short.
  • The Covid19 Coronavirus could have been either a naturally developed virus, probably transferred from a bat, or it could have escaped a research facility in Wuhan, China.
  • Some people blamed China while others blamed bats sold at a “wet” market near the Covid research facility in Wuhan.. Neither view had the knowledge nor any sources. And, as with all opinions, one side will be right and the other wrong. I prefer to air a view or discuss other views if there is a valid motivation or source for the view. An opinion that is proven correct, is just like winning the jackpot – one success does not mean the next time will also be successful, because there is no relation between the two events.

An early conclusion about the source of the virus was based on experience. The virus was found to be related to a virus family that previously created SARS1 and MERS virus outbreaks. These found their way to humans via wet markets. Because proof of the transfer from animals to humans was expected, not may scientists paid attention to the fact that Chinese researchers found cases of the virus with no link to any wet markets.

A group of scientists issued a statement in which they emphatically denied that the virus could have come from a lab, and assured the public that it originated from animals. It later surfaced that the statement was drafted by the president of an organization that received millions of US taxpayer Dollars to research Corona Viruses working with scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

NOTE: If it is ever proven that the Cov19 virus was created as part of the Chinese government’s biological warfare program, it would mean that the US donors and tax payers funded research for biological weapons that could be used against Americans.

As early as March 2020 an impressive article “proved” a possible lab leak did not happen.

Interesting enough, even when a commission of scientists visited Wuhan, one of the members was the same scientist who drafted the statement that denied that the virus came from a lab.

The problem the Chinese had, was that they could offer no evidence that the virus originated in animals (natural emergence), something that scientists say should have been quite easy because the other viruses in the virus family namely SARS1 and MERS left obvious traces that made finding their host species relatively easy. Neither the Chinese scientists nor the commission of scientists could point to any evidence of natural emergence.

At the time of writing this article (Sep 2021), there is still no evidence after a year.

That led to questions being asked, but the only people who could do so publicly, were journalists.

One journalist did exactly that.

Nicholas Wade, a science writer, wrote articles about the topic in 2020 (all links open in new tabs):

The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?
How COVID-19’s origins were obscured, by the East and the West
The Controversial Experiments and Wuhan Lab Suspected of Starting the Coronavirus Pandemic
Why could scientists not talk about a virus leak in Wuhan?

In 2021 the matter started gaining momentum:

Wuhan scientists planned to release coronavirus into bat caves: Leaked papers
Wuhan lab and web of Chinese red tape that delayed US scientists getting access to coronavirus
Covid origin bombshell as new team to probe mysterious Wuhan lab over leak claims
How Covid19’s origins were obscured by the East and the West
Chinese wanted to release Covid in bat caves

Time will tell if the theory that research was done to inoculate bats and stop the spread of diseases from animals to humans, was just a smoke screen theory to divert attention from the possibility that research was done to create a biological weapon.

I may revisit and update this post in future.

Updated reading 25 Oct 2021: