World Health Organization expert advisor Jaime Metzl: "The most likely starting point of the coronavirus crisis is an accidental leak from the Chinese virology institute in Wuhan.” He believes researchers were studying the viruses out of good intentions. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…
He lists preliminary evidence; "the case remains speculative by necessity," because China "is still restricting access to the relevant data and people... Those restrictions themselves should concern us all."
Beginning on December 10, 2019, increasing numbers of people, many of who had visited the Hunan Seafood Market in Wuhan, fell ill due to a new disease.
There is strong evidence that the novel coronavirus outbreak did not originate in the seafood market (Lancet)
There is strong evidence that the novel coronavirus outbreak did not originate in the seafood market (Lancet)
"The Huanan Seafood Market didn’t have bats for sale, & most bat species in Wuhan would be hibernating at time of outbreak. It was reported that 34% of cases had no contact with the marke & ’No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases.’ (Lancet)"
"This market is less than 9 miles away from The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences, which:
Developed chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses
Conducted ’dangerous’ gain-of-function research on the SARS-CoV-1 virus
Established a 96.2% match with SARS-CoV-2..."
Developed chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses
Conducted ’dangerous’ gain-of-function research on the SARS-CoV-1 virus
Established a 96.2% match with SARS-CoV-2..."
a virus they sampled from a cave over 1,000 miles away from Wuhan
Injected live piglets with bat coronaviruses as recently as July 2019
Published a paper on a close descendant of SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, in November 2019..."
Injected live piglets with bat coronaviruses as recently as July 2019
Published a paper on a close descendant of SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, in November 2019..."
Was hiring researchers to work on bat coronaviruses as recently as November 2019."
"United States embassy and consular officials who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in January 2018 were deeply concerned. Their cable sent to the State Department noted (Washington Post):
“the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory”
“the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified...
“the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified...
for SARS-coronavirus. This finding strongly suggests that SARS-like coronaviruses from bats can be transmitted to humans to cause SARS-like diseases.
From a public health perspective, this makes the continued surveillance of SARS-like coronaviruses in bats and study of the animal-human interface critical to future emerging coronavirus outbreak prediction and prevention.”
"The market is also less than 3 miles away from the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which:
Was accused of being the source of the outbreak from a now-withdrawn academic paper from a notable Chinese scholar at the South China University of China
Was accused of being the source of the outbreak from a now-withdrawn academic paper from a notable Chinese scholar at the South China University of China
Once kept horseshoe bats, a known reservoir of SARS-CoV-1, within its labs
Once performed surgery on live animals within its labs
Once performed surgery on live animals within its labs
"Had a researcher who quarantined on two separate occasions; once upon coming into contact with bat blood after being ’attacked’ and another time when he was urinated upon in a cave while wearing inadequate personal protection"
"Even before this outbreak, China had a very poor safety record at many of its biosecurity facilities.
Although it does not appear likely this virus was engineered (Nature Medicine), trying to determine the exact pattern and genomic ancestry of the virus is difficult...
Although it does not appear likely this virus was engineered (Nature Medicine), trying to determine the exact pattern and genomic ancestry of the virus is difficult...
"particularly as many of the recombinant regions may be small and are likely to change as more viruses related to SARS-CoV-2 are sampled. (Cell)"
China has taken a series of steps since the beginning of this crisis which seem consistent with a coverup. These include:
On Jan. 1, an employee of a genomics company in Wuhan received a phone call from an official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, ordering the company
On Jan. 1, an employee of a genomics company in Wuhan received a phone call from an official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, ordering the company
"to stop testing samples from Wuhan related to the new disease and to destroy all existing samples. (Caixin Global)"
"On January 3, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) ordered institutions not to publish any information related to the unknown disease and ordered labs to transfer any samples they had to designated testing institutions or destroy them. (Caixin Global)"
"Beijing did not notify the World Health Organization of the outbreak for at least 5 days after Wuhan officials were notified. A WHO team was not allowed to visit Wuhan until 3 weeks later & the team was not given full &unrestricted access even in this preliminary field visit
"On Jan. 14, the head of China’s National Health Commission said in a confidential teleconference with provincial health officials that the situation was “severe and complex,” that “clustered cases suggest that human-to-human transmission is possible,”
"and that “the risk of transmission and spread is high.”
The Commission issued a 63-page document on response procedures that same day that was labeled “internal” and “not to be publicly disclosed.”
The Commission issued a 63-page document on response procedures that same day that was labeled “internal” and “not to be publicly disclosed.”
The next day, the head of China’s disease control emergency center, announced on state television that “the risk of sustained human-to-human transmission is low.” This same message was delivered to the World Health Organization. (Washington Post)
"Offers from U.S. to send medical experts Wuhan in early January were rejected by the central government. (Diplomat)
"Although WIV officials have commented publicly about social media posting alleging that one of their prior researchers may be “patient zero,” the WIV has not provided any information about that person"
"A Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher who publicly accused the director of the Institute of selling infected lab animals to vendors on Weibo (with pictures of herself and her employee ID included) later claimed she was ’hacked’ and disavowed her prior allegation"
"In contrast to its earlier (and in my view probably inaccurate) assertion that the outbreak originated in the Wuhan seafood market, a Ministry of foreign Affairs spokesperson on March 12 accused the United States Army of intentionally bringing SARS-CoV-2 to Wuhan"
"Beijing disinfected the Wuhan market before a full international investigation could be conducted and has yet to provide U.S. experts with samples of the novel coronavirus collected from the earliest cases."
"The Shanghai lab that published the novel coronavirus genome on Jan. 11 was quickly shut down by authorities for “rectification.” Several of the doctors and journalists who reported on the spread early on have disappeared. (Washington Post)"
"On Feb. 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a new biosecurity law to be accelerated. In April, China placed severe restrictions requiring approval before any research institution publishes anything on the origin of the novel coronavirus. (Washington Post)"
"Labs analyzing the pathogen were instructed to destroy samples, a health center that had published the virus’s genome sequence was temporarily shut down the following day, and..."
"doctors were prevented from submitting case information to the country’s infectious disease tracking network. (Diplomat)"
"Reports of health care workers falling ill, an early indicator of human-to-human transmission, were suppressed. More indirectly, state media coverage of doctors being penalized had a chilling effect on other medical professionals who might have sounded the alarm. (Diplomat)"
"In March 2020, Beijing announced the expulsion of American journalists working for New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, the media organizations who have exposed some of the most significant misdeeds and coverups by the Chinese government over recent decades"
"In April 2020, with the outbreak in full swing, the Wuhan Institute of Virology deleted a press release detailing the January 2019 U.S. State Department visit"
"The Chinese government has now banned any researcher from publishing anything on the origins of this crisis without prior approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology (Nature)"
"On April 18, 2020, Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an interview that “there is no way this virus came from us.”
END
jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…
END
jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…
Thread of this article by Jaime Metzl is continued here:
Thread continues:
Author: @JamieMetzl, a World Health Organization expert advisor, served on US National Security Council, State Dept, Senate Foreign Relations Cttee & as UN Human Rights Officer in Cambodia. Has Ph.D. in Asian history from Oxford, JD from Harvard Law School.jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…
