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. GREEK - 2020-10-09 - Greece Releases New Interactive Coronavirus Map: Attica at Level Three

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In Quarantine - Under The Sea Parody (Songs about Coronavirus)

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TERMÓPILAS - KONSTANTINOS KAVAFIS

Apr 9, 2020

Santi Heras

EL FARO CADENA SER CON MARA TORRES. EL FARO PASO. 09.04.2020. 2 H 22 min 43 s

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[ GREEK - ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ]

Με βάση τον νόμο περί υπεύθυνης δήλωσης άρθρο 8 Ν.1599/1986 δηλώνω ότι είμαι γνώστης του ποινικού κώδικα άρθρο 191 σύμφωνα με το οποίο: « 1. Όποιος δημόσια ή μέσω του διαδικτύου διαδίδει ή διασπείρει με οποιονδήποτε τρόπο ψευδείς ειδήσεις με αποτέλεσμα να προκαλέσει φόβο σε αόριστο αριθμό ανθρώπων ή σε ορισμένο κύκλο ή κατηγορία προσώπων, που αναγκάζονται έτσι να προβούν σε μη προγραμματισμένες πράξεις ή σε ματαίωσή τους, με κίνδυνο να προκληθεί ζημία στην οικονομία, στον τουρισμό ή στην αμυντική ικανότητα της χώρας ή να διαταραχθούν οι διεθνείς της σχέσεις, τιμωρείται με φυλάκιση έως τρία έτη ή χρηματική ποινή. 2. Όποιος από αμέλεια γίνεται υπαίτιος της πράξης της προηγούμενης παραγράφου τιμωρείται με χρηματική ποινή ή παροχή κοινωφελούς εργασίας. Δηλώνω ότι τα λεγόμενα μου απηχούν προσωπικές απόψεις και δεν αποσκοπούν ούτε σε κάποιο από τα προαναφερόμενα αδικήματα αλλά ούτε και σε ευτελή και ιδιοτελή κίνητρα. Eπι πλέον όλες οι αναγνώσεις και οι ερωτήσεις που απαντήθηκαν,απαντώνται και θα απαντούνται δεν πρέπει ποτέ να θεωρηθούν ως νομικά, ιατρικά, οικονομικά, ψυχολογικά ή επιχειρηματικά γεγονότα και υπόκεινται στη δική σας ερμηνεία και κρίση

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Meet China's "Bat woman" Coronavirus expert at Wuhan Institute of virology

PIONEER: Prof. Shi Zhengli (inset a horsesho bat). Having been credited for her pioneering work in the discovery of SARS (in 2005), Prof Zhengli has authored scores of papers published in the most prestigious scientific journals, following rigorous peer reviews.

•Apr 21, 2020

Gulf News

She spent years studying bats in the caves of China. Full Article here: See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos

duration 02:43 minutes

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nVm17kyqDM

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and for more information please visit the following web page ...

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https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/chinas-bat-woman-coronavirus-is-just-tip-of-the-iceberg-1.1590414895385

China's 'Bat Woman': Coronavirus is just tip of the iceberg

Research into viruses needs scientists and governments to be transparent, says Shi

Beijing: Shi Zhengli, a virologist renowned for her work on coronavirus in bats, said in an interview on Chinese state television that viruses being discovered now are "just the tip of the iceberg" and called for international cooperation in the fight against epidemics.

Known as China's "bat woman", the deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said research into viruses needs scientists and governments to be transparent and cooperative, and that it is "very regrettable" when science is politicized.

"If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings," Shi told CGTN. "If we don't study them there will possibly be another outbreak."

Her interview with TV channel CGTN coincided with the start of the National People's Congress, an annual meeting of China's top leadership in Beijing.

This year's NPC comes as the country's relationship with the US turns increasingly frayed, with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo both saying the coronavirus sweeping the world is likely linked to the Wuhan laboratory.

China has rejected the accusations.

Shi has said that the genetic characteristics of the viruses she's worked with didn't match those of the coronavirus spreading in humans.

In a social media post, she wrote she would "swear on my life" the pandemic had nothing to do with her lab. In another interview with CGTN over the weekend, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi, said the idea that the virus escaped from the lab was "pure fabrication."

The outbreak has infected more than 5.4 million people worldwide and killed thousands of people …

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ALSO IN THIS PACKAGE

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· Coronavirus: Myth vs. Fact

· Thai scientists begin COVID-19 vaccine trials on monkeys

· Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19: If I test positive, can plasma cure me?

· Thai scientists begin COVID-19 vaccine trials on monkeys

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ALSO READ

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· Meet China's "Bat woman" Coronavirus expert at Wuhan Institute of virology

· COVID-19 origin: Virus shrouded in mystery, here’s why

· Coronavirus: Meet the legend, the Chinese 'Bat Woman'

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Coronavirus: Myth vs. Fact

Beware of the rampant misinformation doing the rounds

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and for more information please visit the following web page ...

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https://gulfnews.com/photos/news/coronavirus-myth-vs-fact-1.1580716445960

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[ ENGLISH ]

Corona crisis: Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi in conversation with Ken Jebsen about COVID-19

• Apr 20, 2020

Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi

In a democracy, the media fulfill a fundamental function: they should contribute to opinion formation and information through critical reporting and open discussion. In these times when there is only one-sided reporting and public service channels such as ZDF have become the platform for misinformation and half-truths, we should be grateful that there are still journalists who have not fallen victim to "system journalism". Ken Jebsen from KenFM is talking to Prof. Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, specialist in microbiology and infection epidemiology, on COVID-19. The original video can also be found at:

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https://kenfm.de/kenfm-am-set-gesprae...

duration 1:02:38 hours

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwJSNPz_8uk

==

[ DEUTSCH - GERMAN ]

Corona-Krise: Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi im Gespräch mit Ken Jebsen zu COVID-19

•Apr 20, 2020

PROF. DR. MED. SUCHARIT BHAKDI

In einer Demokratie erfüllen Medien eine grundlegende Funktion: Sie sollen durch kritische Berichterstattung und offene Diskussion zur Meinungsbildung und Information beitragen. In diesen Zeiten, in denen nur noch einseitig berichtet wird und öffentlich-rechtliche Sender wie das ZDF zur Plattform für Fehlinformationen und Halbwahrheiten geworden sind, sollten wir dankbar sein, dass es noch Journalisten gibt, die nicht dem „Systemjournalismus“ zum Opfer gefallen sind. Ken Jebsen von KenFM führt hier ein Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, Facharzt für Mikrobiologie und Infektionsepidemiologie, zu COVID-19. Das Originalvideo ist auch zu finden unter :

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https://kenfm.de/kenfm-am-set-gesprae...

duration 1:02:38 hours

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwJSNPz_8uk

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DOCTOR REVEALS TRUTH ABOUT MASKS: Why Healthcare Workers Are Catching COVID-19

•Apr 25, 2020

Violin MD

duration 09:06 minutes

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb8UBlf2xnA

==

Why are 10% of COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases health care workers? Are we not protecting ourselves well enough? We’re going to tackle this question head on and I've asked Dr. Rishi Desai, the former epidemic intelligence officer for the CDC, pediatric infectious disease doctor and current medical director at Osmosis, to give us his opinion. What the difference between a surgical mask and N95? Is coronavirus spread by droplet or aerosols? For those of you who are new here, I'm Siobhan, a 3rd year internal medicine resident working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in Canada. HUGE thank you to Dr. Desai for sharing his thoughts with us! Check out this link to see a the Osmosis COVID page to see more videos by Dr. Desai and a free trial of Osmosis: https://www.osmosis.org/covid-19?utm_...

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YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY WATCHING...

Doctor Explains Coronavirus: https://youtu.be/3Uugj-zxA5E 26 hour call shift in ICU with Code Blue https://youtu.be/gPn7HAPtxhs 26 hour call shift with 2 code blues https://youtu.be/n8LYesViyi4 Doctor Shadows an ICU Nurse https://youtu.be/-q5QJW8q7qc

------------------------------------------------- 📚 REFERENCES: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3... https://www.who.int/news-room/comment...

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Thai scientists begin COVID-19 vaccine trials on monkeys

Thailand hopes to have the coronavirus vaccine into production by next year

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Thailand has began testing a vaccine against the coronavirus on monkeys after positive trials in mice, an official said.

Image Credit: AFP

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Thailand's minister of higher education, science, and research and innovation, Suvit Maesincee, said researchers had moved testing of the vaccine to monkeys and hoped to have a "clearer outcome" of its effectiveness by September. | A lab technician holds a bottle containing results for COVID-19 vaccine testing at Chula Vaccine Research Center.

Image Credit: AP

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"This project is for the human race, not just Thais. The prime minister (Prayuth Chan-ocha) has outlined a policy that we must develop a vaccine and join the world community workforce on this," Suvit told reporters. | A laboratory technician holding a dose of a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate ready for trial on monkeys.

Image Credit: AFP

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Thailand, the first country outside China to detect a case of the coronavirus in January, wants to be one of the first to have a vaccine ready for use, Taweesin said. | A lab technician working for COVID-19 vaccine testing at Chula Vaccine Research Center.

Image Credit: AP

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More than 100 potential vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are being developed, including several in clinical trials, but the World Health Organization in April had warned that a vaccine would take at least 12 months. | A tray with doses of a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate ready for trial on monkeys.

Image Credit: AFP

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U.S. drugmaker Moderna Inc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the United States, produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, according to very early data released by the company.

Image Credit: AFP

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Drugmakers such as Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc , which is working with Germany's BioNTech SE, are also working to develop vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

Image Credit: AFP

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A laboratory technician holding a dose of a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate ready for trial on monkeys.

Image Credit: AFP

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Suvit said that Thailand has started reserving two manufacturers for its vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. | Laboratory technicians preparing for a demonstration of a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate.

Image Credit: AFP

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The Thai vaccine uses messenger RNA, which prompts body cells to produce antigens, molecules on the surface of viruses, that spur the immune system into action. | A laboratory baby monkey being examined by employees at the National Primate Research Center of Thailand at Chulalongkorn University in Saraburi.

Image Credit: AFP

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The Thai vaccine is being developed by the National Vaccine Institute, the Department of Medical Science and Chulalongkorn University's vaccine research centre.

Image Credit: AFP

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Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19: If I test positive, can plasma cure me?

At least 2 studies show promise of cure from therapy used for Spanish flu, SARS, MERS

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CLINICAL DATA: Researchers investigated how beneficial is the transfusion of convalescent plasma (serum from recovered COVID-19 patients) in treating critically ill patients with COVID-19. A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) shows interesting and encouraging results. Moreover, Epidimiology experts consider convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) is considered a “classic adaptive immunotherapy”. For more than a century, CPT has been applied to the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. And over the past two decades, CP therapy was successfully used in the treatment of SARS, MERS, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic “with satisfactory efficacy and safety”, according to a study published on April 6, 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Image Credit: File Gulf News

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WHAT IS CONVALESCENT PLASMA THERAPY (CPT)?: Experts consider convalescent plasma therapy a “classic adaptive immunotherapy”. For more than a century, CPT has been applied to the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. And over the past two decades, CPT was successfully used in the treatment of SARS, MERS, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic “with satisfactory efficacy and safety”, according to a paper published early in April in the prestigious PNAS.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin

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SIGNIFICANCE: Analysis from 32 studies of SARS coronavirus infection and severe influenza showed a “statistically significant reduction” in mortality following CPT, compared with placebo or no therapy. However, the CPT was unable to significantly improve survival in the Ebola virus disease. Experts believe this was “probably due to the absence of data of neutralizing antibody titration for stratified analysis”.

Image Credit: REUTERS

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DID THE CRITICALLY-ILL COVID-19 PATIENTS RECOVER AFTER BEING ADMINISTERED CPT?: Yes. According to the JAMA study published on March 27, 2020, researchers found (uncontrolled case series of 5 critically-ill patients with COVID-19 and ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome), the administration of CPT containing neutralising antibody “was followed by an improvement in clinical status”. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763983

Image Credit: Gulf News

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WHY IS CPT IMPORTANT? Since the virological and clinical characteristics share similarity among SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19, convalescent plasma therapy is seen as a promising treatment option for COVID-19 patients. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 with a high neutralizing antibody “titer" may be a valuable donor source of CPT. Source: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/02/2004168117

Image Credit: Jay Hilotin / Gulf News

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UPSIDE: The key upside of CPT is that it works, even on critically-ill patients, according to peer-reviewed studies published in some of the most prestigious medical journals. That means administering CPT has been credited by these investigators for helping save the lives of patients who may have died otherwise. However, no health authority has officially announced approval for this therapy. The US FDA has issued guidance/recommendations to health care providers and investigators on the administration and study of investigational CPT. Source: https://bit.ly/34wr6pp

Image Credit: Gulf News

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In Pictures: The world operates on a new normal.

What reopening looks like around the world

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A snowboarder wears a protective mask while waiting to board a chair lift at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area as it reopens in Dillon, Colorado, U.S. After being closed since mid-March, A-Basin has reopened but is limiting chairlifts to single passengers or groups of people who traveled to the mountain together while the lodges and shops remain closed.

Image Credit: Bloomberg

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Limiting thrills in the Netherlands. Visitors sit in a limited-seating roller coaster during the reopening of Efteling theme park in Kaatsheuvel, Netherlands.

Image Credit: AFP

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PPE as a fashion staple in Paris Pictured: A mannequin dons a protective face shield in the window of a wedding shop in Paris. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is being displayed as a standard piece of wardrobe in retail stores around the world.

Image Credit: AFP

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Perspex cubicles at a flower auction in South Africa Pictured: Bidders sitting in perspex cubicles inside the Multiflora auction warehouse in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Image Credit: AFP

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Employees dress mannequins in personal protective suits at a retail store in Manila. Personal protective fashion are on sale in the Philippines.

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Traveling nurse Meghan Lindsey points to a pack of cigarettes at a gas station in the Queens borough of New York.

Image Credit: REUTERS

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Greece will allow direct international flights to Athens starting June 15, with other tourist destinations to follow July 1, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on May 20. Tourists take photos behind plexiglass at the entrance of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

Image Credit: Bloomberg

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A medic checks the temperature of a worshipper before entering the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

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Turkish children under 14 with their parents wearing face masks for protection against the coronavirus, walk in popular Tunali Hilmi Street, in Ankara, Turkey. Children were allowed to go out between 12:00-15:00 local time for the third time.

Image Credit: AP

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Kolkata: Medics screen passengers as they arrive at the NSCBI Airport to catch a flight for Guwahati, amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Kolkata. Domestic flight operations began at the airport from today.

Image Credit: PTI

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COVID-19 origin: Virus shrouded in mystery, here’s why

WHO noted cases of 'escape' from Chinese lab in 2004, what's behind conspiracy theories

TWO GIANTS IN VIROLOGY: Prof Shi Zhengli (left), aka Chinese "Bat Woman", of China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and Prof. Luc Antoine Montagnier, of France's Pasteur Institute, who earned a Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering HIV.

Image Credit: Gulf News/Agencies/Jay Hilotin

HIGHLIGHTS

• • Two incidents of "leaks" of deadly SARS-CoV virus reported in a Chinese

  • Clinical research done Chinese experts state the new coronavirus did not jump from the Wuhan wet market

  • There’s no direct evidence of “patient zero” yet

  • The Wuhan biosafety lab, certified in 2017, is a testing ground for dangerous pathogens

  • US has cut funding for bat-related coronavirus research, including the one done in the Wuhan lab

  • Despite strict biosafety protocols, laboratory-acquired infections are fairly common, even in the US

ALSO IN THIS PACKAGE

• Spooky bats: Why they baffle medical experts

• 3 types of immunity: Your best defence vs coronavirus

• As morgues overflow, New York struggles with COVID-19 dead

• Coronavirus: Italy struggles to bury its dead

DUBAI: Is the coronavirus a laboratory-acquired infection (LAI) that accidentally "escaped” a high-security biosafety facility in Wuhan, China?

It’s a question that has kicked up an unbroken chain of conspiracy theories. That's not to say it’s the wrong question to ask. It's the answer that remains elusive to this day.

It's a claim, a plausible one. Yet, no scientific information exists to back it.

By design, the National Biosafety Laboratory at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), now at the centre of the global coronavirus controversy, is Asia's leading edge in the fight to eradicate one of the most dangerous diseases of recent times.

It's a double-edged sword. A facility anywhere else poses the same untold story: the risk of causing pandemics in case of leaks. This explains the high-security protocols adopted before a Level-4 (highest rating) biosafety lab certication is granted.

WIV was founded in 1956. The biosafety lab attached to it is only three years old. The lab is the most modern facility of its kind, and has been working on some of the world's most dangerous viruses.

Image Credit: Wuhan Institute of Virology

WIV was founded in 1956. The attached biosafety lab is its grandchild. It's the only one of its kind in Asia, equipped with ultra-modern facilities to work on some of the world's most dangerous viruses, for which there still no vaccines.

Were certain protocols breached that caused this current pandemic? Or is this jump of SARS-CoV-2 from animals to humans nature's way of pushing us back?

There's plenty of unverified claims and counterclaims swirling around. Social media is rife with talk of a "bioweapons" attack. Behind the veil of uncertainty is the raging storm over the real origins of the deadly illness that has turned the world upside down, and has kicked up deep crevices in the scientific community.

Now, it threatens to tear the world apart, even as we all lick our collective wounds.

Here’s what we know so far:

Q: Were there any viral leaks from research labs in China before?

Yes. At least two previous incidents of SARS virus “escaping” from Chinese labs were reported in 2004, according to The Scientist.

Those two incidents took place at the Chinese Institute of Virology in Beijing, part of China's Center for Disease Control, as confirmed by the WHO.

A 26-year-old female postgraduate student and a 31-year-old post-doctoral male, were both infected, apparently in two separate incidents, WHO spokesman Bob Dietz in Beijing then told The Scientist.

Inside the National Biosafety Laboratory Level-4 in Wuhan, China. Virologist Dr Shi Zhengli, , is seen wearing a special lab suit to keep disease-causing agents at bay. Photo taken February 23, 2017. -JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Image Credit: AFP

Q: Can previous leaks be a basis for this big one involving SARS-CoV-2?

No.

Previous cases of lab-acquired infections involving SARS-CoV (1) cannot be used as "evidence" for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic — just as previous stock market gains cannot guarantee future performance.

It does, however, show the risks involved in a lab setting where human beings deal with highly infectious diseases, including those caused by coronaviruses.

LABORATORY-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS (LAI)

In high-security biosafe lab settings, one study shows that about 80% of laboratory-acquired infections (LAIs) are caused by inhalation (particularly by aerosols) or direct contact between contaminated surfaces (gloves and hands).

The other routes of infection are percutaneous inoculation (needlestick injuries, broken glass injury, and/or animal bites or scratches). [https://bit.ly/2xfXTCQ]

Q: Did the US fund research in China’s Wuhan’s biosafety lab?

Yes.

At least one project done on bat coronaviruses in the Wuhan biosafety lab enjoyed US funding support. Up to $3.7 million in federal funds were reportedly spent in research done in Wuhan through the EcoHealth Alliance, with financial support from the US National Institutes of Health, according to US media reports.

Inside the high-security P4 laboratory in Wuhan in 2017. That year, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, through the extensive work of Prof Shi Zhengli (centre) and fellow researcher Prof. Jie Cui, proved that the deadly SARS virus originated from bats in "sub-tropical" southwestern Yunnan province, not from civet cats as previously thought.

Image Credit: AFP

ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE

The US-based EcoHealth Alliance is a global non-profit leading scientific research into the critical connections between human, animal and environmental health.

It runs the PREDICT project which focuses on animal-related diseases including avian flu, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Influenza H1N1.

Its website states: "Zoonotic diseases–those that can be transmitted between animals and humans–represent approximately 75 percent of the newly emerging diseases currently affecting people. In the context of globalization and expansive trade and travel, these diseases can travel very quickly, posing serious public health, development and economic concerns."

https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/program/predict

Q: Did the US government keep the funding?

No. On Monday (April 26, 2020), the Trump administration announced the cuts in federal funding for bat virus studies, following reports linking the research work to the WIV.

Two days prior (Friday, April 24, 2020), the NIH had informed EcoHealth about the funding shutdown.

The agency also demanded that the New York-based research non-profit stop spending the $369,819 remaining from its 2020 grant.

Q: So what's the evidence, so far?

Scientific evidence of the SARS-COV-2's origins, if indeed it's a push-back from nature, may take time to come through.

Virologists need to do extensive work — now more than ever. SARS-CoV-2 is just one of the numerous possibly deadly "zoonotic" diseases. There are more than 100 known virus families, 25 of which constains species transmissible to human beings.

Even within those 25 families, an estimated 1.67 million species are yet to be discovered. That would involved a mountain of lab work, including genetic sequencing and comparisons of samples taken from bats, as well as the hosts (victims0.

If it jumped from a lab, it requires an extensive audit of what happened.

The central monitor room at China’s National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Image Credit: Muyi Xiao / Nature https://go.nature.com/3aL5Spc

Q: What keeps the coronavirus-jumped-from-the-Wuhan-lab 'conspiracy theory' alive?

Scientists can only theorise until verifiable evidence is found to validate — or negate — their theory.

In the case of the SARS-CoV-2 (initially dubbed the “Wuhan virus”, then COVID-19), theories and counter-theories build up alongside the rising death toll across the world.

One scientist recently added fuel to the fire.

On Friday (April 17, 2020), Prof. Luc Antoine Montagnier, a French virologist sparked a maelstrom. Montagnier, 88, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), made an outrageous claim that the new coronavirus was made in a lab.

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Le prix Nobel de médecine Luc Montagnier affirme que le coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 est un virus manipulé en laboratoire... L'intégralité de l'émission #HDPros

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Prof. Montagnier, stated during a TV interview with a French CNews channel that elements of the HIV-1 retrovirus can be found in the genome of the new coronavirus. He also said elements of the “malaria germ” – the parasite Plasmodium falciparum – can also be seen in the virus’s genome. This caused an outrage among his fellow scientist in France, who dismissed Montagnier as "whimsical", a loose cannon.

Q: What's the reaction to Prof. Montagnier?

For one, the journal Nature pushed back on Montagnier’s claim, citing they know of “no evidence” to state that SARS-CoV-2 is a lab-generated chimera.

Olivier Schwartz, head of the virus and immunity department of France's Pasteur Institute, cited studies on the virus's genes showing clearly that it was not a virus synthesized in a laboratory.

"Professor Montagnier spreads whimsical theories," he told the French weekly L'Obs (Le Nouvel Observateur).

LOOSE CANNON? Why controversy won't go away: French Prof. Luc Montagnier, 88, who earned a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008 for discovering HIV-1, told AFP he believes the coronavirus was manufactured and leaked from Wuhan lab. Montagnier argued during a TV interview with a French TV channel that elements of the HIV-1 retrovirus and the “malaria germ” – the parasite Plasmodium falciparum – can also be seen in the virus’s genome. Other scientists, however, trashed Montagnier's statements.

"SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, was not created in the laboratory. We see this by studying the genetic heritage of the virus, which has been sequenced by Chinese teams and then verified in many other laboratories, including the Pasteur Institute, which was the first in Europe to do so," said Schwartz.

"This virus is clearly part of the coronavirus family tree. It is close to Sars-CoV-1, with which it has 80 percent homology," Schwartz told Xinhuanet. [https://bit.ly/2W5G7L3]

Q: When was the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) founded? When did it open its high-security National Biosafety Laboratory?

In 2015, WIV was cleared to work with the most dangerous pathogens. It finally received its license to operate as a BSL-4 (the highest level) in 2017.

A Google Earth map showing the locations of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

Image Credit: Goodgle Earth

Being rated a maximum-security biolab rating allows it to study some of the world's most dangerous pathogens. It also marked China’s entry into the league of nations that tinker with life at the genetic level.

China planned "between five and seven” biosafety level-4 labs across the mainland.

Q: What adds fuel to the mystery of its Wuhan virus origin? Was there a cover-up?

One: Clinical research done by Chinese experts reported in peer-reviewed articles show that the virus did not jump from the Wuhan seafood market.

They cited “gaps” in their knowledge of the first animal-to-human transmission of the virus.

Two: a Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who called the attention of the medical community and Chinese authorities about a severe type of pneumonia cross-infections for which no drug works, was initially silenced and penalized for blowing the whistle. He later died in the midst of the COVID-19 fight. Wenliang, who became famous around the world, was given a posthumous award by Chinese authorities.

https://gulfnews.com/world/anger-online-over-death-of-chinese-coronavirus-doctor-1.1581143605072

This combination of pictures created on February 7, 2020 shows undated photos obtained on February 7, 2020 of Chinese doctor Li Wenliang whose death was confirmed on February 7 at the Wuhan Central Hospital, China. The death of the ophthalmologist whose early warnings about China's new coronavirus outbreak were suppressed by the police has unleashed a wave of anger at the government's handling of the crisis -- and bold demands for more freedom.

Image Credit: AFP

Q: What did Nature report about Wuhan Institute of Virology biosafety lab?

In 2017, Nature published an article stating how the Wuhan Institute of Virology's lab was poised to be licensed as Level-4 Biosafety Laboratory (BSL-4) facility. It also reported that the maximum-security biolab was organised with the help of the French and Americans.

“A laboratory in Wuhan is on the cusp of being cleared to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The move is part of a plan to build between five and seven biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) labs across the Chinese mainland by 2025, and has generated much excitement, as well as some concerns,” David Cyranoski wrote in an article dated February 12, 2017.

Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is located in Zhengdian Scientific Park of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS), in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, in central China.

Q: When was the idea for a biosafety lab first conceived?

The idea was born in 2003, after the SARS epidemic broke out. The authorities decided that it is necessary to take action to prepare for the next outbreak of infectious diseases.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) approved the construction of a BSL-4 laboratory in 2003, and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic around the same time gave the project momentum.

Q: Did they get help from outside for the lab's design and construction?

Yes.

The lab was designed and constructed with French assistance as part of a 2004 cooperative agreement on the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases.

On June 16th 2016, Maurice Goutrdault, the French Ambassador to China, representing the President of France, bestowed medals on Professor Zhiming Yuan and Professor Zhengli Shi (front, third from left), in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Hubei Province, China.

Image Credit: Screengrab /

“But the complexity of the project, China’s lack of experience, difficulty in maintaining funding and long government approval procedures meant that construction wasn’t finished until the end of 2014,” Nature reported.

Q: Why was the BSL-4 rating important — and controversial?

“Some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and the addition of a biological dimension to geopolitical tensions between China and other nations. But Chinese microbiologists are celebrating their entrance to the elite cadre empowered to wrestle with the world’s greatest biological threats,” Nature reported.

Q: When did the Americans warn about a possible “escape” of deadly viruses from the lab?

In 2017, American experts warned that a virus could escape the Chinese laboratory. InJanuary 2018, the US State Department received at least two cables from US Embassy officials in China.

The messages, sent following several visits paid by the officials to the Wuhan research facility, warned Washington about "inadequate" safety at the lab while conducting risky studies on bats coronaviruses.

Q: How are labs that test dangerous pathogens rated?

Laboratories testing pathogens receive a rating of 1 to 4. This depends on the class of microbes they deal with -- with 1 being the lowest risk and 4 being the highest.

Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, at the biosecurity level was rated 4 (BSL-4).

This means that it can store the most dangerous pathogens, especially the ones for which there’s still a no known vaccine or antidote.

A worker inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province. The P4 epidemiological laboratory was built in co-operation with French bio-industrial firm Institut Merieux and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The facility is among a handful of labs around the world cleared to handle Class 4 pathogens (P4) - dangerous viruses that pose a high risk of person-to-person transmission. -

Image Credit: AFP

Q: What are the special procedures in a BSL-4 laboratory?

• • All persons in the laboratory must wear special protective clothing, some of them put on pressure suits to isolate themselves from harmful pathogens.

  • After completion of the work, it is necessary to take a shower and decontaminate all the tools used during the experiments.

  • The laboratory building must be located in a separate building or an insulated wing of the medical complex. In addition, it must be equipped with its own air filtration and decontamination systems.

These are the essential features of a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, according to the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. A biosafety level (BSL), or Pathogen/Protection level, is a set of biocontainment precautions required to isolate dangerous biological agents in an enclosed laboratory facility.

Image Credit: https://bit.ly/3f5JJpc

Q: Where is the lab? How many more such labs are planned in China?

Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is located in Zhengdian Scientific Park of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS), in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, in central China.

The country plans to build 5 to 7 BLS-4 class laboratories. Currently, only the Wuhan laboratory has permission to work with the most dangerous pathogens.

Image Credit: Gulf News

Q: From where did Prof Shi Zhengli, the China’s so-called “Bat Woman” and her colleagues, find their bat virus samples?

Prof. Zhengli, and her colleague Prof Jie Cui, are credited for discovering the SARS virus (known as SARS-CoV).

Scientific American states that China’s southern province of Yunnan, more than 1,000 km away, is where Prof Zhengli and her team found the bat coronavirus that caused SARS-CoV (1).

The weather in these areas are considered “sub-tropical”, where the “greatest risk” of coronavirus jumping from animals to humans is likely to happen.

Q: How far is Wuhan from Yunnan?

The distance from Wuhan to Yunnan is 1,887 km (south-west, via G60).

Q: How far can bats fly?

Most bats fly within a few dozen miles before returning to their base (cave). A few bat species can fly distances up to 200 miles (321 km).

There are over 1,400 species of bats worldwide.

Debunking Montagnier’s claims

1.

Science The Wire dismissed Montagnier's claims in an April 22, 2020 article.

“He’s wrong,” it stated, citing flaws in the Indian study that Montagnier referred to. It cited that the team from IIT Delhi, among others, had uploaded their manuscript to the bioRxiv preprint research database, but took it down after commentators pointed out numerous errors in their analysis.

2.

Nature Medicine repoted they also analysed the new virus’s genome, and concluded: “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

Its not clear, however, what genetic sequencing process or criteria was used by Nature Medicine.

3.

The European Scientist wrote an extensive article dismissing the professor’s claim as “falsehood”.

The publication said it was relatively easy to debunk Montagnier’s claim, i.e. that some nucleotide sequences of HIV-1 can be found in the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2. The publication also acknowledged they are up against “Bradolini’s Law” (so-called “falsehood asymmetry principle”, which states a "conspiracy theory" like this one is hard to debunk).

European Scientist's analysis

The publication referred to the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2 (Wuhan), known as the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) reference sequence NC_045512.2.

The SARS-CoV-2 genetic code starts as follows:

attaaaggtt tataccttcc caggtaacaa accaaccaac tttcgatctc ... (total: 29,903 characters)

COMPARISON

European Scientist then cited the complete genome of the RNA version of the HIV-1, known as the NCBI reference sequence NC_001802.1. [Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/9629357]

The HIV-1 genetic code starts as follows:

ggtctctctg gttagaccag atctgagcct gggagctctc tggctaacta gggaacccac ...(total: 9,181 characters)

Side-by-side comparison of part the DNA code of SARS-CoV-2 (left) and HIV-1

Image Credit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1798174254; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/9629357

EUROPEAN SCIENTIST’S CONCLUSION #1

There’s no sequence of the HIV-1 gene found in the SARS-CoV-2 gene. It stated thus: “If we cannot find fragments of the latter sequence inside the former sequence, we can conclude that no part of HIV exists in SARS-CoV-2.”

“Looking for similarities could be somewhat complicated: we would have to look at sequences that actually encode for proteins. We cannot start blindly along the sequences.

“In fact, HIV-1 has 39 open reading frames (ORF), which begin with a start codon and end at a stop codon.

“We would have to look for those ORFs and try to find the following codons inside of SARS-CoV-2. We would also have to measure the ‘distance’ (similarity) between the sequences, somehow.”

Source: https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/big-data/no-sars-cov-2-does-not-contain-hiv-genetic-code/

WHAT IS A BLAST TOOL?

• • The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), helps geneticists finds regions of similarity between biological sequences.

  • The program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of said similarities. For each similarity, it even documents which protein it encodes.

Try the BLAST run test, compare SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 genes.

You may check the BLAST run on your own:

• • (1) See the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2, click “Run BLAST”.

  • (2) On the next page, add HIV-1 (or any other HIV strain) in the Organism text box and then click “BLAST”.

  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1798174254

(1) See the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2, click “Run BLAST”. (2) On the next page, add HIV-1 (or any other HIV strain) in the Organism text box and then click “BLAST”. [Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1798174254]

EUROPEAN SCIENTIST’S CONCLUSION #2

“Using the MegaBLAST subprogram from the National Institute of Health (NIH), we can immediately conclude that no sequence of HIV-1 is present in SARS-CoV-2.”

The BLAST run search results

Image Credit: Screengrab

Using exclusively the “BLAST run” to compare the SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 genes, the publication said “no significant similarity was found”.

In short: “SARS-CoV-2 is not made of the bat coronavirus and small bits of the HIV virus.”

It also challenged people to check the data on their own: See the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2, click “Run BLAST”. Then on the next page that pops up, add "HIV-1" (or any other HIV strain) in the text box "Organism". Then click “BLAST”.

You may check the BLAST run on your own: (1) See the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2, click “Run BLAST”. (2) On the next page, add HIV-1 (or any other HIV strain) in the Organism text box and then click “BLAST”. [Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1798174254]

Image Credit: Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/1798174254

The HIV is a retrovirus, coronavirus is a retrovirus The HIV is a retrovirus. It is a type of RNA virus that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. It is transmitted as a single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA virus, packed into a glycoprotein envelope. So, while the HIV has a DNA expression of itself, which is used for replication, it also has an RNA code (which is what gets transmitted between hosts.)

Q: Does the story end there?

No.

The European Scientist also acknowledges some “vague similarities” between some HIV-1 genetic sequences to some other sequences of SARS-CoV-2.

It pointed out that if the “criterion” is changed, there are HIV-1 genetic sequences that would be “vaguely” similar to some other sequences of SARS-CoV-2.

Q: What 'vague similarities' are seen between the HIV-1 and Sars-Cov-2 genes?

This is the interesting part.

The European Scientist asked and answered its own question: “Are there vague similarities? The answer is obviously ‘yes’ as both viruses have a glycoprotein envelope. Even though if they belong to two completely different families – HIV is a lentivirus while SARS is a coronavirus – the two viruses are bound to have ‘something’ in common.”

RETROVIRUSES: HIV AND CORONAVIRUS

The HIV is a retrovirus, so is the coronavirus. HIV-1 is a type of RNA virus that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. It is transmitted as a single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA virus, packed into a glycoprotein envelope.

So, while the HIV has a DNA expression of itself, which is used for replication, it also has an RNA code (which is what gets transmitted between hosts.)

Q: Do all scientists agree with the vague-similarities-only conclusion and the single-criteria BLAST run results?

Not all scientists are convinced. Filippa Lentzos, biosecurity researcher at King's College London, admits that while there is currently no proof for the lab accident theory, there is also "no real evidence" that the virus came from the wet market.

She pointed to some indications "that could point to a potential lab accident from basic scientific research".

"But all of this needs considerable investigation for anyone to say anything with any certainty on the pandemic origins."

“For me,” Lentzos told AFP, “the pandemic origin is still an open question.”

Q: Besides BLAST, how many other genetic sequence alignment software are in use today?

BLAST, developed 30 years ago, is a common but relatively older genetic alignment search tool. There are newer tools, with greater sensitivity. In fact, there are at least 28 other such tools.

One is the CS-BLAST method (sequence-context specific BLAST), developed in 2017. It is is described as “more sensitive than BLAST, FASTA, and SSEARCH". Moreover, a “position-specific iterative version CSI-BLAST is more sensitive than PSI-BLAST (developed in 1997).”

The genetic comparison run using a single-criteria BLAST run between HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 virus, it turns out, is just the start of what amounts to a genetic sequencing marathon.

Q: Are lab workers at a higher risk of exposure to laboratory-acquired infections?

Yes. Compared to other laboratory settings where there are no aerosolized organisism, those working in high-security labs are prone to infections caused by inadvertent exposures.

In a 20013 study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (run the the American Society for Microbiology), a probe into 28 case reports of laboratory-acquired infections (from the 1982 to 2007), showed only 11% of exposures were due to laboratory accidents.

A lion’s share of lab-acquired infections — 147 out of 167, or 88 per cent — were due to "aerosolisation" of organisms during routine identification activities. In only 2 cases (1%) of exposures were “unknown”.

TAKEAWAYS

• • There’s no direct evidence of “patient zero” yet.

  • Chinese clinicians have stated in peer-reviewed publications that the virus did not jump from the Wuhan seafood market.

  • Some scientists believe the first human transmission of what is now known as SARS-CoV-2 started as early as September 2019.

  • The handling of "whistleblower" Dr Li Wenliang's case was bad PR for China, and has triggered more questions than answers.

  • There’s no substitute for open science, which must be allowed to have a say in establishing the origin of this SAR-CoV-2 pandemic

  • Until then, only theories (of "conspiracy" or otherwise) about the virus' “Big Bang” moment would thrive

Openness is the currency of good science. Scientists in many countries, including those in the UAE, have successfully sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 full genome.

Operating high-security biosafety labs is — by default — the realm of the world's great powers. China, whose first P-4 lab at Wuhan is barely three years old, is a relative newcomer in this domain.

An aerial view shows the P-4 biosafety laboratory (center) at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images

As WHO has reported, pathogens could sometimes “escape” even from high-security labs. At least two previous reported incidents of leaks from a Beijing lab 16 years ago (2004) involved live SARS-CoV pathogens, the elder sibling of the even more virulent SARS-CoV-2 now makings its deadly run.

This is not to say that other countries, those who have kept such biosafe laboratories facilities much longer, have an immaculate record.

Q: What's the record of the US in terms of lab-acquired infection?

It's no better. Sometimes, strict containment protocols are blithely flouted.

Lab-acquired infections (LAI) in US biosafety facilities are indeed not uncommon. Over a 25-year period from 1982 to 2007, at least one leak per year had been documented — 28 such leaks occurred during that period that directly exposed 167 lab workers, according to one study.

In January 2019, the US Army germ lab was shut down. CDC cited “serious” protocol violations. 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.

POSTSCRIPT:

Even the best scientists are human beings, too. Born to hypothesise, theorise, make mistakes, conclude. Repeat.

So the real story about the SARS-CoV-2 jump from bats to our lungs (and, yes, brains, too) may remain shrouded in mystery until good science, which relies upon openness, is allowed to run its full course.

It's also true that the best scientific tools available at man’s disposal can either enlighten or obscure...heal or destroy. Yet ultimately, man’s hunger for truth can only be satisfied by the truth itself.

Science propels progress. It fosters man's capacity to innovate, push the bounds of knowledge. It also signifies great power.

Yet our best guess can only be this: bats gave us this virus. Spider Man, however, couldn't have said it better: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

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Spooky bats: Why they baffle medical experts

Bats are recognised for having 100+ of the world's deadliest diseases

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ORIGINATING IN BATS: Epidemiologists have seen many zoonsoses (infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites that spread from animals (usually vertebrates) to human.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/33zUkTO

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STUDY ON BATS: In the study published in The Lancet, Prof. Guizhen Wu of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the data they had so far was consistent with the virus being initially hosted by bats.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/3bg6Dam

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WORST DISEASES OUTBREAKS? Some of the worst viral disease outbreaks in recent years — including SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg and the 2019-nCoV (the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease) — are thought to have originated in bats. SARS is thought to have evolved from infecting bats to civet cats to humans in China. MERS evolved from bats to camels to humans in the Middle East.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29180486

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FIERCE IMMUNE SYSTEMS: Bats have “fierce immune systems.” And this drive viruses to higher virulence, making them deadlier in humans *Interferons (IFNs) are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. When interferon proteins are secreted by virus-infected cells, nearby cells go into a defensive, antiviral state.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/2WtERmR

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DEADLY GLOBAL PANDEMIC: The 2003 bat-coronavirus–derived SARS, came terrifyingly close to causing a deadly global pandemic that was prevented only by swift global public health actions and luck. Today, 17 years later, the world is facing a similar risk.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/3a8btqe

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SPECIES: There are more than 1,300 species of bats. They are the second-most common group of mammals after rodents. Some small bats weigh as much as a coin, others have a wingspan of up to 6 feet.

Image Credit: Gulf News

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Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/2xesS1X

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Source: https://bit.ly/3a8btqe

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin

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Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/3a8btqe

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Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/2UoYgm9

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FOOD: Bats are consumed in various amounts in some regions within some Asian, African, European, and Pacific Rim countries and cultures, including China, Vietnam, Seychelles, Indonesia, Palau, Thailand, China, and Guam. In Guam, Mariana fruit bats are considered a delicacy.

Image Credit: Gulf News / Jay Hilotin Source: https://bit.ly/3a8btqe

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Coronavirus: Meet the legend, the Chinese 'Bat Woman'

Prof Shi Zhengli, who spent years studying bats, is now at the centre of COVID-19 storm

ADMIRED, MALIGNED: Prof. Shi Zhengli gained the epithet as Chinese "Bat Woman" (inset, a horseshoe bat). She's been credited for her pioneering work in the discovery of SARS (in 2005).

Image Credit: Gulf News/Nature/Public Domain

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DUBAI: It’s been a frustrating time for China’s "Bat Woman", Shi Zhengli. For the past five months, she has been caught in the global COVID-19 storm.

Prof. Zhengli certainly has a fascinating persona; she earned her moniker years ago, when she discovered the link between SARS-COV and bats.

Being one of the world's foremost bat virus experts, she is recognised for her contribution to bat virology. Her credentials, scientific endeavors are beyond reproach.

Now, Prof. Zhengli is celebrated and hated, in equal measure, in her home country.

She was on a team of scientists that collected and compared strands of coronavirus. These specimens were kept in a lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in Wuhan China, "ground zero" of the first infections of the novel coronavirus in late 2019.

Zhengli, along with other clinical researchers, suggested the antiviral remdesivir and anti-malaria drug chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently-emerged novel coronavirus in vitro.

Q: Who is Shi Zhengli?

Prof. Shi Zhengli, 55 (born May 26, 1964) is a Chinese virologist.

Q: How did the novel coronavirus contagion begin?

When the viral outbreak first occurred in Wuhan, central China, in late 2019, samples were collected and sent to the WIV. The contagion was causing atypical pneumonia. Prof Zhengli was quoted by The Scientific American as recalling the director of WIV called her and said, “Drop whatever you are doing and deal with it now.”

Prof. Shi Zhingli, 55, is a legend, discoverer of the SARS virus and China’s top guru on coronaviruses (Photo Credit: Wuhan Institute of Virology)

Image Credit: Wuhan Institute of Virology

The professor hopped on a train from Shanghai, where she was attending a conference at the time, to Wuhan. She was baffled too, she told the publication.

Her studies had shown that the subtropical areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan — not Wuhan — posed the greatest risk of a transmission of a coronavirus from an animal to a human.

Back in her Wuhan lab, the whole thing had seemed an unlikely event. She, too, wondered if it came from her lab.

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Q: What did Prof Zhengli say that she did upon returning to her lab?

She insisted that she then put her lab to work. Her main objective: sequence the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from infected patients. Next, compare these with records of the experiments they had conducted on site.

Scientific American quoted the virologist as saying she didn't find a 100% DNA match between the viruses her team was working on and the new infection from patients.

"That really took a load off my mind," she told the magazine. "I had not slept a wink for days."

Q: So what’s the storm all about?

The Wuhan lab worked with a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 — a bat coronavirus called RaTG13.

During the current (2019–20) coronavirus pandemic, Zhengli Shi and other WIV scientists formed an expert group on the research of SARS-CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In February 2020, researchers led by Zhengli published an article in Nature titled "A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin". (Zhengli led a team of 29 researchers at the WIV (3 February 2020).

Image Credit: Image: Public domain

That's according to evolutionary virologist Edward Holmes, of the Charles Perkins Center and the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney (as quoted by the Australian Media Center).

But Holmes said of the novel coronavirus: "The level of genome sequence divergence between SARS-CoV-2 and RaTG13 is equivalent to an average of 50 years (and at least 20 years) of evolutionary change." (That means that in the wild, it would take about 50 years for these viruses to evolve to be as different as they are.)

Back in 2015, an experiment involving Prof. Zhengli, who worked with a number of collaborators in the US (i.e. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, in a study led by Dr. Ralph S Baric and designed/analysed by Dr Vineet D. Menachery), showed the ability of a bat coronavirus surviving and evolving to thrive in a human cell.

Prof. Baric, who works in UNC's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, is known to have also worked in "rewired TRN SARS-CoV mutants" with proceedings published in 2018.

The 2015 paper (accessed 1.89 million times as of April 20, 2020) published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers, described it as a "hybrid virus".

Dr Vineet D. Menachery, now works as Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology of the University of Texas Medical Branch.

In the virology community, their project is known as "chimeric coronavirus", eerily similar to COVID-19. This chimera is created in a petridish, reportedly with the "surface spike protein (S protein) of a coronavirus found in horseshoe bats, calledSHC014, and the backbone of a SARS virus that could be grown in mice".

Dr Vineet D. Menachery (left), Assistant Professor at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Ralph S Baric, who works for the University of North Carolina's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, is known to have also worked in "rewired TRN SARS-CoV mutants" with proceedings published in 2018.

The team refered to the chimeric CoV (coronavirus) as "SHC014-MA15". The study lists the following as authors: Vineet D Menachery, Boyd L Yount Jr, Kari Debbink, Sudhakar Agnihothram, Lisa E Gralinski, Jessica A Plante, Rachel L Graham, Trevor Scobey, Xing-Yi Ge, Eric F Donaldson, Scott H Randell, Antonio Lanzavecchia, Wayne A Marasco, Zhengli-Li Shi & Ralph S Baric.

Menachery designed, coordinated and performed experiments, completed analysis and wrote the manuscript, according to Nature Medicine.

Here's the scary bit about the chimeric CoV: In the lab (not clear which one), researchers said, this new coronavirus was found so potent it could infect and replicate in human airway cells "naturally". It also infected mice lung cells. It's one of the experiments which prompted Prof Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, to warn that such research is "misleading" and "irrational", stating thus: “The consequence of any accident would be anywhere from a handful of infections to a catastrophic pandemic.”

Q: When did Prof Zhengli say she completed sequencing the DNA of the novel coronavirus?

It was on January 7, 2020, Prof. Zhengli told Scientific American.

During the current (2019–20) coronavirus pandemic, Prof. Zhengli and other WIV scientists formed an expert group on the research of SARS-CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

[Note: In February 2020, her team published an article in Nature titled "A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin" (29 researchers at the WIV were listed as authors of this study, 3 February 2020].

CAPTION AS WRITTEN IN NATURE: (a) Metagenomics analysis of next-generation sequencing of BALF from patient ICU06. (b) Genomic organization of 2019-nCoV WIV04. M, membrane. (c) Similarity plot based on the full-length genome sequence of 2019-nCoV WIV04. Full-length genome sequences of SARS-CoV BJ01, bat SARSr-CoV WIV1, bat coronavirus RaTG13 and ZC45 were used as reference sequences. (d) Phylogenetic tree based on nucleotide sequences of complete genomes of coronaviruses. MHV, murine hepatitis virus; PEDV, porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus; TGEV, porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus.The scale bars represent 0.1 substitutions per nucleotide position. Descriptions of the settings and software that was used are included in the Methods

Image Credit: Nature

Soon, the report claimed, an email went out from Yanyi Wang, Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, to staff members. The email had a stern message: all the recipients were under strict orders not to disclose information on the disease.

Wang's email reportedly came with words of caution, i.e. that "inappropriate and inaccurate information was causing general panic". "The National Health Commission 'unequivocally requires that any tests, clinical data, test results, conclusions related to the epidemic shall not be posted on social media platforms, nor shall [it] be disclosed to any media outlets including government official media, nor shall [it] be disclosed to partner institutions'," Wang reportedly added.

Zhengli has been vilified by many mainland citizens on social media, blamed for her role in supposedly "releasing" the virus later called SARS-CoV-2. On February 2, as rumors began to circle of an escaped contagion, Zhengli posted on her WeChat account: “I swear with my life (the virus) has nothing to do with the lab.”

Just as the chatter was dying down, however, a notice from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology came on February 15, 2020, calling on all labs to enhance its management of viruses, reported Quartz, sparking more suspicion.

Q: What does the journal Nature Medicine say about Prof. Shi Zhengli-Li credentials?

She is a virology scholar, listed as representing the “Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.”

She came to international prominence as "bat woman" afer Zhengli and her colleague, Cui Jie, found the SARS virus originated in bats.

Zhengli is a member of the Virology Committee of the Chinese Society for Microbiology. She is also sits in the editorial board of Virologica Sinica, the Chinese Journal of Virology, and the Journal of Fishery Sciences of China.

Chinese scientists found all the genetic building blocks of SARS in a single population of horseshoe bats.Researchers analysed strains of SARS virus circulating in horseshoe bats, such as this one (Rhinolophus sinicus), in a cave in Yunnan province, China.

Image Credit: Via Nature / Libiao Zhang/Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resource

Q: What's the significance of her study on SARS-Cov?

From 2002, Dr. Zhengli and her team of researchers chased the origin of the deadly SARS virus in a remote cave in Yunnan province. In 2005, after years of hunt across China, they finally found their "smoking gun".

The virologists have identified a single population of horseshoe bats that harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002, killing almost 800 people around the world.

Their results were published in Science in 2005, and the Journal of General Virology in 2006.

Interestingly, in February 2020, her team also published a paper in Cell Researchshowing that remdesivir, an experimental drug owned by Gilead Sciences, had a "positive effect" in inhibiting the novel coronavirus in vitro, and applied for a patent for the drug in China on behalf of the WIV.

Q: What happened to her "gain-of-function" research on SARS and coronavirus?

Zhengli was involved in an investigation of bat coronaviruses, specifically "gain of function" (GOF) experiments involving both the SARS and bat coronaviruses, a joint research of University of North Carolina and Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In 2014, funding for the project in the US had been paused due to the moratorium on risky virology studies with influenza, MERS & SARS viruses, announced by the US government that year.

Q: What did the results of the 2015 study she conducted with US counterparts say?

In the 2015 study, the abstract states: “The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”

“Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein.”

“On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.”

Q: What did the researchers say about the rapid spread of highly pathogenic viruses and the threat they pose to human populations?

“The emergence of SARS-CoV heralded a new era in the cross-species transmission of severe respiratory illness with globalization leading to rapid spread around the world and massive economic impact," they wrote in the introduction.

“Since then, several strains—including influenza A strains H5N1, H1N1 and H7N9 and MERS-CoV — have emerged from animal populations, causing considerable disease, mortality and economic hardship for the afflicted regions5. Although public health measures were able to stop the SARS-CoV outbreak4, recent metagenomics studies have identified sequences of closely related SARS-like viruses circulating in Chinese bat populations that may pose a future threat".

CAPTION FROM AN ILLUSTRATION IN THE 2015 NATURE STUDY: (a) The full-length genome sequences of representative CoVs were aligned and phylogenetically mapped as described in the Online Methods. The scale bar represents nucleotide substitutions, with only bootstrap support above 70% being labeled. The tree shows CoVs divided into three distinct phylogenetic groups, defined as α-CoVs, β-CoVs and γ-CoVs. Classical subgroup clusters are marked as 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d for the β-CoVs and as 1a and 1b for the α-CoVs. (b) Amino acid sequences of the S1 domains of the spikes of representative β-CoVs of the 2b group, including SARS-CoV, were aligned and phylogenetically mapped. The scale bar represents amino acid substitutions. (c,d) Viral replication of SARS-CoV Urbani (black) and SHC014-MA15 (green) after infection of Calu-3 2B4 cells (c) or well-differentiated, primary air-liquid interface HAE cell cultures (d) at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.01 for both cell types. Samples were collected at individual time points with biological replicates (n = 3) for both Calu-3 and HAE experiments. (e,f) Weight loss (n = 9 for SARS-CoV MA15; n = 16 for SHC014-MA15) (e) and viral replication in the lungs (n = 3 for SARS-CoV MA15; n = 4 for SHC014-MA15) (f) of 10-week-old BALB/c mice infected with 1 × 104 p.f.u. of mouse-adapted SARS-CoV MA15 (black) or SHC014-MA15 (green) via the intranasal (i.n.) route. (g,h) Representative images of lung sections stained for SARS-CoV N antigen from mice infected with SARS-CoV MA15 (n = 3 mice) (g) or SHC014-MA15 (n = 4 mice) (h) are shown. For each graph, the center value represents the group mean, and the error bars define the s.e.m. Scale bars, 1 mm.

Image Credit: https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985/figures/1

Q: What did they say about building a 'chimeric virus' encoding a new zoonotic CoV spike protein?

“However, sequence data alone provides minimal insights to identify and prepare for future prepandemic viruses. Therefore, to examine the emergence potential (that is, the potential to infect humans) of circulating bat CoVs, we built a chimeric virus encoding a novel, zoonotic CoV spike protein — from the RsSHC014-CoV sequence that was isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats — in the context of the SARS-CoV mouse-adapted backbone."

"The hybrid virus allowed us to evaluate the ability of the novel spike protein to cause disease independently of other necessary adaptive mutations in its natural backbone."

"Using this approach, we characterized CoV infection mediated by the SHC014 spike protein in primary human airway cells and in vivo, and tested the efficacy of available immune therapeutics against SHC014-CoV. Together, the strategy translates metagenomics data to help predict and prepare for future emergent viruses.”

"ZOONOTIC"

From "zoonosis": A disease that can be transmitted from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals but that can infect humans. Some examples include: anthrax, ascariasis, brucellosis, coronaviruses (SARS-CoV/MERS-CoV/SARS-CoV-2), plague, echinococcosis, Lassa fever, listeriosis, Lyme disease, monkeypox, psittacosis. rabies, salmonellosis, trichinosis. toxoplasmosis, typhus and West Nile fever.

Q: What did the researchers say about viral replication in human lungs (of the “chimeric virus” that they developed)?

[We’re just copying in toto, the main discussion in the story published in Nature “A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence”, https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985. Published November 2015. A Corrigendum to this article was published on 06 April 2016).

“The sequences of SHC014 and the related RsWIV1-CoV show that these CoVs are the closest relatives to the epidemic SARS-CoV strains; however, there are important differences in the 14 residues that bind human ACE2, the receptor for SARS-CoV, including the five that are critical for host range: Y442, L472, N479, T487 and Y491.”

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“In WIV1, three of these residues vary from the epidemic SARS-CoV Urbani strain, but they were not expected to alter binding to ACE2. This fact is confirmed by both pseudotyping experiments that measured the ability of lentiviruses encoding WIV1 spike proteins to enter cells expressing human ACE2 and by in vitro replication assays of WIV1-CoV."

“In contrast, 7 of 14 ACE2-interaction residues in SHC014 are different from those in SARS-CoV, including all five residues critical for host range."

“These changes, coupled with the failure of pseudotyped lentiviruses expressing the SHC014 spike to enter cells, suggested that the SHC014 spike is unable to bind human ACE2."

“However, similar changes in related SARS-CoV strains had been reported to allow ACE2 binding suggesting that additional functional testing was required for verification.”

Therefore, we synthesized the SHC014 spike in the context of the replication-competent, mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone (we hereafter refer to the chimeric CoV as SHC014-MA15) to maximize the opportunity for pathogenesis and vaccine studies in mice.

- https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985#change-history

“Therefore, we synthesized the SHC014 spike in the context of the replication-competent, mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone (we hereafter refer to the chimeric CoV as SHC014-MA15) to maximize the opportunity for pathogenesis and vaccine studies in mice.”

“Despite predictions from both structure-based modeling and pseudotyping experiments, SHC014-MA15 was viable and replicated to high titers in Vero cells.”

“Similarly to SARS, SHC014-MA15 also required a functional ACE2 molecule for entry and could use human, civet and bat ACE2 orthologs."

“To test the ability of the SHC014 spike to mediate infection of the human airway, we examined the sensitivity of the human epithelial airway cell line Calu-3 2B4 to infection and found robust SHC014-MA15 replication, comparable to that of SARS-CoV Urbani.

“To extend these findings, primary human airway epithelial (HAE) cultures were infected and showed robust replication of both viruses. Together, the data confirm the ability of viruses with the SHC014 spike to infect human airway cells and underscore the potential threat of cross-species transmission of SHC014-CoV.” [https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985]Q:

HUMAN AIRWAY EPITHELIUM

The airway warms and moistens the air prior to gas exchange as it travels towards the distal lung, and protects the distal lung from harmful pathogens and environmental insults.

The human airway can be divided into the conducting zone and the respiratory zone.

HUMAN AIRWAY CELLS: Oxygenated air enters through the mouth or nose and passes into the trachea. The trachea branches into two bronchi, which lead to each lung. The bronchi divide into progressively smaller branches, called bronchioles. At the end of bronchioles are alveoli, sacs that mediate the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. A layer of epithelial cells lines the respiratory tract. This epithelium provides a barrier against the external environment and protects against infection from airborne pathogens. Defective barrier function or viral infection can lead to respiratory tract disease.

Image Credit: Lifeline Cell Technology / https://www.lifelinecelltech.com/the-respiratory-system-and-the-latest-human-airway-cells-research/

Q: What honours did she receive?

Shi Zhengli is a multi-awarded scientist. Among her distinctions are:

• • 2016 Chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes académiques

  • 2018 State Natural Science Award (Second Class)

  • February 2019 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM)[28]

Image Credit: https://bit.ly/2VoXgQJ

Q: Did US officials warn about the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

Yes.

In 2018, according to a Washington Post report, US officials sent to the WIV had dispatched two diplomatic cables back to Washington which “warned about the safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab”.

The cable noted that the US officials met with Prof. Zhengli. The cables also stated: “The researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified for SARS-coronavirus. This finding strongly suggests that SARS-like coronaviruses from bats can be transmitted to humans to cause SARS-like diseases.”

Q: What's the takeaway from Prof Shi Zhengli, the Chinese 'Bat Woman'?

It's easy to point fingers at her, though the story about her endorsement of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 (caused by SARS-CoV-2), and WIV's patent application for the antiviral drug, are interesting.

In some of her closely-scrutinised projects, she clearly did not work alone.

Numerous scholars within China, and from around the world, had collaborated with her. The gain-of-function studies she conducted with US scientists enjoyed funding from American taxpayers.

The controversial 2015 experiments on SARS-like "chimeric coronaviruses" by a team including Zhengli, were designed, coordinated and performed by Dr. Vineet D Menachery, an Indian-American scientist who now teaches at University of Texas.

What's clear is that particular study targetted the primary human airway epithelial (HAE) cultures as a route for infection — with results confirming the ability of "viruses with the SHC014 spike to infect human airway cells and underscore the potential threat of cross-species transmission of SHC014-CoV.”

Virology and genetic engineering are highly specialised fields. It's no secret that big powers and big pharma desire to master and use these to their hegemonic or commercial advantage.

POSTSCRIPT

Research on organisms/viruses with pandemic potential is the exclusive domain of the scientific fraternity. There's little known by the public — who are at the receiving end of any major outbreak — about how viral samples are stored, amplified, used and secured.

Given the nature of transcontinental travel (until COVID-19 killed it), GOF studies on viruses certainly need greater oversight, if only to to guard against unintended, horrifyng releases.

No, such specialised knowledge is not up to the experts alone to do with as they wish, or handle with blithe disregard for untold risks.

Scientific knowledge should be kept open. It's part of the common good. This highly pathogenic coronavirus that keeps us confined for weeks now just underscores the need for the world to come together. It highlights the need for a continued global surveillance of zoonotic viruses, including "chimeric", lab-made ones.

It calls for the world's scientific resources to be marshalled for the good of all. That, however, exists in an ideal world.

Now, it's up to the gene sequencing experts to show and re-confirm to the global community the direct link — or lack of it — between the GOF research, or anything like it, and the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

And we can only hope that this orgy of death and the ravaging of economies and jobs across the world end sooner, rather than later.

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