The Growing Threat of Gain of Function Bioweapons Research, By Brian Simpson

Do you know anyone who has had rabies? Probably not, as the disease is very uncommon in Australia, and if not treated in the later stages, with symptoms such as hyperactivity, hallucinations, seizures, and fear of water, leads to an almost 100 percent fatality. A friend was in Bali a few years ago, and accidentally stepped on a dog, which bit her, giving her rabies. She was sick almost immediately and taken to hospital, where it was touch and go whether she survived or not. It was terrible she said, worse than one can imagine.

Yet the rabies virus in many parts of the world is freely available in bats who harbour it. What is even more disturbing is that in Frio Cave in Texas, home to millions of bats, two human visitors got rabies, without being bitten. After investigation it was found that rabies could in certain circumstances be transmitted through the air, if there was a concentrated number of bats in a confined space. But the virus itself is not yet adapted to surviving in the open atmosphere with sunlight. The virus though is capable of mutations rather rapidly as RNA viruses are, as noted by an Italian research team: "Even single amino acid mutations in the proteins of Rabies virus can considerably alter its biological characteristics, for example increasing its pathogenicity and viral spread in humans, thus making the mutated virus a tangible menace for the entire mankind."

It is more likely though that experiments to make rabies more readily transmissible are being conducted in bioweapons labs across the planet. We, the public, simply do not know what is going on in these labs, and we certainly do not know what communist China is up to. The interest of the communist Chinese in acquiring genetic information about the West perhaps indicates that research in ethno-specific bioweapons is underway. With rabies, here may be research underway to mix this virus with common variants of the flu. Then imagine what happens when this one escapes?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gain-function-experiment-could-eliminate-humans-face-earth

"A Google search for "Frio Cave" makes the Uvalde County, Texas destination look like a tourists' dream. One quickly learns that the cave is home to tens of millions of Mexican free-tailed bats, and that you can sometimes witness the flapping horde streaming out of their dark, dank home just before sunset, clouding the sky in a "once in a lifetime experience."

But Frio Cave has a darker history that visitors websites don't mention. More than fifty years ago, two humans contracted rabies while spelunking there.

That humans would get infected with rabies while visiting a bat-infested cave isn't altogether surprising. Bats are a reservoir for the terrifying disease – 99% fatal to humans once symptoms – like hyperactivity, hallucinations, seizures, and fear of water – develop. A simple bite from one of the millions of bats could have transmitted a lyssavirus that triggers rabies. However, in this instance, the spelunkers apparently weren't bitten. Rather, it seems they caught the virus from the air itself.

A team of scientists subsequently investigated. They found that rabies virus could be transmitted to animals housed in empty cages within the cave, apparently just via the atmosphere itself. Moreover, the virus was isolated from samples collected via air condensation techniques.

The episode raised a disturbing prospect. Had rabies, the deadliest virus for humankind, gone airborne?

To be clear, it had not, at least not in a manner that would result in ultra-contagious, human-to-human spread. The sheer number of rabies-carrying bats in the cave likely transformed it into a "hot-box" of infection. Rabies remains transmitted almost entirely through bites and scratches from infected animals, and it is rapidly inactivated by sunlight and heat. However, for safety, members of the general public are now only allowed to enter Frio Cave on guided tours that remain near the mouth of the cave.

That doesn't mean that rabies virus couldn't mutate to become transmitted through the air. It's an RNA virus, and these are known to have high mutation rates. Indeed, scientists have found "a vast array of antigenic variants of this pathogen in a wide range of animal hosts and geographic locations."

Moreover, as two Italian scientists wrote in a 2021 article, "Even single amino acid mutations in the proteins of Rabies virus can considerably alter its biological characteristics, for example increasing its pathogenicity and viral spread in humans, thus making the mutated virus a tangible menace for the entire mankind."

Another possible route for this to occur would be through a "gain-of-function" experiment, in which researchers employ gene-editing to tweak the rabies virus, making it evade current vaccines and endowing it with the ability to spread through the air like measles or influenza. Gain-of-function research has earned increased public scrutiny of late as there's a small, outside chance it may have produced SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Paul Offit, a professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine, commented on the potential to augment rabies through gain-of-function in a recent Substack post.

"In the absence of an effective vaccine, it could eliminate humans from the face of the earth. The good news is that no one has tried to make rabies virus more contagious. But that doesn't mean that it's not possible or that no one would be willing to try."

How does he know that no-one is trying to make rabies more contagious?