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U.S. Intelligence Officials Consider Possibility Coronavirus Accidentally Released from Chinese Lab

U.S. Intelligence Officials Consider Possibility Coronavirus Accidentally Released from Chinese Lab

In 2018, the State Department sent cables warning of safety issues at the Wuhan Virology Institute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC0gww2yznI

I recently noted that new research indicates that COVID-19 could kill the immune cells that regularly kill the viruses, similar to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Additionally, we have also reported that:

It appears that U.S. intelligence is considering the possibility that the pandemic might have started by accident at a research facility rather than by an infection from a wet market.

After extensive research, scientists in the U.S. and elsewhere have determined that the new strain of the coronavirus discovered in China in December is, as Chinese officials have maintained, of natural origin, but they are taking seriously that its route to human infection may have started in a lab in Wuhan.

“It’s definitely a real possibility being bandied about at the high levels of the administration,” said one of the sources, who has knowledge of China and national security.

“We are actively and vigorously tracking down every piece of information we get on this topic and we are writing frequently to update policymakers,” an intelligence official told Yahoo News. The intelligence community “has not come down on any one theory.”

While Chinese officials were quick to link the origin of the disease to infected animals at the Wuhan Seafood Market, which was formally closed on Jan. 1, scientists have not traced the initial exposure back to any specific animals. Therefore, an alternative possibility remains — that a natural virus sample being studied at a research laboratory in Wuhan infected a researcher who spread it in the community, or it escaped via hazardous waste or a lab animal.

This news aligns with an opinion piece by columnist Josh Rogan in the Washington Post that in 2018, the State Department sent cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The U.S. Embassy in Beijing sent science diplomats to the institute, which had in 2015 become China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety (known as BSL-4).

…What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab’s work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic.

“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” states the Jan. 19, 2018, cable, which was drafted by two officials from the embassy’s environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists.

Rogan also noted that in November 2017, just before the U.S. officials’ visit, Shi Zhengli, the head of the research project, and her team published research showing that horseshoe bats they collected from a cave in Yunnan province were likely the source of the SARS coronavirus 2003 outbreak. Horseshoe bats have been suggested as the origin of the Wuhan coronavirus.

China has been desperately trying to erase its connection to the pandemic. So far, the attempts have been unsuccessful and been met with scorn and derision.

Now, Chinese officials are attempting to persuade others to praise China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. In one instance, they hoped the Wisconsin State Senate would prepare a resolution commending China’s actions.

In a pair of February emails sent to State Senate President Roger Roth, which were provided to National Review, a woman named Wu Ting, who claimed to be “responsible for China-Wisconsin relations,” asks Roth to “consider adopting a resolution expressing solidarity with the Chinese people in fighting the coronavirus.” The Chicago Chinese Consulate General’s official website matches the name to that of the wife of Chinese Consul General in Chicago Zhao Jian, and Ting confirmed her identity when reached for comment.

“The Consulate General wonders if the Wisconsin State Senate could consider adopting a resolution expressing solidarity with the Chinese people in fighting the coronavirus. It [sic] yes, it would be a great moral support to the Chinese people combating the disease,” Ting wrote in the email. “Much appreciated if you could give it a serious consideration. We have drawn up a draft resolution just for your reference.”

The attached draft resolution, which was first reported by the Wisconsin Examiner, states: “The State of Wisconsin will continue to support China in its effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus,” and says Beijing’s efforts have been “effective in curbing the virus from spreading to other parts of China and the world.”

The more China tries to hide the truth, the more it is obvious it has something significant, and likely deeply disturbing, to hide.

UPDATE (waj):

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Comments

I have no doubt the Chinese were doing bioweapon research and it got away from them. Why else destroy the records?

    beagleEar in reply to puhiawa. | April 15, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    Ordinary research could do the same. From this informational distance, I don’t think we have any way to know whether this was just research ‘because we can’ or research to make a weapon.
    Really basic science like this has multiple uses; if you understand how a virus works well enough to stop it, then you probably also understand how it works well enough to give it a boost.
    Personally, I feel the pieces are stacking up to make an accidental release from a lab appear likely,probably through research animals that were sold instead of being incinerated.

    The virus itself may be 100% natural or it could be a natural virus which was being manipulated for research purposes. Nature has more tricks than us, and it has made viruses far more deadly than this one. We also know that this and other labs were doing alterations on those bat pathogens, perhaps in hopes of getting ahead of the next SARS.

      GitOffMahLawn in reply to beagleEar. | April 16, 2020 at 7:46 am

      “Personally, I feel the pieces are stacking up to make an accidental release from a lab appear likely,probably through research animals that were sold instead of being incinerated.”

      Possibly.

      But the coverups, the outright lies about the nature of the virus, the propaganda that has been and is still being pushed through the chinese bought US “free” press, and so on – none of that is accidental.

      Like the man in Hong Kong said,

      “Chinese is assh*le!!”

      Absolute truth, man from Hong Kong.

    broomhandle in reply to puhiawa. | April 15, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    I second that conclusion.

      JimWoo in reply to broomhandle. | April 15, 2020 at 11:30 pm

      I think Arminius posted a very believable explanation of how infected carcasses make their way to wet market. There have been convictions for doing this IIRC. I can’t find it though.

    jdwill07 in reply to puhiawa. | April 16, 2020 at 6:28 am

    Anyone believing ‘multiple sources’ in the government leaking to media is suffering from Gell-Mann Amnesia.

    I recommend viewing at least the first 15 minutes of an interview of Dr Steven Hatfill on SoundingLine for a very convincing alternative take. You will have to go back a few pages to find it, I would link but don’t want to land in moderation jail.

So they’re trying to blame the same bat for both SARS and this Chinese Virus?

PDJT was kicking the ccp’s ass, their economic model was going to be exposed as nothing more than a parasite… then the virus gets out near their bio weapons lab? Yeah, ok.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to CKYoung. | April 15, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    You can say that again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    You’re not wrong about that.

    Barry in reply to CKYoung. | April 15, 2020 at 9:48 pm

    Yep. Chinese economy was contracting. People riot all over China every day but the news is suppressed. As the economy tumbles the party’s hold on power was threatened.

    Thus the bio-weapon China Virus. They knew exactly what they were doing.

    In the end they will still lose. On that part they are not very bright.

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Barry. | April 15, 2020 at 11:17 pm

      100 PERCENT AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      GitOffMahLawn in reply to Barry. | April 16, 2020 at 7:48 am

      “On that part they are not very bright.”

      Ah, but they can steal technology or bribe scum like the clintons for it like nobody else.

China has been desperately trying to erase its connection to the pandemic. So far, the attempts have been unsuccessful and been met with scorn and derision.
——————————
Wrong, democrats and the media all in with china on it being America’s fault.
No surprise though, commies stick together.

    GitOffMahLawn in reply to 4fun. | April 16, 2020 at 7:50 am

    “Wrong, democrats and the media all in with china on it being America’s fault.”

    Alas, you are right. They took the Daneyuan, and now spout the chinese lies.

    Quislings and traitors. May they all lie in shallow graves.

I think the real key in this article is about it potentially destroying the autoimmune system like HIV. I think this actually helps justify the panic response of shutting down countries over this, as this has a higher probability to infect a massive number of people.

China is hugely guilty in this being sent around the globe. It may or may not be a bioweapon by intent, but the spread is certainly by intent. This centered from Wuhan, it was deadly to the people in that area, and China – instead of working to contain it, allowed people to migrate from there to infect the rest of the world. The reasons for the migration are moot at this point, purposeful to either harm the world economy because of China having economic problems, or to mitigate the blame and spread for propaganda purposes which the left are paid to support.

With HIV/AIDS it affected a much smaller population given how it was transmitted, even though it spread further from various means, originally it was behaviorally spread. This is far worse in terms of how you contract it. We don’t know if the people who have had “mild” cases might have damaged autoimmune system damage, even if they didn’t get particularly ill.

I don’t believe China, nor trust them. They have zero regard for the people in their country, other than as a means to an end, why would they give one iota of care for the people around the globe?

    Wrathchilde in reply to oldgoat36. | April 15, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    I agree. Whether by intent, or by incompetence, they released a biological WMD on the world. Accidents can be forgiven, but their actions to deliberately hide the origin and severity of this virus pushes it back into deliberate territory for me.

    healthguyfsu in reply to oldgoat36. | April 16, 2020 at 1:31 am

    People,

    Slow your roll on this HIV thing. I noted in the previous piece how unlikely and irresponsible it is to compare this to HIV. Don’t fall for sensationalist headlines because in vitro (in a cell culture dish) is not even close to the same thing as in vivo (in a living organism).

    Don’t you think the mortality rate would be much, much higher if this were close to a decent comparison???

    By the way, the original SARS (SARS-COV) was also able to invade T cells in vitro, but noas readily as SARS-COV2 (aka Covid 19)

    The nature paper is here:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-020-0424-9

      healthguyfsu in reply to healthguyfsu. | April 16, 2020 at 1:53 am

      Did some more reading:

      Other caveats the non-scientists should know.

      When cells are used in a dish like this, they are almost always abnormal cells (usually cancer cells since they are “immortalized” to keep dividing when most cells will not). Cancer cells don’t work like normal cells and cancerous white blood cells (leukemia cells) lead to severe immunodeficiency and compromised system function in living organisms.

      The cell lines used are:

      1. MT II – A leukemia hybrid cell line for what is called a regulatory T cell. This type of T cell does not fight off viruses but suppresses immune responses to stave off autoimmunity. If (and it’s a big if) this cell line represented in vivo responses, then it could explain why the virus causes such a problematic hyper-immune response, but it would be nothing like HIV. Again, the in vitro vs in vivo differences are a pretty big deal.

      2. A3.01 – This one is a lot closer to addressing the HIV question as this line is regularly used for studying HIV itself. It’s a line of T Helper cells, which are probably the most critical cells in the mammalian immune system. However, there are some problems. First off, the line is highly, abnormally susceptible to viral infection…it was actually made in a lab to do just that. Second, it has all of those regular limitations of in vitro studies in being an artificial, immortalized (read cancerous) cell line that is floating naked in a dish with none of the other protections afforded by being part of a living, complex, multicellular, multi-system organism.

      2.

    GitOffMahLawn in reply to oldgoat36. | April 16, 2020 at 7:53 am

    “China – instead of working to contain it, allowed people to migrate from there to infect the rest of the world.”

    Allowed?

    Nah, I’d go with “encouraged”, “demanded”, “forced at gunpoint” – something along those lines.

    Like the man from Hong Kong said:

    “china is assh*le!!”

    Too right, man from Hong Kong.

Mark “Slash” Levin has come out to support this position. We are now one step away from linking the unusual number of viruses emanating from China into an obvious question that needs to be investigated: China is engaging in biowarfare research and possibly engaging in active operations. We need to demand that China open up to an international investigation.

My very first post on this subject many weeks ago pointed out reports the Wuhan virus is a man-made virus. It was reported that the two strains that combined to create it could not have happened naturally. At worst, we need to know exactly WHY it was made and HOW it managed to be “leaked” from that lab.

texansamurai | April 15, 2020 at 9:39 pm

we have the resources, so do others–with rather substantial(and mounting)evidence that the virus originated in wuhan and most probably in the lab there, is time for us(or in concert with other nations affected) to make the lab disappear–as in burn it to ashes

Smithsonian Channel has a series on the most significant events in the twentieth century. One episode is on the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1917-1919. The segment is almost an exact description of the present Wuhan virus pandemic, only now it’s not nearly so virulent because the germ was identified, steps were taken to mitigate its spread, and we are technologically able to do things we couldn’t do a century ago. Near the end is a description of Woodrow Wilson falling gravely ill and the result of his not being able to influence the terms of Germany’s surrender at the end of World War 1. We all know what happened a couple of decades later.

One of the last statements the narrator made at the end was the belief the virus’ origin was in central China. Hmm, imagine that.
.

I don’t believe this virus was created by accident. Nor do I believe it was released by accident. It’s a lab-created biological WMD and China attacked the world with it.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Demonized. | April 15, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    100 PERCENT AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The too convenient timing of it is BIGGEST TELL.

    alaskabob in reply to Demonized. | April 16, 2020 at 1:26 am

    Either way, the cover-up shows intent. That is all that matters. For all those social justice warriors demanding it be called anything but the Wuhan virus, you are just as culpable in continuing the cover-up. The problem now is just like the Deep State and Trump. China has its tentacles deep into the financial world of the USA and has a lot of incriminating info on a lot of people … many in government. Will those people put the USA ahead of themselves or go we have to pry out that info? Any USA co-conspirator going forward in any cover-up should be treated persona non grata. Go live in Wuhan.

    GitOffMahLawn in reply to Demonized. | April 16, 2020 at 7:54 am

    Yup, yes, and agreed.

    china is assh*le.

Paul In Sweden | April 16, 2020 at 12:30 am

US Officials should be considering why China quarantined all the people of Wuhan from the rest of China but allowed the people of Wuhan to travel freely to airports around the world.

Originally I thought that the Wuhan virus lab was an unlikely source for this epidemic. But now the Chinese government is pushing the story that the virus was created at Ft Detrick, Maryland, and brought to Wuhan by the US Army. This propaganda is totally unbelievable, but it suggests that the Chinese government may think this is a man-made virus, probably from the Wuhan lab.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0321/c90000-9670852.html

    GitOffMahLawn in reply to OldProf2. | April 16, 2020 at 7:58 am

    “now the chinese government is pushing the story that the virus was created at Ft Detrick, Maryland, and brought to Wuhan by the US Army.”

    If memory serves, the xitheads also claimed this happened during “military exercises”. Because the US and china are always having joint military exercises.

    Geez, the chinese propagandists are xit for brains. It’s handy they bought the best propagandists they could for the US market – well, outside of cnn I mean.

The Chinese Communist Party chose a poor propaganda piece when it just blamed “the USA Army” for Coronavirus. Hell, if America made, it would have been the CIA releasing it. Get it right, China. Gawd.

But the biggest mistake was not just straight up blaming Donald Trump for creating and personally releasing the virus in Wuhan. CNN would run the story.

    GitOffMahLawn in reply to Mr85. | April 16, 2020 at 8:06 am

    ” CNN would run the story.”

    Ah but who would run with it? lil jimmy acosta, the clowntarded action figure? Or tater stelter, the human thumb? Surely not Dandy Don Lemonhead, the happy Hamptons barkeep molester. And no, not Wolf “I am not named after a breakfast pastry” Blintzer.

    I think this one would probably go to Jake the Fake tapper, faux serious newsman from the days of yore – and if you don’t take him like totally seriously you guys, he will assault you at five paces with a very mean tweet!

    OldProf2 in reply to Mr85. | April 16, 2020 at 10:22 am

    Your comments are right on. In fact, the Chinese government is already blaming Donald Trump, along with Chinese-supported outlets such as change.org. According to the Chinese and their news media (that includes CNN and Bloomberg), it’s not the Chinese Virus, but the Trump Virus.

    http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0320/c90000-9670740.html