"China must increase its oversight of laboratories handling dangerous pathogens, China must increase its oversight of laboratories handling dangerous pathogens, President Xi Jinping has told the Communist Party leadership"

scmp.com/news/china/sci…
"Biosecurity is an important part of national security and a force that “affects and can even reshape the world”, Xi told the Politburo, the party’s top policymaking body on Wednesday, according to state news agency"
"It was the Politburo’s first ever group study session specifically focused on biosecurity, highlighting the importance the Chinese leadership has attached to the issue since the onset of the pandemic."
Xi: "It is necessary to actively participate in global biosafety governance, join hands with the international community in responding to..biosafety challenges, and strengthen..biosafety policies, risk assessment, emergency response, information sharing and capacity building."
"China has overhauled its biosecurity norms and regulations since Xi called for the swift introduction of new biosecurity legislation in February 2020, weeks after the outbreak in Wuhan was first detected."
"New legislation was passed last October and Chinese research institutes have been researching shortcomings in the management of biosecurity risks."

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More from @R_H_Ebright

1 Oct
How many times can one grantee violate the Terms and Conditions of one NIH grant without being penalized?

(Apparently, if the grantee is EcoHealth Alliance, the number is at least four.)

theintercept.com/2021/10/01/nih…
Violation 1:

"No funds are provided and no funds can be used to support gain-of-function research covered under the October 17, 2014 White House Announcement (NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-15-011)."
Violation 2:

"[S]hould any of the MERS-like or SARS-like chimeras generated under this grant show evidence of enhanced virus growth greater than 1 log over the parental backbone strain you must stop all experiments with
these viruses"
Read 8 tweets
1 Oct
Eight of the twelve members of the task force had disqualifying conflicts of interest.

Covid-19: Lancet investigation into origin of pandemic shuts down over bias risk bmj.com/content/375/bm…
The Chair, Peter Daszak, heads EcoHealth Alliance, the contractor who funded the WIV laboratory performing high-risk surveillance research and high-risk gain-of-function research on bat SARS-related coronaviruses (with subcontracts from $200M in USAID funds and $7M in NIH funds).
Another member of the task force--Hume Field--was a senior employee of EcoHealth Alliance.

Three other members of the task force--Danielle Andersen, Gerald Kreusch and Supaporn Wacharapluesadee--were subcontractors on a 2020 multi-million-dollar grant to EcoHealth Alliance.
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep
@Ayjchan @aaas @ScienceMagazine @sciencecohen Wang was desperately spinning and brazenly lying.
@Ayjchan @aaas @ScienceMagazine @sciencecohen Especially in the part where he insisted, preposterously, that an accident with a natural virus during field collection or lab characterization should be deemed natural spillover and not research-related spillover.
@Ayjchan @aaas @ScienceMagazine @sciencecohen And the part where he insisted, demonstrably falsely, that definition of research-related spillover changed over the year, initially covering only accident with engineered virus and now--"latest"--covering accident with natural virus in field collection or lab characterization.
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep
"The US and China need to put aside differences and work together to set new safety standards for laboratories doing virus research, said Jeffrey Sachs, chair of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission"

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
"His comments come as both Beijing and Washington this month released statements on the need for stricter oversight of laboratories that handle dangerous pathogens."
Sachs: "The US was funding joint US-China research on Sars-like viruses, and so should not point fingers at China but should approach the investigation in a cooperative mode, and with a sense of shared responsibility for a careful review of the evidence"
Read 6 tweets
27 Sep
"[T]wo members of US Congress from opposing parties joined forces to introduce a bill that would halt public funding of...tweaking of viruses..to make them more dangerous.

Controversial virus research sparks political debate in US
ft.com/content/b32863…
"'[G]ain of function' research has been a..debate..for..years. But it has only recently become an issue for..politicians. It refers to..science in which researchers take known pathogens..and manipulate them to make them more transmissible, or more likely to cause severe illness."
Peter Hale: "Pausing taxpayer funding for..gain-of-function experiments with highly transmissible, highly pathogenic..viruses..is more than warranted..The last thing we need in the middle of a global pandemic that already has killed 4.5m..is..making..viruses even more dangerous.”
Read 4 tweets
25 Sep
"Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs said he has disbanded a task force of scientists probing..origins of Covid-19 in favor of wider biosafety research."

Lancet task force probing origins of Covid-19 disbanded in favor of wider biosafety research wsj.com/articles/covid…
"EcoHealth Alliance’s president, Peter Daszak, led the task force until recusing himself from that role in June. Some other members of the task force have collaborated with Dr. Daszak or EcoHealth Alliance on projects."
"Dr. Sachs said the Lancet Covid-19 Commission would continue studying the origins for a report to be published in mid-2022 but broaden its scope to include input from other experts on biosafety concerns including government oversight and transparency regarding risky..research."
Read 4 tweets

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