- In accordance with US. Fed. Acquisition Regulations we are not at liberty to divulge who may or may not have submitted a proposal in response to any of the agency's solicitations.
- Since EcoHealth Alliance was not **ULTIMATELY ** selected to work on the DARPA PREEMPT program..
The ULTIMATELY gives the game away. DARPA is actually telling that EcoHealth Alliance did bid.
"Papers, ***confirmed as genuine by a former member of the Trump administration***, show they were hoping to introduce “human-specific cleavage sites” to bat coronaviruses which would make it easier for the virus to enter human cells. "
Darpa refused to fund the work:
“It is clear that the proposed project led by Peter Daszak could have put local communities at risk”, and warned that the team had not properly considered the dangers of enhancing the virus (gain of function research) or releasing a vaccine by air"
An interesting paper from the Beijing team behind the DBatVir DB (a database that is still online, not like the WIV).
Not peer reviewed.
Cast doubt on the market origin, shows that Yunnan and Laos are good candidates for SARS-CoV-2 relatives. researchsquare.com/article/rs-885…
Very careful wording, taking into account possible under-sampling:
'indicating that SC2r-CoVs might not actively circulate among bats in China'
Pours some cold water on the pangolins origin story.
"However, whether these bat and pangolin species could serve as the direct natural reservoirs and intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2, respectively, remains unknown because of significant remaining genome differences"
The project seems incredibly risky, very arrogant, and doing it with China makes little sense in the stated context of protection of the US troop deployed in Asia.
How could EcoHealth alliance hope to pull that one?
Wisely DARPA only selected teams from the US, UK, Australia (the Five Eyes without NZ & Canada), Estonia (a strong ally) and the Pasteur Institute for its reach in Africa and South East Asia.
An interesting Politico article by Michael Callahan, former biosafety physician for the U.S. State Department’s Bio-Industry Initiative in the former Soviet Union and Bio-Engagement Program in Asia. politico.com/news/magazine/…
One key section:
Which basically links bak to Jasper Baker's recent book:
Made in China - Wuhan, Covid and the Quest for Biotech Supremacy hurstpublishers.com/book/made-in-c…