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WaPo Editorial Board: “Possibility Of A Laboratory Accident Or Leak” of COVID-19 From Wuhan Lab “Must Be Investigated” (Update: WHO drops investigation)

WaPo Editorial Board: “Possibility Of A Laboratory Accident Or Leak” of COVID-19 From Wuhan Lab “Must Be Investigated” (Update: WHO drops investigation)

We reported on Chinese university researchers suggesting this possibility almost a year ago.

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

On February 16, 2020, Legal Insurrection published a piece reporting that Chinese university researchers believed the virus might have originated in a government laboratory.

A new bombshell paper from the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology says that the Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC) could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province.

‘The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus,’ penned by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claims the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats.

It also mentions that bats – which are linked to coronavirus – once attacked a researcher and ‘blood of bat was on his skin.’

Now, a year later, The Washington Post Editorial Board conceded the possibility that the coronavirus may have its origins in a Wuhan laboratory.

Its piece began with the popular animal-origin hypotheses and continues:

But there is another pathway, also plausible, that must be investigated. That is the possibility of a laboratory accident or leak. It could have involved a virus that was improperly disposed of or perhaps infected a laboratory worker who then passed it to others. Wuhan, with a population of 11 million, is a major transportation hub and a center of virus studies in China, with at least six facilities with BSL-3 laboratories for handling infectious agents. Published papers show that some of these institutions have been very active in coronavirus research. The most active is the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where Shi Zhengli leads a research team that has extensively studied and experimented on bat coronaviruses that are very similar to the one that ignited the global pandemic.

Legal Insurrection authors also reported on the evidence of Chinese cover-up.

Communist China is actively clamping down on the research into the Wuhan coronavirus’s origins, an investigative report released by the Associated Press on Wednesday shows.

The report based on leaked official documents and interviews with Chinese and other scientists reveals that Beijing is hiding and censoring findings related to the origin of the global pandemic that first surfaced in central China late last year and has killed close to two million people worldwide.

The cover-up is being coordinated by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party top brass, the AP documentation suggests. The Chinese regime has forced “all coronavirus studies in China to be approved by high-level government officials” and thereby “paralyzed research efforts,” the report said.

The WaPo Editorial Board agreed with our assessment as well:

China actively covered up the early stages of the pandemic, concealed the transmissibility of the virus from its own people and the world, and punished Wuhan doctors who expressed worry about it in late December 2019. President Xi Jinping did not warn the public in China or abroad until mid-January.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the report is that the database with information on studies by Dr. Shi Zhengli, Chinas foremost bat virus researcher, is no longer accessible.

At the core of Dr. Shi’s work is a database at the institute. According to research by DRASTIC, a network of researchers and scientists, this is the most important bat coronavirus database in China. Overall, it holds records of some 22,000 samples and some of their genetic sequences, including for WIV virus sampling trips going back many years. The institute collected more than 15,000 samples from bats, covering over 1,400 bat viruses. The database holds more than 100 unpublished sequences of bat coronaviruses that could significantly help the probe into the origins of the pandemic.

Of particular interest are the full sequences of eight viruses sampled in 2015 in an unidentified location in Yunnan province, which was only recently disclosed. In 2012, six people who were clearing bat feces from an abandoned mine in Yunnan developed an illness with symptoms very similar to covid-19. Three eventually died.

The results of the investigation into the cause of their illness have not been fully disclosed. A bat-virus sampling trip by WIV-EcoHealth was underway in nearby locations while these six people were infected. A virus designated RaTG13 was sampled from the mine in 2013 and has been described as the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2.

It is important to note that Shi conducted “gain of function” research on bat coronaviruses, which involves modifying their genomes with enhanced ability to infect a new host species or transmit from one host to another more easily.

America suffered since the media mocked anyone who suggested that the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese laboratory. It prevented American officials from presenting a united front. It also prevented an investigation into the origin of the virus, and how it spread. It allowed China to play the victim, which gave officials time to destroy evidence.

Finally, it allowed the Chinese communists free reign to project their actions onto others, and the lack of earlier challenges means they will continue to propaganda campaign undaunted.

China’s ambassador to the United States suggested in a televised interview Sunday that the World Health Organization should investigate whether the coronavirus outbreak began somewhere in America rather than Wuhan.

CNN host Fareed Zakaria asked Ambassador Cui Tiankai if the virus had leaked out of a Wuhan lab before becoming a global pandemic.

“I think when people make accusations, they have to prove these accusations,” Cui replied, telling Zakaria that WHO scientists were currently working in the city to “look at all the facts.”

I say this to The Washington Post Editorial Board: Welcome to the party, pal.

Update: WHO drops investigation into Wuhan lab leak:

From Fox News:

A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic downplayed the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab near Wuhan, China, during a news conference on Tuesday.

Instead, coronavirus likely spread from an animal to humans, WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek said. The WHO and China have faced strong criticism from around the world over their pandemic response, as China blocked WHO investigators from entering Wuhan for months; they finally arrived in mid-January of this year.

“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research,” Embarek told reporters.

“However, the findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” Embarek said. “Therefore it is not a hypothesis that we advise to suggest future studies … into the understanding of the origin of the virus.”

Embarek made the assessment at the end of a visit to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where a team of scientists is investigating the possible origins of the coronavirus. The first cases were discovered in the city in December 2019.

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Comments

Back in April, NPR ran long and detailed stories/ interviews, one hour long segments, etc with “experts” for 3-4 days discussing how it was impossible for a leak, accidental or otherwise, to come from the wuhan lab.

Gotta trust NPR..

I guess now that Trump is out of office, it is politically correct to state the obvious. The goal was achieved.

Brave Sir Robbin | February 9, 2021 at 9:29 am

Of course it came from the Wuhan lab. The lab was notorious for lax safety. The lab allowed personnel to take home lab animals either as pets, or for food. They diverted lab animals into the food supply. They performed lab procedures without proper bio-safety equipment or protocols. We also know there was bat coronavirus at the lab. A researcher there collected it from around China. We know the lab performed bat coronavirus experiments to include experiments on what it would take to induce human infection. They published papers on it. How else does this thing show up in the middle of Wuhan?

This is important way beyond just blaming the Chinese. We have arrogant “experts” all over the world creating novel and dangerous biological organisms just because they think it is interesting science. They think they can control the monsters they make. Such miserable and fatal hubris. Obviously they have never seen the movies or read the books Frankenstein or Jurassic Park, or any other warnings from that genre.

If this virus came from this lab, it should be a call to action to globally ban gain in function experiments or experimentation that seeks to create novel life forms, or the very least, global regulation, oversight, and transparency of such activities. Do you really want arrogant morons with a PhD in Chaostan (rapidly becoming recognized as a area in the northern hemisphere west of the Atlantic Ocean and East of the Pacific Ocean) playing God with a CRISPER and the online blue print for variola major?

I understand this is a sticky matter fraught with all sorts of issues. I am not paranoid about technology and the advance of knowledge, but some things need to be approached with great caution and introspection, and I am not in favor of leaving all this in the befuddled, arrogant, and self-interested hands of the “experts.”

    scooterjay in reply to Brave Sir Robbin. | February 9, 2021 at 9:37 am

    Let us recognize it for what it is…biological warfare. China says it is their time to rule the world. Communists will stop at nothing, including killing millions of their own. Have we not learned anything in the last 100 years about the threat of Communism?

It’s old and tired….but even Stevie Wonder could see that Co-19 had been meddled with.

People always say one person cannot change the world. Tell that to the Labtech at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who forgot to wash the blood droplet off his boot.

2smartforlibs | February 9, 2021 at 9:43 am

In 2015 the foreign press was talking about an unknown virus in Italy that had originated in China. Long story but after a few variations, we got WUFLU. FYI those articles have all been disappeared now.

Fluffy Foo Foo | February 9, 2021 at 9:50 am

The Darkhorse podcast, which is done by PhD biologists, speculate it was possibly American and Chinese scientists working in Wuhan on Covid in a way that wasn’t necessarily kosher in the US, and hence the cover up. If that were proven, just think about what would happen to any American institutions tied to it. Boy howdy.

    henrybowman in reply to Fluffy Foo Foo. | February 9, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Um, we pretty much already KNOW that. Obama’s administration outlawed “gain of function” (“weaponization”) work in the US. Fauci’s NIH subcontracted the dirty work to China and paid them to do it.

    Fauci sure got his money’s worth.

The “Chinese Lab” nonsense has been proven false many times over in the peer reviewed scientific literature. Here is one example. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.073262v1.full

Ooooh. ‘WaPo.’ So… no more Kung-Flu fighting??

Lucifer Morningstar | February 9, 2021 at 10:34 am

. . . all the key virus databases managed by the WIV are now offline.

Gee, what a surprise. All the virus databases that the Wuhan Institute of Virology have control of that might help trace the origins of the SARS-Covid-19 virus are all now offline and unavailable to researchers.

Oh wait, not a surprise as the CCP is actively covering up its complicity for the pandemic.

We don’t know where the pandemic began.

Yes, we do know where the pandemic began. It began in Wuhan China and was allowed to spread throughout China and then worldwide by the Chinese government and CCP with the help of the World Health Organization.

This is yet another case of the so-called conspiracy theory having been proved true that the Washington Compost can’t continue to lie about it and retain even the tiniest vestige of what little remains of its credibility. Are they even going to note that most of the rest of us have known it came from China for darn near a year? Are we still to be canceled if we use terms like “Kung Flu” or “China Virus” or are those okay now?

People die. The numbers are recorded. At first, the 2020 numbers fell well within the historical yearly averages. When this was pointed out, a flurry of msm articles came out declaring 2020 to be a banner year of death. It’s lie after lie after lie with these people. IF 2020 WAS a banner year of death, my hypothesis is they weren’t actual deaths directly caused by a virus. They were the suicides, homicides, overdoses/alcohol related incidents induced by covid hysteria and the draconian actions/policies implemented by government. On the bright side, flu deaths have been completely eradicated, so we got that going for us.

    zennyfan in reply to CKYoung. | February 9, 2021 at 4:33 pm

    Your point about the flu raises an interesting issue, i.e., will our benevolent leaders impose mask mandates and closures next flu season?

    gibbie in reply to CKYoung. | February 9, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    Flu deaths are not, and never were, “counted”. They are estimated using a “model” which is inoperable because of the Wuhan virus.

      Mac45 in reply to gibbie. | February 9, 2021 at 5:43 pm

      Actually, influenza deaths CAN be accurately counted. All one has to do is to match symptoms to a positive serum test for influenza antibodies. What the CDC has done for years, is to use commonality of symptoms between several pulmonary infectious diseases and then combine them into what they call the influenza/pneumonia death toll. Then they get reported as flu cases and deaths. All this even though exposue testing is rarely done for influenza. It is the lazy man’s way of doing business.

      The same thing is being done with COVID, except it is on steroids. In other words, we are expected to accept the GUESSES of medical and public health officials and base public policy on them.

    Idonttweet in reply to CKYoung. | February 9, 2021 at 6:06 pm

    The so-called experts are claiming that the allegedly low rates of influenza cases this year are due to the ‘safety precautions’ that were put in place to protect against the coronavirus. While that certainly sounds plausible, I think it’s much more likely that hospitals and care providers are diagnosing cases of the flu as COVID simply because they will get more money for treating a COVID patient than for a flu patient. The CARES Act provided a big blob of money providers can tap into but only if they’re treating COVID-19.

    From the 2016/17 to the 2019/2020 flu season, there were an average of 426,000 hospitalizations from the flu and almost 39,000 flu deaths annually (CDC estmated numbers). Now we’re told those numbers are down by almost 95% while the COVID-19 numbers skyrocket. Sorry, but I’ll go with Occam’s Razor and believe the treating facilities are deep-dipping into the CARES Act pot of money by reporting flu cases as COVID-19.

Despite the WHO’s recent proclamation, of course it came from the lab in Wuhan.

The real question is whether or not the release was intentional.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to Massinsanity. | February 9, 2021 at 2:39 pm

    My humble opinion? I don’t think it was intentionally released. Just incompetence.

    The same incompetence that lead to those rapidly built hospitals in China to crumble and fall apart at the first sign of inclement weather.

Wow, we are still interested in where the Kung Flu originated? The Global economy is still largely shutdown. People are going to require travel permits, in the near future. Mask wearing is now becoming mandatory, under government edict. Evidence of significant vote fraud, in the last US Presidential election continues to mount. The US Capitol is occupied by federalized military troops. And, we are still worried about where the Kung Flu originated?

Does anyone know the definition of distraction? The election fraud issue has not gone away, despite the efforts of the Establishment. So, now we see US MSM organs, which steadfastly denied any Chinese responsibility, now clamoring for an “investigation” into the origins of the virus. Ignore all of the important happenings in this country, let’s engage in a meaningless investigation of a flu bug.

    henrybowman in reply to Mac45. | February 9, 2021 at 11:00 pm

    In the spirit of men declaring themselves women, and Senators declaring themselves Indians, I declare that this virus DID originate from the Wuhan lab, and the world is bound to respect my declaration as “settled science.”

    Gee, I never realized how easy life was for Democrats.

    guyjones in reply to Mac45. | February 10, 2021 at 9:24 am

    Mac, Wuhan virus is the direct catalyst for Chairman “Big Guy” Xi-den gaining control of the White House, and, for the Dhimmi-crats’ increasingly unabashed, totalitarian edicts and behavior. It provided cover for the Dhimmi-crats to facilitate voting fraud and ballot shenanigans, and, to undermine all semblance of election process integrity, with their self-serving mail-in ballot proposals.

    The virus is the most direct cause of the present, dystopian situation we find ourselves in, courtesy of the Dhimmi-crats’ vengeful purge against conservatives. Why don’t you think it’s important to analyze the fact that Wuhan virus was an intentional and brazen biological attack committed by a vicious and completely diabolical Chinese communist regime, to further its own interests?

      Mac45 in reply to guyjones. | February 10, 2021 at 6:16 pm

      Because there is NO significant evidence that the Kung Flu was intentionally released by Chinese authorities, or anyone else. It is much more likely that the virus was released accidentally, probably through an accidental laboratory exposure. This is not the first time that the Wuhan facilities have had an accidental release.

      Now, the Kung Flu was a fortuitous accident, not for China, but for the Global Elite Establishment. It was used to essentially cripple the global economy while installing draconian societal changes, all designed to crush the rising populist movement in the West. The Chinese do not want to be accused of being responsible for the release, accidental or otherwise. It is obvious that the source of the virus was Wuhan. If it was the intent of China to use the virus in a plot to do what you suggest, why would they leave gigantic Sasquatch sized footprints leading right back to them?

      The current move to blame the Chinese is engineered by the Establishment [media, politicians, financial marketeers, etc.] used the virus for their own benefit. Someone is going to pay, eventually, for the deaths, for the economic destruction, for the social upheaval. And, if it ever becomes common knowledge, that all of these interested parties actually lied to justify this destruction, they want to be able to lay it all off on the Chinese.

      Distraction.

There was a British-native living in China at the beginning of the pandemic who reported on YouTube about visiting the web sites of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
He came away believing that the leak was not from the Wuhan Institute of Virology but rather the Wuhan Center for Disease Control, where there had been a previous accident the year before that lead to one death.

WaPo, competing with their obit headline of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, give Marty Schottenheimer the business.

Marty Schottenheimer, NFL coach whose teams wilted in the postseason, dies at 77.

best comments:
– To be fair, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi wilted in the postseason, too.
— I’d say he blew up in the playoffs.

    guyjones in reply to Neo. | February 10, 2021 at 9:09 am

    It’s interesting that WaPo can’t contrive anything positive to say in its obituary headlines, unless the decedent is a Dhimmi-crat, or, a terrorist.

According to Biden’s “China First” policy, it’s racist to speculate that the virus might have come from anywhere in China, and particularly the Wuhan lab.

So if you don’t want to be called a racist by those who see racism everywhere, you must agree with the WHO: We will never know where the virus originated. (And the WHO and China will make it as difficult as possible to gather evidence.)

    henrybowman in reply to OldProf2. | February 9, 2021 at 10:31 pm

    “So if you don’t want to be called a racist by those who see racism everywhere”

    That horse sailed a long time ago. The possibility is no longer even on my radar.
    Stating ANY truth will unleash the harpies.

“Attacked by Bats” sounds like the title of an album recorded by a cheesy punk-rock band

WHO doing the bidding of their paymasters: Biden and China. Wasn’t this a deplorable conspiracy theory when the right was talking about it?

The WHO investigation was led by Peter Daszak who was the primary conduit for funding of covid in the Wuhan lab. It is like a robber investigating theft. Of all the people in the world, they picked him, and he is not even an investigator.

“Accident,” my rear end. It’s amazing how the Dhimmi-crats and their lemming media propagandists just blindly swallow the ridiculous and completely implausible official Chinese communist/WHO line about Wuhan virus’s release being “accidental.”

How can anyone examine and acknowledge the Chinese communists’ behavior over the last decade — to wit, increasingly unabashed and brazen belligerence, hegemonistic conduct, “Belt-and-Road” usury loan program to emerging markets nations, corporate theft of intellectual property, artificial islands territorial expansion, continued hostility towards Taiwan, etc., — and not come to the conclusion that Wuhan virus was transparently an intentionally-released bioweapon, released at the beginning of an election year in the U.S. (or, slightly before year 2020), with the calculated intent to hurt President Trump’s re-election bid, and, install a manifestly corrupt, pliable, compliant, tottering, feeble, dim-witted and easily controlled puppet/marionette/vassal/dotard, in Chairman “Big Guy” Xi-den?

And, this vicious and brazen scheme worked. With no one willing to hold the Chinese regime accountable.

funny how purposeful release is stated in the WAPO article…