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Agency Says Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19
Agency Says Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19
February 26, 2023 at 7:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard 0 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2023/02/26/agency-says-lab-leak-most-likely-origin-of-covid-19/
"SNIP......
“The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.”
“The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.”
......SNIP"
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panader0
(25,816 posts)
Blues Heron
(8,843 posts)Will we ever know for sure?
Generic Brad
(14,374 posts)Sounds like Marjorie Three Names leaked some bullshit to the press to get us to suckered into one of her MAGAt/Q'Anon conspiracies.
Bettie
(19,705 posts)um, how would the energy department know anything about this? Weird.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)No big surprise - in 2017 our diplomats sent cables to the president of dangerous lab conditions at Wujan Lab.
“In 2018, Diplomats Warned of Risky Coronavirus Experiments in a Wuhan Lab. No One Listened.”
“Knowing the significance of the Wuhan virologists’ discovery, and knowing that the WIV’s top-level biosafety laboratory (BSL-4) was relatively new, the U.S. Embassy health and science officials in Beijing decided to go to Wuhan and check it out. In total, the embassy sent three teams of experts in late 2017 and early 2018 to meet with the WIV scientists, among them Shi Zhengli, often referred to as the “bat woman” because of her extensive experience studying coronaviruses found in bats.
When they sat down with the scientists at the WIV, the American diplomats were shocked by what they heard. The Chinese researchers told them they didn’t have enough properly trained technicians to safely operate their BSL-4 lab. The Wuhan scientists were asking for more support to get the lab up to top standards.
The diplomats wrote two cables to Washington reporting on their visits to the Wuhan lab. More should be done to help the lab meet top safety standards, they said, and they urged Washington to get on it. They also warned that the WIV researchers had found new bat coronaviruses could easily infect human cells, and which used the same cellular route that had been used by the original SARS coronavirus.
Taken together, those two points—a particularly dangerous groups of viruses being studied in a lab with real safety problems—were intended as a warning about a potential public-health crisis, one of the cable writers told me. They kept the cables unclassified because they wanted more people back home to be able to read and share them, according to the cable writer. But there was no response from State Department headquarters and they were never made public. And as U.S.-China tensions rose over the course of 2018, American diplomats lost access to labs such as the one at the WIV“
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/08/josh-rogin-chaos-under-heaven-wuhan-lab-book-excerpt-474322
Bettie
(19,705 posts)It really didn't occur to me that this department was involved in such things.
WhiskeyGrinder
(26,958 posts)All the members are issuing their own reports.
Ocelot II
(130,549 posts)because it manages our nuclear weapons R&D.
sir pball
(5,340 posts)TS/SCI clearance is certainly nothing to sniff at, but the DoE-specific stuff is a whole different league. CNWDI is the absolute crown jewels of classified information, the agency holding that material better have some top-notch intelligence capabilities.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)The Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories are powerhouses of science and technology whose researchers tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. The Laboratories support scientists and engineers from academia, government, and industry with access to specialized equipment, world-class research facilities, and skilled technical staff. Together, they are working to solve some of the world’s greatest scientific challenges. https://nationallabs.org/
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Disease is among the many causes of energy disruptions that threaten our wellbeing. It's also a standard military weapon. The work of keeping over 300 million of us alive and well is enormously complex, and one way or another all our government agencies are responsible for their part of it, including handling disease threats.
The DOE in particular administers our national energy policy and manages our nuclear infrastructure, and disruptions there have the capacity to kill hundreds here, thousands there, or everyone. So they have a compelling need to KNOW everything they can about everything. Before, but...
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)It's one of those quirks of federal government. Over time, the DoE just became that place where people put "science and technology gunk" so a lot got folded into it. Some of it is biological and biomedical research. For example, the Argonne National Lab does a lot of biomedical engineering. A lot of advances in medical technology can find their roots to something under the DoE umbrella.
It's like that with astronomy as well. You'd think it'd be NASA or something, but you'll be reading some bit of research, glance up, and there's the DoE stamp all over it.
They ain't just windmills.
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)came to its conclusion based on new intelligence, but deemed its level of confidence in its judgment as “low,” people who read the report told the Journal.
The FBI also determined in 2021 with “moderate confidence” the virus came from a lab leak, but the agency came to its conclusion for different reasons than the Energy Department, U.S. officials told the Journal.
Other federal agencies disagree: Four agencies have reportedly determined with “low confidence” the virus was transmitted naturally through animals, and two others, including the CIA, remain undecided between the two origin theories.
The Energy Department told Forbes it “continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed,” but would not comment on specifics to the Journal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/02/26/covid-likely-originated-from-lab-leak-energy-department-reportedly-finds-but-biden-aide-says-theres-no-definitive-answer/?sh=109ba88c1109
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)Just to be safe.
obviously
dem4decades
(14,062 posts)With a big "I told you so".
Did the Energy Department also say it was brought here in Hunter's laptop, Durham will get to the bottom of it and the January 6th videos Tucker had will prove it?
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)The problem with the censorious regime regarding it is that so many people readily signed on for it.
When higher ups in the biomedical field got together with people in government who got together with the media and tech corporations to snuff out even the discussion of it, that should seriously bother people. Not claim affirmatively for certain, but just discussing it and presenting various piece of evidence for their arguments.
Not allowed. And power colluded to do that (and a fair bit of money, too).
All power had to do to get people to go along with censorship is say, "Only bad people want to talk about this. You're not a bad person, are you?"
And it worked. It fucking worked. It completely blows my mind that that's how easy it was to do. Make it tribal and then tell people, "Are you good or one of those bad ones?"
What's the next thing it'll work on?
I have no idea if Lab Leak theory is true. I think there's a lot of smoke going on there, and we deserved a thorough investigation immediately to understand if there was fire. Millions of people have died. Don't we want to definitively know? Maybe so we can keep it from happening again in case it was from a lab? And shutting down investigation and discussion has basically rendered it so we may never really know at this point.
But people moved to stamp out the discussion right away and average citizens helped them, because they were told to.
It's chilling.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Doesn’t look good when DARPA, NIH and NIAID are giving money to Eco Health Alliance who is funding research at the Wuhan Lab. Obama stopped this research in 2017 because he knew it was too dangerous- but Ralph Barik of Univ of NC took it over to Wujan because he could no longer do it in US and he and Shi Zhengli even wrote research papers on corona viruses together.
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)No one can tell me the behavior of Peter Daszak in the wake of the virus shouldn't have been setting off alarm bells left and right. In fact, it was his behavior - when he started a coordinated pressure campaign so early on and then lobbied media to censor other views - that made my ears perk up that something potentially was going on. He worked hard to make sure no one could ask origin questions.
And what it told me was this: Even if we didn't know whether or not the virus originated from a lab, Daszak's reaction shows he very much at least thought that it could have.
While people were just starting to die and it was spreading - before even the first lockdown - he was running around behind the scenes with his hair on fire making sure no one could discuss it.
I just don't understand how people saw that and thought, "This is fine. This is totally how a normal, not potentially culpable person reasonably behaves."
"Believe Science" and "Don't ask questions" are not reconcilable statements by definition.
dpibel
(3,944 posts)you certainly sound like a person who has a pretty strong idea.
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)It isn't a religion to "believe in" (with attendant belief or disbelief entirely situational to narrative).
It's asking questions and seeking and testing answers. And yes, when that process is shut down, it pisses me off.
I believe censorship against the question was a massive violation. You know, like an actual liberal does.
It's a fun thing to be. I recommend it to everyone. And it's like a bike. Even if it's been awhile, it can be picked up again pretty easily.
dpibel
(3,944 posts)That can cover a multitude of sins. Even if you dress it up as a pure, liberal, white-hearted quest for the truth. Asking questions can be science. It can also be disinformation.
I take it that you believe the good people at The Heartland Institute should get a fair hearing as well.
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)Unless this is like a Catholic thing and there's just inherent sin that must be expunged or explained at your demand and pleasure.
In which case, pass.
When the choice is "What happened here?" vs "Stop asking questions or we'll make you shut up!" guess who's the not so good side there?
Liberalism and the defense of expression isn't a difficult thing to understand. It's endlessly puzzling to me to see a thirst for censorship from those who assume the mantle.
Sometimes, I start wondering if people are what they claim to be. Like someone 5'0" wearing a t-shirt that says "Tall!" I mean, it says there they are, but it doesn't look anything like actually being true in practice.
dpibel
(3,944 posts)When I do a search on Peter Daszak, the accusatory items I find seem to come from NY Post, National Review, Daily Caller, The Intercept.
You know. Solid liberal sources.
So there's that.
And I have to believe, based on what you're saying here, that you believe the Arizona snipe hunt into election misconduct was absolutely justified.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)The work of a task force commissioned by the Lancet into the origins of covid-19 has folded after concerns about the conflicts of interest of one its members and his ties through a non-profit organisation to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Task force chair Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia University in New York, told the Wall Street Journal that he had shut down the scientist led investigation into how the covid-19 pandemic started because of concerns about its links to the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organisation run by task force member Peter Daszak.1 “A lot is going on around the world that is not properly scrutinized or explained to the public,” Sachs told the newspaper, adding that the task force would broaden its scope to examine transparency and government regulation of risky laboratory research.
The decision came as evidence continued to accumulate that Daszak had not always been forthright about his research and his financial ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
It is clear that the NIH co-funded research at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] that a freedom of information request that showed he had orchestrated the Lancet statement without disclosing that he was funding Shi Zhengli through grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Daszak’s credibility took a further hit this June when Sachs published an essay that called for an independent investigation of the pandemic’s origin and charged that both China and the NIH should be transparent about virus research, including “gain-of-function” studies that make viruses more transmissible and virulent.5 “It is clear that the NIH co-funded research at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] that deserves scrutiny under the hypothesis of a laboratory-related release of the virus,” Sachs wrote.
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2414
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs said he has disbanded a task force of scientists probing the origins of Covid-19 in favor of wider biosafety research.
Dr. Sachs, chairman of a Covid-19 commission affiliated with the Lancet scientific journals, said he closed the task force because he was concerned about its links to EcoHealth Alliance. The New York-based nonprofit has been under scrutiny from some scientists, members of Congress and other officials since 2020 for using U.S. funds for studies on bat coronaviruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research facility in the Chinese city where the first Covid-19 outbreak occurred https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-panel-of-scientists-investigating-origins-of-virus-is-disbanded-11632571202
Sympthsical
(10,969 posts)As I noted above, when censorship can be made tribal, people will accept and defend it. Well, tada. The whole issue is now partisan and tribal to an absurd degree.
With a flick of the keyboard, we're suddenly not having a conversation about being able to ask what is or is not true. We're having a conversation about "What team are you on?"
And that is by design, and it's dishonest, and it serves the purpose of obscuring the issues at hand. I'm no wet-behind-the-ears young pup who can be distracted by the tactic.
You've not once answered the question why asking about the origins of Covid should be censored. You clearly support the censorship, as you've attempted to conflate any question with extreme conspiracy theory - which the post I replied to was also doing and what prompted my reply.
It's just dodge, weave, claim conspiracy, and appeal to tribalism.
This isn't a good thing. It's corrosive, toxic, and hostile to principles of free expression. It's Liberalism 101 stuff, and yet for some reason it remains entirely elusive. Machiavelli should serve as a warning - not a guide.
dpibel
(3,944 posts)Review the thread. Who started in on "but if you were actually a liberal"?
Being fairly dry behind the ears myself, I'm no easier distracted than you.
As far as having an opinion on "censorship," I'm in favor of any sort of legitimate discourse.
But having watched Rand Paul hector Anthony Fauci about gain of function (and seeing Fauci forthrightly deny it), I'm left a tiny tad skeptical about that side of the question.
For that matter, at this juncture, crying "censorship" is a pretty loaded tactic, and not one that is particularly associated with the left.
Your entry into this thread was tantamount to "I'm not saying it was aliens, but..." I responded to that. You've drawn your own conclusions, based on really nothing, as to where I stand on the issue of censorship and, apparently, pretty much everything else.
If that works for you, far be it from me to try to dissuade you.
Brenda
(2,054 posts)dpibel
(3,944 posts)Are you intimating that I've been trolling DU for a bit more than 20 years?
Or just that I'm not the kind of liberal that you think I ought to be?
Zeitghost
(4,557 posts)For such a well stated and critically important post.
The glee that I saw for censorship by many was chilling. Especially for someone who was attracted to the left at a young age because of it's strong defense of the freedom to discuss controversial topics by groups like the ACLU.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Hundreds of bio 3 and bio 4 labs around the world with no oversight means this can easily happen again.
You can research all the lab leaks on the net.
“A former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said that lab leaks “happen all the time,” seemingly supporting the Wuhan lab theory of Covid-19 origins.
In an interview with CBS, Scott Gottlieb said: “These kinds of lab leaks happen all the time, actually. Even here in the United States, we've had mishaps. And in China, the last six known outbreaks of SARS-1 have been out of labs, including the last known outbreak, which was a pretty extensive outbreak that China initially wouldn't disclose that it came out of the lab.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/scott-gottlieb-covid-wuhan-lab-leaks-b1856813.html
hlthe2b
(113,985 posts)the report.
There is no more important sentence in that entire article as seen on WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-origin-china-lab-leak-807b7b0a
i.e., they (in essence) flipped a coin. 
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)And our labs have mega bucks behind them. Wujan lab was underfunded and had safety violations. Also we always do deadly research in bio 4 labs- they were doing some of their coronavirus research in lower level bio 2 labs and the US was warned of this danger.
These things happen!!!
From 2019: (shut down for months)
Fort Detrick lab shut down after failed safety inspection; all research halted indefinitely
All research at a Fort Detrick laboratory that handles high-level disease-causing material, such as Ebola, is on hold indefinitely after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the organization failed to meet biosafety standards. https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/fort-detrick-lab-shut-down-after-failed-safety-inspection-all-research-halted-indefinitely/article_767f3459-59c2-510f-9067-bb215db4396d.html
Nevilledog
(55,083 posts)DOE said it was "low confidence" it came from a lab leak, at odds with 4 other agencies that said it was "low confidence" it had natural beginnings.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/26/politics/covid-lab-leak-wuhan-china-intelligence/index.html
*snip*
Intelligence agencies can make assessments with either low, medium or high confidence. A low confidence assessment generally means that the information obtained is not reliable enough or is too fragmented to make a more definitive analytic judgment or that there is not enough information available to draw a more robust conclusion.
*snip*
(This party doesn't give me any comfort)
One of the sources said that the new assessment from the Department of Energy is similar to information from a House Republican Intelligence Committee report released last year on the origins of the virus.
*snip*
Informative thread here
Link to tweet
hlthe2b
(113,985 posts)hysterical headlines.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Last edited Sun Feb 26, 2023, 07:15 PM - Edit history (1)
What animal is supposed to be the one the virus came from?
Nevilledog
(55,083 posts)This is a good paper on the subject
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8715
Nevilledog
(55,083 posts)
hlthe2b
(113,985 posts)womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Good luck going with him.
ecstatic
(35,075 posts)First of all, the origin of the virus doesn't make it any less of a real virus. Lab leaked or nature made, it's still having a huge impact and many lives have been lost. It's not a hoax, that's for damn sure.
Second, the virus never acted like other typical viruses. When it first emerged, the virus targeted the elderly and spared children. 🤔 That's actually the biggest clue in my mind. But there are other weird qualities: It randomly responds to drugs. Not consistent at all. Doesn't allow for immunity as with other viruses. Etc
yardwork
(69,365 posts)Your statements about the COVID-19 virus aren't anything I've ever heard any scientists say about it. The virus doesn't "randomly respond to drugs" any more than other viruses do. Many viruses don't even have vaccines. HIV, for instance.
Viruses are very tricky things.
Tom Rinaldo
(23,187 posts)The U.S. operates labs that research viruses also, and human error is a factor in virtually anything that humans do. The right wing, and racists like Trump, are always looking for ways to score points through racism, with China bashing. That's why Trump wanted to call Covid "The Chinese Flu." Hate crimes against Asian Americans soared after the Covid epidemic spread.
China CAN and SHOULD seriously be faulted for withholding information on Covid once it was identified as a threat, no matter how it originally started spreading. If they were sloppy while handling Covid in a lab, that can be called out also. But it's not like they released it intentionally, even if Covid did originate there. We do medical research too. We do weapons research too ("for defensive purposes".) We don't always handle dangerous materials perfectly either.
Pretty much no virus has been more dangerous to humanity than Smallpox. There are two WHO-designated sites where stocks of variola virus (Smallpox) are stored and used for research. One is in Russia, the other is run by the CDC in Atlanta What is the U.S. track record for handling Smallpox? Well, fortunately none of it has escaped since Smallpox was eradicated in the wild, but you can say that we have been sloppy with it. This is from 2014:
"Six vials of smallpox discovered in U.S. lab
CDC testing to see if decades-old virus samples are viable, then will destroy them
"Federal scientists last week discovered a half-dozen forgotten vials of smallpox virus while cleaning out a storage area on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Variola, or smallpox, which killed hundreds of millions before it was declared eradicated in 1980 through a worldwide vaccination campaign, is legally stored at only two locations in the United States and Russia.
The six vials of freeze-dried virus, apparently dating from the 1950s, were found by a scientist from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 1 July in a cold storage room that was originally part of an NIH laboratory, but was transferred to FDA in the early 1970s. The FDA laboratory is being moved to the FDA's main campus, according to ABC News, NBC Washington, and a statement today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The vials were labeled as containing variola and were packed in a cardboard box along with 10 other vials with unclear labels, ABC News reports."
https://www.science.org/content/article/six-vials-smallpox-discovered-us-lab
Ocelot II
(130,549 posts)It's important to know where the virus came from - whether it came directly from animals into the human population or if it escaped from a lab. If it came from animals more research is needed about animal-human transmission; if it was a lab error we should know how that happened, too. China's response to the pandemic has been less than transparent, regardless; but that certainly doesn't justify the anti-Asian racism it stirred up, with the implication that the Chinese deliberately released the virus, not that it escaped from a lab due to human error. As you said, human error can occur anywhere, and by anyone. The holes in the Swiss cheese model need to be identified and closed up.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)The 1978 smallpox outbreak in the United Kingdom resulted in the death of Janet Parker, a British medical photographer, who became the last recorded person to die from smallpox. Her illness and death, which was connected to the deaths of two other people, led to the Shooter Inquiry, an official investigation by government-appointed experts triggering radical changes in how dangerous pathogens were studied in the UK.
The Shooter Inquiry found that Parker was accidentally exposed to a strain of smallpox virus that had been grown in a research laboratory on the floor below her workplace at the University of Birmingham Medical School. Shooter concluded that the mode of transmission was most likely airborne through a poorly maintained service duct between the two floors. However, this assertion has been subsequently challenged, including when the University of Birmingham was acquitted following a prosecution for breach of Health and Safety legislation connected with Parker's death. Several internationally recognised experts produced evidence during the prosecution to show that it was unlikely that Parker was infected by airborne transmission in this way. Although there is general agreement that the source of Parker's infection was the smallpox virus grown at the Medical School laboratory, how Parker contracted the disease remains unknown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_smallpox_outbreak_in_the_United_Kingdom
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Check out link for lab accidents/ leaks - smallpox, SARS, Ebola, H1N1, Marburg virus,- plus anthrax, polio, foot & mouth disease etc etc
“This list of laboratory biosecurity incidents includes accidental laboratory-acquired infections and laboratory releases of lethal pathogens, containment failures in or during transport of lethal pathogens, and incidents of exposure of lethal pathogens to laboratory personnel, improper disposal of contaminated waste, and/or the escape of laboratory animals. The list is grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred and does not include every reported laboratory-acquired infection.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents
Buckeyeblue
(6,352 posts)Or is it total bullshit and no report exists?
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)classified report from the office of Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence, which was recently provided to the White House and some members of Congress, according to the Journal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/02/26/covid-likely-originated-from-lab-leak-energy-department-reportedly-finds-but-biden-aide-says-theres-no-definitive-answer/?sh=109ba88c1109
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)I haven’t seen any. Most of the agencies seem to have concluded that the original theory that it came from the Wuhan market was what really happened.
spanone
(141,633 posts)GoCubsGo
(34,917 posts)It's fully settled that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan. Most evidence points to an accidental release from the lab there, where a whole lot of zoonotic disease research takes place, rather that from the wet markets in town. But, the RWNJ conspiracists still think it was a deliberate leak, as a bioweapon. Because, when you release a bioweapon, the first people you want to kill off are your own.
pnwmom
(110,261 posts)Fullduplexxx
(8,626 posts)
WarGamer
(18,613 posts)For pointing this out years ago??
Brenda
(2,054 posts)And many people including doctors and scientists were banned for other things relating to Covid we will find out to be true as well.
Response to Brenda (Reply #47)
dpibel This message was self-deleted by its author.
Celerity
(54,422 posts)Washington
CNN
Published 6:18 PM EDT, Fri July 16, 2021
Senior Biden administration officials overseeing an intelligence review into the origins of the coronavirus now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild – a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory. Still, more than halfway into President Joe Biden’s renewed 90-day push to find answers, the intelligence community remains firmly divided over whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab or jumped naturally from animals to humans in the wild, multiple sources familiar with the probe told CNN.
Little new evidence has emerged to move the needle in one direction or another, these people said. But the fact that the lab leak theory is being seriously considered by top Biden officials is noteworthy and comes amid a growing openness to the idea even though most scientists who study coronaviruses and who have investigated the origins of the pandemic say the evidence strongly supports a natural origin.
Current intelligence reinforces the belief that the virus most likely originated naturally, from animal-human contact and was not deliberately engineered, the sources said. But that does not preclude the possibility that the virus was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats – although many scientists familiar with the research say such a leak is unlikely.
On Thursday, the director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it had been “premature” to dismiss the possibility that a lab leak had spawned the pandemic and urged China to provide “direct information on what the situation of these labs was before and at the start of the pandemic.”
and even longer ago
Updated Jun. 17, 2021 7:17PM ET / Published Jun. 17, 2021 3:25PM ET
Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.
Dong Jingwei supposedly gave the U.S. information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology that changed the stance of the Biden administration concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.
Dong’s defection was raised by Chinese officials last March at the Sino-American summit in Alaska, according to Dr. Han Lianchao, a former Chinese foreign ministry official before defecting after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In a Wednesday tweet, Han, citing an unnamed source, alleged that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Communist Party foreign affairs boss Yang Jiechi demanded that the Americans return Dong, and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused.
liberal_mama
(1,495 posts)to Covid and the lab gain of function experiments always terrified me. I always thought there could be an accident and a terrible virus would be unleashed upon us.
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Army germ lab shut down by CDC in 2019 had several 'serious' protocol violations that yr
OBSERVATION 1
Severity level: Serious
The CDC reported that an individual partially entered a room multiple times without the required respiratory protection while other people in that room were performing procedures with a non-human primate on a necropsy table.
“This deviation from entity procedures resulted in a respiratory occupational exposure to select agent aerosols,” the CDC wrote
OBSERVATION 4
Severity level: Serious
In this observation, the CDC notes that the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases had “systematically failed to ensure implementation of biosafety and containment procedures commensurate with the risks associated with working with select agents and toxins.”
The violation specifically observed involved “entity personnel [...] propping open” a door while removing “large amounts of biohazardous waste” from an adjacent room, “[increasing] the risk of contaminated air from [the room] escaping and being drawn into the [redacted]” where the people working “typically do not wear respiratory protection.”
https://wjla.com/news/local/cdc-shut-down-army-germ-lab-health-concerns