Former MI6 Boss Says COVID-19 Manmade, Escaped From Chinese Lab Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2020 - 08:46
The former head of Britain's MI6 spy agency believes COVID-19 is a manmade virus that accidentally escaped from a Chinese laboratory, based on forthcoming research, according to The Telegraph.
Entitled "A Reconstructed Historical Aetiology of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike", the new study, seen by The Telegraph, suggests the virus is "remarkably well-adapted virus for human co-existence" and is likely to be the result of a Wuhan lab experiment to produce "chimeric viruses of high potency".
The paper concludes: "Henceforth, those who would maintain that the Covid-19 pandemic arose from zoonotic transfer need to explain precisely why this more parsimonious account is wrong before asserting that their evidence is persuasive, most especially when, as we also show, there are puzzling errors in their use of evidence." -The Telegraph
Perhaps most notable is that the former MI6 boss in question is Sir Richard Dearlove - who helped Obamagate operative Stefan Halper set up a smear campaign against Michael Flynn, and who made a name for himself nearly two decades ago peddling a bogus report that Saddam Hussein had WMDs - which Tony Blair used to justify the UK's involvement the Iraq war. Clearly Dearlove is trying to ruin our street cred.
Dearlove and Flynn shake hands
Indeed, while it was inevitable that the Western establishment would eventually gravitate towards the Wuhan lab theory Zero Hedge presented in late January, Dearlove's endorsement couldn't come from a more suspicious operative.
So, as the establishment continues to adopt the very obvious conclusion supported by a mountain of evidence that the bat-like coronavirus probably escaped from a Chinese laboratory known for modifying bat coronaviruses to infect humans, we suspect Dearlove and the 'perpetual war' crowd are most interested in using the accusation as a political cudgel to wield against China.
Here's the narrative
While we've told you about the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its infamous coronavirus-expert Shi Zhengli (a.k.a. 'bat woman'), we really triggered the muppets in early February when we reported on an Indian research team that found HIV-like "spike proteins" which allow the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to more easily enter human cells, making it extremely infectious. While the report was retracted, further studies from Nankai University found an "HIV-like mutation" in the virus.
Dearlove, through the Telegraph, is talking up a scientific paper set for imminent release which focuses on the HIV-like "spike proteins" - while separate research from one of the co-authors considers them to be "unique fingerprints" that cannot have evolved naturally. Instead, they are "indicative of purposive manipulation."
Entitled "A Reconstructed Historical Aetiology of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike", the new study, seen by The Telegraph, suggests the virus is "remarkably well-adapted virus for human co-existence" and is likely to be the result of a Wuhan lab experiment to produce "chimeric viruses of high potency".
The paper concludes: "Henceforth, those who would maintain that the Covid-19 pandemic arose from zoonotic transfer need to explain precisely why this more parsimonious account is wrong before asserting that their evidence is persuasive, most especially when, as we also show, there are puzzling errors in their use of evidence." -The Telegraph
The peer-reviewed research was a collaboration between Professor Angust Delgleish of St. George's Hospital at the University of London and Norwegian virologist Birger Sorensen. They claim to have identified "inserted sections placed on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike surface" which explain how it binds itself to human cells - and warns that efforts to develop a vaccine are doomed to fail because the virus is misunderstood. Sorensen, CEO of Norwegian pharmaceutical company Immunor AS, is developing his own vaccine.
Nobody would accept the research until they went easy on China...
Interestingly, the paper was widely circulated after being distributed for peer review - including by intelligence officials, however no legitimate publications would carry it until they toned down their language blaming China for the outbreak.
Correspondence seen by The Telegraph shows that, in April, the initial paper was rejected by leading academic journals including Nature and the Journal of Virology, which deemed the research "unsuitable for publication".
Much of the paper was watered down to remove explicit accusations against China, and the rewritten study was then judged to be of sufficient scientific merit to be accepted for publication in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery, a journal chaired by leading scientists from Stanford University and the University of Dundee. -The Telegraph
"This [the first] article was submitted to a… journal, which refused it within a week of receiving it, and in the same period accepted for publication two or three Chinese articles that relate to the virus, within 48 hours," Dearlove told The Telegraph. "So I mean, as this debate about the virus develops, I think all this material is going to be in print and is going to embarrass a number of people, I think. Let's suggest that the Chinese maybe have too much say in their journals, in what appears and what doesn't."
Dearlove suggests that Wuhan scientists may have been conducting genetic experiments on bat coronaviruses when COVID-19 accidentally escaped.
"It's a risky business if you make a mistake," said the 75-year-old spook. "Look at the stories... of the attempts by the leadership to lockdown any debate about the origins of the pandemic and the way that people have been arrested or silenced. I mean, we shouldn't really have any doubt any longer about what we're dealing with."
Sir Richard said he did not believe the Chinese had released the virus deliberately, but accused Beijing of subsequently covering up the scale of its spread.
"Of course, the Chinese must have felt, well, if they've got to suffer a pandemic maybe we shouldn't try too hard to stop, as it were, our competitors suffering the same disadvantages we've got," he said.
"Look, the Chinese understand us extremely well. They have made a study of us over the last decade or longer, particularly through attending our universities. We understand the Chinese very poorly. It's an imbalanced relationship in that respect."
Last month, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, claimed there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese laboratory, but did not provide any proof. However, the US National Intelligence Director's office later said it had determined that Covid-19 "was not manmade or genetically modified". -The Telegraph
"We are aware that these findings could have political significance and raise troubling questions," the authors originally wrote before they were forced to remove language critical of Beijing, who also referred to it in a previous draft as the "Wuhan virus," claiming that they had proven "beyond reasonable doubt that the Covid-19 virus is engineered."
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