Thread by @R_H_Ebright

We’re still missing the origin story of this pandemic.
China is sitting on the answers.

A Chinese institute must be opened to investigators.

Opinion by the Editorial Board
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

"[T]here is another pathway, also plausible, that must be investigated. That is the possibility of a laboratory accident"

"Wuhan..is a..center of virus studies..with at least six..BSL-3 laboratories..some..very active in coronavirus research."

"To find out if there was a..lab..accident at..WIV..or another lab, investigators would want to..examine..lab notes, records of experiments and data, intra-laboratory communications.., as well as bat samples, viral strains and all sequences"

"This would require transparency and verification of data and sample provenance."

"But it has not been forthcoming."

"WIV..was conducting 'gain of function' research on bat coronaviruses, which involves modifying their genomes to give the viruses..the ability to..transmit..more easily."

"Such research is controversial—a gain of function experiment can create a danger that didn’t exist before."

"The research involved constructing a series of novel chimeric viruses that would use different spike proteins from..unpublished..coronaviruses. The ability of the resulting novel viruses to infect human cells in culture, and to infect laboratory animals, was to be tested."

"This included experiments on mice with cells that are genetically modified to respond as human respiratory cells would."

"WIV..database..holds records of..22,000 samples and.,genetic sequences..WIV..collected more than 15,000 samples from bats, covering over 1,400 bat viruses. The database holds more than 100 unpublished sequences of bat coronaviruses that could..help..probe..origins of..pandemic."

"[T]he database was accessible until Sept. 12, 2019, when it became unreachable from outside the institute."

"Why then? Dr. Shi has said it was taken offline for security reasons. 'We have nothing to hide' [!!!]."

"A second portal of virus databases in China, created by the National Virus Resource Center, affiliated with the WIV, has also gone offline, with the result that all the key virus databases managed by the WIV are now offline."

"[T]he goal must be to open the closed doors at the institute. If the WIV had no role in sparking the outbreak, it should be relatively straightforward for Dr. Shi to..open up the databases to scientists so they can properly understand the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2."

"The institute should provide all records regarding bat samples, viruses and sequences, with verified information provenance, and eventually, it should be disclosed to all. The origin of the pandemic is of interest to every person on the globe."

"We don’t know where the pandemic began. But a major step toward finding the answer is to examine all the relevant databases and laboratory records, including those at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and elsewhere, and the clues they may hold."

If you buy that claim, there is a bridge across the Yangtze she could sell you....

And that is just the Second Wuhan Yangtze Bridge.

For the select few as gullible and malleable as WHO Director-General Tedros, there are nine more Yangtze bridges in Wuhan to sell.