 "As Covid resurges, report says US scientists lied to Pentagon on ‘murky’ research at Wuhan")
The deadly coronavirus that claimed 6.95 million lives and infected 700 million worldwide since 2018, is rearing its head once again with most parts of the world reporting a fresh surge in cases. Amid this, a report by US Right to Know has surfaced, saying United States scientists have lied to Pentagon about Wuhan Covid research.
Citing latest documents, the report said the high-risk coronavirus experiments were “proposed to occur in part in Wuhan with fewer safety precautions than required in the US — apparently to save on costs.”
“American scientists at the center of the ’lab leak theory’ controversy appear to have concealed this from their desired funder — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — in order to evade any national security concerns about doing high-level biosecurity work in China,” the report by USRTK said.
A 2018 grant proposal called Project DEFUSE, co-authored by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists, has stoked concern that the pandemic resulted from a lab accident.
It proposed engineering high-risk coronaviruses of the same species as SARS and SARS-CoV-2. What was more concerning to some scientists was the proposal involved synthesising spike proteins with furin cleavage sites, the same feature that supercharged SARS-CoV-2 into the most infectious pandemic pathogen in a century.
The documents reveal that American scientists, including Peter Daszak and Ralph S. Baric, concealed their intention to conduct high-risk coronavirus research in Wuhan with less stringent safety measures. Daszak clarified that much of the work would be done in Wuhan but excluded this information from the formal proposal to make DARPA comfortable. Daszak sought to downplay the non-U.S. focus of the proposal in an effort to conceal the involvement of Chinese researchers and evade national security concerns.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBiosafety Concerns and National Security Risks
The gain-of-function work proposed in DEFUSE entailed greater biosafety risks, with experiments planned at biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) in Wuhan, a lower safety level than BSL-3 required in the U.S. Emails reveal that U.S. researchers would “freak out” if they knew the experiments were conducted in a BSL-2 lab. Despite concerns, the formal proposal advertised the BSL-2 approach as “highly cost-effective.” The documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know suggest that the gain-of-function work may not have been funded before the grant submission in 2018, raising questions about whether it was subsequently completed without DARPA funding.
Concealing Collaborations and Whitewashing Biosafety Levels
The DEFUSE proposal, co-authored by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and U.S. scientists, was never disclosed to the public until leaked to the independent group DRASTIC. The new documents show that collaborators, including Daszak and Baric, may have concealed the extent of risky coronavirus virology happening in Wuhan, raising questions about their transparency and accountability. Baric’s prediction that U.S. researchers would “freak out” about BSL-2 experiments aligns with concerns raised by scientists about inadequate biosafety precautions in Wuhan.
Implications for the Origins of the Pandemic
The revelations about DEFUSE add to the growing body of evidence raising questions about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The gain-of-function research proposed in Wuhan involved engineering coronaviruses with features similar to SARS-CoV-2. The documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know suggest that the experiments were intended to serve as proof of concept for extending high-risk methods to more deadly viruses, including Ebola, Marburg, Hendra, and Nipah.
Congressional Action and Future Concerns
Congress recently passed a provision in an annual military spending bill barring EcoHealth Alliance from using any defense funds in China. The new documents highlight the need for accountability and transparency in high-risk coronavirus research, especially when conducted in international collaborations with less stringent biosafety standards. The implications of the DEFUSE revelations could impact the ongoing investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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