You've Been Lied To.
American public policy health officials stifled debate among experts regarding the lab origin theory. Here's how Dr. Francis Collins shut down the debate and kept it from you.
You’ve Been Lied To.
How can we be expected to trust our government institutions if they won’t tell us the truth?
To be blunt, the science bureaucracy has lied to you from the very beginning of the COVID pandemic. Not only did they lie, they actively hid things from you.
Let’s back up to the beginning, to December 2019 when the first reports of a strange virus were being reported in Wuhan, China. By January 2020 there were active cases in the United States. At the time, the science bureaucracy – through Dr. Anthony Fauci – downplayed the significance of the outbreak in Wuhan.
The science bureaucracy consists of Dr. Fauci, now a household name after becoming the public face of the United States’ pandemic response, Fauci’s boss Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, and various officials scattered throughout the CDC, the FDA, and universities around the country and world.
Initially, Dr. Fauci downplayed the threat the virus posed partially because China wasn’t forthcoming with how contagious SARS-CoV-2 was and partly because previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS, other respiratory viruses similar to COVID-19, were contained relatively quickly with minimum cases. In 2003, 8,098 people were infected with SARS.
The science bureaucracy assumed SARS-CoV-2 would be the same as SARS-CoV-1. So no alarm bells were sounded. Can’t blame them for that.
But, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, turned out to be much different than 2003. This virus is much more contagious and seems to spread faster and further than SARS-CoV-1. On January 11, 2020 the virus’ genetic sequence was published. As expected, the bureaucracy researched it.
Twenty days after the genome was published (January 31st, 2020), Fauci was part of an email chain with virologists Kristian Andersen and Michael Frazan at Scripps Research Institute, Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney, and Tulane’s Robert Garry.
From City Journal:
Andersen reported to Fauci that “after discussions earlier today, Eddie, Bob, Mike and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory…” In their unanimous view, the virus didn’t come from nature and may instead have escaped from a lab.
Think about that. Four virologists, whom the media would call ‘leading experts,’ looked at the recently unveiled genome of SARS-CoV-2 and ‘unanimously’ agreed this virus could have originated in a lab. That alone is astounding. This takes us into Robin Cook novels and Hollywood movie territory. A lab-originated virus was spreading across the globe.
To be clear, they had no proof SARS-CoV-2 was actually an experiment called ‘gain of function’ research, but it was their initial suspicion. Specifically, something in what’s called ‘the furin cleavage site’ appeared too aggressive to have occurred naturally in a virus. In other words, four people who specialize in studying viruses were befuddled by this virus.
Tulane University’s Garry wrote, “I just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature . . . it’s stunning. Of course, in the lab it would be easy to generate…” Farzan agreed. “He is bothered by the furin cleavage site and has a hard time explain[ing] that as an event outside the lab (though, there are possible ways in nature, but highly unlikely),” was the way the House Oversight Committee surmised Farzan’s initial thoughts questioning how this feature on the virus could have evolved in nature. It was as if one of the world’s most renowned experts in virology had never seen anything like it.
Farzan was 60-70% convinced COVID originated in a lab and was accidentally released. Holmes, from the University of Sydney, was 60/40 in favor of lab manipulation. Dr. Jeremy Farrar of the University of Oxford was 50/50.
Certainly, at this level, with these experts considering the lab leak theory makes it worthy of debate, not outright dismissal.
Which is exactly what the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Collins did.
On February 1, 2020 Collins and Fauci took part in a conference call with eleven other scientists to talk about COVID-19’s origins. According to the House Oversight Committee, it was on this call Fauci and Collins, ‘were first warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) and, further, may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.’
Farzan said in an email after the call was over he felt the manipulation could have been accidental manipulation (the House Oversight Committee was allowed to view this series of emails, but not copy them. The Committee summed up Farzan’s email this way):
“So, given above, a likely explanation could be something as simple as passage of SARS-live CoVs in tissue culture on human cell lines (under BSL-2) for an extended period of time, accidently (emphasis mine) creating a virus that would be primed for rapid transmission between humans via gain of furin site (from tissue culture) and adaption to human ACE2 receptor via repeated passage.”
Another theory that can’t automatically be dismissed. It is certainly possible SARS-CoV-2 was created in a lab accidentally. How is it possible? That I can’t answer. But, before 9/11 I wouldn’t have thought it possible four planes would get hijacked and turned into missiles either.
And…
The American government had been warned about the safety of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2018, almost two years before the pandemic that started near that very same lab.
And…
If SARS-CoV-2 was the result of sloppy lab practices there likely will not be a paper trail. No paper trail makes it easier, in theory, to cover up.
The day after this conference call, Collins started to dismiss the possibility of the lab leak. He wrote, “I am coming around to the view that a natural origin is more likely. But I share your view that a swift convening of experts in a confidence-inspiring framework (WHO seems really the only option) is needed, or the voices of conspiracy will quickly dominate, doing great potential harm to science and international harmony.”
As head of the NIH, Collins is the top non-elected government official in charge of public health research. The position is in charge of a lot of money. Because of this Collins has the power to sway the debate.
Or end it.
After the February conference where Fauci and Collins were introduced to the possibility COVID-19 was the product of a lab, four people drafted a paper that would eventually be published in Nature Medicine on March 17. That paper dismissed the lab leak theory, “our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” Fauci and Collins edited that paper.
Oxford’s Farrar signed a separate paper in The Lancet pushing the COVID-19 natural origin theory. It was published on February 19, only 3 weeks after he admitted he was 50/50.
The question is why.
This is part 1 of a 2-part piece. In part 1, I’ve laid out the evidence. It is Self-Evident we can’t yet rule out either the accidental or the purposeful lab leak theories. Yet, they were and we know who shut down the debate. Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Why?
In Part 2, I’ll suggest a theory.