This article contains claims that many will consider incendiary and anti-science. It therefore requires context and if you indulge me for a minute or two, I’d like, at length, to provide background before we address the large mammal. Words have power and we use them to record our history, describe the world around us, create narratives and chart the future. We use words to communicate our deepest thoughts, describe our fears and share our joys. And then, in some instances we use words to lie, both to others and ourselves.

I understand fully the responsibility that comes with the gift of being able to convey complex ideas to others, more importantly however, I also grasp the moral obligation attached to the gift. It should only ever be used for truth, or in the pursuit thereof. Science isn’t that different. It relies on words to describe complex concepts, often utilizing its own specific language, one that for most laypeople, places much of what is discussed beyond reach.

I am, for the record, a disciple of science. I believe. I always have. The logical purity of numbers and the wonders of the natural world are intertwined in an almost mystical fashion and our salvation, as a species will undoubtedly depend on science. Much like the Spiderman character however, the ability to wield an understanding and control over the natural world grants the scientist almost unlimited power. Power that, you guessed it, requires responsibility. Responsibility, morals and a strong sense of ethics.

That it what this article is about. It is not about science per se, but rather about the consequences we now face from the abuse and corruption of the discipline, morphing it into a tool whose primary focus is profit and control, rather than the betterment of our species. That, unfortunately, makes the brand of science currently being practiced, a danger to you and I. A fact the pandemic has highlighted with stunning clarity.

mRNA is the Pandora’s box of science, one of many advancing technology has uncovered. Make no mistake, mRNA holds huge promise for medicine, potentially even rivalling the discovery of penicillin. You can read an article I wrote on that exact topic in 2021, exploring the promise the technology holds.

So no, I am clearly not anti-science, at least not when the science being practiced is honest, ethical and cautious science, science that is aware of the potential impact of its actions on society and our wellbeing. That is not the science we have endured for the last three years, and we need to speak up. We have been systematically and intentionally lied to, misled and chemically abused for the last two years of the pandemic, potentially even right from the outset. Misled with words, scientific phrases couched in ambiguity and force-fed fear by the mass media, at the behest of politicians and scientists.

Now, when the dust settles, we need to face uncomfortable truths and a world that has changed, in ways we have yet to fully grasp. So, to the article, and if you should find yourself at odds with it, please, at least consider the questions it raises.

The Viral Elephant

If, and the “if” is looking more and more likely, the entire human race was just exposed to the first genetically engineered virus, we need to be urgently addressing the elephant in the room. The effects of the SARS-COV2 virus on our physiology are widespread and complex and it is critical more time is spent reverse engineering exactly how the virus was altered to increase its transmissibility.

I came across an incredibly interesting article while writing this piece from one of Medika’s contributors, William Haseltine, that describes in detail one of the unique tools this novel virus utilizes to evade and suppress our immune system. The article may prove heavy going for some, but it is an excellent read and provides insight on just how well adapted the virus is at exploiting our defenses.

Far more than being a one trick pony, SARS-COV2 is the Swiss army knife of viruses and we, unfortunately, are the can of baked beans.

You may notice how I refer to the above tool as unique. Its a term used all the time when discussing this virus. It is unique and the more we discover about it, the more likely it becomes that it was intentionally weaponized (for whatever purpose) to exploit our physiology. Simply put, the virus that has killed millions across the globe was likely released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is a product of science, American science, it is worth adding, practiced at a safe distance, on foreign soil and funded by American taxpayers.

For the first time in the history of humanity, over the course of the next two generations, this genetically manipulated virus will have infected the entire global population. For those who escaped the virus itself, there is no escaping the engineered bits (or spike protein) that have been artificially stimulated in your system by the mRNA vaccines. So the extent of the damage caused by the SARS-COV2 virus and its ability to access our entire physiology is not surprising, given it was designed for exactly that purpose.

We now face a new kind of threat, unknown medical risk by intentional design, a threat for which we are physiologically unprepared. This new world is filled with unknowns. Future mutations, revisited on us by livestock as we infect a host of animals that live in close proximity to us, or a reversion to the original SARS strain, far more deadly than SARS-COV2. How the virus and the vaccines impact our immune system’s response to future viral attacks is also up in the air. These are the issue’s we should be addressing now, with a sense of immediacy.

It is not melodramatic to suggest our species survival may depend on it, and if you think this is being melodramatic, then you still haven’t grasped the gravity of what has just unfolded.

The first step in this process requires accountability from the players involved, most notably EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, Anthony Fauci, Kristian G. Andersen, Dr. Ralph S. Baric, Dr. Shi Zhengli, et al. must be made to cooperate with a view to establishing the exact nature of their Gain of Function research on coronaviruses. Exactly what did they cook up in the lab in Wuhan and what else resides there on ice, patiently waiting for the next breach in safety protocols.?

It is also worth pausing a moment to consider the irony of the last three years, of looking to those who created the SARS-COV2 virus for our salvation.

The pandemic is rapidly transitioning from a global viral infection to chronic, long-term complications, with a range of symptoms so broad, doctors are at a loss as to how to define and treat them. Covid vaccines may play a significant, but as yet, unquantified role in many of these chronic and often fatal conditions, further muddying the waters. To truly understand which actor, the vaccine or the virus, both manufactured, may be to blame for the afflictions faced by millions, we need reliable, unbiased research and securing that is proving increasingly difficult.

Sifting Quicksand

Every corner of science and the politics that governs it has skin in the Covid game. The pharma industry, perhaps best positioned to carry out large-scale clinical research, can no longer be trusted. Any data released by pharma relating to anything pandemic related – especially in the absence of critical, independent third party review, cannot and must not be taken at face value.

The original Covid mRNA vaccine trials are evidence of this. The trials (170 people, in case you were not aware) were subjected to the most appalling “management” of candidates and data to validate the vaccine’s safety. Rapid development of a vaccine or treatment was of the essence to alleviate a collapsing medical infrastructure that was buckling under the pressure of the pandemic. Moderna took 28 days to solve the problem. 28 days. I’d say it again, but you can draw your own conclusions.

After nearly two decades, we hadn’t managed to develop a vaccine for the original SARS virus and yet, 28 days later, we had a working SARS-COV2 vaccine ready for clinical trials. The absurdity of this and the euphoric acceptance of this break with scientific reality go a long way to illustrating the desperation felt by many in the early days of the pandemic. Logic would rather suggest the virus was familiar to both Moderna and Pfizer prior to 2019.

Government agencies within the U.S. have been deeply complicit, providing funding via the NIH and the NIAID for developing and effectively weaponizing coronaviruses, ostensibly for the purposes of “further research.” Their ability to provide unbiased opinion on what poses a danger to the public they serve has been compromised. It is essential, moving forward, that both the FDA and CDC are overhauled, effectively preventing their pursuit of policies that place the public directly in harms way. Take their latest unanimous advice on vaccinating children as young as six months with mRNA vaccines.

Possibly the greatest indictment of the CDC is their mismanagement of VAERS. The CDC took 15 months before it finally evaluated data from the VAERS system in June of 2022. VAERS is a dedicated tool for collecting reports on vaccine side effects. So why wait 15 months? No sense in checking data for safety signals to simply verify what you already know, is there? Once you’ve checked that data, you can also no longer ignore it.

Every academic medical institution capable of performing the required research we so desperately need is at the same time beholden to outside funding. Research grants and future employment are dependent on not rocking the boat. To produce data that conflicts with, compromises or exposes funding sources (for the most part, pharma) is the equivalent of professional suicide and banishment to the land of the unfunded.

That leaves us with the politicians, whose agendas are rarely fueled by the best interests of the public. Although elected by us, they are all cling to the purse strings that enable them to reach their lofty heights. We will probably never know who orchestrated the official pandemic narrative, but it was the politicians who enforced it. In 2023, despite irrefutable evidence that disputes this narrative, most still repeat it ad nauseam.

To understand just how interwoven this has all become, take Peter Daszak, appointed by the WHO to head up a team to investigate the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan, effectively policing his own research. In record time he appeared on camera, stating that his investigation had turned up no evidence of a breach in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Lie upon lie, layer upon layer of deceit and deception. Little wonder then that trust is science is at an all time low.

Given the above, where do we then turn for reliable, agenda free research that is motivated only by the pursuit of the truth? We need to overcome this seemingly insurmountable obstacle before we can even consider unpacking the plethora of virus related questions that require answers. Some would suggest, the World Health Organization is best placed to oversee an investigation, but they too, possibly more than any other health body, are riddled with conflicts of interest on every level.

One thing is glaringly apparent though. There is large and growing body of evidence supporting the fact Covid vaccines are harming some, in many instances, fatally, which begs the following question.

WHY DO WE CONTINUE TO USE THEM? Why have we extended vaccination to healthy children and why does the CDC support this and promote it? How, in good conscience and with the safety of the public in mind, can governments and regulatory bodies allow the current narrative to continue? The study I have linked to above, references post vaccine induced myocarditis. Myocarditis post the Pfizer-Moderna combo was 28 times more common than post-Covid in 16-24 year old males in this massive Nordic study.

Impunity and the Point of No Return

No one is coming to save us and any hands that reach out from the medical and scientific community must, in light of the last three years, be considered tainted by default, until proven otherwise. This is the sad reality of where we currently find ourselves. Everyone in a position to put an end to the current pandemic narrative is compromised. They have passed the point of no return and although many may be racked by feelings or remorse, there is no world in which anyone admits fault, in particular to the virus’s origin and the efficacy of the vaccines.

That wonderful phrase “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” is absolutely applicable. Everyone sold the narrative and no one institutes an investigation in which they are also likely to be held accountable. Add to this, a growing number of individuals, intimately involved in the pandemic, who act with absolute impunity and concern only for shareholder and personal profit – or glory – and we seem to find ourselves in a spot of bother.

Realistically, no one in a position of power or acting from within the industry is going to the sound the alarm. Our only hope of getting to the truth lies in picking at the edges of the tapestry until it frays and pulls apart. It is left to fringe reporters to harass individuals like Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, who was accosted recently in Davos by two reporters from Rebel News. He was peppered with questions about their vaccine, its efficacy and more. Understandably, he diplomatically kept silent .

An eminent British cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra has also taken a stance against the vaccines and their manufacturers after the death of his father from a vaccine related illness. He is among a rising number of influential voices now starting to speak out publicly to call for an end to the mRNA vaccination campaign.

It is by no means a simple task or one for the feint of heart. Censorship is still frequently applied to any information that questions the ongoing Covid narrative, and on many social media platforms, content and users are still frequently de-platformed and often professionally sanctioned. Many have turned to Twitter, which, in recent months, since it’s acquisition by Elon Musk, has stopped censoring information that conflicts with the official narrative on the pandemic.

I’ve shared many articles during the last three years, relying mostly on common sense to question the incredibly dubious public health decisions as they’ve unfolded on a very public platform. At this point in the pandemic, we are now confronted with a very new and real threat, in the face of which, who did what, where, when and why, become almost irrelevant.

Mankind 2.0

What legacy will SARS-COV2 leave in its wake and how does that impact us and future generations? What long term impacts will the continued boosting of a novel drug with an abysmal safety record have on our physiology? What has it done to us over the last three years?

The truth is, we really don’t know the answers, which, in some instances, will require time and separating the vaccine’s effects from those of the virus have now become a research nightmare, thanks to the billions already vaccinated. In 2021, a group of academics valiantly tried to sound warning bells, this incredibly detailed article highlighting the potential dangers of mRNA vaccines.

We are headed into troubled waters, from a public health perspective. We may yet be plagued for generations to come by the ill effects of both the virus and the vaccines, no matter their delivery methods. More so, there is swirl and mistrust in voices of influence.

Long Covid, vaccine Serious Adverse Events (SAE’s – to many to list here) and strokes and heart related damage, in many instances fatal, already blight the medical landscape. Worryingly, the younger members of society appear to be as prone, if not more so, to developing adverse reactions, perhaps because their immune responses to the vaccine are more pronounced.

Humanity may have undone humanity, only time will tell. Time is needed to sort-out fact from fiction – probability from certainty. The responsibility now rests with us (you and I) to ensure we attempt to repair the damage and prevent any further rushed science being put to trial in the public space.

What can you do, you ask? Research all sides of the conversation. Ask questions and demand answers from those you have placed into positions of accountability. The truth will out – over time. Make your own, informed decisions – balancing your personal care and risk/risk – the risk of the current virus variant alongside your health status.

I’d ask one more thing of you. Trust your instincts and try to approach public facing pandemic information with a critical mind. There is almost always an agenda, from both sides of the fence and a little digging will normally uncover it. It’s time to leave the safety of the flock. In case you hadn’t noticed they’ve appointed the wolf as shepherd.

As a parting thought, please don’t vilify science. It is as much a victim of the avarice and greed of humanity, as we are. Perhaps, while we attempt to save ourselves, we can, in the same moment, rescue science. We are going to need it.

Missed Part 5 of the Covid Files on The Origins of Covid? Catch up here.

[EDITORS NOTE: The author is pro public health, pro science and pro vaccination. In this situation, he raises important questions and concerns for readers around the Covid SARS2 virus and Covid treatment approaches. His goal is to get people thinking in the best interest of future health innovation.]

The post Covid’s Elephant in the Room. We Must Address it appeared first on Medika Life.

In a recent interview, the so-called “Batwoman” as she is referred to, Chinese virologist, Dr. Shi Zhengli, spoke to a New York Times reporter to offer her side of the story. We think she should have maintained her silence as it is doubtful she will be given a fair hearing by a largely illiterate press. Figure out that oxymoron!

The story of the moment becomes the narrative the press promotes and we suggest, based on their dubious track record over the last year, that they should keep their opinions and let science get on with what it does best. They are ill-placed and apparently ill-equipped to distinguish fact from fiction or engage in simple reporting.

Who is Dr. Shi Zhengli, and what does she have to say?

She started out as a research assistant at the Wuhan Institute for Virology (WIV), with a focus on aquatic viruses. She trained in France and later pivoted to bats in 2004 after SARS broke out. She is widely recognized as a leader in the field and is a generous collaborator. She is not a Chinese Communist Party member.

To facilitate her research, she has spent years collecting bats from caves across China, investigating how the coronavirus can jump from animal to human, and she embraces the term many now use to refer to her, “Batwoman”. She is driven, highly educated, and passionate about her work.

“In all the work we do, if just once you can prevent the outbreak of an illness, then what we’ve done will be very meaningful”

Here are some of the statements she made to New York Times reporter, Amy Qin, in their recent telephone conversation.

• She has denied reports that three workers at the WIV were sick with flulike symptoms in Nov 2019 and she asked for their names.

“We were sitting in a meeting and wondering who these people could be,” she said.

• On Gain-of-Function (GOF) research, she said her research did not count as GOF because she did not set out to make a virus more dangerous, but to understand how it might jump across species.
• She also addressed concerns about biosafety and said she would publish more about an incident relating to the Yunnan miners soon.

What emerges from the interview, according to Qin, is that Dr. Shi Zhengli is now feeling angered and anguished. She is drawing a clear line in the sand, identifying science and the rest of the word as two distinct entities. She states that any future engagement will be with her colleagues and the field of science.

It’s not difficult to see why she feels let down or why the world may view her opinions as suspect.

The Covid pandemic has become many things over the last year and a half. It has been politicized and weaponized by almost every segment of our global communities, appropriated for their own agendas, none of which recognize or respect science. In fact, few even begin to understand the complex issues that lie at the heart of the virus’s origins, but that matters little.

In Shi’s own words;

“This is no longer a question of science. It is speculation rooted in utter distrust.”

Can we believe her?

It’s impossible to say, for a number of reasons. Firstly and most troubling, is China itself. They’re not known for their transparency and have closed ranks over Wuhan, the laboratory, and its research. Dr. Zhengli may very well want to share additional research with her international colleagues but that would undoubtedly require Beijing’s consent.

It’s doubtful at this point if they would be accommodating. Pandemic relationships with China became immensely strained under the Trump regime and haven’t improved under Biden. Under normal circumstances, the flow of scientific information between China and its Western counterparts is actually remarkably transparent.

The second issue revolves around science itself. It’s a tedious and painstaking process to track down the source of any virus. While well-documented evidence from renowned virologists tends to suggest that the SARS-CoV2 virus is natural, there is also evidence that suggests it has been with us for a lot longer than we previously thought.

So most of the valid virology voices seem to support Dr. Zhengli’s statements. The simple fact is this. We just don’t know enough or have access to sufficient evidence to be able to make any claims relating to a laboratory leak or any other theory. More time is required and more research, based on real science, needs to be performed.

This takes time, sometimes years, and into the black void, created by a lack of information, step the press. If they cannot report news, well then, why not create it. That is not the role of any responsible or ethical journalist. Sadly, the media industry has proven itself to be utterly bereft of any morals and they will continue to muddy the waters with unsubstantiated and misinterpreted data.

Watch this space as the press, quacks, hacks, and pseudo-scientists set about the word by dissection and dismemberment of Dr. Shi Zhengli and her statements.

The post Dr. Shi Zhengli, Wuhan’s Batwoman Speaks Out on Covid and Lab Leak Theory appeared first on Medika Life.

Nicholas Wade is wrong

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, has been busy pushing an “undisclosed U.S. intelligence report” suggesting that three Chinese researchers at the now-famous Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in November 2019. These workers had “symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness”.

Conspiracy theories of the COVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 originating in an accidental lab release being peddled by Trump’s former FDA commissioner and the WSJ are not surprising. Supporters of Trump clearly have no love of truth as witnessed by how the GOP is treating long-time uber-conservative party leader Liz Cheney.

The most recent salvo of dubious theories comes from Nicholas Wade, a former science writer for Nature and Science and the New York Times. Despite Wade’s journalistic pedigree, close reading of his latest essay on the origins of COVID-19 reveals a poor adherence to reporting standards, investigatory lapses and major biases, and insistent mis-representation or outright falsehoods, leading to erroneous and unsupportable conclusions.

Unfortunately, Wade’s conspiracy theory has already gotten significant press, and is notable mostly for his highly personal attacks on those with divergent views: Drs. Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins and Kristian Anderson and Peter Daszak are among his most prominent targets.

Wade promises to guide you through the molecular biology of viruses, but his promise is shallow. Wade’s essay shows that his biology knowledge is ankle-deep and packed with major and minor errors and misrepresentations. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology so he is not completely uneducated.

However, Wade proves the classic trope that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. His essay is exactly that — a dangerous thing.

Let’s see why.

More personal than molecular biology…

Wade spends much of his essay doling out personal takedowns of some key coronavirus researchers who have communicated scientific observations contrary to his opinions. The first of many victims is Dr. Peter Daszak, and the second is Dr. Kristian Anderson, followed by others.

Let’s focus on Wade’s attacks on Dr. Anderson since Wade presses several buttons here. First, Dr. Anderson and his team published a Nature letters article early during the pandemic explaining why an engineered origin of the virus was unlikely.

In the first step of Wade’s assault, he characterizes Anderson’s Nature letter as “…an opinion piece, not a scientific article…”. Wade’s Wikipedia page says that he was an editor at prestigious scientific journals Nature and Science, and therefore clearly knows better. Wade’s claim that a Nature letter like Anderson’s is only opinion and not a scientific article is not a small error, but an intentional assault on facts and truth.

A blog by Nature lays out the difference between these two formats quite clearly:

Articles are original reports whose conclusions represent a substantial advance in understanding of an important problem and have immediate, far-reaching implications.

Letters are short reports of original research focused on an outstanding finding whose importance means that it will be of interest to scientists in other fields.

Nature letters are NOT merely opinions. This has been a long-standing feature of Nature. As a prime example, the biggest biological discovery in the 20th century may be Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double-helical and complementary nature of DNA’s structure — published in a Nature letter. Clearly not just an opinion piece.

Any science writer knows that a couple of the most important science journals are called Physics Letters A and Physics Letters B.

These Nature letters represent important scientific reports. Clearly Wade found it necessary to jettison his editorial knowledge from working at that very journal in order to diminish and dismiss Anderson’s data, discussions, and conclusions.

Furthermore, when Wade tries to tackle Anderson’s data, he remains firmly in personal attack mode with comments like:

…Unfortunately this [Anderson’s article] was another case of poor science…

Wade liberally sprinkles much more of these snide and passive aggressive attacks throughout his essay. A journalist passing judgement on a scientist’s science, suggesting himself as more knowledgeable than the scientist, and co-opting a position as a science educator while peddling obvious errors and alternative facts as science.

A poor attempt at molecular biology…

When Wade finally argued Anderson’s data and discussions, we immediately saw how out of his depth and off target he was — and therefore why he spent so much time trying to damage those with opposing views. Wade clearly found that damaging reputations was much easier than arguing the points of a field in which he was unqualified.

The first argument Wade made with Anderson was about seamless methods of cloning or DNA manipulation. Wade referred to early methods of molecular cloning that left easily detected remnants or scars in the DNA sequence. The trouble with this is that Anderson never invoked genomic scars in his paper.

Perhaps Wade was familiar with seamless cloning technology — if your only tool is a hammer, everything is a nail. One such technology was called “No see’m” and was developed and used by coronavirus researchers. Aside from Wade’s error in calling it “No-see-um” which is a type of incredibly irritating biting gnat, his bigger error is that his argument was irrelevant.

Anderson’s article said nothing about seamless technology, and instead said the following:

…Furthermore, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one of the several reverse-genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used19. However, the genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone20.…

Anderson was referring to a characteristic set of restriction sites, natural or engineered, necessary to work with each of the reverse genetic systems — nothing to do with seamless cloning.

Reverse genetics covers a broad range of scientific methods, but common among all is the idea of changing the DNA sequence (what biologists call the genotype) and then looking for changes in the organism (its features, behaviors, chemistry, etc., all lumped under a typically obtuse scientific term, phenotype). When applied to viruses, often the goal is to see when a non-human virus becomes capable of infecting human cells.

Then Wade tried to falsely characterize one of Anderson’s arguments:

…they [Anderson et al] say that the spike protein of SARS2 binds very well to its target, the human ACE2 receptor, but does so in a different way from that which physical calculations suggest would be the best fit. Therefore the virus must have arisen by natural selection, not manipulation…

This is a major misrepresentation and oversimplification of Anderson’s argument. The S protein shows strong binding affinity for the human ACE2 protein, but ALSO to ACE2 proteins from other species. The viral S protein evolved in a way that bound well, but not optimally to human ACE2. Any synthetic S protein would have been engineered specific to human ACE2, and the binding would have been much more “tailored”.

What Anderson actually said was:

…SARS-CoV-2 …binds with high affinity to ACE2 from humans, ferrets, cats and other species with high receptor homology… SARS-CoV-2 may bind human ACE2 with high affinity, computational analyses predict that the interaction is not ideal7 and that the RBD sequence is different from those shown in SARS-CoV to be optimal for receptor binding7,11. Thus, the high-affinity binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human ACE2 is most likely the result of natural selection on a human or human-like ACE2 that permits another optimal binding solution to arise. This is strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not the product of purposeful manipulation…

What Anderson meant was that computational calculations show that the binding between the viral S (spike) protein and the human ACE2 protein are not “ideal” — ideal being what we expect from an engineered S protein. An engineered SARS virus might have used one of two routes:

• Insert into the viral genome a known S protein with strong binding to human ACE2 protein.
• Passage through cells and use only human ACE2 as the target.

Either route would have resulted in a much better, more customized fit of S protein to human ACE2.

Anderson argued that there were multiple ACE2 protein targets including those from human and other animals, which strongly suggests a natural origin.

The fact that Wade did not understand this basic biological concept shows how lacking his technical background is, and emphasizes his lack of qualification to pass judgement on the scientists or science being discussed.

The irony is that Wade tried hard to imply that it was Anderson, the Ph.D. virologist, who lacked technical understanding of virology. Wade says of Anderson:

…The authors’ basic assumption, not spelt out, is that anyone trying to make a bat virus bind to human cells could do so in only one way. First they would calculate the strongest possible fit between the human ACE2 receptor and the spike protein with which the virus latches onto it. They would then design the spike protein accordingly (by selecting the right string of amino acid units that compose it). But since the SARS2 spike protein is not of this calculated best design, the Andersen paper says, therefore it can’t have been manipulated…

Note how Wade tries to tell us what Anderson’s assumption is? He tells us that the “authors’ basic assumption, not spelt out, is that anyone trying to make a bat virus bind to human cells could do so in only one way.” That is emphatically NOT Anderson’s basic assumption.

Anderson et al are virologists and they know (far better than Wade) how scientists design viral proteins. Wade packed false assumptions into Anderson’s head and article, concepts which are clearly wrong.

Wade worked hard to tell us that a Nature-published virologist made incorrect assumptions about how virologists design and make viral proteins — and then wants to tell us how virologists really do this work?

Read what Wade goes on to say:

…But this ignores the way that virologists do in fact get spike proteins to bind to chosen targets, which is not by calculation but by splicing in spike protein genes from other viruses or by serial passage…

Anderson’s comment on computation had nothing to do with engineering the virus — Wade mischaracterized and twisted Anderson’s intent. Anderson only discussed the after-the-fact computation of protein binding.

By the way, Wade also erred by saying that virologists don’t use calculations to design protein binding. Here is only one example of many articles showing how virologists DO indeed use computation to design protein-protein binding interactions.

Wade was wrong TWICE in one argument — Wade was wrong because virologists do indeed use calculations and computation to design protein-binding interactions — and Wade was also wrong because Anderson’s article never discussed that kind of computation.

Wade then tried to argue further:

…the Andersen group writes, and since SARS2 is not derived from any of them, therefore it was not manipulated. But the argument is conspicuously inconclusive. DNA backbones are quite easy to make, so it’s obviously possible that SARS2 was manipulated using an unpublished DNA backbone…

Wade clearly doesn’t understand the field and assumes that any DNA backbone will work. That is not true and is why the few backbones developed took so long, and are still used. They work.

Development of mouse hepatitis virus and SARS-CoV infectious cDNA constructs – PubMed: The genomes of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) have been generated with a…pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Here are some comments from a real virologist that directly refute what Wade says is “quite easy to make”:

… To reiterate, most of SARS-CoV-2 comes from a bat coronavirus closely related to RaTG13. This virus is not known to cause disease in humans. If we were virus engineers (and this actually happens to be my job in the Benhur Lee Lab) we would need to:

Make a virus backbone from a never-before-seen virus that looks like, but isn’t, RaTG13 without having any reason to believe it would be a better starting place than a previously characterized virus (like the original SARS-CoV)

Spend months to years building a system that is easy to engineer (reverse-genetics system) when there are other virus backbones readily available.

Choose the RBD region from an unknown pangolin coronavirus even though all computer models show it should be suboptimal at binding ACE2, and show that it binds well in spite of the models (paper 1, paper 2, paper 3, paper 4)

All of these steps sound like bad ideas from a scientist’s perspective: there were easier ways to engineer a coronavirus, and no one would have rationally chosen either the bat virus backbone or the pangolin portion of the spike protein. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to be man-made from pieces of other viruses — we have zero evidence that any person or lab has attempted even one part of this process.…

Then Wade minimized Anderson’s paper as follows:

…And that’s it. These are the two arguments made by the Andersen group in support of their declaration that the SARS2 virus was clearly not manipulated. And this conclusion, grounded in nothing but two inconclusive speculations, convinced the world’s press that SARS2 could not have escaped from a lab. A technical critique of the Andersen letter takes it down in harsher words…

Wade clearly didn’t understand that Anderson discussed several other important points including something called a polybasic cleavage site. This is a short sequence of amino acids which is a target for protein scissors called proteases. Proteases clip proteins at specific cleavage sites defined by a short amino acid sequence. Anderson et al discuss how a cleavage site can be acquired by the influenza hemagglutinin protein by repeated passage in cell culture or animals. Anderson also talks about its absence in most viruses closest to SARS2, that the RaTG13 is 96% identical but differs significantly in the RBD, but the pangolin CoV are similar to SARS2 especially the 6 key resides in the RBD. Anderson also says:

…a hypothetical generation of SARS-CoV-2 by cell culture or animal passage would have required prior isolation of a progenitor virus with very high genetic similarity, which has not been described. Subsequent generation of a polybasic cleavage site would have then required repeated passage in cell culture or animals with ACE2 receptors similar to those of humans, but such work has also not previously been described. Finally, the generation of the predicted O-linked glycans is also unlikely to have occurred due to cell-culture passage, as such features suggest the involvement of an immune system18…

Now that we are aware of how shallow Wade’s understanding of biology is, it is no surprise that he completely missed the point about O-linked glycans, and that they only form when the virus is exposed to an immune system.O-linked glycans on viruses are thought to shield them from their host’s immune system. Therefore, the presence of these sugars (and the amino acids which host them), strongly point to the virus’s evolution in an adaptive immune system such as ours.

Trying to cast doubts on natural emergence of SARS-CoV-2…

Wade next tried to cast doubts on natural emergence of SARS-CoV-2. He pointed to the WHO’s visit to China and that “the Chinese had no evidence to offer the commission in support of the natural emergence theory”. What Wade failed to mention is that the US harangued China during the Trump administration, and the Chinese probably and understandably felt no inclination to openly share data with the US or the rest of the world. We would do the same even though that is not responsible or the right thing to do. But most of us are unlikely to do the responsible and right thing when we have just been admonished and insulted on the world stage.

We clearly need China to be a good global citizen and to be open and honest about what they have found, to share their data as well as processes and procedures within their research institutes that may have in any way contributed to the pandemic (or not). In order for China to act like a good global citizen, we need to treat them as such, the way we would want to be treated.

Lacking China’s data, we are missing valuable information needed to refute or prove the lab escape thesis. We don’t know what we don’t know. Nonetheless, the existing biological data rests strongly on the side of natural emergence.

Wade claimed that the lack of evidence from China supports a lab-release of SARS-CoV-2 and against natural emergence. When in fact it merely emphasizes the Chinese government’s troublesome policy of secrecy.

Wade says, “… Natural emergence remained a conjecture which, however plausible to begin with, had gained not a shred of supporting evidence in over a year”. In fact, the evidence more powerfully supports natural emergence as Anderson’s Nature paper indicated.

Wade further showed his confusion about science by making it seem fast and easy to track down viral hosts and the evolution of previous coronavirus pandemics, saying:

…This was surprising because both the SARS1 and MERS viruses had left copious traces in the environment. The intermediary host species of SARS1 was identified within four months of the epidemic’s outbreak, and the host of MERS within nine months. Yet some 15 months after the SARS2 pandemic began, and a presumably intensive search, Chinese researchers had failed to find either the original bat population, or the intermediate species to which SARS2 might have jumped, or any serological evidence that any Chinese population, including that of Wuhan, had ever been exposed to the virus prior to December 2019…

When in fact, tracing down these viruses is a huge amount of work and actually took over a decade, not months. The finds virologists made for SARS1 and MERS were a combination of massive epidemiological efforts and huge luck.

It took 15 years after SARS1 to identify the animal origin of that pandemic. Finding the civet intermediary for SARS1 was a lucky strike which was not replicated for the original source of the virus.

Wade repeatedly pushed this idea that we should have found evidence already:

…Natural emergence remained a conjecture which, however plausible to begin with, had gained not a shred of supporting evidence in over a year…

And we see why he is so anxious for this exploration to have yielded conclusive results, because he says:

…as long as that remains the case, it’s logical to pay serious attention to the alternative conjecture, that SARS2 escaped from a lab…

The logic is quite the reverse. The evolutionary pedigree of the virus is an important part but only part of the tapestry of data which builds the case for natural emergence. The lack of host species is merely that — a lack that will eventually be filled in. The lack of this data does not automatically make lab escape a more plausible hypothesis. The genomic and genetic data that Anderson and others have established continue to be best explained by natural emergence.

The pot calling the Chinese kettle black…

Wade also tried to set the stage of the Chinese virus research and show how terrible their efforts were. He quoted from two research grants:

RePORTER: Grant Link

Federal RePORTER: Grant Link

Wade then selectively quoted two technical aims of the proposal and then interpreted them in a way to give them a most sinister mad scientist purpose:

… What this means, in non-technical language, is that Dr. Shi set out to create novel coronaviruses with the highest possible infectivity for human cells. …

No. That is not the correct way to interpret those aims. First, let’s provide the overall goal of this project to establish context — always an important journalistic principle:

…This project seeks to understand what factors allow animal Coronaviruses to evolve and jump into the human population by studying virus diversity in a critical group of animals (bats), a sites of high risk for emergence (wildlife markets) in an emerging disease hotspot (China)…

And one of the specific aims to meet that goal was to:

… to test the hypothesis that % divergence thresholds in S protein sequences predict spillover potential…

Threshold is the key term. You cannot make a predictive model of infection by creating something that has, as Wade says, “the highest possible infectivity for human cells”.

Instead, the goal is to sneak up on the smallest amount of genetic change, the threshold, at which a non-human virus becomes a human virus. Making the virus maximally infective tells you nothing other than it makes people sick, that it can infect humans.

Scientists are more subtle than what Wade communicated or understood. Finding the threshold, or minimum genetic change to trigger human infections, gives scientists tremendous predictive power. Finding a maximally infective virus does nothing other than bestow dubious bragging rights.

Again, when Wade offered to explain to you the reader what the technical meaning of something in a scientific document, I hope you have learned not to trust his claim or promise.

Wade also spent considerable effort discussing laboratory safety levels such as here:

… There are four degrees of safety, designated BSL1 to BSL4, with BSL4 being the most restrictive and designed for deadly pathogens like the Ebola virus.…

And then he made sure to take a quote out of context, trying to maximize the impression that the Chinese work was substandard by saying:

…Much of Dr. Shi’s work on gain-of-function in coronaviruses was performed at the BSL2 safety level, as is stated in her publications and other documents. She has said in an interview with Science magazine that “The coronavirus research in our laboratory is conducted in BSL-2 or BSL-3 laboratories.” …

Although Wade provided the link to the Science interview, he knows that most people do not take the effort to click the link and read. It is worth your time if you have read that far in his (and my) article.

Again, let’s provide a little context. The question by Science Magazine was as follows:

…Given that coronavirus research in most places is done in BSL-2 or BSL-3 labs — and indeed, you WIV didn’t even have an operational BSL-4 until recently — why would you do any coronavirus experiments under BSL-4 conditions? …

Notice that? Most places do coronavirus research in BSL-2 or BSL-3 labs, so there is nothing unusual in Chinese labs doing the same.

Dr. Shi’s response was:

… The coronavirus research in our laboratory is conducted in BSL-2 or BSL-3 laboratories.

After the BSL-4 laboratory in our institute has been put into operation, in accordance with the management regulations of BSL-4 laboratory, we have trained the scientific researchers in the BSL-4 laboratory using the low- pathogenic coronaviruses as model viruses, which aims to prepare for conducting the experimental activities of highly pathogenic microorganisms.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, our country has stipulated that the cultivation and the animal infection experiments of SARS-CoV-2 should be carried out in BSL-3 laboratory or above. Since the BSL-3 laboratories in our institute do not have the hardware conditions to conduct experiments on non- human primates, and in order to carry out the mentioned research, our institute had applied to the governmental authorities and obtained the qualification to conduct experiments on SARS-CoV-2 for Wuhan P4 laboratory, in which the rhesus monkey animal model, etc. have been carried out.

The experimental activities are supervised by our institute’s biosafety committee and complied with the biosafety regulations.…

Going batty…

Wade then tried to teach us about bat biology:

…The two closest known relatives of the SARS2 virus were collected from bats living in caves in Yunnan, a province of southern China. If the SARS2 virus had first infected people living around the Yunnan caves, that would strongly support the idea that the virus had spilled over to people naturally. But this isn’t what happened. The pandemic broke out 1,500 kilometers away, in Wuhan…

Spillover of the virus from bats to people directly is only one possible way SARS-CoV-2 evolved. However, even if that happened, spillover probably did not happen near the first discovery site of the virus. We should ask what is the range of the carrier (NOT to put a pin in a map where the virus was first discovered and limit our assumptions about where spillover happened).

Wade then continued:

…Beta-coronaviruses, the family of bat viruses to which SARS2 belongs, infect the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis, which ranges across southern China. The bats’ range is 50 kilometers, so it’s unlikely that any made it to Wuhan. In any case, the first cases of the Covid-19 pandemic probably occurred in September, when temperatures in Hubei province are already cold enough to send bats into hibernation…

An individual animal’s range is not a hard limit like a car’s. Animals often far exceed the normal range, so a journalist claiming “so it’s unlikely” is far from the reality. Furthermore, hibernation is not a period of complete inactivity in bats. Bats show significant activity during hibernation even in the depths of winter when torpor is highest. September in Hubei, the temperature ranges from 4–15C, so hibernation is neither required nor absolute during such a mild month.

Wade then tries to make the chain of virus infections seem like an exercise in improbabilities by saying certain conditions “must” occur on his say-so:

…What if the bat viruses infected some intermediate host first? You would need a longstanding population of bats in frequent proximity with an intermediate host, which in turn must often cross paths with people. All these exchanges of virus must take place somewhere outside Wuhan, a busy metropolis which so far as is known is not a natural habitat of Rhinolophusbat colonies. The infected person (or animal) carrying this highly transmissible virus must have traveled to Wuhan without infecting anyone else. No one in his or her family got sick. If the person jumped on a train to Wuhan, no fellow passengers fell ill…

Wade concocted a story of false improbabilities — he arbitrarily states conditions: “What if the bat viruses infected some intermediate host first? You would need a longstanding population of bats in frequent proximity with an intermediate host…”. No. Are there well-established conditions for spillover of virus from bats into other species? Where does Wade get the condition that a longstanding population of bats must be in frequent proximity with the host? Is that a known requirement? Says who? Must there be frequent proximity? Must the infected intermediate host often cross paths with humans? Who says? Wade?

Why MUST these virus exchanges in an intermediate host be outside Wuhan? The first SARS began in a city — Foshan in Guangdong province, originated in bats, and through a civet intermediate before spreading in humans with high mortality (10%).

It took 15 years after SARS1 to identify the animal origin of that pandemic. The lack of clear evidence of a natural origin for SARS2 is NOT a strike against that hypothesis — lack of data is only that — a lack of data.

The SARS1 pandemic was in 2002–3, and Shi was unable to identify the bats from which it originated, and passed through civets to humans, until 2013. And it wasn’t until 2017 that scientists identified the single population of bats from which the first SARS virus originated.

So, pointing to the knowledge of SARS1 now, and the lack of similar knowledge for SARS2 is highly deceptive and misleading.

Furin cleavage site…

Wade continues his assault on facts and biology on an important part of the SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein:

…The furin cleavage site is a minute part of the virus’s anatomy but one that exerts great influence on its infectivity. It sits in the middle of the SARS2 spike protein. It also lies at the heart of the puzzle of where the virus came from… of all known SARS-related beta-coronaviruses, only SARS2 possesses a furin cleavage site. All the other viruses have their S2 unit cleaved at a different site and by a different mechanism…

Wade purposely exaggerates the rareness of SARS-CoV-2 possessing a furin cleavage site. There are only four SARS-related betacoronaviruses — SARS-CoV-1 and -2, RaTG13, ad SL-CoV-WIV1. And indeed SARS-CoV-2 is the only betacoronavirus with a furin cleavage site. ONLY one of four!

What Wade conveniently neglects is that Furin cleavage sites are common in coronaviruses, and is present in a virus which is evolutionarily close to SARS-CoV-1 and -2. A Hibecovirus, close relative to the sarbecovirus (the family to which SARS-CoV-1 and -2 belong) and which infects the Hipposideros bat, has a furin cleavage site at the same location in the S protein. Wade is not correct to wave away the lack of furin cleavage sites in this virus family.

Again, Wade fails in his promise to teach you some molecular biology of viruses when he claims:

…How then did SARS2 acquire its furin cleavage site? …Two ways viruses evolve are by mutation and by recombination… Beta-coronaviruses will only combine with other beta-coronaviruses but can acquire, by recombination, almost any genetic element present in the collective genomic pool. What they cannot acquire is an element the pool does not possess. And no known SARS-related beta-coronavirus, the class to which SARS2 belongs, possesses a furin cleavage site…

There are more than two ways for RNA viruses to obtain mutations. A very important mechanism which Wade is ignorant of is something called copy-choice recombination or template switching, where the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase changes template in the middle of making copies of the viral RNA.

More broadly, template switching allows RNA viruses to recombine with unrelated viruses:

Wade insists that this acquisition of a furin cleavage site is a rare or impossible event, and it is not.

Wade further confuses the molecular biology of viruses by claiming that human codons, the three-letter code which translates the genetic code into amino acids, were used in the furin cleavage site, and that is highly suscpicious evidence of human interference in virus evolution, of tampering with the genetic code. No.

These viruses evolved to replicate and use the human host’s machinery — which included the human host’s codon usage. There is absolutely nothing unusual in seeing a mix of codon usage especially in a virus which has recently switched hosts from one species to another (with possibly some intermediates in between).

Wade goes on to use the creationist language of improbability to argue against very natural evolutionary steps:

…a chain of events has to happen, each of which is quite unlikely for the reasons given above. A long chain with several improbable steps is unlikely to ever be completed….

This is exactly the argument creationists use to say why the eye could not have been evolved, or a human for that matter… nonsense. The POWER of evolution is exactly that — despite your fear that the argument can go too far… we have evolved using such rare sets of events.

Wade further argued that scientists are ignorant of codon usage frequencies:

…For the lab escape scenario, the double CGG codon is no surprise. The human-preferred codon is routinely used in labs. So anyone who wanted to insert a furin cleavage site into the virus’s genome would synthesize the PRRA-making sequence in the lab and would be likely to use CGG codons to do so….

If it was important for a particular codon to be used, virologists are very cognizant of which set, human or viral, should be used. Human-preferred codons are NOT blindly used, nor are they just routinely used in all labs. Codon usage is a conscious and important matter in molecular biology. Indeed, it may very well be that bacterial codon usage is actually the single most widely used preferred codon-set.

Then Wade tries to use a quote from a virologist to support his claims:

…“When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus,” said David Baltimore, an eminent virologist and former president of CalTech. “These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2,” he said….

NO — Baltimore is incorrect — there is no smoking gun!

If you’d like to read my thoughts on Biden’s newly announced 90-day investigation into the Origin of Covid in China, please click here.

Nicholas Wade, images are all used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, and increase public health knowledge.

The post Debunking Nicholas Wade’s Origin of COVID Conspiracy Theory appeared first on Medika Life.