Dr Mercola in a now deleted piece, has given his usual informative summaries of important issues, in this case new evidence relating to the lab origin of Covid-19. He notes that science writer Nicholas Wade, who earlier wrote a widely respected critique of the natural origin hypothesis of Covid's origin, published another piece on January 25, 2024, with new evidence of the lab origin of Covid. The evidence was obtained by the US Right to Know organisation, and according to Wade shows why no scientists have ever found the Covid-19 virus in the natural world, because it is a lab creation. The documents show that there was already a blueprint in existence for the creation of Covid-19 by gain-of-function genetic engineering research, before the so-called pandemic. "American scientists planned to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to engineer novel coronaviruses with the features of SARS-CoV-2 the year before the virus emerged from that city," USRTK reporter Emily Kopp concluded.
The documents are known as "Project DEFUSE," and in March 2018, the EcoHealth Alliance, led by Peter Daszak, applied for a $14.2 million grant to conduct gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in research labs in the US and the Wuhan Institute of virology. Passing over the exact technicalities, the gain-of-function project, which was rejected for funding, involved the very genetic changes that made Covid so infectious, and it was argued that all of these changes had an infinitesimal chance of arising in nature by mere chance. According to Wade: "Indeed, Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who had called the 2022 paper 'noteworthy ... but not decisive,' now says that the evidence in the new documents 'elevates the evidence provided by the genome sequence from the level of noteworthy to the level of a smoking gun.'"
As it is likely that the US side colluded with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to produce the virus, there is a cover up by the US that may not have occurred if communist China had done this on its own.
To be continued ….
"According to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, author of "Deception: The Great COVID Cover-Up," the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed millions of people, was the result of Anthony Fauci's decision to fund dangerous gain-of-function research in China — research that was officially banned in the U.S. at the time and at bare minimum should have been done with U.S. oversight but wasn't.
Adding insult to injury, Fauci personally profited from the disaster to the tune of about $5 million. "Congress was misled by Anthony Fauci," Paul told now-independent journalist Tucker Carlson. "In the end, he deserves to be in prison."
New Evidence Strongly Indicates SARS-CoV-2 Was CreatedIn a January 25, 2024, article1 in the City Journal, science writer, editor and author Nicholas Wade details new evidence2 obtained by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) that further strengthens the theory that SARS-CoV-2 was indeed made in a lab.3
As noted by Wade, that's the key reason why no one, despite massive testing efforts, has been able to find SARS-CoV-2 in any wild animal, bats or otherwise. It never existed in the natural world, only in the lab.
The newly-obtained documents include what amounts to a recipe for "assembling SARS-type viruses from six synthetic pieces of DNA designed to be a consensus sequence — the genetically most infectious form — of viruses related to SARS1, the bat virus that caused the minor epidemic of 2002," Wade writes. As it turns out, SARS-CoV-2 has this exact six-section structure.
The documents also show that "American scientists planned to work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to engineer novel coronaviruses with the features of SARS-CoV-2 the year before the virus emerged from that city," USRTK reporter Emily Kopp writes.4
The DEFUSE Proposal Provides the RecipeIn March 2018, the EcoHealth Alliance, led by Peter Daszak, applied for a $14.2 million grant to conduct gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in research labs in California, North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin, Singapore and Wuhan. The proposal, dubbed "Project DEFUSE," describes how scientists would:5
Insert furin cleavage sites at the S1/S2 junction of the spike protein
Assemble synthetic viruses in six segments
Identify coronaviruses that were no more than 25% different from SARS1
Select for receptor binding domains adept at infecting human ACE2 receptors
SARS-CoV-2 Matches DEFUSE Research ParametersAs explained by Kopp,6 SARS-CoV-2 matches these research parameters to the T. It has a furin cleavage site in the spike protein at the S1/S2 junction, and its genome can be divided into six evenly spaced strings of DNA using restriction enzymes called BsaI and BsmBI. This even spacing is unlikely to occur in the genomes of natural viruses.
The reason scientists splice viruses together using evenly spaced DNA pieces is because it's easier to manipulate. It allows them to synthesize the individual pieces chemically and then string them together to create a complete genome.
This telltale synthetic "fingerprint," found in the genome of SARS-CoV-2, was detailed in a 2022 preprint by Bruttel et. al.7 As noted by Wade,8 the bottom line is that "if your virus has evenly spaced recognition sites, it's a pretty good bet that it was made in a lab." As it turns out, the DEFUSE draft proposal even included an order form for BsmBI — a fact highlighted by Bruttel in a Twitter/X post.9
The genomic variations of SARS-CoV-2's are also within the 25% range indicated in the proposal, and its receptor binding domains were optimized for human ACE2 receptors from the start, which is what allowed it to spread like wildfire. Wade writes:10
"Discovery of the new recipe certainly strengthens the possibility that the regular spacing of BsaI and BsmBI recognition sites in SARS2 is the signature of synthetic origin.
Indeed, Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who had called the 2022 paper 'noteworthy ... but not decisive,' now says that the evidence in the new documents 'elevates the evidence provided by the genome sequence from the level of noteworthy to the level of a smoking gun.'"
Matt Ridley, coauthor of "Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19" agrees, noting that all of the novel features of SARS-CoV-2 are explained by the proposed research methods detailed in the DEFUSE documents.
"Game over." Ridley wrote.11 "The latest revelations provide precise confirmation that all the many suspicious features of SARS-CoV-2 which imply it was man made were set out in exhaustive detail in the DEFUSE proposal to which Wuhan Institute of Virology was a partner."
EcoHealth Was Well Aware of Pandemic RisksAccording to the DEFUSE draft USRTK obtained, the plan was to synthesize anywhere from eight to 16 strains of SARS-type bat viruses with human spillover potential, in order to create a vaccine that would then be used on bats in regions where there is military activity.
Importantly, EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were well aware of the potential that this research could spark a human pandemic. A planning memo contains a note stating, "We MUST make it clear in proposal that our approach won't drive evolution the wrong way, e.g. drive evolution of more virulent strain that then becomes pandemic."12
At present, it would appear that's exactly what happened. A synthetic virus was concocted, and somehow escaped from the WIV. Whether it was intentional or not is another matter. Either way, the moral of the story is that gain-of-function research poses enormous risks to public health, and if pandemic risk exists, then the research probably shouldn't be allowed.
Documents Show Deceptive Practices to Gain GrantsAnother thing these new documents reveal is how Daszak used misdirection in an effort to deceive the U.S. government about where this obviously risky research would be conducted. While he had every intention of having much of the work done at the WIV, he downplayed the role of the Chinese researchers and made it seem as though the research would be conducted in the U.S.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ultimately rejected13 the proposal due to "significant weaknesses," including the fact that the proposal lacked any kind of risk assessment and risk mitigation plan. Whether someone else provided the funding, and if so, who, remains an open question. As reported by Wade:14
"The DEFUSE proposal was authored by Peter Daszak, head of the EcoHealth Alliance in New York, with partners including Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina ...
Some observers believe that when DARPA declined to fund the project, the Chinese members of the group may have decided to find their own financing and go ahead unilaterally. This is plausible, as Baric and Shi were collaborators but also rivals. With Baric blocked for lack of DARPA funds, Shi may have seen the chance to race ahead if she could acquire funds from Chinese sources.
Daszak, the project leader, had planned in any case to have much of the work undertaken by Shi's team in Wuhan, even though it meant deceiving the Defense Department into thinking the bulk of the research would be done by Baric in the United States.
In a note found in the new documents, Daszak wrote, 'If we win this contract, I do not propose that all of this work will necessarily be conducted by Ralph, but I do want to stress the US side of this proposal so that DARPA are comfortable with our team. Once we get the funds, we can then allocate who does what exact work, and I believe that a lot of these assays can be done in Wuhan.'
Daszak is a research manager, not a virologist, and perhaps did not fully understand the consequences of this decision. The DEFUSE project, if undertaken by Baric, would have gone forward in the second-highest level of safety conditions, known as BSL-3, because Baric believed that the manipulation of SARS-related viruses was dangerous work and did his research in a BSL-3 lab.
The Chinese were less impressed with the dangers. Shi worked on SARS-related viruses mostly in BSL-2 labs, which have minimal safety requirements, though she did test the viruses on humanized mice under BSL-3 conditions.
When SARS2 first appeared in the world, it had all the unique properties that would be expected of a virus made according to the DEFUSE recipe. Instead of slowly evolving the ability to attack human cells, as natural viruses must do when they jump from animals to humans, SARS2 was immediately infectious to people, possibly because it had already been adapted in humanized laboratory mice to the human cell receptors ...
Despite intensive search, no precursors for SARS2 have been found in the natural world. Given the 2018 date of the DEFUSE proposal, the researchers in Wuhan could have synthesized the virus by 2019, accounting perfectly for the otherwise unexplained timing of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as its place of origin. It all fits."