Here are my thoughts on the lab leak theory and story:
1. Could the virus be naturally occurring and come from bats in a wet market?
Yes.
2. Have the experts been able to identify the mechanism of transmission from a naturally occurring event?
No.
3. Have the experts been able to identify the species that provided the medium for transmission from bat to human, as they have done for past outbreaks, such as SARS-1 (Civets) and MERS (Camels)?
No. With SARS and MERS, they were able to provide this detail in less than a year.
4. Could the virus be naturally occurring (ie., not modified through experimentation) and accidentally leaded?
Yes. We know the Wuhan lab was definitely studying bat coronaviruses and were doing so in a Level-2 lab. We also know there have been leaks from Chinese labs documented in the past (SARS infection several years ago).
5. Could the virus have been altered in a way to make it more infectious to humans (gain of function experiments)?
Yes. We know a research at the Wuhan lab had received a grant from another organization to fund coronavirus research and in the grant filings, it was indicated "gain of function" experiments would be conducted.
6. Do we know what specifically was modified with respect to the coronaviruses being studied in the "gain of function" study?
No. The Chinese government has sealed the researcher's lab notes and has not provided them to outside observers. All we have right now is some analysis of the virus that indicates there are some strange anomalies with the virus. These anomalies are specifically detailed in the article I posted a couple of weeks ago and reposted this week.
7. Was "gain of function" research being conducted in a Level-4 lab (extremely tight controls to prevent an accident)?
No. The research was being conducted in a Level-2 lab. I am still shocked that "gain of function" experiments of any kind would be allowed in a Level-2 lab.
8. Should the US or any other country be funding "gain of function" research.
No. My view and I understand the view of many scientists is there should be no "gain of function" experimentation allowed. I have read that in the past that there have been requests to put a stop to "gain of function" research and the CDC and NIH have objected.
9. Did Dr. Fauci go before Congress a couple of weeks ago and give testimony to Senators?
Yes. I posted about this testimony the day it happened.
10. Did Dr. Fauci, when asked by Senator Paul, state that the NIH does not fund "gain of function" research in the Wuhan lab?
Yes. His exact quote was -
"Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely -- entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not never and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology." 11. Did the NIH fund "gain of function" research that was conducted in a Wuhan lab?
Yes. I suspect Dr. Fauci is hiding behind the fact that the "gain of function" research being conducted did not flow directly from the NIH to the Wuhan researcher, but went through a third-party to the researcher. I personally believe Dr. Fauci knew exactly what he was doing and it does not make it any less of a lie. The funding came from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) which is a part of NIH.
12. Had the Wuhan lab researcher (Dr. Shi) conducted "gain of function" research in the past?
Yes. Here is a quote from the aforementioned article regarding research she had done with Dr. Baric, a leading coronavirus researcher at UNC:
"
Dr. Shi then teamed up with Ralph S. Baric, an eminent coronavirus researcher at the University of North Carolina. Their work focused on enhancing the ability of bat viruses to attack humans so as to "examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs [coronaviruses]." In pursuit of this aim, in November 2015 they created a novel virus by taking the backbone of the SARS1 virus and replacing its spike protein with one from a bat virus (known as SHC014-CoV). This manufactured virus was able to infect the cells of the human airway, at least when tested against a lab culture of such cells."13. Did other scientists, with a monetary interest in research being conducted at the Wuhan lab, attempt to "mislead" the public as to the possibility of lab leak and do so without disclosing their connections to the lab?
Yes. Dr. Peter Daszak drafted a letter in Lancet on February 20, 2020 that said,
"'We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,'." It went on to say,
"Scientists 'overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,'." What Dr. Daszak failed to disclose is that his organization (EcoHealth Alliance of New York) funds coronavirus research in the Wuhan lab. In the Lancet letter, they conclude with
"We declare no competing interests." If he is funding coronavirus in the Wuhan lab, this statement is absolutely false.
14. Will we ever know conclusively if the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 leaked from the Wuhan lab.
Likely not. As I mentioned before, the Chinese government has sealed the lab notes of Dr. Shi and she has not been made available for comment or questioning. If they had "nothing" to hide, why do they need to seal the lab records? Can we force them to release the records and to be truthful? No. Right now, we have a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to potential lab leak, but without the health records for the researchers admitted to the hospital and without the accurate and complete lab records of Dr. Shi, it will be extremely difficult to prove conclusively that the virus resulted from a lab leak.
