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TLDR: A researcher of the team that sequenced the pangolins samples had taken samples in the mine of RaTG13 and in the place where RmYN02 was collected, also catched bats in Yunnan. Probably contaminated pangolin samples
was the first to note that the raw sequence reads of the pangolins “contained unexpected reads and was in serious risk of contamination” in early June 2020. But now we can explain how it was possible to happen this in
Jin-Ping Chen, the corresponding author of the first paper of the pangolins, and LiBiao Zhang, who has been sampling the mine of RaTG13 and the place in Mengla where RmYN02 was collected, are close colleagues in GIABR & GIZ
https://t.co/Mf0AeRatge
https://t.co/C444TLT6JO
LiBiao Zhang was probably in the mine on 27-Jul-12 with HKU team (he is co-author in Lau et al. (2017)) and a week later on 06-Aug-12 with WIV in their 1st visit. Surprisingly, he is co-author in the AdV isolates paper, but not credited in Ge et al. (2016)
https://t.co/ZNW6sd976T
What if those SARS2-like sequences were not actually in the pangolins and were just mere lab cotamination of a close relative to SARS2 used in the lab? (we have recently seen many other cases of contamination in other samples)
— Francisco de Asis (@franciscodeasis) November 27, 2020
GIABR have been sampling in Yunnan, even in Mojiang pic.twitter.com/sErzG5ZQVH
LiBiao Zhang was also sampling in the same location as Holmes. GPS coordinates are 4 km apart, although it seems that Holmes’ team obfuscated a bit the location. He may even have sampled a close relative bat unnoticing that was infected with similar
Pangolin CoV from lab contamination is increasingly evident:
— Francisco de Asis (@franciscodeasis) February 6, 2021
Liang et al. (2019) [Libiao Zhang] collected bats in Apr-15 in the same location as Zhou et al. (2020b) [Holmes] collected RmYN02 in 2019, with a 100% ident. cyt bhttps://t.co/CQuAbKcUAuhttps://t.co/qZaTEidKZ1 pic.twitter.com/TEej6YQAmz
It seems Anderson and his Scripps Research Institute have some highly powerful and influential Chinese Communist Party members/sympathizers on their board of directors.
Gerald Chan is also on the Scripps Research Institute Board of Directors - @WhereIsYanLing https://t.co/zoUeDYXX6m pic.twitter.com/2eiknQX8r9
— Jess (@uacjess) April 30, 2021
2) Some background,
Ronnie Chan is also the governor of the China-United States Exchange Foundation.
This entity happens to be registered as a foreign agent.
It is chaired by Tung Chee-hwa, vice-chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
3) In 2018 the University of Texas at Austin rejected funding from the Hong Kong-based foundation CUSEF ,citing its links to the Chinese Communist
4) "CUSEF is a registered foreign agent bankrolled by a high-ranking Chinese government official with close ties to a sprawling Chinese Communist Party apparatus that handles influence operations abroad, known as the united
5) Here you can see exactly their political alignment...
In an interview with Bloomberg, Ronnie Chan also co-chair of the @AsiaSociety and Hang Lung property group chief - said that those banned from #HongKong elections were "asking for
1/2 In an interview with Bloomberg, Ronnie Chan - co-chair of the @AsiaSociety and Hang Lung property group chief - said that those banned from #HongKong elections were "asking for it." pic.twitter.com/Upr9gkGoWo
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) August 2, 2020
https://t.co/veh8iXwDRy
Ge Li is on the Scripps Research Institute Board of Directors. Ge Li is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of WuXi AppTec. #coronavirus #wuhan
https://t.co/F8yeTVgQb1
https://t.co/LidnG5FSlv
https://t.co/fgQP1kKeQl
This post goes further into the study.
Professor Walter Ian Lipkin was invited by "Master Ge Hong Colloquium" of Wuhan Institute of Virology to give a report
#covid19 #coronavirus #wuhan
https://t.co/lEbJTd27zi
https://t.co/SuDBtpEIV2
Scripps Research Institute
Wuxi Biologics Cayman Inc.
Ge Li is on the Scripps Research Institute Board of Directors. Ge Li is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of WuXi AppTec. #coronavirus #wuhan https://t.co/F8yeTVgQb1https://t.co/LidnG5FSlv pic.twitter.com/YU0FkTKfka
— Jess (@uacjess) March 22, 2020
"WuXi Biologics (Cayman) Inc. (藥明生物技術有限公司*), an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability on February 27, 2014"
https://t.co/jgZ7ZdmSKs
Gerald Chan is also on the Scripps Research Institute Board of Directors - @WhereIsYanLing
https://t.co/zoUeDYXX6m
Gerald Chan is co-founder of Morningside and brother of Ronnie Chan. @WhereIsYanLing
Gerald Chan, who is on the Scripps Research Institute Board of Directors, is a trustee of Fudan University in Shanghai.
https://t.co/NNNrxmoWpt
https://t.co/bjJpc6jYF4
TLDR: There is no solid evidence for this, just a possible false-positive/cross reactive RT-PCR. /
Spanish virologists have found traces of the novel coronavirus in a sample of Barcelona waste water collected in March 2019, nine months before the COVID-19 disease was identified in China, the University of Barcelona says\xa0https://t.co/Ksl0slUnh5 pic.twitter.com/8XHm97rLV2
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) June 26, 2020
The link that Reuters provided in their tweet is not working, but here is the correct link:
https://t.co/kY4CWLkytG
It is not a simple press release, but appears to have involved several journalists doing an investigation.
The Reuters article does mention that the results might be a bit preliminary. A scientist not involved with the study is quoted saying that it was "early to draw definitive conclusions". The authors however appear convinced that the finding was true.
So let's take a look at the preprint. This study has not been peer reviewed. It is a preprint on MedRxiv, so it needs to be interpreted this with extreme caution.
Reuters does not provide the link (why not?) but I did the searching for you.
The study's initial intent was to see if the virus could be detected in Barcelona wastewater during the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, and it was indeed found starting in Jan 2020. That is cool, because wastewater screening is a nice surveillance method to sample a whole city.
Pangolins, September 2019 and PLA are the key to this mystery
Stay Tuned!
1. Yang
Meet Yang Ruifu, CCP's biological weapons expert https://t.co/JjB9TLEO95 via @Gnews202064
— Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193 (@BillyBostickson) October 11, 2020
Interesting expose of China's top bioweapons expert who oversaw fake pangolin research
Paper 1: https://t.co/TrXESKLYmJ
Paper 2:https://t.co/9LSJTNCn3l
Pangolinhttps://t.co/2FUAzWyOcv pic.twitter.com/I2QMXgnkBJ
2. A jacobin capuchin dangling a flagellin pangolin on a javelin while playing a mandolin and strangling a mannequin on a paladin's palanquin, said Saladin
More to come tomorrow!
3. Yigang Tong
https://t.co/CYtqYorhzH
Archived: https://t.co/ncz5ruwE2W
4. YT Interview
Some bats & pangolins carry viruses related with SARS-CoV-2, found in SE Asia and in Yunnan, & the pangolins carrying SARS-CoV-2 related viruses were smuggled from SE Asia, so there is a possibility that SARS-CoV-2 were coming from
Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy
First Published November 11, 2020
https://t.co/nhlccks5AS
Smashed Paywall thanks to @Sci_Hub
https://t.co/wWPFJMjjFJ
Maybe a coincidence but an agreement was recently signed by the authors' institute and guess who?
https://t.co/vh7qX3hyPD
The Lead Author specifically of the paper:
"Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy"
is Giovanni Apolone of the "Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori" Milan, Italy
Some funding is involved....
Anyone good at Italian feel free to comment?
"You findee sars cov 2 in old sample back September time, we give you big fat red envelopeee, okey dokey?"
More has emerged regarding the Chinese connection
"Oncology research, Italy and China close to the collaboration protocol"
.https://t.co/Mt5hO9Dggc
Risks of bat-borne zoonotic diseases in Western Asia
Duration: 24/10/2018-23 /10/2019
Funding: $71,500
@dgaytandzhieva
https://t.co/680CdD8uug
2. Bat Virus Database
Access to the database is limited only to those scientists participating in our ‘Bats and Coronaviruses’ project
Our intention is to eventually open up this database to the larger scientific community
https://t.co/mPn7b9HM48
3. EcoHealth Alliance & DTRA Asking for Trouble
One Health research project focused on characterizing bat diversity, bat coronavirus diversity and the risk of bat-borne zoonotic disease emergence in the region.
https://t.co/u6aUeWBGEN
4. Phelps, Olival, Epstein, Karesh - EcoHealth/DTRA
5, Methods and Expected Outcomes
(Unexpected Outcome = New Coronavirus Pandemic)
TLDR: 191-nt RdRp segments of SARS-CoV-2, RaTG13 and Ra7896 show an unexpected molecular clock behavior. In-silico synonym mutations is one probable explanation.
Assuming SARS-CoV-2 is an ancestor of Ra7896 (used in RaTG13) does not fully explain it. Implied evolutionary rate would be in the order of 10^-2 substitutions/site/year in a well-conserved part of the genome, far from a normal ~10^-3 for a complete
I think I know what happened here in THIS 191-nt segment. All 3 statements are true and:
— Francisco de Asis (@franciscodeasis) March 16, 2021
- published RaTG13 is real Ra7896
- SARS-CoV-2 backbone is parent of real Ra7896
- published Ra7896 is real Ra79XX (any of the other 7 of the clade)https://t.co/E1YrOZanxq
So, it is not only SARS-CoV-2 having its molecular clock frozen, but also RaTG13 molecular clock running more than expected.
@Nerdhaspower and @Quay_Dr have already noted strange patterns of synonym mutations along the genome of RaTG13
I always make this assumption: WIV ability of faking sequences is not unrestricted. They would never fake aa seqs, due to the protein folding problem. In a few months or years, they would be
So, in silico, WIV would never make:
- non-synonymous mutations
- splicing within genes
But they could make:
- synonymous mutations
- swap genes or the complete genome from other real viruses
https://t.co/ahWcudTbxd
Seems that Eddie was playing the "innocent card"
@TheSeeker268 @franciscodeasis @ydeigin @AntGDuarte @edwardcholmes @K_G_Andersen
Edward Holmes on being asked why they didn't release the SARS-CoV-2 genome when they got it: "...essentially there were instructions that there's no publicizing the outbreak, so we kept it to ourselves, we told the key people in China..but we were told not to release the data..." pic.twitter.com/mAGUUrsiet
— The Seeker (@TheSeeker268) April 9, 2021
2. Was the motive of https://t.co/nu7hNVhiwP’s rush release due to competition to get the first releaser credit for the sars-cov-2 genome?
3. @GISAID claims 'the access credentials of some of the persons listed as authors of Wuhan-hu-1 were among the access credentials used on January 10, 2020 to access the first genomes available on GISAID'
4. @GISAID formally wrote to the authors who acknowledged Virological,org’s post as the world's first release of the SARS-COV-2 genome, and penalised the authors of MN908947
5. but @GISAID didn't identify who exactly from Fudan University or University of Sydney ACCESSED and KNEW about IVDC's 'initial' submission of IVDC-01/05 on GISAID on 10th Jan, 2020, via login records of their GISAID account credentials.
U.S. Bet Big on Covid Vaccine Manufacturer Even as Problems Mounted https://t.co/o2lbFoXF5U
“Viral cross-contamination confirmed in the control cells for JANSSEN GMP Lot #8.”
an examination by The @nytimes of manufacturing practices at the Baltimore facility found serious problems, including a corporate culture that often ignored or deflected missteps and a government sponsor, BARDA, that acted more as a partner than a policeman."
https://t.co/3TszTYVhry
2. Worth Reading her investigations and those of @hijodelcuervo as well:
— Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193 (@BillyBostickson) March 16, 2021
Robert Kadlec: https://t.co/OEo8WxT50S
Engineering Contagion:https://t.co/xE5P2F2cn7
Dark Winter:https://t.co/p8eUubd9bU
Bioport/Emergent Biosolutions, Hauer. Kramerhttps://t.co/JFGIZsUrCV
https://t.co/ng1oV1xrKI
4. Some recent investigation of Emergent Biosolutions, kept afloat with generous help of Kadlec and Azar, and now currently minting it with vaccine production..
— Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193 (@BillyBostickson) March 16, 2021
A billion doses no less!https://t.co/VtZx0HprvN
Exposed in NYT https://t.co/EcI8n43nEj
https://t.co/TNQMo8LZ83
How One Firm Put an \u2018Extraordinary Burden\u2019 on the U.S.
— Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193 (@BillyBostickson) March 9, 2021
Emergent Biosolutions
HHS- Kramer - Kadlec- Karesh - EcoHealthhttps://t.co/WCcDZJ106G
Finally picked up by mainstream media after the excellent research by @_whitneywebb & @hijodelcuervo & just a little by @BillyBostickson https://t.co/9Wmb8SQ1qH pic.twitter.com/1Rf5VhtJfh
A quick (I hope) thread on RNA viruses & some others, mainly for my own learning process, but also as evidence (as if it was needed) of what modern virology & microbiology is capable of doing to viruses in their laboratories
2/ In Vivo Continuous Directed Evolution
1 Recent advances in the field of in vivo continuous evolution
2 Advances in continuous culture of microbes enable continuous evolution
3 Viruses, prokaryotes, & eukaryotes mediate in vivo continuous evolution
https://t.co/BfR0B2Hwsf
3/ Continuous Directed Evolution of Biomolecules
By greatly accelerating laboratory evolution, PACE may provide solutions to otherwise intractable directed evolution problems and address novel questions about molecular evolution.
https://t.co/G3mIptI54H
4/ CDE for Strain & Protein Engineering
Inducible hypermutator systems accelerate strain evolution without compromising genome integrity.
Site-specific in vivo mutagenesis strategies have facilitated continuous protein engineering.
Automation
5/ Targeted mutagenesis:
A sniper-like diversity generator in microbial engineering
https://t.co/wdKyXghRYe
Advances in the directed evolution of proteins
https://t.co/1xXTtw1i3i
In vivo continuous directed evolution
https://t.co/xKRVSjVvo4
