Wuhan lab leak hypothesis proved

Yesterday Twitter Files journalist Michael Shellenberger released, to Substack and to Twitter, a shocking coronavirus origin report. He cites unnamed “sources within the U.S. government” as saying that SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of coronavirus, did indeed break containment in the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The Wet Market Bat Soup Theory is now dead. But the revelations also show that WIV was shockingly sloppy in its handling of pathogens of all kinds. That sloppiness caused much needless death and anguish – and also put China’s own leadership at risk.

Wuhan lab leak hypothesis long suspected

Oddly enough, elements of the Biden administration have been quietly acknowledging the “Wuhan Lab Leak Theory” for months. The Energy Department acknowledged this in February 2023, and two days later FBI Director Christopher Wray said the same. But the government of mainland China was still denying the Lab Leak Theory. Those who promoted it, said their Foreign Ministry, were “smearing China and … politicizing origins tracing.” They were, in essence, still insisting that a hapless resident of Wuhan bought an infected bat at a wet market, took it home, made soup out of it, sickened, died, and spread the disease to those closest to him.

Of course, the government was saying no such thing back when Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. was still in charge. “Molecularly impossible!” he thundered in October of 2021. But two months later a molecular biologist told the British Parliament that SARS-CoV-2 likely started in a Wuhan laboratory. In the lead-up to Midterms, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), then House Minority Leader, vowed to investigate China if Republicans flipped the House.

Republicans did flip the House, and McCarthy is now its Speaker. And remarkably, Dr. Fauci declared, a month later, that he had a “completely open mind” to the lab leak theory. Observers should therefore forgive themselves for suspecting that Dr. Fauci is covering his hindquarters.

Now Mike Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag (which might not be her real name) have published a new report on Substack carefully tracing the virus to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The thread

Elon Musk still is feuding with Substack, for obscure reasons. Hence, Mr. Shellenberger did not link to his Substack article in his thread. But the thread has a wealth of information in it. It might seem short, but it consists of long-form text, so it’s much longer than the number of tweets indicates. In fact it repeats the full text of the Substack article, and embeds its photographs and one video.

The thread concludes with an invitation to join Messrs. Shellenberger and Taibbi and commentator Russell Brand for a live show in London on June 22, 2023.

Readers should realize several key facts from this thread, and the Substack article. First, the containment protocols at WIV are seriously lacking. Your editor was never a virologist, but he did learn about infection containment while training in clinical laboratory management. Any lab director who allowed such careless handling by his staff would face dismissal, revocation of his license, and possible criminal prosecution.

This fifteen-minute video has the most damning evidence.

The English-language comments tell the tale. They speak of staff making several fatal or potentially fatal mistakes, including without limit:

• Handling live bats without wearing any protective gear,
• Working with serum samples without masks, and
• Cavalierly declaring that a bat bite is no worse than a needle stick.

Remarkably that video has stood on YouTube for three years.

Reaction

Perhaps the most salient debate that occurred in reaction to this thread is whether the leak was accidental or intentional. A sloppy lab is an accidental release waiting to happen. Still, the cui bono principle strongly suggests a biological warfare attack against the United States, as this discussion shows:

Another debate concerned which caused the excess deaths worldwide: the virus itself, or the countermeasures against it. The most likely conclusion: both are culpable, but the countermeasures might have done the worse damage.

Analysis: from Wuhan alone, or…

This article definitely implicates the Wuhan Institute of Virology in a plot worthy of Stephen King. Having said that, not even Stephen King’s original novel The Stand portrayed the carelessness on display at that laboratory. Furthermore, the story names many players CNAV has named before – and specifically a year and three months ago. That includes EcoHealth Alliance and its head, Peter Daszak – the strange bedfellow of Anthony S. Fauci.

This article tells us how the virus broke containment from Wuhan. But The Intercept was already on top of the story. Furthermore they were suing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in the fall of 2021.

What’s more, this story does not tell us the likely tie with biological weapons development facilities in Ukraine. Worth recalling (again) is that Peter Daszak has roots in Ukraine. Beyond that, anyone who cares to know, has known that Ukraine hosted biological weapons development laboratories, with American funding, and American direction, with American staffs. (The past tense is deliberate; Russia destroyed those laboratories.)

The precise role of the Chinese Communist Party is difficult to discern. Its leaders are all extremely vulnerable to viral infections of all kinds, being at the dead end of seeking immortality by harvesting the organs of the socially bankrupt in their society. That is why they crack down so hard on any suspected outbreak. Why they would take such risks of self-destruction is impossible to say. But take it they must have – with tragic results worldwide.