Thread by @BillyBostickson

Thread

1. In the Public Interest I have decided to share publicly what we could call the "Potemkin Hypothesis" on the origin of SARS-COV-2

This hypothesis was shared by an anonymous investigator, and I'm sure you will find it as interesting as I did.

2. This hypothesis involves Dr Ariel D Weinberger, founder and CEO of Autonomous Therapeutics, who we first looked at back in 2020:



and DARPA..

3. Autonomous Therapeutics, PREEMPT & DARPA

4. Let's start with "the prediction"



“Looks like the media is starting to report on this [the origin of the pandemic] more factually....If they get my cables they’ll also know it was essentially predicted in 2018.”

5. Prediction Probably made by Rick Switzer

Allegedly, according to @joshrogin, Switzer, a science and technology expert from the US embassy in Beijing, attended a presentation in Beijing from Ben Hu concerning the WIV chimeric Sars-CoV-1 experiments.

6. As we well know:

Switzer traveled to Wuhan to visit WIV and wrote a 2nd cable. As a result of Switzer's visit, cables were sent to the US State Department from the embassy

You can find them here

foia.state.gov/Search/Results…

7 Slightly less redacted version of 2nd one here

usrtk.org/wp-content/upl…

Which shows the State Department felt this recommendation was so sensitive it needed to be redacted:

"the United States should prioritise expanding our already significant cooperation with this institute"

8. Back to DARPA & PREEMPT

The timing with the DARPA funding seems curious. It couldn't be the formal cables, because the first one post-dates the DARPA announcement.

However, could communication via informal channels have influenced the suddenly announced DARPA funding?

9. More on the Cables Saga

archive.ph/xkhpW

courthousenews.com/wp-content/upl…

10. DARPA's Rushed PREEMPT funding round.

They sent out an email on 4 Jan, advertising a briefing on 30 Jan 2018, with submissions closing on 27 March.

It seems a very tight schedule to be dispensing 70-100 million dollars in funding.

11. Feb 2019: Successful awardees are announced

darpa.mil/news-events/20…

Including one for Autonomous Therapeutics in conjunction with "Navy Medical Research Unit-2, funded directly by DARPA".

12. Important Note

Navy Medical Research Unit-2 was the same outfit involved (with Pasteur Institute) in the sampling expedition in 2017 in Laos at the exact site where the BANAL viruses were found

I believe I was the first person to discover that fact!

13. Project Begins (2019)

Then, according to Dr Weinberger, around June 2019, Autonomous Therapeutics began a project to find a generic treatment for coronaviruses

A project which presumably requires a generic coronavirus to evaluate against, surely?

autonomous.bio/team-1

14. Coronavirus Work Begins

"Autonomous is developing what may be the 1st pan-genus antivirals to provide resistance-proof protection against any coronavirus (including future viral mutants that may evade vaccines)
The company is backed by DARPA & BARDA"

biobuzz.io/in-conversatio…

15. Yes, 6 months before the pandemic..

"We then started doing the same thing for coronaviruses (well before the COVID-19 pandemic)"

16. The Method

"We developed a single biologic with prophylactic efficacy against any Influenza A strain...Armed with the influenza data, we started working on coronaviruses six months before COVID-19 hit....."

17. Random Beta-Coronaviruses?

"The question was whether we could develop a single antiviral for both MERS and SARS, and by extension, for whatever random beta-coronavirus would emerge next."

18. DARPA's Role

"DARPA’s willingness to believe in small businesses like ours and in yet-unproven technologies is a key reason that we have been able to take off."

And take off they certainly have!

19. The Idea

A. They create a therapeutic based on shared viral genomic architecture - that works on MERS, SARS and any beta-coronavirus that might emerge

B. So to prove your concept you have to show it works on MERS and SARS and then show it works on a random beta-coronavirus

20. Did someone say "How Banal"?

You can't do that using pseudotyped viruses, even in cell culture experiments, you need a live full-length virus, a live full-length random beta-coronavirus...

Accessible via PREEMPT Team Partners

21. Therapeutic Interfering Particles (TIPs)

These are essentially small parts of the viral genome delivered as mRNA as discussed in a recent Scripps Institute paper
.

pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.10…

With some important limitations

22. Limitations:

"First and foremost, the intervention was unable to fully eliminate virus transmission from source animals, since contact animals did become infected"

(TIP intervention did not generate transmission sterilization in the Syrian hamsters)

23. The Potemkin Conjecture

Hence using this approach you could infect people such as military athletes with your "random beta-coronavirus" and provided they were also treated with the TIP, they would be fine but they could still infect others.

24. More DARPA Grants for Dr. Weinberger

Autonomous Therapeutics had two other DARPA grants - worth looking at both.

The first written in 2017:

New Platform Technologies for Viral and Therapeutic Evolution Assays

sbir.gov/sbirsearch/det…

Discusses AT's early work with TIPS

25. 2nd DARPA Grant 2019

First-in-Human Therapeutic Interfering Particle (TIP) Targeting a Respiratory Virus

sbir.gov/sbirsearch/det…

Involving Human Clinical Trials!

"The first influenza TIPs capable of long-term, prophylactic efficacy through Phase I human clinical trials"

26. Betacoronavirus TIPS?

This is a Phase I trial, ie testing the safety of their TIPs on humans - so they have a product formulated to a sufficient level to use on humans

There is no reason they could not have also done a pilot of their "beta coronavirus" TIP on humans.

27. Further Investigation is Needed

Autonomous Therapeutic's technology is patented and we have no idea what might be on AT's servers, but from the abstract it seems something that is more substantial that the 2 kb that the Scripps Institute were using in their recent paper.

28. Wuhan

AT worked on military projects

Did they run a Phase I pilot on military volunteers - some of whom went to the Wuhan Military Games?

Did the TIP revert and regenerate a live virus?

a recombination event?
a premature stop codon reverting?

researchgate.net/publication/35…

29. Possible (Military) Human Trials

Investigation by @capitolsheila

"Autonomous Therapeutics address looks familiar, former home to Uniformed Services Prostate shop, which collects blood from the military. Google search shows the awning as CPDR which is military connected"

30. The Potemkin Hypothesis in a Nutshell

"DARPA and Autonomous Therapeutics generated Sars CoV-2 but they did so for altruistic purposes and it was just an "unfortunate oversight" that led it to revert from a harmless TIP to a live virus on the WIV's doorstep"