Franklin wrote:for instance the equal treatment in investigating the origin of the coronavirus...
the WHO must investigate a lab in the US
will they be satisfied is the probe is delayed 13 months, headed by someone with decades of history working at the lab and friendship with the lab being investigated, the investigative team only spends a few hours at the lab, and are not equipped for or conducting any sort of forensic audit on the lab...
will the WHO now be called on to probe labs in China that held/hold Ebola samples -- and have safety concerns
I believe many labs in china would fit that bill....
Laboratories reported more than 230 safety incidents with bioterror viruses and bacteria last year, hundreds of workers were monitored for potential exposures and a handful of labs had their permits suspended because of violations that raised “significant concerns for imminent danger,” according to a report released Thursday by federal lab regulators in response to a White House call for greater public transparency.
Background checks by the FBI stopped 16 individuals that posed security risks – including six convicted felons, two fugitives and a person found to be a “mental defective” -- from working in labs where they’d have access to pathogens such as those that cause anthrax, Ebola, plague and botulism, the report said.
for instance the equal treatment in investigating the origin of the coronavirus...
the WHO must investigate a lab in the US
Steve James wrote:for instance the equal treatment in investigating the origin of the coronavirus...
the WHO must investigate a lab in the US
And, which lab would that be? Who decides which one? Does the WHO seek to investigate a particular lab? And, how could they tell if the virus escaped from there?.
Army germ lab shut down by CDC in 2019 had several 'serious' protocol violations that year
OBSERVATION 1
Severity level: Serious
The CDC reported that an individual partially entered a room multiple times without the required respiratory protection while other people in that room were performing procedures with a non-human primate on a necropsy table.
“This deviation from entity procedures resulted in a respiratory occupational exposure to select agent aerosols,” the CDC wrote.
OBSERVATION 2
Severity level: Serious
The CDC reported that the lab did not ensure that employee training was properly verified when it came to toxins and select agents.
“These failures were recognized through video review of laboratorians’ working in BSL3 and ABSL3 labs,” their report said. “[These] indicate the [lab]’s means used to verify personnel understood the training had not been effective, leading to increased risk of occupational exposures.”
The CDC went on to specify that a laboratorian who was not wearing appropriate respiratory protection was seen multiple times “partially entering” a room where non-human primates that were infected with [redacted] were “housed in open caging.” They also observed a laboratorian disposing of waste in a biohazardous waste bin without gloves on.
OBSERVATION 3
Severity level: Moderate
In this violation observation, the CDC went into more detail on the incident of the worker not wearing gloves while disposing of biohazardous waste, writing that “biosafety and containment procedures must be sufficient to contain the select agent or toxin.”
The corrective action they recommended was to confirm that relevant personnel have been trained to wear gloves to prevent exposure to hazardous materials.
OBSERVATION 4
Severity level: Serious
In this observation, the CDC notes that the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases had “systematically failed to ensure implementation of biosafety and containment procedures commensurate with the risks associated with working with select agents and toxins.”
The violation specifically observed involved “entity personnel [...] propping open” a door while removing “large amounts of biohazardous waste” from an adjacent room, “[increasing] the risk of contaminated air from [the room] escaping and being drawn into the [redacted]” where the people working “typically do not wear respiratory protection.”
OBSERVATION 5
Severity level: Moderate
The CDC reported that the laboratory failed to safeguard against unauthorized access to select against. They wrote that personal protective equipment worn while decontaminating something contaminated by a select agent had been stored in open biohazard bags, in an area of the facility that the CDC has redacted for security reasons.
“By storing regulated waste in this area, the entity did not limit access to those with access approval,” they wrote.
OBSERVATION 6
Severity level: Moderate
The CDC reports that someone at the lab did not maintain an accurate or current inventory for a toxin.
US urged to explain military lab shutdown
Netizens and experts are calling for the US government to release information on the suspension of an infectious disease research lab under the US Army, as a petition on the White House website listed coincident events between the closure and the outbreak of COVID-19, urging the US government to clarify whether the lab was related to the deadly virus.
While the origin of the novel coronavirus is still unknown and conspiracy theories have caused widespread panic, experts said that timely information disclosure to the public would benefit global unity and cooperation against the pandemic, which had infected more than 150,000 people and killed 5,400 around the world as of Saturday.
The Fort Detrick laboratory that handles high-level disease-causing material, such as Ebola, in Fredrick, Maryland was shut after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a cease and desist order to the organization in July, 2019 according to local media.
Steve James wrote:Has the WHO asked to investigate the Ft. Detrick lab? The reported violations were noted by the US CDC.
Lab workers at different sites accidentally jabbed themselves with needles contaminated by anthrax or West Nile virus. An air-cleaning system meant to filter dangerous microbes out of a lab failed, but no one knew because the alarms had been turned off. A batch of West Nile virus, improperly packed in dry ice, burst open at a Federal Express shipping center. Mice infected with bubonic plague or Q fever went missing. And workers exposed to Q fever, brucellosis or tuberculosis did not realize it until they either became ill or blood tests detected the exposure.
The good news is that relatively few lab workers have become ill from accidental exposures: only 11 from 2004 to 2010, according to the C.D.C. report. None died, and none infected other people.
Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist and laboratory director from Rutgers University, said he had “no confidence” in the safety of the many labs that have sprung up since 2001. He suggested there was a culture of complacency at some of them, as well as hubris among some researchers who believe they do not need oversight or management.
The most recent revelations have underscored potentially serious lapses at the government’s premier institutions. In June, dozens of C.D.C. employees may have been exposed to live anthrax. In another case disclosed this month, a C.D.C. lab accidentally contaminated a relatively benign flu sample with a dangerous H5N1 bird flu strain that has killed 386 people since 2003 — and then shipped it to a lab at the Department of Agriculture. In yet another episode this month, vials of smallpox and other infectious agents were discovered in a government laboratory on the campus of the National Institutes of Health after being stored and apparently forgotten about 50 years ago.
I don’t think so. It’s the Chinese who want WHO to make an investigation.
Researchers have uncovered accounts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists and applications for patents for bat breeding that refute World Health Organization (WHO) inspector Peter Daszak's claims that the lab does not house live bats captured in the wild.
An international network of researchers and scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic who call themselves DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19) have found evidence from Chinese media reports that in fact the WIV scientists captured bats alive and kept them inside the lab. The lab has also filed two patents for cages to be used in bat breeding and one for lab accidents just before the start of the pandemic.
British zoologist and the president of EcoHealth Alliance Peter Daszak is the only individual to be part of both the WHO and The Lancet teams investigating the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. However, he has long-term professional and financial ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) spanning two decades and valued in the millions of dollars, which represents a conflict of interest.
On Dec. 10 of last year, the Independent published an article alleging that the US National Institutes of Health provided US$3.7 million in funding to the WIV to study bats carrying viruses similar to SARS in Yunnan Province. The article reported that WIV scientists captured the bats and sent them to the Wuhan lab for analysis.
That same day, Daszak took umbrage with the claim that the bats had been captured and transported to the WIV and posted a tweet in which he wrote "No BATS were 'sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analyses of viruses collected in the field.'" He then added, "That's not how science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!"
Daszak then deleted the tweet and its accompanying thread. However, its contents can still be seen on the Internet Archive.
Later that same day, Daszak added one final tweet that remains to this day, in which he admitted to being "the lead" on work with bats carrying coronaviruses at the WIV and that he has worked with the organization for 15 years. He then claimed that the labs at the WIV "DO NOT have live or dead bats in them. There is no evidence anywhere that this happened."
However, the team at DRASTIC uncovered a comment made by the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at WIV, Shi Zhengli (石正麗) — also known as "Bat Woman" — as claiming that "we experimented on live bats with Nipah." The Nipah virus is a highly infectious disease carried by bats that can easily be transmitted to other animals and humans and have a high mortality rate.
On page 12 of a document titled "Second China-U.S. Workshop on the Challenges of Emerging Infections, Laboratory Safety and Global Health Security," which took place from May 17-19, 2017, in Wuhan, Shi is cited as saying that some SARS Like coronaviruses (SL CoVs) have the potential for interspecies transmission to other animals and humans.
When asked by an audience member if a bat could be cleared of this virus, Shi responded that she had tried this with Nipah virus in bats and the bats could produce antibodies and be clear within seven days.
She said that in nature, they found that bats produce antibodies to some viruses but not all and that some SL CoV can exist in bats for several months. The fact that specific bats were being monitored for days and even months for the presence of antibodies indicates that they were being kept in the lab.
In an article posted on Sixth Tone in May of 2018, the news site interviewed WIV scientist Luo Dongsheng, who is part of a working group at the lab that sequences coronaviruses and enters the data into a genetic database. Luo describes the process of exploring Taiyi Cave in Xianning, Hubei Province, and collecting horseshoe bat samples and the bats themselves.
At the end of the article, it states by 8:30 p.m. on an evening that spring, Luo's team had "collected a full rack of swabs and bagged a dozen live bats for further testing back at the lab."
In an archived article from ScienceNet.cn which has since been scrubbed from the internet, WIV scientist Zhang Huajun praised Shi for helping to feed the bats while the interns were out for the Lunar New Year holiday:
"The research team captured a few bats from the wild to be used as experimental animals. They need to be fed every day. This Spring Festival, the students went home for a holiday, and Teacher Shi took on the task of raising bats."
In an archived view of the WIV introduction page, it states that the institute had "3 sets of barrier facilities" covering 1,216 square meters. It then itemized the cages it houses for various types of lab animals, including "126 cages for Japanese white rabbits, 340 cages for SD and Wistar rats, 3268 cages for inbred strains, closed groups, mutant strains and genetically engineered mice, 12 cages for ferrets, 12 cages for bats, 2 species of cotton bollworm and beet armyworm, totaling 52 strains."
In addition, the WIV has filed at least two patents that appear to point to a bat breeding program in the lab. The first patent was filed in June of 2018 and was called "A kind of carnivorism bat rearing cage." The patent was granted in April of 2019.
The description of the cage includes partitions, feed openings, and drinking tubes. The description concludes that the device is intended to enable the bats to be "capable of healthy growth and breeding" under artificial conditions.
The second patent describes an artificial breeding insectivorous bats method of feeding the bats with predatory insects, ensuring their safe "overwintering," and ensuring a "high breeding rate and survival rate." A third patent, filed in November of 2019, just one month before the first COVID-19 cases in Wuhan were announced, is an instrument designed to quickly stop the bleeding on a finger if it had been injured while working pathogenic viruses in a biosafety lab.
Franklin wrote:some more "discrepancies" between what the lead "investigator" Peter Daszak has said and public record...
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4130431
WHO inspector's denial of bats in Wuhan lab contradicted by facts
Steve James wrote:Ok, the conclusion of this video is that it's propaganda. I'm not promoting CNN, the US, or the WHO. I really hadn't heard the claim of a US origin for the virus. However, the fact that the WHO is not requesting an investigation of the Ft. Detrick facility (and the other 200 biological labs) leads me to believe that the claim is more propaganda than science. I.e., I don't believe China.
But, it's not because I have a prejudice against that country or because I believe the US is the good guy. I trust the WHO more because the US and China don't trust each other or them. That said, if the WHO asked for a tour, I'd be all for it.
and of course the very likely chain of the virus spread to China . FortDiedrick - US army personnel - world military games in Wuhan..https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... er-228109/. The Taiwanese physician noted that in August of 2019 the US had a flurry of lung pneumonias or similar, which the Americans blamed on ‘vaping’ from e-cigarettes, but which, according to the scientist, the symptoms and conditions could not be explained by e-cigarettes. He said he wrote to the US officials telling them he suspected those deaths were likely due to the coronavirus. He claims his warnings were ignored.
Trick wrote:Yes it’s a big possibility that the US is the ground zero from where the covid19 spread globally -a quote from an respected physician from Taiwan province-and of course the very likely chain of the virus spread to China . FortDiedrick - US army personnel - world military games in Wuhan..https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... er-228109/. The Taiwanese physician noted that in August of 2019 the US had a flurry of lung pneumonias or similar, which the Americans blamed on ‘vaping’ from e-cigarettes, but which, according to the scientist, the symptoms and conditions could not be explained by e-cigarettes. He said he wrote to the US officials telling them he suspected those deaths were likely due to the coronavirus. He claims his warnings were ignored.
https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/ch ... r-BB118iKH
Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:So, what is this about? Is the claim being made that China created the virus in a lab and then either purposefully or accidentally released it?
Highly unlikely, and probably best to apply Occam's razor.
If you keep up with either virology (I don't really) or the Anthropocene (I do), you'd know that there has been a massive increase in mammal to mammal novel virus spread as well as animal to human novel virus spread due to both a crowding of the planet and afforestation both of which lead to increased interspecies contact.
I'm not saying it's impossible that it came from a lab, but it just doesn't seem likely.
Return to Been There Done That
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 82 guests