Thread by @dfenton

JOURNALISTS: It is a FACT that bat corona viruses were being manipulated to be more deadly to humans at the #wuhanlab with NIH and DOD funds. This thread summarizes what you must report without fear nymag.com/intelligencer/… via @intelligencer

The Obama WH said these were "experiments that may...confer attributes to influenza, MERS or SARS viruses" to enhance "pathogenicity and/or transmissibility in mammals via the respiratory route."

But disease experts Drs. Marc Lipsitch and Thomas Inglesby in 2014 said creating new virulent, more transmissible microbes "poses extraordinary risks to the public."

In 2012, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned there was an 80% chance...that a leak of a potential pandemic pathogen would occur in the next 12 years.

Dr. Richard Ebright of Rutgers was concerned for years about the work at Wuhan to create "chimeric" SARS-related bat corona viruses "with enhanced infectivity." He said "news of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan screamed lab release."

"This pathogen first came to notice in the only city in the world with a lab that was paid for years by the U.S. government to experiment on bat viruses -- which were the ones most closely related to #SARSCoV2. What are the odds?"

In 2011, Dr. Ron Fouchier, with NIH money, created a mutant form of avian flu that he "forced" to infect mammals "via aerosols or droplets." Scientists protested, but Fauci and Collins called this "a risk worth taking" in The Washington Post.

Dr. Marc Lipsitch of Harvard and 100 scientists then signed a statement warning the work might "trigger outbreaks that would impossible to control." So Fauci paused the research for a while.

Then a study for the National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity on "gain of function" research concluded "increasing the transmissibility of the corona viruses could significantly increase the chance of a global pandemic due to a lab accident."

Dr. Steven Salzburg of Johns Hopkins said "we have enough problems...without scientists creating incredibly deadly new viruses that might accidentally escape their labs."

Dr. David Relman of Stanford Medical School said "It is unethical to place so many members of the public at risk and then consult only scientists, and exclude others from the decision-making and oversight process." THERE IS STILL NO OVERSIGHT.

The work started again. In 2015, UNC's Dr. Ralph Baric published with #wuhanlab's Shi Zhengli the insertion of a bat virus spike protein into a human SARS virus. In human lung cells, the chemeric virus caused "a robust infection." THIS WAS PUBLISHED!

Early in 2016, Baric put a bat virus spike protein from Wuhan into a human SARS virus and used the clone to attack human airway cells. It worked "readily and efficiently." This was supported by 8 NIH grants.

In Nature 2017 NIH's Carrie Wolinetz said they would again fund "research that makes viruses more dangerous... to get ahead of viruses...that pose a danger to human health."

But Dr. Mark Lipsitch said these "gain of function" experiments "have done almost nothing to improve preparedness...yet they risked creating an accidental pandemic."

JOURNALISTS: "We need to hear from the people who for years have contended that certain types of virus experimentation might lead to a disastrous pandemic like this one."

And Dr. Peter Daszak, who the US media quotes often, is conflicted. He sent NIH and DOD money to Wuhan to modify viruses! And he's a WHO investigator.

Ok I've done your work. Read the article. It is solid journalistic work. There must be public, media and Congressional oversight of this madness or it will happen again. "The best of intentions" doesn't excuse this, although Fauci is a good man.