SARS-2 — When did Intelligence agencies know it was almost certainly a lab leak?

When did the national leaders figure out it was probably a leak from a Chinese bioweapon laboratory?

Ebola Virus, electron micrograph

by BernbaumJG

It makes all the difference. If we had known in January 2020, the virus could have been stopped so easily. The likely bioweapon could have been left in China — just by stopping the flights and instigating a two week rigid quarantine.

Think about the effect it would have had in January 2020 if people thought Covid was a man-made experiment. The public would have clamored to stop the planes. Borders would have gone up overnight. There would have been much less of the fatalistic acceptance that it was just another inevitable pandemic “like the flu” that people had to deal with. The suppression of the “lab leak” theory served the CCP and Anthony Fauci and co. It also served Tedros Adhanom, the head of the WHO who told the world to keep the border open on February 2. But so far that suppression has cost nearly five million lives, plus the mayhem, economic damage, long illnesses and debility.

Last night Sky News aired the documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan by Sharri Markson. We find out more about who knew what when, but not quite enough.

Donald Trump blames Anthony Fauci for staying silent over Wuhan laboratory funding

Sharri Markson, The Australian

As Mr Trump’s top medical adviser on the coronavirus, Dr Fauci was in his inner sanctum and present for every meeting on the virus as it started to spread globally. Mr Trump said Dr Fauci never once told him the Wuhan Institute of Virology was genetically manipulating coronaviruses.

Donald Trump on the first signs that trouble was afoot:

Alexis Carey, News.com

Mr Trump said one of the first clues of the looming disaster – and its links to the Wuhan lab – was after he “started hearing stories … that there were lots of body bags outside of the lab”. “I heard that a long time ago and if they did in fact have body bags, that was one little indication, wasn’t it?”

For John Ratcliffe, the administration’s former director of national intelligence, the giveaway was the CCP cover up:

“The Chinese communist party would not have shut down Wuhan. It would not have silenced doctors and scientists and journalists, and disappeared some of them,” he said, adding the intelligence community first became aware of the virus in late 2019.

Personally, it was the news that the Wuhan Lab was ordered to destroy all their lab samples on Jan 1st, 2020, which I learnt from The Epoch Times documentary in mid April 2020. A month later came the news of the bizarrely unlikely genetic evolution of SARS 2  —  which was a coverup “far too far“. It reeked as a lab creation.

Why did the viral database disappear on Sept 12?

This was before the lab leak, before the Military Games, and three months before the “official first case”?

China lion statues, Taiwan.

Image by AngMoKio

Few are saying a lot about the database of 22,000 coronaviruses vanishing on Sept 12, 2019. A database that the CCP still has not shared.

Hypothetically, the Military Games in Wuhan  in mid-October would have looked like a handy superspreading event if someone was, perhaps, war-gaming scenarios for spreading germs ahead of the northern winter. If the lab leak in October was a sloppy accident that coincided with the Military Games, what are the odds that the database accidentally crashed the month before that? Maybe it did. Teams that are sloppy with viral code might be sloppy with computer code too and the WIV was certainly sloppy with their viruses. But how often do databases in Chinese agencies go missing?

While it all sounds quite suspicious, ponder that the coverup of the bizarre genetic evolution of SARS in late January 2020 was post hoc rushed and haphazard. If there was a plan to leak Covid, the Bat-woman of Wuhan herself wasn’t in it. If she was, she would have faked up the evolutionary history six months earlier and not messed up the ratio of meaningful and random mutations in the frantic race to invent RaTG13, the non-existent near relative of SARS-2 that she supposedly discovered in 2013  but forgot to mention until Jan 27th 2020.

But of course, if some other person or entity in China did leak the virus deliberately, they might not have included her in the planning. Or it could all have been an incompetent accident.

Ask yourself, if it was deliberate, would they really have released it just outside the lab that made it? You would think not, but supposing they wanted it to look like a lab-leak and they were not even going to bother hiding that, then that’s where it had to be released. If the same artificial virus, with all the genetic anomalies, appeared 500 km away from the lab, no one would be wondering if it was deliberate. We’d know.

The lab leak, the missing scientists, the cover-up

Bryant Hevesi, Sky News

On the September 12, 2019, the virus database at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was taken offline, and with it 22,000 coronavirus samples were gone.

That same day security was beefed up at the facility and a tender was issued to replace the air-conditioning system. There was later a communications blackout, with no cell-phone or signals activity.

Intelligence was received that three people working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had fallen sick in October 2019, two months before the first official case was reported.

“What (former Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo and I put out is people became sick at the lab in October and with symptoms that became entirely consistent with what most people have experienced around the world from COVID-19,” Mr Ratcliffe said.

The Military Games in Wuhan ran from October 18th, 2019 for two weeks and athletes got a strange flu:

Miles Yu, former Principal China Advisor at the US State Department, said those athletes who returned from the Military Games had symptoms now known as coronavirus symptoms but no one was ever tested.

“All I know that people got sick, I believe the French often got sick, I believe they’re Germans, some Americans got sick too,” he said.

Intelligence agencies were aware in 2019 that something was wrong at the Military Games in Wuhan

James Morrow, Daily Telegraph

Markson also revealed that, by the second half of 2019, various spy agencies knew something was wrong.

“In late 2019 we have intelligence from both human intelligence sources and signals intelligence sources and other intelligence sources that were telling us that there was some sort of a problem in Wuhan,” Mr Ratcliffe said.

It was then that the Military World Games were being held in Wuhan, which may have become the first superspreader event.

A Chinese Whistleblower tried to warn the US of a mysterious virus in November 2019

A famous Chinese defector in the US heard on the vine that a dangerous virus was coming. He told a US politician, and a Chinese Human Rights Activist called Dimon Liu and a former CIA agent, but nothing came of it. US intelligence had other information in late 2019 but it did not “join the dots”.

Sharri Markson, The Australian

China’s most famous defector to America warned US intelligence agencies a coronavirus was spreading in Wuhan in November 2019 — six weeks before China admitted there was an outbreak.

Wei Jingsheng, the father of China’s democracy movement, reveals in the new book What Really Happened in Wuhan that he first heard of a new, mysterious virus at the time of the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

David Asher, the State Department official who spearheaded a taskforce into the origins of Covid-19, said the opportunity presented by Mr Wei’s warning was like “stopping 9/11 before it happened”.

Mr Asher said the US government had other crucial pieces of early-warning evidence in late 2019 but it failed to connect the dots. He said the US government first had intelligence about Wuhan Institute of Virology workers falling sick with Covid-like symptoms in late 2019 – a year before he discovered it during his investigation into the origins of the virus for the State Department.

In the Sky News documentary, Mr Asher said he was shocked when he found out “we actually could have had foreknowledge” of the coronavirus. “We could have known in November of 2019, that there was a disaster occurring inside Wuhan – inside their most important biological facilities related to coronavirus research,” he said.

“It was something absolutely tragic, traumatic and dramatic that was occurring and we could have reacted to it. The whole world could have been different. It would have been like stopping 9/11 before it happened.”

If the virus was roaming around the Military Games in October 2019, it fair to wonder why the pandemic didn’t take off until January 2020. It’s possible the early variant was slightly less infectious and still needed some mutation to launch at full speed. But it’s not essential.  Covid is a cluster spreading disease and only 1 in 5 or as few as 1 in 10 people are true infectious superspreaders. For example, in South Korea it was Patient #31 that set off the first mass outbreak infecting thousands.

Covid-19 usually has to “knock on the door” a few times before it arrives and stays. Small outbreaks have made it across state borders and come-to-nothing many times. So a few athletes came home but were already past their infectious period. The odd tourist visited Italy. But it took a sequence of “lucky breaks” for the virus to get a foothold to grow exponentially.

Was it deliberate or was it an accident. We still don’t know.

Door locking in Beijing

Image by Reinhold Möller.

The book What Really Happened in Wuhan by Sharri Markson is available now on Booktopia and Amazon.

h/t Bill T

9.9 out of 10 based on 75 ratings

164 comments to SARS-2 — When did Intelligence agencies know it was almost certainly a lab leak?

  • #

    If I remember well, the virus or traces of were found, I mean in France, not sure about, in a sewat plant, samples taken in spring 2019 deep-frozen as usual, and later reanalysed to look for COV-19, as they did everywhere.

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    PeterS

    We might never know but I suspect Fauci knew right from the start what was happening, perhaps as early as mid to late 2019. Fauci could tell the truth for once but I doubt he ever will because if he did he might end up in prison. He lied to Congress about whether he funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab given the release of certain documents not long ago showing he did. He also stated a long time ago that such research was worth conducting even if a pandemic occurred, which it subsequently did as we all know. Why he is still even roaming around free is only possible for one reason alone; he has immunity to any crime against humanity by a group of powerful elites who are evil to the core.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    Closing the borders in the middle of the holiday season on a rumour? Like that was ever going to happen.

    Like ivermectin there is no real evidence that supports the Lab Leak Theory, but plenty supporting the incompetence of the west, eg the Australian Strollout of vaccines

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    • #
      Simon

      It certainly wasn’t a bioweapon and no one outside China has been able to ascertain whether it was natural exposure or a lab leak.
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/wuhan-coronavirus-lab-leak/2021/08/27/8f20b024-0740-11ec-8c3f-3526f81b233b_story.html

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      • #
        Michael+Hammer

        Really Simon!; after a virus manages to infect a new host it then mutates so as to fit better to that host. Those mutations may bring it closer to a fit with yet another host so as to allow it to infect that further host as well. So one would expect early infections in humans to show significantly better affinity to the animal host than to humans. Instead, already the very early infections showed optimal affinity to humans, significantly better than to any animal host that has been found. How did that happen? How come exhaustive investigations have not been able to uncover ANY animal host at all? Are you postulating an imaginary animal genetically identical to humans which popped up for long enough to ensure transmission and then disappeared again?

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      • #
        Pauly

        You know one thing I find very odd. I’ve seen it happen on Tim Blair’s blog back in the day, on Cats, Andrew Bolt and basically any non left wing political blog that gains traction.

        They always have a persistent lefty who replies to every article and gets into fights in the comments section with the aim of disturbing and screwing up the comments section.

        These people are always posting and, it’s almost as if it were there full time job. God only knows how they could devote so much time to a blog where they obviously and vehemently disagree with the author and actually do a full days work.

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      • #
        William Astley

        In reply to:

        “It certainly wasn’t a bioweapon” And the sun is not hot.

        Covid is a very effective ‘bioweapon’ which China treatments for. China designed and released covid to cause economic damage to the US.

        Covid was released internally in the Wuhan lab and those infected were treated. Immediately September release, the Wuhan digital bat virus data base was deleted. The Wuhan lab first leak is timed to occur just before the world military ‘games’ where held in Wuhan. China oddly spent years arguing about the need for World military ‘games’ and insisted that the games be held in Wuhan.

        The Wuhan ‘games’ participants officially complained that the games where held in doors in unventilated crowded rooms. And the Wuhan games participants noted the streets around the game events were cleared of people.

        Come on. Covid causes nerve damage, blood clotting, an auto immune disease for the 0.05% of the population that have a specific genetic mutation…

        And covid is a contagious as small pox…

        Simon: The CCP propaganda machine and official news outlets are pushing the lie that covid came from a US lab. And covid came to China from a US military soldier who participated in the Wuhan military ‘games’. Ha. Ha. What a funny ‘joke’.

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    • #
      clarence.t

      “Like ivermectin there is no real evidence”

      The height of denialism !

      Why does a simple, safe and effective medicine against CV19, scare you so much ?

      [Comments are better without the “denialism” term. Just heats up the thread. — Jo]

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    • #
      Strop

      Here’s a summary discussion of the 1 hr Sky News report about the probable virus origins that aired last night.
      This goes for just 18 mins.
      https://youtu.be/NzFq1rgz-D8

      I’d suggest seeing the full report.

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        David Maddison

        Why does a simple, safe and effective medicine against CV19, scare you so much ?

        Yes, that’s the terrifying essence of the Left’s whole position on Covid-19.

        The only possible “cure” is offerings from Big Pharma and economy and social fabric destroying Big Lockdowns.

        No alternative treatment, idea or position is permitted or possible and will be ruthlessly suppressed, no matter who it comes from. Even deregister medical doctors if they dare suggest some other treatment is worth looking at.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          That was a reply to clarence.t.

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        • #
          GlenM

          Thats dead right .Hard-wired to government/ bureaucratic diktat and never question the opinions of experts and their models. Precisely why Australia and the West generally are in a pit. Sorry about the syntax as I’m texting whist driving!!

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      William Astley

      Peter….

      I do not believe in coincidences. The covid release was planned.

      China requested that the World military games be held in Wuhan…..years before the covid release. The Chinese insisted against push back that the World military games be held in Wuhan.
      During the Wuhan military games … participants officially complained about events being held in indoor facilities with no ventilation. And the participants noted that streets where cleared of people. Which was Odd.
      Conclusion: Wuhan Military games was planned to provide a covid release story.

      And there was a covid ‘leak’ (deliberate planned release) from the Wuhan lab just before the World military games. And immediately after leak … the Wuhan virus data based deleted.

      And three years before the World Military games complete control of the Wuhan lab was taken over by a Chinese military director.

      Covid the virus full of super novel never been seen ‘features’. Covid is an engineered virus. Not gain of function playing around to make a super deadly thing for fun. Covid has features that required advance bioscience to develop.

      And in terms of ‘features’ this new deadly engineered virus is the first virus to include the ability to anaesthetizes the throat cells where its starts its attack on the body. There is no other virus that can anaesthetizes our cells, stopping them from producing the normal pain signal, when they are attacked by the covid virus, which helps protect us.

      The covid virus (spike) also include the biochemical apparatus to cross the human brain blood barrier.

      And the covid virus (spike) has the biochemical apparatus to damage nerve cells. And to cause an autoimmune system response that damages nerve cells.

      And the covid virus (spike) has the biochemical apparatus to cause blood clotting

      And the covid virus (spike) has the biochemical apparatus to cause an autoimmune disease for the 0.05% of the population who have genetic mutation.

      Covid anaesthetizes (stops the pain signal that is normally produce) when covid attacks the throat cells, before moving on to attack the lungs.

      The covid victims are hence less like to isolate.

      https://www.newsmax.com/health/headline/covid-19-pain-killer-pandemic/2020/10/06/id/990680/

      Can COVID-19 kill pain? That is the possibility raised by University of Arizona researchers who found SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, might function as a pain killer.
      If that theory proves to be true, it might be one of the reasons so many infected people walk around unaware they have the disease.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        I have always dismissed the deliberate release hypothesis because no one is mad enough to release something within their own borders without a working antidote.

        Now I’m not so sure: Xi Jinping IS mad enough [killing your own has never been difficult for Chinese] and the military games was too good an opportunity to pass up.

        I was disappointed with the interview with Trump though.

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        • #

          To have own victims could be explained by the hope not to be suspected as guilty.

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          GlenM

          My thoughts as well, unless the Chinese participants had an anti-viral. Otherwise it seems odd particularly in the subsequent event of Chinese tourists travelling during their New Year and the WHO informing that the virus was not transferred human to human. Can one ever know since so much deception and information has gone down the drain.

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          • #

            Not at all. Why would Xi care about the deaths of old people in China? It could solve a demographic problem. The only thing he would fear would be that if word got out — he might face a rebellion.

            Instead — with brutal efficiency he stopped the virus spreading and can therefore say he protected the old folks of China, and succeeded where all of the West has now failed bar NZ, NT, WA, Taiwan, Tas, SA and Qld.

            Perhaps SARS-2 was spread during the Military Games but failed to seed in the West, so the stakes were raised, and “a little bit of death” in Wuhan was called for in a second go. OR perhaps the bioweapon wasn’t meant to be unleashed yet, and it was an accident, but once it seeded in Wuhan, Xi took the opportunity to use it to promote himself and hurt the daft corrupted West which arrogantly thought it could pretend the virus was “the flu” and not suffer the minor economic loss of Chinese students and a few more weeks of tourism which ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of lives and ended up causing major economic damage in the US and UK.

            The WHO and UN at all times served the CCP, and should be disbanded permanently as having failed to do the one thing it was set up to do.

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        • #
          Ross

          Trump is always restricted by what he is allowed to divulge. Also,by what he was advised. Clearly he wasn’t being relayed all the relevant information. All the way along this long and sorry story the name Fauci bobs up. Whether its GOF research or crazy recommendations on COVID response procedures. I can now understand why Judy Mikovits had such a beef with this bloke.

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        • #
          Forrest Gardener

          The interesting thing about an antidote is China’s official figures. Worldometer has them at 95,810 total cases with 4,636 deaths and 90,194 recoveries.

          So, does China have an antidote? Or are their figures fake? Or both?

          And what will the next release of covid look like. It’s almost like Dr Evil is in the wings ready to announce that the world has seen a sample of his power and he demands $1M or the world will suffer.

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          • #
            OldOzzie

            Australia to pass China on Covid cases

            Terry McCrann

            Sometime in the next week a momentous event will take place: Australia will overtake China in total Covid case numbers.

            Let me be very explicitly clear: these are the absolute total number of cases recorded in the two countries since the start of the pandemic back in January 2020.

            Not cases adjusted for population, but the actual totals of all the cases recorded in the two countries over the 20 months.

            So, it’s Australia, population 26m – and, even with the events of the last two months in NSW and Victoria, still one of the great global success stories (so far) in limiting case numbers and deaths – a total of 87,134 cases.

            And China, population 1446m – or 55 times Australia’s – a total of just 95,738 cases.

            The figures come from Worldometer as of Monday morning

            China is reporting around 30-50 cases a day, Australia around 1500 a day.

            Do the math, or just trust me: by next Monday, our total will have gone past China’s.

            That’s cases, not deaths. China still leads us on Covid-reported deaths – 4636 to 1167. But, adjusted for population, our death rate is 15 times China’s.

            As I’ve reported before and, well, ‘ironic’, in the light of our increasingly fractured but still highly dependent economic relationship, the last Covid death China reported supposedly took place almost eight months ago, on – wait for it – Australia Day, January 26.

            Was it sending us an extraordinarily subtle communist Confucian message?

            I draw one big conclusion from these numbers: it should drive home to even the meanest intelligence that you cannot trust a single figure – on anything – that comes out of China.

            China’s Covid numbers are literally and utterly undeniably unbelievable.

            Not unless you believe that Chairman Xi, Chairman Mao Version 2.0, has found the magic touch that somehow eluded our Chairman Dan, who up until recently believed that he knew – and indeed that he alone in the world, perhaps in combination with his chief health officer, knew – how to defeat the Delta variant.

            As Humpty Dumpty said: a word “means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less”.

            Something similar applies to Chinese figures; all their figures. They mean exactly what China wants them to mean; and that “meaning” has zero correlation with the truth.

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            • #
              William Astley

              OldOzzie,

              China is lying about everything. Covid was released to destroy our economies. China has treatments to stop covid. China planned for the covid release.

              The CCP immediately destroyed all of the virus samples from the Wuhan lab which could have disproved the lab leak, cover up story for the creation and release of covid.

              The CCP also destroyed all of the evidence in the cover story, wet market.

              This is key. The CCP will not allow WHO to take blood samples from the Wuhan population or the general Chinese population. Blood samples would enable the lie to be discovered based on the antibodies in the people and the Chinese population’s Vit D blood serum levels.

              There was a planned ‘leak’ from the Wuhan lab just before the Wuhan world military games. And then the military games are held indoors in unventilated small rooms. Participants officially complain, as something seems sinister … Including the fact that there are no people in the streets at each event location.

              The covid virus is a super high tech engineered product.

              China used super advance biological technology including a super computer and advanced software (two packages) to design covid. The human immune system modeling package took 10 years to develop, by a consortium of countries. Unfortunately for us, an American found a software breakthrough to model viruses in software, which made the evil covid project covid possible. The two software packages are considered by the AI community, to be the first AI breakthrough.

              The advanced virus/human body modeling enables the evolution of the software virus using the software simulation of the general human immune response. This software packages enables the creation of viruses that could have formed using natural evolution.

              For example, the software package has advance features that enable the designer, to protect/stop a portion of the software simulation virus from mutation.

              The ability to stop mutation of the a portion of the covid virus, is necessary to keep the covid deadly features when the virus is evolved in software.

              i.e. In nature there is no evolutionary advantage for the virus to cause complex damage to the human body and there is no way for a natural virus to stop natural mutations when it replicates, from removing its deadly features.

              The use of the advanced software package to design covid…. Has left evidence physical proof that covid is manmade.

              One of the covid virus strands has a small section where there is no evolution/changes from the source species virus. This is necessary as this section of the virus strand is perfect for causing immune system problems. i.e. A detailed examination of the covid viruses proves that are some sections of the virus which are not evolved which is impossible if covid was run through ferrets to train covid how to connect to the ACE-2 connector cell to enable covid to be highly infectious, upon release.

              Covid has evolved in a computer simulation which gives the designer complete control of the ‘software’ evolution.

              This software enabled the covid designers to know how covid will evolve and how much damage it will do to people.

              We are like little children. And our government is like little children. The Chinese people have zero control over the evil group in China that made this happen. W

              The covid spike has most of evil dangerous biochemical receptors. The covid spike has the biochemical apparatus to cross the blood brain barrier, cause blood clots, damage nerve cells, and to cause autoimmune ‘diseases’.

              https://www.newsmax.com/health/headline/covid-19-pain-killer-pandemic/2020/10/06/id/990680/

              The covid spike has a receptor that stops the pain signal from being generated from infected cells. The pain signal (which is produced when viruses attack our cells) is our evolutionary protection against spreading sickness and forces us to take shelter when we are sick. Covid attacks the throat cells first. This would cause a pain signal from the throat if covid did not have the ability to stop pain. Covid is the only virus that has the pain stopping feature.

              “According to Ladders, it has been known for some time the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects people by attaching its spike protein to the ACE2 receptors on human cells.

              New research reveals the virus also uses a second receptor, called the neuropolin-1, to adhere to cells. Dr. Khanna and his team have been studying the effect on pain pathways involving neuropolin-1 for over 15 years, and realized there might be a correlation between how the virus attacks the body and subsequent pain reduction.

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      • #
        Binny Pegler

        It occurred to me when I first heard of the games, that someone tried to infect the worlds military.
        But fit young soldiers were able to shrug off the virus.

        00

        • #
          Hanrahan

          fit young soldiers were able to shrug off the virus.

          but take it home with them so there was no direct link. Perfect!

          10

    • #
      Mark Kaiser

      Once again you fail Peter. Do you post these baseless claims as a troll? Just wondering. Well, keeps me sharp and kind of fun cause you make it so easy.

      Chinese Spring Festival Jan 24 – Feb 2
      1) China stopped INTERNAL flights in January 2020
      https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/Whathappensif/how-china-locked-down-internally-for-covid-19-but-pushed-foreign-travel/

      There is new evidence to show that China locked down all domestic traffic internally by end January 2020 but pushed to open foreign travel till end March.

      2) Did you know there is a BSL-2 lab a few blocks from the Wet Market?

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/

      There are similar concerns about the nearby Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab, which operates at biosecurity level 2, a level significantly less secure than the level-4 standard claimed by the Wuhan Insititute of Virology lab,

      24 Jianghan N Rd, Jiang’an District, Wuhan, Hubei, China
      https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wuhan+Centres+for+Disease+Prevention+%26+Control/@30.5890243,114.2769804,16.3z/data=!4m9!1m2!2m1!1sWuhan+Center+for+Disease+Control+and+Prevention+lab!3m5!1s0x342eaee6df67e08b:0x9cbacadc65f81283!8m2!3d30.5893903!4d114.2796484!15sCjNXdWhhbiBDZW50ZXIgZm9yIERpc2Vhc2UgQ29udHJvbCBhbmQgUHJldmVudGlvbiBsYWJaNSIzd3VoYW4gY2VudGVyIGZvciBkaXNlYXNlIGNvbnRyb2wgYW5kIHByZXZlbnRpb24gbGFimgEkQ2hkRFNVaE5NRzluUzBWSlEwRm5TVU5qTFMxaFYyaFJSUkFC

      Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, Jianghan, Wuhan, Hubei, China
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huanan_Seafood_Wholesale_Market

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      Chris

      The behaviour of the Chinese was a good indicator that something was seriously wrong. The Chinese Diaspora across the west was buying up all the PPE they could get their hands on and shipping it back to China. Channel 9 news showed pallet loads ready to be put onto planes flying to Wuhan. When the virus hit the West, countries didn’t have enough PPE for their own needs and as a result bought Chinese PPE. Spain, Italy and Britain said it was not fit for purpose. Andrew Forrest bought a $1million worth for Australia which was left in a warehouse. Fauci later used this as an excuse for lying to the American public.
      Only a country with secrets would have gone to these lengths to shore up their own defences and wantonly expose other countries to the risks associated with the virus.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Any ‘incompetence’ of the West was well after the event.

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  • #

    Under no circumstances is it acceptable to be in favour of a “rigid quarantine,” no matter how brief. You do not stop the economy for anything. Closing borders is the only sensible thing you would want to do. If that is what you meant by “quarantine,” then we ate on the same page.

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    PeterS

    Markets started tumbling a couple of days ago and certain Western leaders are having a meeting with the POTUS. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Something is up, or I should say down. I wasn’t expecting it so soon but hold tight – we might be seeing another whipsaw where a stock market wobble is counteracted by an engineered prop up by Western governments by whatever means in yet another attempt to stop it from crashing, just like they did many times before over the past several decades. Let’s hope they are successful yet again at avoiding a crash. Eventually though they will fail and then we will have the mother of all crashes but I’m not expecting that till another decade or two, perhaps sooner.

    [This is all off topic at #5. Please don’t post off topic especially in #1 – #10. – Jo]

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    • #

      “ Anthony S. Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there is “no doubt” Donald J. Trump will be confronted with a surprise infectious disease outbreak during his presidency.”

      “No doubt”. Hum. I am certain he said many general warnings about viral pandemics, but this is weird, political and personal, instead of professional and applied to the United States, and should not have been tied to Trump or his specific term Fauci is a known leftist who wrote Hillary what can only be called a love letter.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Evergrande the Chinese constuction company has collapsed with $400 billion debt. A lot of that would be bonds held outside China.

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      • #
        PeterS

        That’s not the only big business that was under great stress. Apart form the vast majority of small businesses going to the wall, I see several large ones too are starting to break apart at the seams. It’s reminiscent of the GFC where they played the game of “passing the hot potato” or more appropriately called passing the brown bags of excrement around and making massive profits on the way. Something similar has been occurring ever since the dust cleared from the GFC but on a much larger scale involving the central banks. It’s not going to end well one day. Governments and central banks have for example been buying lots of company junk bonds. Investors are now clamouring for them too. Ooops!

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        James Murphy

        it was more than a construction company, it provided one of the few ways that Chinese people could invest savings (at ridiculously high interest rates). Many many people will suffer and lose a lot, even if the government bails them out.

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        Hanrahan

        I’ve been reading that they were in trouble, are you confirming the actual collapse?

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          OldOzzie

          What happens when Beijing’s housing bubble bursts?

          Evergrande’s financial woes are raising fears China’s huge house price boom could soon bust, which will deal a hefty blow to economic growth.

          You just have to look at the stunning collapse in the iron ore price to realise how nervous investors have become about the outlook for China.

          Of course, the ostensible reason for the steep slide in the iron ore price is Beijing’s move to impose production cuts on the country’s steel industry due to environmental concerns.

          But Beijing is simultaneously trying to take some heat out of the torrid property market by forcing debt-addicted property developers to deleverage. This, of course, will translate into a slowdown in the country’s property construction industry, and lower demand for steel.

          Evergrande – which owes more than $US300 billion ($415 billion) – is the poster child of Beijing’s crackdown on debt-addicted property developers.

          And horrified investors are coming to the belated realisation that Beijing has decided to punish excessive risk-taking by allowing Evergrande’s holding company – which owes most of the debt – to collapse.

          Chinese policymakers will, of course, be aware of the risks of allowing such a massive corporate collapse, and they will be anxious to avoid a repeat of the 2008 failure of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which triggered a meltdown in global financial markets.

          The Chinese central bank has already taken steps to alleviate liquidity strains, injecting 90 billion yuan ($19.2 billion) into the country’s banking system last week. And Beijing will probably encourage the state-owned banks to step up their lending to other sectors of the economy.

          But it is far from clear Beijing will be able to prevent Evergrande’s problems from causing the country’s massive house price bubble to burst.

          That is because although Beijing clearly appreciates there is some undesirable speculation in the housing market, the scale of this speculation is undoubtedly far greater than policymakers realise.

          This means the country’s housing market – and the entire economy – is much more vulnerable than Chinese policymakers appreciate.

          What’s more, Beijing has had little experience of the abrupt changes in market psychology and the devastating consequences of a collapse in confidence, which means it is probably underestimating the contagion effects of an Evergrande collapse.

          Other debt-laden property developers are already feeling the fallout from Evergrande’s problems, as investors and bankers have become wary of lending to the troubled sector.

          That means that to survive, highly geared property developers will have little choice but to dump apartments and undeveloped land onto the market, putting intense downward pressure on real estate prices.

          Given average Chinese households typically plough their surplus savings into property, a sharp drop in housing prices would quickly cause consumer confidence to plummet.

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            Ronin

            “That is because although Beijing clearly appreciates there is some undesirable speculation in the housing market, the scale of this speculation is undoubtedly far greater than policymakers realise.”

            Remember the photos of whole cities full of new high rise apartments all completely vacant, if that wasn’t a scam I don’t know one when I see it.

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              OldOzzie

              Xi Jinping faces ‘too big to fail’ corporate catastrophe

              President Xi Jinping was facing the most serious test of his approach to Chinese capitalism last night as Beijing decided whether it could allow a corporate giant burdened with hundreds of billions in debt to go bankrupt.

              In what was described as “China’s Lehman Brothers” crisis, Beijing was considering whether to provide a bailout to Evergrande, a property multinational that has risen to become one of China’s biggest companies. It borrowed heavily to finance its rapid expansion and has debts of $416 billion. The latest round of payments on those debts is said to be due today.

              Should Evergrande be allowed to fail, experts warned that it could be the tip of an iceberg affecting China’s financial system and beyond. Evergrande, meanwhile, has halted work on the majority of its housing projects.

              The company, founded in 1996, rode the country’s property boom to become the 122nd largest group in the world by revenue. Its founder, Xu Jiayin, was once the richest person in China and the company once owned a leading professional football club.

              The crisis comes as Xi appeals to rank-and-file Chinese with policies to make housing more affordable and curb what he has described as excessive wealth among the country’s elite. This year he began a crackdown on the independence of Chinese businesses, ordering tech firms and their leaders to contribute more to society. Last year Beijing brought in rules to control the amount owed by property developers

              The commentator Sun Lan told the Hong Kong news website hk01.com that Xi would not allow a company as big as Evergrande to go bust before he celebrated his third term as the leader of the Chinese Communist Party next year. “Even if the government is to lend help, it is not because Evergrande is too big to fail, but it is to save the industry to ensure social stability, especially ahead of the 20th party congress,” Sun said. “Behind the Evergrande crisis are hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and their families, including some of the ordinary employees of Evergrande, investors, and countless families who have not been given their homes. They are the biggest victims.”

              Hang Ziya, another commentator, argued that Beijing was prepared to let the company fail to set an example for others. “Evergrande should give up any illusion of using the threat of bankruptcy to blackmail the government and force the state to rescue it,” Hang said. “The official stance is very clear: whoever misjudges the market and the policy must bear the consequences.”

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                OldOzzie

                3. What does this mean for China?

                The government faces a dilemma. It could simply order its state-owned banks to roll over Evergrande’s debts. But this would have the effect of rewarding irresponsible borrowing. More likely, it will allow the company to fail. This will be a disaster for Evergrande’s creditors, suppliers and employees, as well as the customers who have paid for 1.6 million unfinished apartments.

                4. What about the rest of the world?

                The fear of “contagion” beyond the Chinese property sector to the world economy has already driven down share prices. Any slowdown in Chinese economic growth affects companies that export there, and Europe is more exposed than any other region.

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    Great Post Joe!

    “ Miles Yu, former Principal China Advisor at the US State Department, said those athletes who returned from the Military Games had symptoms now known as coronavirus symptoms but no one was ever tested.”

    With what was known by then, this is likely “more then stupidity “.

    “A famous Chinese defector in the US heard on the vine that a dangerous virus was coming.”
    Did not a certain Fauci inform people that a pandemic was coming befit Trumps term ended?
    ( Is that verified?)

    “ Mr Asher said the US government had other crucial pieces of early-warning evidence in late 2019 but it failed to connect the dots”

    Yep, not certain that was stupidity either. Consider this link to notable documented FBI “ stupidity “ or something else. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/09/19/lets-take-the-fbi-at-their-word/

    Why assign to stupidity what smart people do that can clearly be assigned to malice?

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    David Maddison

    President Trump was one of the first leaders, if not the first to impose travel bans from the Hubei province where the city of Wuhan is. Later the travel bans were extended.

    Remember how the Left called him “racist” for doing so?

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    Michael+Hammer

    What has not been discussed here so far is that all the science journals and social media imposed censorship over discussions of the lab leak theory right up until it became so obvious that their censorship no longer had any meaning. This is a clear mark of totalitarianism, seeking to control information to support a political agenda.

    One question is certainly how to stop a similar pandemic occurring again but, to me, of equal importance is how do we stop organisations with immense power but zero accountability or apparently interest in democracy from ushering in a totalitarian regime over the western world. We know there has been similar immense censorship over global warming criticism. How much money has been wasted on that and how many people have and will die because of it?

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      Excellent point Michael.

      Indeed the virus just exposed how rotten so many institutions were.

      Now we need:
      1: A real pandemic plan. The next one is coming.
      2: to figure out how to use out-of-patent drugs and keep BigPharma at bay.
      3: to make academia serve the public. Can it be saved, or do we need to raze it and start again?
      4: to train children to recognise media failures and propaganda. Only then will the media be forced to be more honest and useful.
      5: to stop the media being owned by mass merged conglomerates that can use the media to serve other purposes and profit from promoting misinformation.

      Not in any particular order.

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        OldOzzie

        From Open Thread

        Again what are the Vitamin D Levels of Covid Hospitalisations in NSW.

        And if Tradies understand there are alternatives to Vaccines – “I think this is the first time I have seen the bleeding obvious prophylactic to Covid – in addition to the “mass distribution of ivermectin, vitamins C, D and zinc.” mentioned in a Major Australian Newspaper – in this case the Herald Sun” – why can’t DR Kerry Chant advise why they are not being used in NSW Hospitals as a treatment approach – current treatment is basically Zero

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    David Maddison

    Notice how the Left put so much effort into claiming the virus wasn’t a lab leak?

    Even far Left Farcebook “fact checkers” have stopped claiming that and stopped banning and censoring people for saying it.

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    Vicki

    Very proud of Sharri Markson for pursuing a story so effectively & with such determination. Up there with Peter Hartcher & Clive Hamilton in holding China to account in incredibly well researched books.

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    • #
      GlenM

      Since Hartcher and Hamilton are lefties all more credit to them.

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        Serp

        Had Hamilton not witnessed the 2008 attack on pro-Tibet supporters as the 2008 Olympic torch relay passed through Canberra we would be none the wiser. Overreach is the core of totalitarianism and the local PRC consulate exemplified it that day ordering up such thuggery from the local CCP loyalists (which is everybody with a family member on the mainland). What benefit we accrue from Hamilton’s books is probably only that small amount of dignity the firing squad target obtains through refusing a blindfold.

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    David Maddison

    Of relevance to this whole situation is this segment from a talk Aldous Huxley gave in 1962 comparing “Brave New World” and “1984”.

    https://youtu.be/zdw-4ttqFqA

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    • #
      PeterS

      Good video. I believed for a long time the ultimate tyrannical regime will be reached when the people actually will lover the servitude, as the video says it. I obtained that belief during my Biblical studies about the yet to be fulfilled prophecies. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of evil, etc..

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    Strop

    Here’s a conspiracy theory.

    The virus was leaked for the military games with the intent of weakening defence forces around the world by having competitors return to the bases with the virus.

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    Penguinite

    Governments, especially US, obviously failed to “connect the dots” but several medical NG agencies did. At least three drug companies were in the advanced stages of the development of vaccines months before it became necessary to declare a danger warning. Fowl-Chi also knew things were amiss. Now 5 million people have died with the potential for another 5 million before we come to grips with wuflu!

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    Fran

    The Chinese response to the spread of the virus in Wuhan is strong evidence for the lab leak theory. They locked people up in a way that I do not think they would have done if the virus was an unfortunate product of natural evolution. That panicked response is also evidence that the release was not deliberate. The sad fact is that their panic spread with disasterous effects on the global economy.

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      Steve of Cornubia

      The research in the Wuhan lab was aimed at creating bioweapons, so we can safely assume that the bugs being produced weren’t run-of-the-mill things but had superpowers.

      If such a thing was to escape, you would imagine the authorities would be bloody terrified because they would have little idea how bad things could get and, rather than treat it like a new version of the common cold or flu, they would freak out and lock the place down, put media bans in place, punish whistleblowers, hide the evidence …

      Which of course is precisely what they did.

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        Yes, the biggest argument against this being deliberate is why would any group launch their bioweapon within 1km of the lab that made it?

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        • #

          Though to answer myself, and added to the post:

          Ask yourself, if it was deliberate, would they really have released it just outside the lab that made it? You would think not, but supposing they wanted it to look like a lab-leak and they were not even going to bother hiding that, then that’s where it had to be released. If the same artificial virus, with all the genetic anomalies, appeared 500 km away from the lab, no one would be wondering if it was deliberate. We’d know.

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            Steve of Cornubia

            I think that, if the CCP had wanted to ‘test’ this virus among people, it would have done so in America or Europe. Maybe Taiwan, but that’s on their doorstep. I really can’t imagine they deliberately unleashed a virus that was deadly and of unknown evolutionary possibilities within China.

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    Phillip+Charles+Sweeney

    A rerun of Pearl Harbour

    US Intelligence had cracked both Japanese Diplomatic and Naval Codes but information of a pending attack was withheld from Franklin Roosevelt as well as the Navy and Army Commanders at Pearl Harbour who were made the scapegoats.

    There were bigger games at play since Churchill was desperate to get the USA into the War.

    What games were in play to conceal the truth about the virus development and escape from the Wuhan Lab?????

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    • #
      philemon

      Have you read And I Was There?: “Pearl Harbor and Midway – Breaking the Secrets”. by Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton. U.S.N. (Ret.), with Captain Roger Pineau, U.S.N.R. (Ret.), and John Costello?

      If not, you should.

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      • #
        philemon

        My mother remembered being in the car with her mother and father and an aunt, when their radio program was interrupted. “Where the heck is Pearl Harbor?” They had no idea.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I saw this quote, origin unknown.

    Questioning and doubting what’s going on these days does not make you “anti” anything. Nor does it make you a conspiracy theorist. Actually, questioning IS and should be, the place of reason. The fact that questioning has become taboo, should, in fact, send a chill up everyone’s spine.

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    Neville

    While we can never be 100% sure that the virus was deliberately constructed in the Wuhan lab, we do know that the initial WHO response was a disaster.
    They sucked up to China and their far left leader was directly responsible for lying about the need for travel bans etc.
    Trump acted quickly and had to endure the usual lefty MSM response of these fools yelling racist. Although even Biden etc later admitted they were wrong.
    And the idiots De Blasio, Cuomo etc told New York residents to hug Chinese at their New Year celebrations in 2020.

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    Steve of Cornubia

    As I have said before, I suspect that Mrs Wife and I contracted Covid in May 2019, while in Naples, Italy. For sure, in my case at least, the symptoms were classic Covid. The hostess of the AirBnB we stayed in was Chinese, had just returned from visiting family (don’t know where) and was recovering herself from a flu-like illness.

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    Serge Wright

    It’s always been obvious that this was a lab leak, but full marks to Markson for producing such a comprrehensive documentary. The big question is did the Democrats and their deep state plants play a role in the virus release ?. If you look at the silence from Fauchi and the intelligence community as the reports of the virus emerged back in late 2019 and then the very organised silencing and cancelling from big tech and big media to those that raised the topic of a lab leak when the virus landed globally, there is a big stench here. It’s always been my thought that the far left Democrats played a role in the virus to bring down Trump and further their cause for a global communist government with China. Having watched the Documentary my thoughts have only strengthened. What I did find interesting is that the decision to re-initiate the gain of function research happened under Trump’s watch in 2017. Trump knows that this is not a good look and tries to deflect the question, but obviously there were people in those government institutions seeking to bring him down and he wasn’t able to realise what was happening and work out who was the enemy and who he could trust.

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      Chris

      Serge, I think you will find it was actually on the last day of Obama’s reign that the GOF ‘PAUSE’ was lifted.
      Trump was not part of this decision.

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        Annie

        That didn’t seem to be commented on in the documentary though. I was surprised that Mr Trump didn’t make that clear.

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        YallaYPoora Kid

        Kindly suggest you give about a link or two for support to your statement?

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        Serge Wright

        The dates do paint an interesting picture. On the 9th Jan 2017, 11 days before Trump’s inauguration the WH announced a review process here:
        https://www.science.org/news/2017/01/white-house-announces-review-process-risky-virus-studies

        And on the the 19th Dec 2017, well into Trump’s term of office the GOF was officially lifted:
        https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2017/12/feds-lift-gain-function-research-pause-offer-guidance

        However, it should be pointed out that funding a Wuhan lab would not have been easy to determine unless you read the fine print of the policy. Trump would have thought that the research was to provide a counter to what the Chinese were doing, rather than funding the enemy. I’m still of the belief that this review and subsequent GOF approval was an insider plan from the very beginning to bring down Trump and create the environment for the Marxist Dems to overthrow democracy and capitalism. The fact that the review was announced just a few days before he came to power is a big coincidence that cannot be explained by other drivers. If GOF research was seen as too risky back in 2014, why would that change 3 years later ?. As I have noted before, Trump would have romped to office in 2021 if not for the virus and 4 more years of Trumpism would have set back the Marxist cause by at least 10 years. All of what is contained in Sharri’s documentary supports collusion between the Chinese, the WHO and the Democrats (& their deep state, media and big tech supporters).

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    Interested

    Jo: “But so far that suppression has cost nearly five million lives, plus the mayhem, economic damage, long illnesses and debility.”

    My information is that the number of deaths from COVID-19 has been exaggerated greatly. In the normal course of events, roughly 55 million people die annually around the world. So during the period of this virus’s existence, from around December 2020 to August 2021, we should expect to have seen about 85 million deaths as a matter of routine.
    The extra 5 million mentioned thus constitutes only some 6% more than the norm.
    This small an alteration in the statistics would not be difficult to orchestrate – particularly when financial incentives to write ‘COVID-19’ on hospital admissions and death certificates are involved.
    In addition, the number of flu deaths recorded globally has shrunk dramatically – and rather suspiciously – during that time period too, and untold numbers of deaths from any number of co-morbidities have been routinely recorded as COVID-19 as well. Large numbers of the purported COVID-19 victims were in their 80s and likely to have died during that period in any case and there are instances of car crash fatalities, and even fatal gunshot wounds, also being added to the COVID death lists.
    If we then add in the fact that the universally-used PCR test is clinically useless because it’s known to produce such large numbers of false positives, it’s clear that proportionately large numbers of even the people who died ‘with COVID’ rather than ‘from COVID’, probably never had COVID in the first place.

    However, I’m prepared to accept there are probably people dead today who would still be alive had it not been for the arrival of COVID-19. But it’s also likely many (most?) of those would have survived if effective therapeutic agents hadn’t been deliberately denied them by ‘the authorities’.
    So you don’t need to be a genius to see that the published figures for COVID-19 deaths have been artificially inflated – and not by any small margin either.

    Regardless of the origin of the virus, from almost the very beginning its lethality has been systematically overblown in order to generate fear. That fear in the populace is the first step toward instigating obedience to rules and regulations people would not normally tolerate.
    This is also how the latter part of Jo’s statement was achieved: “… the mayhem, economic damage, long illnesses and debility.”
    Virtually all of this could easily have been avoided.
    No. This was obviously a set-up.
    We’ve been had!

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      philemon

      Couldn’t agree more.

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        No. Official deaths underestimate the real tally. Even though some non-Covid deaths are included in the tally, more covid deaths go untested and are not included.

        We know that from excess death studies. In the US excess deaths peak in exactly the same regions at the same time in the same week as the peak of Covid testing. When the peak weeks don’t line up, usually the deaths peak the week or two before the cases peak, showing they are not due to the lockdowns, but due to untested cases. Some of those excess deaths are due to pandemic responses, not covid, but we know that due to the clotting mechanism, there will be heart attacks and strokes that were written on death certificates as heart attacks and strokes but were actually Covid deaths.

        That’s not true to much extent in Australia where cases and test positivity is very low.

        Assessing cause of death is often difficult, but the odds of most people dying in any given 28 days period are very small. Therefore it isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds to just record all positive cases who die in the next 28 days as a covid death. Some covid deaths take a lot longer than 28 days.

        And here’s a curly one… Given that covid can cause fatigue, brain fog, and even dementia and delusion it’s also possible that untested people who don’t know they have Covid may die in car accidents that wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t infected. We’ll never know, and I don’t count those deaths, but years from now, there will be many PhD’s unpacking excess deaths. Ultimately we can only guess.

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          philemon

          I’m not aware that accurate total mortality data is available yet for 2020, at least in the U.S. However, once (if) reliable total mortality data becomes available, we should be able to estimate excess mortality over the baseline for previous years. In addition, there are statistics for claimed deaths due to COVID. My guess is that the observed excess mortality for the 2020 to 2021 period will be less than claimed deaths due to COVID. If COVID deaths are undercounted, then observed total excess mortality should exceed the reported COVID deaths. Estimating COVID mortality as deaths-with-a-positive-PCR-test is certainly not reliable.

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      Strop

      the number of flu deaths recorded globally has shrunk dramatically – and rather suspiciously

      Why is it suspicious that flu deaths shrunk? Surely it makes sense that with so much less contact amongst people that flu would have little chance to manifest and transmit.

      Would be interesting to see WA’s statistics for the last couple of years. I’m guessing it’s the least locked down and most covid free place in the world.
      Of course, with many locked out there would be less opportunity to import flu and the like. So it too has probably had less flu deaths.

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    Furiously+Curious

    The video of the nurse claiming that vaccinated people are being treated with IVM, while the unvacced are left to fight on their own, is a bomb. The question is, does she have backup? If she had any brains she should have medical records, and/or someone willing to corroborate.
    As to people saying no, no, no, the authorities and physicians would never do that. I’m sorry, that is exactly what the medical profession has been doing for 18 months! Demanding that doctors stand back, and watch people die! They may already have the blood of at least half the pandemic’s victims on their hands! Just doubling down.
    The actual video has gone, but twitter is still atwitter.

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      John+R+Smith

      Does -Oz have a witness protection program?
      Whoops … bad idea.
      I suggest she head for the remote-ist, outback-ist part of the continent.
      (BTW, does anyone know the health status of Joe B’s youngest grandchild?)

      I’m just making binary Cis male passenger on the Titanic jokes.

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    Antoine D'Arche

    Moderna filed their patent in Nov 2019. 73 patents were filed between 2008 and 2015 on what has been proven to be SARS-CoV 2. They had advance knowledge, and long before 2019. People were warning about the dangers of gain of function research in 2000! Nothing Markson has to offer is relevant. It’s about 2 things, and 2 things only: deflecting blame from the America’s outsourced gain of function research, and offering a patsy to the world.

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    Serge Wright

    Another aspect of the virus lab release is the role played by our own ABC. Not only did the ABC squash the lab theory, they used Media Watch to ridicule Sharri Markson as a conspiracy theory nutcase. They did this without having read any of her evidence and it was very obvious that the ABC had no intention of doing any real investigation in this space. They basically were a closed shop of ideas and were simply acting on orders from above. What I want to know is did these orders come from China or the Democrats, and who runs our ABC ?. One thing is very certain and that is without independent journalists like Sharri Markson we would probably never know what happened in Wuhan. Our own ABC is an ideologically warped mouthpiece of communism and this misreporting incident is just another in a very long list that proves they are the enemy of our state and must be closed down immediately.

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      Interested

      In 2019, Ita Buttrose became the Aussie ABC’s latest chairperson. I believe part of her brief was to correct the painfully obvious bias of this “ideologically warped mouthpiece of communism”, as Serge so eloquently puts it.
      Not long after she started her new job, she said she couldn’t find any bias that needed correcting! {Chuckle!!}

      Interestingly, this same woman is still lauded as an outstanding journalist. My understanding used to be that two of the main pillars of journalism are accuracy and strict impartiality.
      Hmmm … As so often seems to happen to me these days, I think I can feel another bout of cognitive dissonance coming on ….

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    David Maddison

    There are several impediments getting to the truth of the WuFlu.

    1) A huge support base for the Chinese Communist Party among the Leftists of the West.

    2) A culture of secrecy among the Communists.

    3) Secrecy inherent within Chinese culture. Attributable to centuries of feudalism.

    This article illustrates how what is regarded normal research for a Westerner is regarded as dangerous exposure of state secrets by the Chicomms.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704584804575644470575141314

    “China’s Culture of Secrecy Brands Research as Spying”

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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      OldOzzie

      1) A huge support base for the Chinese Communist Party among the Leftists of the West.

      Victoria had secret agreement to help China land major projects

      Victoria agreed to share information and help promote Chinese firms to win work in major state projects and under a deal it has kept secret.

      Victoria agreed to share information and help promote Chinese companies to win work in major state projects under a deal it has kept secret since 2017.

      The Andrews government was on Monday forced to release the memorandum of understanding after being compelled by the state parliament.

      Signed between the Premier’s department and China’s National Development and Reform Commission in March 2017, the state previously refused to release it to the public.

      But a motion passed in the upper house meant it was tabled for public view after it had been reviewed.

      Earlier this year, the deal was examined by the Commonwealth under new laws which gave it the power to rip up the contentious Belt and Road deal between China and Victoria.

      But it currently remains in place to encourage public-private partnerships from companies in both countries, although the agreements within it are not legally binding.

      The documents show the Andrews government offered support on tendering processes, tax policies, selection criteria, dispute resolution and market access as part of the agreement.

      One section of the deal agrees on the “promotion of quality projects in infrastructure and utilities fields to strengthen the business links between the two countries”.

      A later section also spells out that both sides would share information to encourage companies from both countries to invest in large state projects.

      A Department of Premier and Cabinet spokeswoman said the MOU was signed to “promote sustainable social and economic development”.

      “It does not contain commitments on any specific commercial projects or deals,” she said.

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    Furiously+Curious

    A reminder that Macmaster universty, is the home of Bill Gates’ trial guru. It was the place that briefed the WHO, before it’s IVM response, and it is the recipient of large dollars, for advanced vaccine research. Tedros is always mentioned as a Chinese stooge, but back in 2010 he was head of Gates’ Global Fund, and on the board of another other of Gates’ major foundations.

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      Bruce

      Considering Tedros earlier “achievements’ on his home turf SHOULD ring bells.

      Look up “Derg”.

      (No, that is NOT an Inspector Clouseau reference).

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    Bones

    What shocked me while I was viewing Sharri Markson’s Covid story last night was that Sharri revealed little that was new to me.

    I have been watching Steve Bannon’s Warroom since before the 2019 election. Search “Bannon Warroom pandemic browse rumble”.

    The non reporting by the mainstream media is mind boggling.

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      Ross

      Not only that Bones, but most of that info has been discussed on Jo’ s blog for at least the last 12 months. I think I heard of the term ” Gain of Function” from a science commentator on Twitter at least 12 months ago.

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      • #

        See my reference to The Epoch Times in the post above. Yes, they and Bannon and FLCCC lead the way.

        But Sky and The Australian are playing an important role in spreading the info to a wider audience.

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      YallaYPoora Kid

      I had the same reaction although you have to remember that this blog is not widely known as an open and intellectual (mostly :)) exchange of up to date information. For the general public the show would have been an eye opener or otherwise just more Murdoch blather (from the left POV).

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    shortie+of+greenbank

    Perhaps the Project Veritas expose due to be released in an hour may have more on the lab leak theory thrown in though it will probably be about the vaccines it might encompass more of the scam.

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    RossP

    The one thing I think Sharri may have got wrong was when she said gain of function research restarted early in Trump’s presidency with the very strong implication that Trump approved it.

    I have read in several places that Obama removed the restriction in the last 10 days or so of his time. I have always found to be a strange thing to do in his last days, given he put the original restriction on 3-4 years earlier.

    So it is true it restarted in early 2017 but not that Trump approved it ( I think Trump was taken by surprise when Sharri raised it but made sure she understood that once he found out about the funding etc. he squashed it.)

    It was also interesting that Sky ran the program with no ad breaks, which I think was great given the seriousness of the issue.

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      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day RossP,
      Trump might have been taken by surprise, but (in retrospect) I wonder if he took that question as a warning that the interviewer was an antagonist rather than a seeker of truth?
      Cheers
      Dave B

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        It’s my understanding that Obama banned the GOF in 2014, but it was strangely approved again within weeks of Trump being sworn in. Would Trump have even known? Can someone check those dates?

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          David A

          I don’t know the answer to that, but the evidence that the deep state was operating counter to President Trump is very strong. So I would say very possible.

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          Yonason

          I’ve heard the same, but also don’t know where to find solid evidence.

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    Kim

    What the ‘average person in the street’ says to ‘the powers-that-be’ is: “You don’t get to F@#$ us over. Someone will cop it. The only question is who? You? or the Chinese? take your choice.”.

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      Steve of Cornubia

      “As scientists, we need to evaluate all hypotheses on a rational basis, and to weigh their likelihood based on facts and evidence, devoid of speculation concerning possible political impacts. Contrary to the first letter published in The Lancet … we do not think that scientists should promote “unity”

      In this context, “unity” has the same meaning as ‘consensus’ and, like climate change, is used simply to shut down debate and discredit non-conformists. They are both terms that should NEVER have a place in scientific research or policy.

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    So, this post could have just been, “Don’t buy the book”. Instead we have a mashing of poor logic that leaves any critique impossible.

    I can hear it now, “If you think I’m wrong tell me where”.

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    Rambling+Idiot

    There has surely been plenty of opportunity to test the October games participants to see whether or not they had Covid. Why is their mystery flu illness still a mystery?

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    A virus so deadly it only kills 80 to 90 yea olds in aged care with a life expectancy of about 2 years?
    Covid has the death rate of old age.

    685 (75 per cent) of the 910 COVID-19 deaths in Australia were aged care residents, almost all in Victoria.
    73 per cent of Australians who have died WITH COVID-19 had at least one (and often multiple) other pre-existing comorbidities
    The average age of COVID-19 deaths in Australia is 85 years – That’s above the age of life expectancy.
    https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/facts-on-covid-19-politicians-won-t-tell-you-20210705-p586za

    Number of COVID-19 deaths in Australia as at August 2021, by age and gender
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1245896/australia-number-of-coronavirus-deaths-by-age-group-and-gender/

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    Lance

    So, give this a think. “‘Government Doesn’t Want to Show the [COVID] Vaccine is Full of Sh*t’; ‘Shove’ Adverse Effect Reporting ‘Under the Mat’”

    Project Veritas:

    Covid Vaccine Exposed, Part 1.

    https://www.projectveritas.com/news/federal-govt-whistleblower-goes-public-with-secret-recordings-government/

    Everybody Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Fb4K8pNmg

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    What we in Australia have to focus on now is how to deal with the aftermath, namely the aim of giving the world’s population the Covid-19 jab after scaring the wits out of everyone through a pre-planned ‘pandemic’. Our Federal and State Governments appears intent on destroying our economy and filling the coffers of Big Pharm with the taxpayer’s money. Is this the aim of the ‘Great Reset’?

    Here are some facts about the fake vaccine:
    1. During the first six months of 2021, the Office for National Statistics revealed that 30,305 people died within twenty-one days of having the Covid-19 fake vaccine in England,

    2. Between December 8th 2020 and June 11th 2021, Public Health Scotland reported that 5,522 Scots had died within 28 days of having the Covid-19 fake vaccine,

    3. Through to September 11, 2021, the 27 nations comprising the European Union reported via the EudraVigilance database, that there had been 24,526 fatalities and 2,317, 495 injuries following Covid-19 injections,

    4. A major promoter of the Covid-19 fake vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the US National Institutes of Health, is reported as boasting on February 15, 2021 to a group of about 9 NIH laboratory workers that he has not taken and will not take the Covid jab.

    Contrast these with the only mention I have found of just 9 deaths attributed to the fake vaccine by our Therapeutic Goods Administration – really?

    Somehow someone has to convince our Governments that boosting the population’s immune system via vitamin D with zinc supplement, vitamin C, an antiviral such as HCQ or Ivervectin or quercetin plus exercise, sunshine and fresh air instead of lock downs are a solution.

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      1. Was this more than expected?
      2. Was this more than expected?

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        Interested

        America’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) regularly publishes numbers. The following are the numbers from the international VAERS Summary for COVID-19 Vaccines through Aug/13/2021:

        COVID-19 Vaccines, Dec.2020-Present
        Number of Adverse Reactions: 595,622
        Number of Deaths: 13,068*

        All Other Vaccines 1990-Present
        Number of Adverse Reactions: 814,322
        Number of Deaths: 8,871

        The site includes the following specific observation regarding the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 Vaccines in the first 8 months of 2021:
        *Note that the total number of deaths associated with the COVID-19 vaccines is greater than the number of deaths associated with all other vaccines combined since the year 1990.

        [Click here if you want more details: http://vaersanalysis.info/2021/08/20/vaers-summary-for-covid-19-vaccines-through-8-13-2021/ ]

        Excuse my curiosity but I was just wondering, have you had your ‘vaccine’ yet, ‘Gee Aye’?

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          I’m fully vaccinated as are most of the people I know. none have died.

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            R.B.

            9 have in Australia. 495 suspicious deaths were reported.

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            Interested

            Good news that all are still alive. In the weeks and months ahead I hope that situation lasts.

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              It wont last forever.

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                Interested

                So true. But I do hope you and all your like-minded friends live long healthy lives. In my opinion it took a lot of faith and courage to do what you did; not a trivial decision by any means.

                I believe anyone who willingly gives their consent to be part of such an unparalleled experiment – to be injected with a never-before-tried gene-altering mixture, with no data available as to the eventual outcome – is a remarkable sort of person.
                To risk one’s own life in the hope of perhaps saving 0.15% of the human race – mainly the elderly – from infection and death is an inspiration to the remaining 99.85% of us.

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                Since such a thing does not exist I don’t understand your point.

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        Serp

        Exactly my questions; we need to see the numbers usually dead over six months (in Australia it would be eighty-five thousand) and integrate that data with the ascending vaccinated proportion over the period (a task which may be straightforward for people trained in population research but isn’t for me) for comparison.

        My understanding is that Australian overall deaths are down for the last two years which implies the calculation will be controversial whichever way one pushes it.

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSlW8l7UvuI
    Covid Cases VS Fully Vaccination Rate Comparison – India, The US, Israel

    “Good Video” ivermectin prevents deaths in India!

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    Ross

    At one stage there was also reports of Australia’s link with the WIV. I think maybe an exchange program between CSIRO ANAHL lab at Geelong and the Wuhan equivalent? I suspect no-one wants to talk about that now.

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      There are lots of international collaborations. No one talks about it because, well, what is there to talk about?

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        Forrest Gardener

        There’s never anything to talk about right up to the point where there is something to talk about. And that’s when some people keep really quiet.

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          So your evidence is that there is no evidence. I wish I’d thought of that.

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            R.B.

            There is evidence of collobaration on the study of bat viruses.

            The CSIRO only commented when it was reported.

            No experiments have been carried out at the ACDP which could be considered ‘gain of function’ experiments. ACDP has a stringent process for evaluation of all proposed research under DURC (Dual Use Research of Concern) guidelines.

            While no research is currently being carried out on live bats at the ACDP, bats are a known reservoir of coronaviruses and bat research is critical, underpinning much of our understanding of zoonotic diseases which now account for seventy-five per cent of human diseases. CSIRO’s previous bat research has helped us develop the world’s first vaccine for the deadly Hendra virus and determined that SARS originated in bats. CSIRO was the first organisation to understand this. CSIRO continues to provide diagnosis in cases of suspected infection with bat lyssavirus.

            CSIRO has been working around-the-clock in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and save lives. In less than three months we have progressed our vaccine work to a stage that would have ordinarily taken years to reach. This has only been made possible by previous pivotal research into bats.

            Recent media reports by News Limited have referenced two scientists who have previously worked at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP). One for three years between 2011 and 2014, and another as a visiting scientist for three months in 2006.

            No exact details on what the research was, letting those interested to judge for themselves whether it was not part of any gain-of-function research.

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            Forrest Gardener

            I was talking about human nature GI. What was on your mind?

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        Ross

        GA- its just that years ago when the facility opened, the CSIRO were gung ho in experimenting with foot and mouth disease. Luckily other scientists and the cattle industry vetoed it. They thought the risk (however small) was not worth the threat to our cattle industry. We don’t want the good history of CSIRO threatened by their association with the WIV. It would seem that all these labs have the ability to “leak” – particularly if the human factor is considered.

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    R.B.

    Or it could all have been an incompetent accident.

    I’m going with it was because the people there were dumb as bat sh1t – if only to use the pun.

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    Bruce

    Vaccines?

    Hardly.

    Genetic “therapies”? Pretty much.

    Oddly enough, THEIR ABC posted this:

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-03-03/covid-19-pfizer-astrazeneca-vaccine-ingredients-components/13137240

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    george1st:)

    Was it deliberate or was it an accident. We still don’t know.
    And we never will , but it was certainly a cover up .

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    R.B.

    There is evidence of collobaration on the study of bat viruses.

    The CSIRO only commented when it was reported.

    No experiments have been carried out at the ACDP which could be considered ‘gain of function’ experiments. ACDP has a stringent process for evaluation of all proposed research under DURC (Dual Use Research of Concern) guidelines.

    While no research is currently being carried out on live bats at the ACDP, bats are a known reservoir of coronaviruses and bat research is critical, underpinning much of our understanding of zoonotic diseases which now account for seventy-five per cent of human diseases. CSIRO’s previous bat research has helped us develop the world’s first vaccine for the deadly Hendra virus and determined that SARS originated in bats. CSIRO was the first organisation to understand this. CSIRO continues to provide diagnosis in cases of suspected infection with bat lyssavirus.

    CSIRO has been working around-the-clock in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and save lives. In less than three months we have progressed our vaccine work to a stage that would have ordinarily taken years to reach. This has only been made possible by previous pivotal research into bats.

    Recent media reports by News Limited have referenced two scientists who have previously worked at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP). One for three years between 2011 and 2014, and another as a visiting scientist for three months in 2006.

    No exact details on what the research was, letting those interested to judge for themselves whether it was not part of any gain-of-function research.

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    Alistair Crooks

    Do not forget that Australia’s own CSIRO and its Geelong laboratory was having dealings with Wu Han and therefore might be expected to know exactly what was going on there. Instead of speaking up, they apparently decided to try and cover up their own involvement which meant covering up the Wu Han Laboratory’s involvement as well. In my opinion heads should roll for their involvement – but of course, they are untouchable.

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    Alistair Crooks

    So, not just the intelligence agencies but …
    When did the CSIRO know?

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    Philip

    Well when the covid issue first broke, a bloke who chops firewood for a living with missing teeth told me there’s a lab in that city in China and the yanks (sic) fund it. So I don’t why its taken so long for all this to come out.

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      NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS provide details of U.S.-funded research on several types of coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The Intercept has obtained more than 900 pages of documents detailing the work of EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based health organization that used federal money to fund bat coronavirus research at the Chinese laboratory. The trove of documents includes two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as project updates relating to EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic.

      From the link above

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    Yonason

    This extensive review was posted in January 2020.
    https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-technical-analysis-of-the-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/

    It was known, at least by honest scientists.

    So the question is not “what if we knew?”, but “who suppressed the knowledge, and why?”

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    A five-minute look on Google Scholar (Google for academics) shows that it was almost certainly a lab leak. Just put in the search terms Shi Zhengli and bat coronavirus and reams of articles appear, including gain of function articles. Shi Zhengli is the head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. I did this search in April 2020 and anyone could have done the same. It was always almost 100% certain it was a lab leak. Of particular interest is the very large number of scientists from prestigious universities who were working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

    https://www.markavis.org/2021/06/01/china-and-the-wuhan-lab-leak-of-covid/

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