SARS-CoV-2 is pre-adapted to Human Transmission, branches of evolution stemming from a less well-adapted human SARS-CoV-2-like virus have been found: The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Virus Progenitors for Future Virus Disease Transmission and Pandemic Re-Emergence
Reporter and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN – all bold face and colors are my additions
UPDATED on 6/4/2020
Former MI6 head claims COVID-19 was made in a Chinese lab
Sir Richard Dearlove said there was good evidence that the virus was engineered, but that it’s escape from the laboratory was accidental.
A former head of the British intelligence agency MI6 has said that he believes the COVID-19 virus was created in a lab and spread accidentally. Speaking to The Telegraph‘s Planet Normal podcast, Sir Richard Dearlove cited recent research which claimed to have found key evidence that the virus had been manipulated to bind to humans.
If accurate, the research would have far-reaching political effects as governments around the world re-examined their dealings with the Communist state, including raising the question of reparation payments from China to the rest of the world for the damage caused by the virus.
A former head of the British intelligence agency MI6 has said that he believes the COVID-19 virus was created in a lab and spread accidentally. Speaking to The Telegraph‘s Planet Normal podcast, Sir Richard Dearlove cited recent research which claimed to have found key evidence that the virus had been manipulated to bind to humans.
If accurate, the research would have far-reaching political effects as governments around the world re-examined their dealings with the Communist state, including raising the question of reparation payments from China to the rest of the world for the damage caused by the virus.
“I do think that this started as an accident,” Sir Richard told the Telegraph, citing a peer-reviewed paper by Professor Angus Dalgleish of St George’s Hospital at the University of London, and the Norwegian virologist Birger Sorensen.
According to Sir Richard, the pair claimed to have identified “inserted sections placed on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike surface,” which allow the virus to bind to human cells, in contrast to alternate theories that the virus originated in animals, likely bats and pangolins, and mutated naturally to make the jump to human hosts. And they warn that current efforts to develop a vaccine are likely to be unsuccessful, as the true causation of the virus’s effects are being misunderstood by other scientists. The researchers are therefore working on their own vaccine, produced by Immunor AS, a Norwegian pharmaceutical company led by Mr Sorensen according to the Telegraph.
The research paper was “a very important contribution to a debate which is now starting about how the virus evolved and how it got out and broke out as a pandemic”, Sir Richard said, adding: “I think this particular article is very important, and I think it will shift the debate.”
Dalgleish and Sorensen’s article was re-written a number of times after early versions failed to achieve publication. An early version seen by the Telegraph suggested COVID-19 be known as the “Wuhan virus,” and said that it was “beyond reasonable doubt that the Covid-19 virus is engineered.” The authors originally noted: “We are aware that these findings could have political significance and raise troubling questions.”
However, the paper was not accepted for publication until the authors had re-drafted to remove explicit claims against China. Following the edits, the science presented within the paper was deemed of sufficient worth for publication in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery, chaired by leading Stanford University and University of Dundee scientists.
SOURCE
LPBI Position Statement
A. SARS-CoV-2 is pre-adapted to Human Transmission
B. Branches of evolution stemming from a less well-adapted human SARS-CoV-2-like virus have been found
C. The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Virus Progenitors – ARE CLEAR
D. Virus Progenitors will potentiate Future Virus Disease Transmission
E. Pandemic Re-Emergence – Is InEVITABLE and Virus Progenitors will be the subject for 2nd generation of virus genetic engineering technologies for human infectivity
SOURCES building to a Set of Conclusions supporting LPBI Position Statement, above:
- GM Watch – News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides
In GMWatch’s view, Dr Chan’s research suggests one of three potential origin scenarios:
1) SARS-CoV-2 has a natural origin in animals. If this is the case, it must have been circulating in humans in Wuhan long before the Chinese government alerted the international authorities to the COVID-19 epidemic, thus giving the animal virus the time needed to adapt to humans, as was seen with SARS-CoV in the 2003 epidemic.
2) SARS-CoV-2 is a natural animal-derived virus that has been studied in a laboratory for human infectivity for a considerable period of time, during which it acquired mutations that make it highly infectious to humans. The human-adapted virus then escaped from the lab that was studying it, with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) being a prime candidate.
3) SARS-CoV-2 is a genetically engineered virus that escaped from a lab that constructed it, such as the WIV.
SOURCE
- SARS-CoV-2 is well adapted for humans. What does this mean for re-emergence?
Abstract
In a side-by-side comparison of evolutionary dynamics between the 2019/2020 SARS-CoV-2 and the 2003 SARS-CoV, we were surprised to find that SARS-CoV-2 resembles SARS-CoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic after SARS-CoV had developed several advantageous adaptations for human transmission. Our observations suggest that by the time SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in late 2019, it was already pre-adapted to human transmission to an extent similar to late epidemic SARS-CoV. However, no precursors or branches of evolution stemming from a less human-adapted SARS-CoV-2-like virus have been detected. The sudden appearance of a highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 presents a major cause for concern that should motivate stronger international efforts to identify the source and prevent near future re-emergence. Any existing pools of SARS-CoV-2 progenitors would be particularly dangerous if similarly well adapted for human transmission. To look for clues regarding intermediate hosts, we analyze recent key findings relating to how SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved and adapted for human transmission, and examine the environmental samples from the Wuhan Huanan seafood market. Importantly, the market samples are genetically identical to human SARS-CoV-2 isolates and were therefore most likely from human sources. We conclude by describing and advocating for measured and effective approaches implemented in the 2002-2004 SARS outbreaks to identify lingering population(s) of progenitor virus.
SOURCE
Top vaccine scientist says coronavirus is ‘almost perfectly human adapted’
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is “almost perfectly human adapted” — lending credence to the possibility it was man-made in a Chinese lab, a top Australian vaccine researcher says.
Nikolai Petrovsky was shocked when research found that the virus was more virulent in humans than any other animal, the Daily Mail reported.
He said it was like the new strain of coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, was “completely optimized from day one without the need to evolve” like other viruses.
“This is a new virus that has never been in humans before, but it has an extraordinarily high binding to human receptors, which is very surprising,” Petrovsky told the Mail. “It is almost perfectly human adapted, it couldn’t do any better.”
He said it is possible the virus was created in a lab in China — deepening suspicions that the global pandemic originated in Wuhan.
“We have to ask how that happened. Was it a complete fluke? It can be as nature has many shots at goal and you only see the ones that land,” Petrovsky said.
SOURCE
https://nypost.com/2020/05/27/top-vaccine-scientist-covid-19-is-almost-perfectly-human-adapted/
- No known animal host and ‘almost perfect’ human adaption: Top Australian vaccine scientist reveals how COVID-19’s unique structure means it’s either man-made – or a ‘complete fluke’ of nature
- Professor Nikolai Petrovsky said virus was better at attaching itself to human cells than to any other animal
- It is so ‘perfectly adapted’ to infect humans that the possibility it was made in a Chinese lab can’t be ignored
- Wuhan Institute of Virology studied bat coronaviruses and is theorised to have accidentally leaked COVID-19
- Virus could have been formed naturally by mixing bat and pangolin versions, but this is statistically unlikely
- Professor Petrovsky said the inquiry into virus origins needed urgently and should have started months ago
“This, plus the fact that no corresponding virus has been found to exist in nature, leads to the possibility that COVID-19 is a human-created virus. It is therefore entirely plausible that the virus was created in the biosecurity facility in Wuhan [WIV] by selection on cells expressing human ACE2 [receptor], a laboratory that was known to be cultivating exotic bat coronaviruses at the time.” https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/21/australian-researchers-see-virus-design-manipulati/
- Lab escape theory of SARS-CoV-2 origin gaining scientific support
“We can’t exclude the possibility that this came from a laboratory experiment rather than from an animal” – Prof Nikolai Petrovsky
Genetic engineering the quicker way to human infectivity
Commenting on Prof Petrovsky’s conclusion that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated from culture of a wild virus and selection in human cells, the London-based molecular geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou agreed that this scenario was plausible: “You can certainly develop a human-infective virus like SARS-CoV-2 by repeatedly passing a wild bat virus through human cells, in the way that Prof Petrovsky describes. You culture human cells with the virus, allowing the virus to replicate, and harvest the resulting viruses. This selects for the most human-infective viruses, which you use to re-infect more cells. By going through successive rounds of this process, you are gradually selecting for viruses that have acquired mutations leading to enhancement of human infectivity. Eventually you end up with a virus that is optimized for human infectivity.”
However, Dr Antoniou added that there are far quicker and more efficient ways to achieve this aim.
For example, if you start with little information about what your human-infective virus looks like, you can genetically engineer a large number of SARS-CoV spike protein variants within phages. Phages are viruses that can infect bacteria. Phages can be genetically engineered to express on their exterior coat the CoV spike protein with a different variant of the receptor binding domain (RBD) – the part of the spike protein that allows the virus to bind to the ACE2 protein on human cell surfaces and thus enables infection to take place. This collection of phage variants with different RBDs is called a “phage display library”. The “library” of variants is then cultured with human cells in order to select for those phages with spike protein variants that bind to the ACE2 receptor.
Then the DNA is extracted from the phage with the best-binding spike protein and sequenced. Based on the sequence, a whole virus optimized for human infectivity can be synthesized.
Alternatively, Dr Antoniou explained, if you start with some information, as is likely with a group of researchers experienced in coronavirus gain-of-function research, there is an even quicker way to create a human-infective virus. Given that past research indicates that the nature of the spike protein alone doesn’t determine infectivity, it seems sensible to generate a library of spike mutant proteins directly within a whole coronavirus, which would also contain any other components necessary for infectivity.
In this case, you would take a DNA clone of a coronavirus that you know to be close to human infectivity, based on the sequence of its RBD. (Manipulation of DNA clones of coronaviruses is the standard procedure used to generate mutant viruses, including chimeras, in gain-of-function experiments, such as those carried out by scientists at the University of North Carolina and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.) You would then use the genetic engineering technique of DNA synthesis to generate a large number of randomly mutated versions of the spike protein RBD. The RBD mutations that you engineer could be more narrowly targeted by focusing on those regions encoding the amino acids whose nature and positions you know to be most critical for docking onto the human ACE2 receptor. The mutant versions of the RBD would then be selected for strong binding to the ACE2 receptor and consequently high infectivity of human cells.
Both methods described above would not leave any “signature” of genetic engineering. That’s an important consideration, given that Prof Petrovsky believes that genetic engineering was not involved in the development of SARS-CoV-2 due to the absence of such a signature.
Genetic engineering likely
In GMWatch’s view, to bypass the efficient genetic engineering-based methods described by Dr Antoniou in favour of the more laborious culture and selection-only method suggested by Prof Petrovsky would seem a curious decision for any laboratory committed to investigating coronavirus gain-of-function, such as the WIV.
The conclusions that we draw from these two new papers and Dr Antoniou’s input are that the “zoonosis” theory of SARS-CoV-2’s origin looks increasingly open to question, that the lab escape theory appears to be a solidly based scenario and, if that is what happened, genetic engineering is highly likely to have played a part in the development of the virus.
Report by Claire Robinson
SOURCE
GAs reported in “Bioweapon Labs Must Be Shut Down and Scientists Prosecuted,” there’s mounting evidence suggesting SARS-CoV-2 may have been leaked (whether inadvertently or not) from the biosafety level (BSL) 4 laboratory in Wuhan, China.1,2I’ve also interviewed bioweapons expert Francis Boyle and molecular biologist Judy Mikovits, both of whom have cited evidence that strongly points toward SARS-CoV-2 being an escaped laboratory creation.
Why Was Wuhan Lab Shut Down?
Fueling suspicions that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the lab in Wuhan — and that it began far earlier than admitted — is an analysis3 of commercial telemetry (i.e., cellphone) data showing a significant and unusual reduction in device activity in and around the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) National Biosafety Laboratory during October 2019.4,5,6According to the open source telemetry report,7 “Beginning on October 11, there was a substantial decrease in activity,” and “the last time a device is active prior to October 11 is October 6.”Between October 14 and October 19, there was no device activity in the area around the laboratory at all. “During this time, it is believed that roadblocks were put in place to prevent traffic from coming near the facility,” the report states. What’s more, between October 7 and October 24, there was no activity within the facility itself.While not concrete proof of a biohazard leak, the absence of cellphone traffic in and around the laboratory in October 2019 suggests the lab may have been shut down for a period, and the roads around it blocked off. The question is why?Amid accusations that the World Health Organization helped suppress information about the pandemic on behalf of China, a review of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will be conducted,8 although it is still unclear which body will conduct the review and when. Many are also asking just how independent such a review will or can be.According to Martenson, the fact that SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein has a furin cleavage site is “the smoking gun” that proves it was created in a lab. I invite you to review his easy-to-follow analysis in “The Smoking Gun Proving SARS-CoV-2 Is an Engineered Virus.”If the Nerd Has Power blogger is correct, and the bat virus RaTG13 was in fact fabricated in order to give the natural evolution theory of SARS-CoV-2 some credence, then the evidence for a man-made pandemic becomes all the more compelling. There’s also other evidence that raise serious questions about the origin of this pandemic virus. Other Evidence of ManipulationIn an earlier blog post, dated March 15, 2020, Nerd Has Power explains the importance of the S1 and S2 spikes of a given virus.38 In that post, the blogger also details significant changes found in the S1 portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, “which dictates which host a coronavirus targets,” whereas much of the rest of the spike is very similar to the bat coronaviruses ZC45 and ZXC21. According to the blogger:39
“… the details of these differences and the way the human and the bat viruses differ from each other here in S1, in my and many other people’s eyes, practically spell out the origin of the Wuhan coronavirus — it is created by people, not by nature.”
In my opinion, the strongest pieces of evidence so far all point toward SARS-CoV-2 being a laboratory creation. How it got released, however, and why, remains to be determined.The fact that the people responsible would want to cover it up is obvious, however, when you consider that the punishment in such an event could include life in prison for violating the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989.40
Sources & References
- 1 New York Times May 3, 2020
- 2 Newsweek May 17, 2020
- 3, 7 Documentcloud.org MACE E-PAI COVID-19 Analysis
- 4 NY Post May 9, 2020
- 5 International Business Times May 9, 2020
- 6 Taiwan News May 15, 2020
- 8 The Globe and Mail May 18, 2020
- 9 GospaNews May 16, 2020
- 10 PLOS Pathogens November 30, 2017 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006698
- 11 The Week May 4, 2020
- 12 EcoHealth Alliance, Dr. Peter Daszak
- 13 The Australian May 9, 2020
- 14 National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine
- 15 Grantome, Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence, Aim 3
- 16 CBS News 60 Minutes May 11, 2020
- 17 Health News Review April 30, 2020
- 18 GPMB Board Members
- 19 GPMB About Us
- 20, 36 Youtube, Coronavirus: Are Our Scientists Lying to Us? May 4, 2020
- 21, 37 Medium April 22, 2020
- 22 Biorxiv.org May 2, 2020 DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.01.073262 (PDF)
- 23, 24 Nature 2020; 579: 270-273
- 25, 26, 31, 33, 34 Nerd Has Power, RaTG13 — The Undeniable Evidence That the Wuhan Coronavirus Is Man-Made
- 27 GM Watch May 12, 2020
- 28 Joannenova.com May 2020
- 29, 35 Steven Mosher May 15, 2020
- 30 Population Research Institute
- 32 Nature 2013; 503: 535-538
- 38, 39 Nerd Has Power March 15, 2020
- 40 S.993 Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Fueling suspicions that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from the Wuhan lab is an analysis of commercial telemetry (i.e., cellphone) data showing a significant and unusual reduction in device activity in and around the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s National Biosafety Laboratory during October 2019
- Between October 14 and October 19, there was no device activity in the area around the laboratory at all, and between October 7 and October 24, there was no activity within the facility itself
- While not concrete proof of a biohazard leak, the absence of cellphone traffic in and around the laboratory in October 2019 suggests the lab may have been shut down for a period, and the roads around it blocked off
- A crucial piece of the lab release hypothesis that is missing from media reports and scientific opinion is a clear description of the experiments being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
- Researchers have engineered chimeric viruses where the gene for the cell entry protein (S protein receptor-binding domain) from one virus is replaced by that of another virus
- Bioweapon Labs Must Be Shut Down and Scientists Prosecuted
Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked
- May 12, 2020
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently stated that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a biosafety level 4 lab in Wuhan, China
- According to Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, BSL 3 and 4 labs must be banned to prevent a catastrophe
- Serious safety breaches have been identified at laboratories working with the most lethal and dangerous pathogens in the world
- In October 2014, a U.S. moratorium on experiments on coronaviruses that might make the viruses more pathogenic and/or easy to spread among humans took effect. The moratorium was lifted at the end of December 2017
- Despite the U.S. moratorium, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the NIAID, allowed coronavirus gain-of-function experiments to continue because they had begun before the moratorium was put in place. The Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 calls for fines and/or up to life in prison for anyone involved in the creation of a bioweapon
LPBI Position
A. SARS-CoV-2 is pre-adapted to Human Transmission
B. Branches of evolution stemming from a less well-adapted human SARS-CoV-2-like virus have been found
C. The Role of SARS-CoV-2 Virus Progenitors – ARE CLEAR
D. Virus Progenitors will potentiate Future Virus Disease Transmission
E. Pandemic Re-Emergence – Is InEVITABLE and Virus Progenitors will be the subject for 2nd generation of genetic engineering technologies
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