US Intelligence Fingers Wuhan Lab
On Friday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the World Health Organization to include the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in its investigations as a possible source of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This follows new US Intelligence findings that; researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became ill late in 2019, with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and other common seasonal illnesses’ while conducting research on coronavirus in bats.
Researchers at the Wuhan lab had been studying a bat coronavirus known as RaTG13 since identified as 96.2 percent genetically similar to the virus that caused COVID-19.
The Wuhan lab obtained this particular strain sample from a cave in Yunnan Province in 2013, after several miners died of SARS-like illness.
Pompeo suggested the virus outbreak was the result of an accidental leak from the lab as proper safety protocols were not in place.
Leaks from labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people and killed one.
Which calls into question the claim of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli; that there was zero infection among the WIV’s staff and students of either SARS-CoV-2 or any SARS-related virus.
While the Wuhan lab published a record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research on viruses to enhance their lethality or transmission, the lab has not been transparent about its record of studying viruses similar to that of the COVID-19 virus, and RaTG13.
Another shocker revealed the Wuhan Institute of Virology was engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.
Pompeo called on Beijing to allow the WHO investigation team free reign to pursue their inquiry by allowing access to the Wuhan lab.
WHO investigators must have access to the records of the WIV’s work on bat and other coronaviruses before the COVID-19 outbreak,’ the State Department said.
They must be able to explain why the Lab altered and then removed online records of its work with RaTG13 and other viruses.
The WHO team of international researchers who arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday hope to find clues to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the visit has been shrouded in secrecy.
While the team will investigate the ‘wet market’ initially linked to an early cluster of infections, they have no mandate to access and investigate the Wuhan lab and its connections to the virus outbreak.
In light of American Intel findings there have been renewed calls to get to grips with what caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
A completely different report with another slant on things alleges that a corporation known as Eco Health Alliance; a New York firm with a history of funding the Wuhan institute of Virology, received a research grant from the Pentagon to study bat borne diseases, and yes, it did mention the research was to aid the development of a bioweapon.
In fact, the NIH was so concerned about this it notified Eco Health Alliance that it would investigate the matter and ordered them to halt any funds to the Wuhan lab.
According to the report, a member of Congress is involved in ongoing investigations into the matter.
