It reads like something out of a John Le Carre spy novel.
In wintry Winnipeg, Canada, at a nondescript laboratory hidden on Arlington St., two visiting Chinese scientists, a husband and wife, managed to secure and steal a sample of the deadly novel coronavirus.
The contagion was allegedly smuggled out of Canada, and taken to a lab in Wuhan, China, where scientists there studied it carefully and worked toward creating a biological weapon.
Alas, somehow, the virus escaped — perhaps a lower paid worker took a dead experimentation animal to the local food market, instead of incinerating it, to make some extra money … nobody really knows how it jumped to humans.
Unleashed on the public, it would slowly infect thousands and kill many people, sparking a worldwide pandemic panic and spread to 30 countries.
That is roughly a storyline that has spread online.
Unfortunately, there is a big problem with this story – it didn’t happen. Let me repeat that, it didn’t happen.
This report, along with other reports, has spawned an info-demic of misinformation that has spread as fast as the outbreak.
According to the New York Times, since the outbreak began a number of misleading claims and hoaxes about the virus have circulated online.
Hoaxes
They include false conspiracy theories that the virus was created in a lab and that vaccines have already been manufactured, wild exaggerations about the number of sick and dead, and potentially harmful claims about bogus cures.
Both Facebook and Twitter have taken measures to put a stop to the proliferation of fake news before it gets any worse.
Users who search for information on the virus on Facebook, or who click on certain related hashtags on Instagram, will receive a pop-up providing authoritative information on the virus, the Times reported. In addition, information about the outbreak will also appear at the top of Facebook users’ news feeds based on guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO).
So where does the truth lie? Is the novel coronavirus – now called Covid-19 – a super-secret bioweapon test gone awry? Or is that just another wacky conspiracy theory, left to bounce around social media and die in ignorance?
Search for truth
Firstly, here is what we do know, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — clearly one of the best sources on the subject:
Covid-19 is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified. The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is not that same as the coronaviruses that commonly circulate among humans and cause mild illness, like the common cold.
Public health officials and partners are working hard to identify the source of the virus. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people and others that circulate among animals, including camels, cats and bats. Analysis of the genetic tree of this virus is ongoing.
SARS, another coronavirus that emerged to infect people, came from civet cats, while MERS, another coronavirus that emerged to infect people, came from camels. Covid-19 probably originally emerged from an animal source but now seems to be spreading from person-to-person.
According to a multi-source database compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Covid-19 has infected some 64,460 people around the world by Friday.
More than 1,380 deaths have been reported in China, with most of the fatalities occurring in the central province of Hubei. The number of infections has also grown globally, with hotspots in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and Germany.
Shocking numbers but the disinformation is even more extreme.
One thread of questionable information began with a jaw-dropping interview with Dr. Francis Boyle in Geopolitics and Empire. Boyle is not a crackpot, he drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that was approved by both houses of the US Congress and signed into law by former president George HW Bush.
In the interview, he gave a detailed statement alleging Covid-19 is an offensive biological-warfare weapon and that the WHO knows about it.
The author of Biowarfare and Terrorism, Boyle also refers to a report from GreatGameIndia that Chinese biowarfare agents working at a lab in the Canadian city of Winnipeg smuggled the coronavirus to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the only Level 4 biosafety lab in China, from where it allegedly leaked.
Adding fuel to the fire, Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who serves on the US Armed Services Committee, recently said Covid-19 “might have come” from a biosafety lab from Wuhan, Malaysian newspaper The Star reported.
Chinese firms have long been accused of having close links with the country’s defense establishment. This is why the US has warned other Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations (Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK) to steer clear of Huawei 5G technology.
Zerohedge.com dared to carry a story linking Chinese scientists to the outbreak and was immediately banned from Twitter. The social media site has confirmed that Zero Hedge was permanently banned for violating its “platform manipulation policy.”
Understandably, China has strongly denied the claims.
Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai called the allegations “absolutely crazy,” warning that such statements could have damaging consequences.
Animal origins
Cui said China was still trying to uncover the origins of the virus, The Star reported.
“According to some initial research, it probably comes from an animal, but we have more to discover,” the ambassador said.
“I think it’s true that a lot is still unknown and our scientists — Chinese scientists, American scientists, scientists of other countries – are doing their best to learn more about the virus,” Cui said.
Most mainstream medical experts don’t buy the conspiracy theories.
Check out these Tweets from the UK’s Express:
Dr. David Jacobs, the co-founder of the Coalition of Ontario Doctors, tweeted: “Please stop with the conspiracy theories!
“The #coronavirus was NOT made in a lab. It is NOT a biological weapon.
“Coronaviruses are common and account for up to 20 percent of colds every year.
“The particularly nasty ones like SARS and MERS originate in bats and cross infect humans.”
Professor Richard Ebright, an expert in chemical biology at Rutgers University, added: “Based on the virus genome and properties there is no indication whatsoever that it was an engineered virus.”
Conspiracy theories
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also told reporters that “trolls and conspiracy theories” are undermining the recovery effort.
“People must have access to accurate information to protect themselves and others.”
It should be noted, that China is no stranger to epidemics. Its history is riddled with terrible contagions, all natural occurrences.
Two of the most devastating flu pandemics of the 20th century – the Asian flu of 1957 and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 – both originated in China and left a trail of about three million deaths worldwide, according to the CDC.
According to the World Health Organization, biological weapons are micro-organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, or other toxins that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants.
Biological agents such as anthrax, botulinum toxin and plague can pose a difficult public health challenge, causing large numbers of deaths in a short amount of time while being difficult to contain.
History of biowarfare
The truth is biological warfare – or germ warfare – has been part of war for millennia.
History records that as far back as 400 BC armies poisoned enemy wells and used poisoned arrows. History also records that in 18th-century America, the British colonialists gave smallpox-infected blankets to native Americans with the intention of killing them in an epidemic, the Inter Press Service News Agency reported.
Then, during World War I, Germany developed anthrax, glanders, cholera and a wheat fungus and allegedly may have spread plague in St Petersburg, Russia, IPS reported.
It took 22 years after the end of World War II for the world to acknowledge the evil of bioweapons. Some 179 countries have ratified the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, requiring the parties to give an undertaking that they will “never in any circumstances develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain” biological weapons, IPS reported.
But the convention allows nations to conduct “defensive” research – in other words, they are allowed to make a virus to kill a virus.
It is also believed that some countries develop offensive biological and chemical weapons. There is little distinction between chemical and biological weapons from a definitional aspect.
Agent Orange
For instance, Agent Orange used by the US Army in the Vietnam War as a herbicide, but the harm it caused was no different from that of a biological weapon, according to the Aspen Institute. Its longer-term effects were linked to cancers, diabetes, birth defects and other disabilities.
There is another troubling issue, however. As a bioweapon, Covid-19 doesn’t quite cut it – it’s just not that effective.
For starters, much fewer than half of those affected die. People who are infected must stay in bed and take similar precautions used for treating the common cold.
Covid-19 is too strong initially, and not deadly enough in the long run to be an effective bioweapon. A bioweapon should start off slow, spread quickly and kill off its multitude of victims weeks later – impossible to stop. As lethal as Covid-19 is, it doesn’t work as something an evil scientist would dream up.
Back to the Winnipeg bio lab story. According to the CBC, the Public Health Agency of Canada has denied any connection between the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, two scientists who were escorted out of the building last summer, and the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Baseless stories claiming that the two scientists are Chinese spies and that they smuggled the coronavirus to China’s only Level 4 lab in Wuhan last year have been spreading on all major social media platforms and on conspiracy theorist blogs.
The story even made its way on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, where a video pushing these claims was watched more than 350,000 times.
“This is misinformation and there is no factual basis for claims being made on social media,” Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said in response to queries by CBC News.
The conspiracy theory seems to be based on a distorted reading of reporting from CBC News published last summer.
According to CIA sources, there is also a new theory floating around Langley.
That a poorly paid worker at Wuhan’s bio-chem facility, looking to make some extra cash, took a dead animal from an experiment and sold it at the local food market, instead of incinerating it, as per proper protocol.
Again, there is no proof of this whatsover, even though it would explain how it got to the market in the first place — something that has eluded investigators so far.
It’s quite possible we may never know.
So where does one get accurate information on Covid-19? Here is a list of reliable sources:
You Don’t Need To Look Futher Than “Bill Gates, Bio-War-Virus”On The Old And Weak”. Watch The Video, “EVENT 201” . Oct 19 2019
now if vthat is true lord forgive me what iam saying to our brother chinese but if its true they should apologize to our lord for what they done because thay are atheist there goverment whas a communist they did not believe of our lord god and lord jesus christ so this is time to repent our sin
what is tht matter nothing is impossible of our lord jesus christ and lord god what ever it is a man made or natural virus can be gone in his name amen
You’ve proven nothing. The ONLY relevant info wasn’t followed up on at all to establish its credibility:
“Professor Richard Ebright, an expert in chemical biology at Rutgers University, added: “Based on the virus genome and properties there is no indication whatsoever that it was an engineered virus.”
– Did he actually study samples?
– How does he know this information?
– He’s a professor at a University, not part of an effort to stop it.
All you did was repeat the phrase “conspiracy theory” ad nauseum, and claim it didn’t happen based on nothing.
Will indeed let’s look at the facts. In 2017 the United States military said that the Chinese were developing a biological weapon in the form of a virus in Wuhan China I still available it’s not being hidden.
Next and 2019 professor Charles Leiberg from Harvard University who was in charge of the biology and chemistry Department was arrested leaving an airport with a Chinese student carrying four vials of a deadly virus and then they found out that the Chinese had been paying Mr. Leiberg $53,000 a month and had been doing this for over a year so he could develop a biological weapon virus to be delivered to the Chinese.
So whether it was leaked intentionally or mistakenly it doesn’t matter it’s here it’s a biological weapon virus and everybody should know it and these are the facts.
I’ve read several books about biological weapons including Biohazard. Admittedly I do not possess enough technical information to make a conclusion. On the surface, from the limited information I have read, the only ‘plausible’ argument for Covid-19 being a weapon of any kind is as a targeted population control. From what I have read, the elder and immune compromised represent the majority of fatalities. If the global elite wanted to reduce the population, eliminating that demographic seems logical. Again, this is purely speculation based on a scant amount of information in an attempt to justify the biological weapons theory.
Even Bill Gates MSN was running stories …
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/bio-warfare-experts-question-why-canada-was-sending-lethal-viruses-to-china/ar-AAFwZUK?fbclid=IwAR1klqw3wqoByZLBUvkWYyY9Hpqe5wEvYYqQcxmIVBJiAay5sU4p0Ad3czs
”KARMA”, is something believed by INDIANS. anything bad you choose to do it follows back to you. Indeed its time for everything face it bravely rather like a coward….
I think it is a good idea to distinguish between the debunked Chinese/Canadian bio-weapons conspiracy theory and what Senator Cotton said, which was more nuanced.
Actually, Senator Cotton alleged that the disease did not come from the market the Chinese had identified and only suggested that the virus could have come from the lab (which was nearby); he also stressed that he wanted the Chinese to address that suggestion, which they weren’t doing.
Note that the virus need not have been engineered to have this happen. Theoretically, if patient 1 got the disease late last year then the lab could have been innocently studying it not as a weapon but to help contain the disease (but still operating under a gag order).
The legitimate part of his concern will only be answered by mapping out the initial spread of the disease as far back as possible and openly sharing that information; the question of whether the virus was engineered or not is a red herring with respect to his comments. If it did come from the lab (which I personally doubt), at most this would probably mean that the Chinese authorities failed to inform the WHO as soon as they could have and that the lab’s safety procedures were probably lax.
Dr Francis Boyle is a well respected leading expert on this. The media is quashing his interview because running with it would cause panic on an unprecedented scale.
Maybe when New York, LA, London & Sydney are closed then your mind might open to the (historically proven) fact that our governments flout every convention they sign & this is just one that got in front of them.
“One thread of questionable information began with a jaw-dropping interview with Dr. Francis Boyle in Geopolitics and Empire. Boyle is not a crackpot, he drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that was approved by both houses of the US Congress and signed into law by former president George HW Bush.
In the interview, he gave a detailed statement alleging Covid-19 is an offensive biological-warfare weapon and that the WHO knows about it.”
@MJO What you described about markets is common in other parts of Asia and Africa and is not exclusive to China. Spitting is vastly no longer accepted and urinating and defecating in public is not a thing. Although there are exceptions, your idea and depiction of China is false and reflects the lack of understanding of that country and the situation.
In China people thing that expectation is “cleansing” of the body and will spit anywhere, both indoors and outdoors, with impunity. Also, other forms of sanitation is sorely lacking, such as permitting children to urinate and defecate anywhere they want. And furthermore, places like their fly-infested fish markets will make intestinal outbreaks inevitable. Therefore I believe that COVIX-19 and many other communicable illnesses that have their origins in China are caused by the above-mentioned issues.
@Jagielski, what a apathetic piece of comment from a person who can read but does not know how to discern truth from misinformation. A rabid right winged conservative who relates this coronavirus outbreak with political systems, can only be judged by his/her level of intellect. Remember your history my friend when white folks of the British Empire purposely introduced smallpox-laced blankets to innocent native Indians in North America, and the Yankees inoculated African American inmates with syphilis. So much for your Christian charity and human rights advocacy. Remember that bioweapons will work on a population if it is not protected through vaccination. Bioweapons will kill anyone regardless of race, religion or political affiliations.
Vaccinations also Kill
get hit by a bus vaccinations kills possible pandemics and those stupid enough to believe they kill us. i was talking to an anti vaxxer and she stated vaccines will cause autism an health complications, so i asked if she vaccinates her dog and her response was priceless.”im not an idiot there are a bunch of preventable diseases that can be prevented with a single jab” she to this day is the stupidest person ive ever met yet im blown away again with yet another person who is even more of a waste of space
Steve : Genome isolation is to aim at certain genes leaving others alone. So everything follows. If i can isolate by blood type, or any other means a target group… That’s progress for you.
How does that feel? I mean, how DOES that feel?
To be a cog in Winnie The Pooh’s propaganda machine?
Listen, China is a TOTALITARIAN REGIME. Totalitarian regimes ARE INTO bioweapons. As for the “not effective” part, maybe it wasn’t fully formed? Maybe something happened BEFORE it has been fully developed or they’ve purposefully let out an older strain as a “test run”. We may never known, but what we do know is that China is at fault here. Killing people is what communist regimes do. And the time of reckoning for them is near. Freedom will be brought to China and North Korea, by force if necessary and any holdovers of communism in the world will be dragged kicking and screaming into the bright light of the democracy.
Read-The eyes of darkness-D Koontz
Sylvia Browwne -End of days-
Both Usa Authors! Strange coincidence? I dont think so- The evil Elite warn us hidden in plain sight-
MH 370 for example