Thread by @breakfast_dogs

SARS was Bioterrorism Part 2: Amoy Gardens

I recently posted a thread about the Metropole Hotel incident which started the SARS epidemic when 20 people were infected by an index case staying in room 911. Most think the room number is just a coincidence - I don't. 🧵

For one, there are nearly 500 rooms in the hotel, so it's a very unlikely co-incidence. Secondly, it came soon after another bioterrorism incident - the anthrax killings - in which 911 was referenced by the terrorist/s to assert a link, genuine or not.

Some more context...

In 1999, the PLA published a book by two senior Airforce colonels. The title translates as "war without bounds", or "Unrestricted Warfare". The authors recognize the technical superiority of the US military, and propose a hybrid style of warfare using unconventional tactics.

They draw inspiration from hackers, financial traders, drug barons and terrorists who they recognize have already exposed vulnerabilities in western society and economies. Osama Bin Laden is mentioned often, though he was yet to commit his most notorious crime.

They admire Bin Laden for wrecking US strategy in Africa with his destruction of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania - using a simple truck bomb. They also highlight his evasion of attribution. While other terrorists boast of their kills, Bin Laden denies all responsibility.

They note the way Bin Laden finances operations through a network of shelf companies and registered charities, which operate legally even in western countries, funneling money from drug trafficking, arms reselling, counterfeiting, along with donations from religious followers.

They even mention in passing that planes might be used as a weapon. It isn't explained how, but perhaps someone read and drew inspiration from this.

Another group they discuss is the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo. In 1995 released Sarin onto 5 lines of the Tokyo metro killing 13 people, severely injuring 50 and temporarily blinding 1000.

How did they do it?

The cult improvised a way of aerosolizing a toxin and dispersing it in a particular direction, using simple off the shelf components - a pump, heater and a fan placed in the back of a truck. They also built a rudimentary containment lab to manufacture the sarin.

China has since refined the design and built aerosolization robots and drones.

Dual use perhaps...?

In March 2003, Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens estate was the site of another SARS super-spreader event in which 317 people were infected at once. As with the Metropole, the cause was again something of a mystery and drew the attention of WHO investigators.

They determined that the cause was that the index case (a visitor, not resident) had diarrhea. Because of a dry U-trap in the unit above, aerosols generated by flushing the toilet found their way upstairs and to other units above.

OK.

But hundreds infected? At the same time? In different units on different floors? In seven different buildings up to 60m apart?

This upends our understanding of viral transmission: SARS can apparently transmit via feces, 60m away, outdoors in a breeze.

That's unprecedented.

The WHO claimed the cases in other towers were secondary, but a later paper disputed this. The date of symptoms onset is too close together. If there is any lag in the other towers it is likely due to lower exposure and viral load. They were all infected at the same time.

They went to the effort of modeling the airflow, but did they send someone over to forensically inspect the neighboring construction site? Of course not. Bioterrorism is nonsense, some say.

To me One Health is nonsense. People interacting more with wildlife? Ecological/climate change driving rapid emergence of new pathogens? Bat viruses switch RBMs with pangolins, instantly gain inserts, turn into wildly transmissible human respiratory ones?

Preposterous.
🦄🧚🤡

Hotel Metropole has not been explained.
Amoy Gardens has not been explained.
The origin of SARS has not been explained.
The origin of MERS has not been explained.
The origin of SARS-CoV-2 has not been explained.

But they can all be explained - parsimoniously - as bioterrorism.

And the irreproducible "science" purporting to show natural evolution can be explained - parsimoniously - as disinformation aimed at evading attribution. It is devoured and disseminated by gullible, greedy and/or corrupt western scientists.

Bin Laden would have been impressed!

Link to Part 1 - The Hotel Metropole super-spreader event which kicked off the SARS epidemic globally:

https://x.com/breakfast_dogs/status/1868591407159812364