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Controversial Coronavirus Lab Origin Claims Dismissed By Experts
Jun 7, 2020,03:42pm EDT | 3,048,771 views
"stockmule, stockmule, Your certainty as regards a conspiratorial vein of thought is..."
David Nikel Senior Contributor
Travel and lifestyle in Europe with a focus on Norway & Scandinavia.
Wuhan Institute of Virology is one of China's leading research centres and has been the subject of ... [+] AFP via Getty Images
June 8: This article has been substantially updated to reflect criticism of the published study, along with the general scientific consensus on Covid-19. It also clarifies Sørensen’s financial interest in the development of the Biovacc-19 coronavirus vaccine. This context did not appear in the original post. June 10: Updated with additional comment from Gunnveig Grødeland.
New claims that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was engineered have been dismissed by scientific and intelligence experts.
The authors of a British-Norwegian vaccine study—accepted by the Quarterly Review of Biophysics .. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DBBC0FA6E3763B0067CAAD8F3363E527/S2633289220000083a.pdf/biovacc19_a_candidate_vaccine_for_covid19_sarscov2_developed_from_analysis_of_its_general_method_of_action_for_infectivity.pdf —claim that the coronavirus's spike protein contains sequences that appear to be artificially inserted.
In their paper, the Norwegian scientist Birger Sørensen and British oncologist Angus Dalgleish claim to have identified "inserted sections placed on the SARS-CoV-2 spike surface" that explains how the virus interacts with cells in the human body. Virologists, however, note that similar sections appear naturally in other viruses.
---
[INSERT: The Wuhan Lab and the Gain-of-Function Disagreement
"stockmule, Your certainty as regards a conspiratorial vein of thought is confusing. What you and Wade say could be true, HOWEVER, at this point in time the great preponderance of evidence says it is most likely not the case. So i ask you WHY do you take a position of certainty in the face of the evidence at hand??
[...]
Experts have suspected the SARS-CoV-2 virus similarly originated in bats. Researchers in China — including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology .. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7 — have said the virus shares 96% of its genome with a bat virus collected by researchers in 2013 in Yunnan Province, China. (While that’s quite similar, Dr. Stanley Perlman .. https://medicine.uiowa.edu/microbiology/profile/stanley-perlman , a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa who studies coronaviruses and a pediatric infectious disease physician, told us it would be “impossible” to take such a virus and make the kind of changes required to turn it into SARS-CoV-2 in a lab. One would need a virus that’s 99.9% similar, and “in theory it might work.”)
P - An article .. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9 .. published in Nature Medicine in March 2020 said that the virus likely originated through “natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer,” or “natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.” The researchers, who analyzed genomic data, said SARS-CoV-2 “is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” While they said an accidental laboratory release of the naturally occurring virus can’t be ruled out, they said they “do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”
P - In an April 2020 statement, University of Sydney professor Edward Holmes, who was involved in mapping the genome of SARS-CoV-2, responded to “unfounded speculation” that the bat virus with 96% similarity was the origin of SARS-CoV-2. He said: “In summary, the abundance, diversity and evolution of coronaviruses in wildlife strongly suggests that this virus is of natural origin. However, a greater sampling of animal species in nature, including bats from Hubei province, is needed to resolve the exact origins of SARS-CoV-2.”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164053476]
---
Accidental release claims challenged
Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, told the Daily Telegraph .. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/03/exclusive-coronavirus-began-accident-disease-escaped-chinese/ .. that Sørensen and Dalgleish’s research shows that the pandemic may have started at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He added that he thought it unlikely to have been released deliberately, but that China had clearly tried to cover up the release.
However, intelligence sources from Britain’s MI5 dismissed the idea as “rumor and conspiracy,” according to the Times of London .. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mi5-believes-coronavirus-came-from-market-mghqw3bxr . Dearlove was previously criticized in the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War for promoting “flawed intelligence .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36713003 .”
Since the coronavirus took hold in the United States, senior officials in the Trump administration have amplified rumors .. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/politics/trump-administration-intelligence-coronavirus-china.html .. that the virus emerged from a virology lab in Wuhan. However, public health researchers have traced the earliest recorded cases of the virus to an animal market .. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52369878 .. in the city.
Management at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have previously told Chinese state .. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-23/Exclusive-with-head-of-Wuhan-Institute-of-Virology-Let-science-speak-QJeOjOZt4Y/index.html .. television that such claims were “total fabrication” and that the lab had not encountered SARS-CoV-2 until samples from patients with an then unidentified pneumonia-like disease were referred to them in December.
Scientific claims questioned
Sørensen and Dalgleish’s work contradicts the international scientific consensus that although the coronavirus pandemic originated in Wuhan, there is no evidence that it had been artificially engineered.
An analysis of the first 41 Covid-19 patients published in medical journal the Lancet found that in 27 cases, there had been direct exposure to the Wuhan market, although not with the first known case. The World Health Organization has since released guidance .. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus/who-recommendations-to-reduce-risk-of-transmission-of-emerging-pathogens-from-animals-to-humans-in-live-animal-markets .. to those working in and visiting such markets, to reduce animal-human transmission of emerging pathogens.
The report’s authors also claim the lack of mutation in the virus since its discovery, suggests it was already fully adapted to humans. However, there have been several published studies noting evolution and mutation among SARS-CoV-2 strains.
Sørensen told Norwegian broadcaster NR .. https://www.nrk.no/norge/norsk-forsker-skaper-strid-om-virusets-opphav_-_-dette-viruset-har-ikke-en-naturlig-opprinnelse-1.15043634 .. that the virus has properties that differ greatly from SARS, another coronavirus, and have never been detected in nature. He claimed that China and the United States? have collaborated for many years on coronavirus research through "gain of function" studies .. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21243148/why-some-labs-work-on-making-viruses-deadlier-and-why-they-should-stop , in which the pathogenicity or transmissibility of potential pandemic pathogens can be enhanced in order to understand them better.
Examples found in other viruses
Gunnveig Grødeland .. https://www.med.uio.no/klinmed/english/people/aca/gunnveig/index.html , vaccine researcher at the University of Oslo, is one of the scientists voicing their disagreement with Sørensen. She explains that what Sørensen referred to as "inserted sequences" can enable the development of a more serious disease, but this is not unusual in nature: "Examples can be found in other viruses including subtypes of influenza (including "bird flu"), HIV, and several human coronaviruses (MERS, OC43, HKU1)." Grødeland also says that Sørensen's paper offered no biological confirmation on the relevance of positively charged patches.
Other leading voices in the scientific community and fight against the pandemic have dismissed claims that the coronavirus was man-made. Anthony Fauci, director of U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stated there is no scientific evidence for the claims, while leading researchers from the World Health Organization and Galveston National Laboratory .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/could-covid-19-be-manmade-what-we-know-about-origins-trump-chinese-lab-coronavirus .. also dismissed the rumours.
The report was allegedly previously rejected
The Telegraph claimed that the study was initially rejected by several academic journals, including "Nature" and "Journal of Virology," which indicates they considered the article unsuitable for publication. Sørensen claimed the original study tied the vaccine development to the origin research, and that they have since split the research. He claimed a second study with more details on the origin of the virus will be published soon.
The report published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics explains the rationale for the development of Biovacc-19, a candidate vaccine for COVID-19 that is now in advanced preclinical development. Sørensen has a financial interest in Immunor, the Norwegian company behind the vaccine.
No, COVID-19 Coronavirus Was Not Bioengineered. Here’s The Research That Debunks That Idea (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/03/17/covid-19-coronavirus-did-not-come-from-a-lab-study-shows-natural-origins/#78713f8a3728 )
Fauci, Top U.S. General Throw Cold Water On Trump’s Coronavirus Claim (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/05/fauci-top-us-general-throw-cold-water-on-trumps-coronavirus-claim/#61214a84468b )
The Controversial Rumor COVID-19 Originated In A Wuhan Lab Creeps Into The GOP Mainstream (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/22/the-theory-that-covid-19-originated-in-a-wuhan-lab-creeps-into-the-gop-mainstream/#6311ac04d4d1 )
A Timeline Of The COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Origin Theory (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/10/a-timeline-of-the-covid-19-wuhan-lab-origin-theory/#54312f8a5aba )
Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
David Nikel
I was born in the U.K. but moved to Norway in 2011 and haven't looked back. I run a
website and podcast about Norway, authored the Moon Norway travel guidebook, and spend…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/06/07/controversial-coronavirus-lab-origin-claims-dismissed-by-experts/?sh=3686eb0b68f6
Jun 7, 2020,03:42pm EDT | 3,048,771 views
"stockmule, stockmule, Your certainty as regards a conspiratorial vein of thought is..."
David Nikel Senior Contributor
Travel and lifestyle in Europe with a focus on Norway & Scandinavia.
Wuhan Institute of Virology is one of China's leading research centres and has been the subject of ... [+] AFP via Getty Images
June 8: This article has been substantially updated to reflect criticism of the published study, along with the general scientific consensus on Covid-19. It also clarifies Sørensen’s financial interest in the development of the Biovacc-19 coronavirus vaccine. This context did not appear in the original post. June 10: Updated with additional comment from Gunnveig Grødeland.
New claims that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was engineered have been dismissed by scientific and intelligence experts.
The authors of a British-Norwegian vaccine study—accepted by the Quarterly Review of Biophysics .. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DBBC0FA6E3763B0067CAAD8F3363E527/S2633289220000083a.pdf/biovacc19_a_candidate_vaccine_for_covid19_sarscov2_developed_from_analysis_of_its_general_method_of_action_for_infectivity.pdf —claim that the coronavirus's spike protein contains sequences that appear to be artificially inserted.
In their paper, the Norwegian scientist Birger Sørensen and British oncologist Angus Dalgleish claim to have identified "inserted sections placed on the SARS-CoV-2 spike surface" that explains how the virus interacts with cells in the human body. Virologists, however, note that similar sections appear naturally in other viruses.
---
[INSERT: The Wuhan Lab and the Gain-of-Function Disagreement
"stockmule, Your certainty as regards a conspiratorial vein of thought is confusing. What you and Wade say could be true, HOWEVER, at this point in time the great preponderance of evidence says it is most likely not the case. So i ask you WHY do you take a position of certainty in the face of the evidence at hand??
[...]
Experts have suspected the SARS-CoV-2 virus similarly originated in bats. Researchers in China — including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology .. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7 — have said the virus shares 96% of its genome with a bat virus collected by researchers in 2013 in Yunnan Province, China. (While that’s quite similar, Dr. Stanley Perlman .. https://medicine.uiowa.edu/microbiology/profile/stanley-perlman , a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa who studies coronaviruses and a pediatric infectious disease physician, told us it would be “impossible” to take such a virus and make the kind of changes required to turn it into SARS-CoV-2 in a lab. One would need a virus that’s 99.9% similar, and “in theory it might work.”)
P - An article .. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9 .. published in Nature Medicine in March 2020 said that the virus likely originated through “natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer,” or “natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.” The researchers, who analyzed genomic data, said SARS-CoV-2 “is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” While they said an accidental laboratory release of the naturally occurring virus can’t be ruled out, they said they “do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.”
P - In an April 2020 statement, University of Sydney professor Edward Holmes, who was involved in mapping the genome of SARS-CoV-2, responded to “unfounded speculation” that the bat virus with 96% similarity was the origin of SARS-CoV-2. He said: “In summary, the abundance, diversity and evolution of coronaviruses in wildlife strongly suggests that this virus is of natural origin. However, a greater sampling of animal species in nature, including bats from Hubei province, is needed to resolve the exact origins of SARS-CoV-2.”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164053476]
---
Accidental release claims challenged
Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, told the Daily Telegraph .. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/03/exclusive-coronavirus-began-accident-disease-escaped-chinese/ .. that Sørensen and Dalgleish’s research shows that the pandemic may have started at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He added that he thought it unlikely to have been released deliberately, but that China had clearly tried to cover up the release.
However, intelligence sources from Britain’s MI5 dismissed the idea as “rumor and conspiracy,” according to the Times of London .. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mi5-believes-coronavirus-came-from-market-mghqw3bxr . Dearlove was previously criticized in the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War for promoting “flawed intelligence .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36713003 .”
Since the coronavirus took hold in the United States, senior officials in the Trump administration have amplified rumors .. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/politics/trump-administration-intelligence-coronavirus-china.html .. that the virus emerged from a virology lab in Wuhan. However, public health researchers have traced the earliest recorded cases of the virus to an animal market .. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52369878 .. in the city.
Management at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have previously told Chinese state .. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-23/Exclusive-with-head-of-Wuhan-Institute-of-Virology-Let-science-speak-QJeOjOZt4Y/index.html .. television that such claims were “total fabrication” and that the lab had not encountered SARS-CoV-2 until samples from patients with an then unidentified pneumonia-like disease were referred to them in December.
Scientific claims questioned
Sørensen and Dalgleish’s work contradicts the international scientific consensus that although the coronavirus pandemic originated in Wuhan, there is no evidence that it had been artificially engineered.
An analysis of the first 41 Covid-19 patients published in medical journal the Lancet found that in 27 cases, there had been direct exposure to the Wuhan market, although not with the first known case. The World Health Organization has since released guidance .. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus/who-recommendations-to-reduce-risk-of-transmission-of-emerging-pathogens-from-animals-to-humans-in-live-animal-markets .. to those working in and visiting such markets, to reduce animal-human transmission of emerging pathogens.
The report’s authors also claim the lack of mutation in the virus since its discovery, suggests it was already fully adapted to humans. However, there have been several published studies noting evolution and mutation among SARS-CoV-2 strains.
Sørensen told Norwegian broadcaster NR .. https://www.nrk.no/norge/norsk-forsker-skaper-strid-om-virusets-opphav_-_-dette-viruset-har-ikke-en-naturlig-opprinnelse-1.15043634 .. that the virus has properties that differ greatly from SARS, another coronavirus, and have never been detected in nature. He claimed that China and the United States? have collaborated for many years on coronavirus research through "gain of function" studies .. https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21243148/why-some-labs-work-on-making-viruses-deadlier-and-why-they-should-stop , in which the pathogenicity or transmissibility of potential pandemic pathogens can be enhanced in order to understand them better.
Examples found in other viruses
Gunnveig Grødeland .. https://www.med.uio.no/klinmed/english/people/aca/gunnveig/index.html , vaccine researcher at the University of Oslo, is one of the scientists voicing their disagreement with Sørensen. She explains that what Sørensen referred to as "inserted sequences" can enable the development of a more serious disease, but this is not unusual in nature: "Examples can be found in other viruses including subtypes of influenza (including "bird flu"), HIV, and several human coronaviruses (MERS, OC43, HKU1)." Grødeland also says that Sørensen's paper offered no biological confirmation on the relevance of positively charged patches.
Other leading voices in the scientific community and fight against the pandemic have dismissed claims that the coronavirus was man-made. Anthony Fauci, director of U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stated there is no scientific evidence for the claims, while leading researchers from the World Health Organization and Galveston National Laboratory .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/could-covid-19-be-manmade-what-we-know-about-origins-trump-chinese-lab-coronavirus .. also dismissed the rumours.
The report was allegedly previously rejected
The Telegraph claimed that the study was initially rejected by several academic journals, including "Nature" and "Journal of Virology," which indicates they considered the article unsuitable for publication. Sørensen claimed the original study tied the vaccine development to the origin research, and that they have since split the research. He claimed a second study with more details on the origin of the virus will be published soon.
The report published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics explains the rationale for the development of Biovacc-19, a candidate vaccine for COVID-19 that is now in advanced preclinical development. Sørensen has a financial interest in Immunor, the Norwegian company behind the vaccine.
No, COVID-19 Coronavirus Was Not Bioengineered. Here’s The Research That Debunks That Idea (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/03/17/covid-19-coronavirus-did-not-come-from-a-lab-study-shows-natural-origins/#78713f8a3728 )
Fauci, Top U.S. General Throw Cold Water On Trump’s Coronavirus Claim (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/05/fauci-top-us-general-throw-cold-water-on-trumps-coronavirus-claim/#61214a84468b )
The Controversial Rumor COVID-19 Originated In A Wuhan Lab Creeps Into The GOP Mainstream (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/22/the-theory-that-covid-19-originated-in-a-wuhan-lab-creeps-into-the-gop-mainstream/#6311ac04d4d1 )
A Timeline Of The COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Origin Theory (Forbes ..
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/05/10/a-timeline-of-the-covid-19-wuhan-lab-origin-theory/#54312f8a5aba )
Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
David Nikel
I was born in the U.K. but moved to Norway in 2011 and haven't looked back. I run a
website and podcast about Norway, authored the Moon Norway travel guidebook, and spend…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/06/07/controversial-coronavirus-lab-origin-claims-dismissed-by-experts/?sh=3686eb0b68f6
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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