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Science & Technology
New Details Emerge About Coronavirus Research At Chinese Lab
2021-09-07
[TheIntercept] More than 900 pages of materials related to US.-funded coronavirus research in China were released following a FOIA lawsuit by The Intercept.

NEWLY RELEASED documents provide details of U.S.-funded research on several types of coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The Intercept has obtained more than nine hundred pages of documents detailing the work of the EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based health organization that used federal money to fund bat coronavirus research at the Chinese laboratory. The trove of documents includes two previously unpublished grant proposals that were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as project updates relating to the EcoHealth Alliance’s research, which has been scrutinized amid increased interest in the origins of the pandemic.

The documents were released in connection with ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation by The Intercept against the National Institutes of Health. The Intercept is making the full documents available to the public.

"This is a roadmap to the high-risk research that could have led to the current pandemic," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of U.S. Right To Know, a group that has been investigating the origins of Covid-19.

One of the grants, titled "Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence," outlines an ambitious effort led by EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak to screen thousands of bat samples for novel coronaviruses. The research also involved screening people who work with live animals. The documents contain several critical details about the research in Wuhan, including the fact that key experimental work with humanized mice was conducted at a biosafety level 3 lab at Wuhan University Center for Animal Experiment — and not at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as was previously assumed. The documents raise additional questions about the theory that the pandemic may have begun in a lab accident, an idea that Daszak has aggressively dismissed.

The bat coronavirus grant provided the EcoHealth Alliance with a total of $3.1 million, including $599,000 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology used in part to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans. Even before the pandemic, many scientists were concerned about the potential dangers associated with such experiments. The grant proposal acknowledges some of those dangers: "Fieldwork involves the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs, while working in caves with high bat density overhead and the potential for fecal dust to be inhaled."

Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute, said the documents show that the EcoHealth Alliance has reason to take the lab leak theory seriously. "In this proposal, they actually point out that they know how risky this work is. They keep talking about people potentially getting bitten — and they kept records of everyone who got bitten," Chan said. "Does EcoHealth have those records? And if not, how can they possibly rule out a research-related accident?"

According to Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, the documents contain critical information about the research done in Wuhan, including about the creation of novel viruses. "The viruses they constructed were tested for their ability to infect mice that were engineered to display human type receptors on their cell," Ebright wrote to The Intercept after reviewing the documents. Ebright also said that the documents make it clear that two different types of novel coronaviruses were able to infect humanized mice. "While they were working on SARS-related coronavirus, they were carrying out a parallel project at the same time on MERS-related coronavirus," Ebright said, referring to the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Related:
Wuhan Institute of Virology: 2021-08-08 US Intel has data on all of the viruses the WIV was studying
Wuhan Institute of Virology: 2021-08-07 Learn to live with mutating coronavirus, top Chinese virologist says
Wuhan Institute of Virology: 2021-08-02 Wuhan Scientists Genetically Manipulated Coronavirus, Congressional Report Says
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
China: No ‘Hard Evidence', but European Soldiers Maybe Brought Coronavirus to Wuhan
2021-04-16
[Breitbart] China’s state-run Global Times publication raised the possibility in a long-form "investigation" on Thursday that the Chinese coronavirus originated in Europe and arrived in Wuhan in October 2019, when the city hosted the World Military Games.

The Global Times admitted the conspiracy theory was "not solidly supported by hard evidence" and quoted a biology expert at Wuhan University, who stated that anonymous Wuhan residents blaming foreign countries for the Chinese coronavirus pandemic were perpetuating the conspiracy theory elsewhere in the same article had "no scientific evidence to prove the claims."

Despite this, the state propaganda outlet cited a World Health Organization (W.H.O.) report published in March that mentioned the possibility of the World Military Games, or another mass event, introducing the novel coronavirus to the city of Wuhan.

That same report states, "no appreciable signals of clusters of fever or severe respiratory disease requiring hospitalization were identified during review" of any mass event held in Wuhan in late 2019, a quote omitted from the Global Times investigation.

The W.H.O. report, based on research conducted by both W.H.O. scientists and Chinese Communist Party operatives in Wuhan in January 2021, concluded that the likeliest scenario in which the Chinese coronavirus began infecting humans is through contact with an animal that had been infected by a third party, the original host of the virus, in China. The report dismissed other conspiracy theories posed by Communist Party officials — namely, that imported meat from abroad or a leak at a U.S. military laboratory triggered the pandemic — as unlikely. It also appeared to dismiss the possibility that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a laboratory known to have been studying coronaviruses prior to the first outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the city. The latter prompted a rare rebuke by W.H.O. Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who urged his agency to probe the matter further.

The Chinese coronavirus typically affects the respiratory system, triggering fever, difficulty breathing, and other symptoms similar to other known coronaviruses, like those responsible for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The Global Times attempted to make the case that a gastroenteritis diagnosis at the World Military Games may have been an early Chinese coronavirus case. Gastroenteritis affects the digestive system and causes vomiting and diarrhea.

"According to the W.H.O. report, during the Military Games, four African participants were diagnosed and treated for malaria, and one American citizen presented with gastroenteritis," the Global Times noted. Malaria is a parasitic disease that does sometimes present fever, chills, and "respiratory distress," but is easily diagnosed by the presence of plasmodium parasites, according to the W.H.O.
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Turkmenistan Bans Mention of Coronavirus, Medical Masks
2020-04-02
[BREITBART] The government of Turkmenistan banned the use of the word "coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
" in public and empowered police to arrest anyone wearing medical masks in public, Reporters Without Borders revealed on Tuesday.

The repressive Central Asian nation claims it has yet to document a single case of the Chinese coronavirus, despite the ongoing pandemic hitting Iran, which borders Turkmenistan, particularly intensely. Turkmenistan joins a dwindling list of repressive and remote states ‐ like North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
or Papua New Guinea, respectively ‐ who have no official proof of any coronavirus cases in the country.

Reporters Without Borders cited reporting from within the country’s capital, Ashgabat, reproduced in the local language through the Turkmen branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). That reporting painted a grave picture of government officials persecuting individuals who spoke aloud of the pandemic or appeared to be protecting themselves from it. Police are reportedly hiding undercover at bus stops and other populated areas to eavesdrop of the capital’s locals and seize anyone who violates the order.

Turkmenistan’s dictator Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov also banned state-run media, the only legal form of media in the country, and health officials from distributing safety information about the virus or using the word "coronavirus" in any publicly available material. It is not clear from the reports if the limits extend only to mentions of the Chinese coronavirus or of other types of coronavirus such as the common cold and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Active-duty Army officer in Maryland pulled to develop coronavirus vaccine
2020-03-26
[FoxNews] A recent college graduate and doctoral student became the only active-duty service member to join a team of researchers in Maryland to help develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Army 2nd Lt. Ethan Green, a doctoral student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, was tapped for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in Silver Spring, Md., dedicated to coronavirus research.

The institute launched its Emerging Infectious Disease Branch about a year and a half ago. Within that period, its researchers completed two Phase 2 clinical trials of Ebola vaccine candidates in the U.S. and Africa, conducted a first-in-human trial of a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) vaccine, and developed, manufactured and tested a Zika vaccine.

“We created this department to be already primed and ready to go," WRAIR branch director Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad told Military.com in March 4 interview.

Green graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., just 10 months ago. He is the only active-duty service member on the team of coronavirus researchers at WRAIR, Military.com reported. Green said he wakes up at 2 a.m. every day and heads to the lab to harvest proteins found in the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to be used in the vaccine for COVID-19.

At least 321 active cases of COVID-19 were identified within the Department of Defense Tuesday, including 174 military members, 61 dependents, 59 civilians and 27 contractors. Four military members and one civilian have recovered. One contractor died Saturday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs identified at least 296 active cases as of Tuesday, Military.com reported. Four people employed by the department, including two in New York City, have died after contracting the virus.

Green said he expected his team at WRAIR to at least begin trials for the vaccine by this winter.

Apart from the government effort, several private companies, including Moderna Therapeutics, CureVac, GlaxoSmithKline, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi are in varying stages of developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
What's the connection between climate change and infectious diseases?
2020-02-02
[CBC] We still don't know where the 2019 novel coronavirus came from. The leading suspicion is an animal host ‐ a bat, likely ‐ infected another animal that has more contact with humans.

That's how the 2012 MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak is believed to have played out. A bat, at some point in the past, infected a camel, which may have sneezed on a human.

One of the reasons the human and animal worlds are bumping up against each other is a changing climate. Research suggests that warmer winters and springs are keeping bats, for example, around longer because the insects they feed on also like the warmth. And this may affect the spread of diseases bats carry.

"Climate change, coupled with other human environmental changes like urbanization and habitat destruction, is bringing us closer to wildlife," said Dr. Katie Clow, a professor at the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. "So there's this very complex interplay of many different changes happening all at the same time."
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Chinese Coronavirus ‘Really Serious Business,' Says Texas Research Physician
2020-01-23
[Breitbart] HOUSTON, Texas ‐ A physician tasked with developing a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus-type illnesses says this latest virus is the third variant since 2002. The doctor expressed concern about the frequency of new coronavirus contagions.

"This is the third new coronavirus since the turn of the century," Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told Breitbart Texas in a phone interview. "This is serious business."

The doctor referenced the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) discovery in 2002, the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) discovery in 2012, and the Wuhan coronavirus in 2020.

"It is still very early," Dr. Hotez said in reference to a question about what we know about the Wuhan coronavirus. "What we don’t know is much more than what we do know."

He does not believe the virus will be as deadly as SARS, which had about a 10 percent mortality rate. If the information provided by the Chinese government is correct, the current disclosed mortality rate is currently just under two percent. Early on Wednesday, Chinese officials directly reported nine deaths out of 479 reported cases.

"We will know more in the coming weeks," the doctor continued. "Right now, it appears to be harder to transmit than the previous viruses, the flu, or measles."

"We are now seeing person-to-person spreading of the virus," he added. "We will know more in the coming weeks."

To help prevent the spread of the virus, the doctor suggested prevention methods similar to the common cold or flu. This includes frequent hand washing, covering mouths during a cough or sneeze, and staying away from people who might be infected.

Chinese National Health Commission Vice-Minister Li Bin told reporters in a Wednesday (January 22) press conference regarding the Wuhan coronavirus (also known as 2019-nCo) that there is a "possibility of viral mutation and further spread of the disease," the AFP reported. The news agency reported the number of confirmed cases in China now stands at 440.

Related: Zero - China Quarantines City Of 11 Million As Hong Kong Confirms Second Case Of Coronavirus

Related: Hot Air - Coronavirus In China: Source Found As Death Toll Rises
Link


Arabia
King Salman issues Royal Orders; minister of National Guard sacked
2017-11-05
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
Bin Abdul Aziz has sacked prince Moteib Bin Abdullah, Minister of the National Guard from his post on Saturday through a Royal order.

Prince Khalid bin Ayyaf has been appointed as minister for the National Guard.

A second Royal Order was issued to relieve Minister of Economy and Planning, Adel al-Faqieh, from his duties, and the appointment of Mohammed Al Tuwaijri as Minister of Economy and Planning.

Also King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in his capacity as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all Armed Forces (Military Units), issued sacking and replacement orders:

First: Tenure of Admiral Abdullah bin Sultan bin Mohammed al-Sultan, the Commander of the Naval Forces, is to be terminated and be retired.

Second: Vice Admiral Fahd bin Abdullah al-Ghifaili is to be promoted to the rank of admiral and be appointed as Commander of the Naval Forces.

Saudi princes and former ministers detained in corruption probe

[AlArabiya] Eleven princes, four sitting ministers and ’tens’ of former ministers have been locked away
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
on orders from the new anti-corruption committee headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday evening according to sources.

The committee announced that it is reopening the file of the 2009 Jeddah floods and investigating the Corona virus issue also known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

According to a Royal Decree issued by King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
on Saturday the anti-corruption committee is chaired by the Crown Prince with the membership of: Chairman of the Monitoring and Investigation Commission, Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Authority, Chief of the General Audit Bureau, Attorney General and Head of State Security.

The committee has the right to investigate, arrest, ban from travel, freeze accounts and portfolios, track funds and assets of individuals involved in corruption practices.

King Salman said in his decree that in view of what was noticed of exploitation by some to, illicitly accrue money the committee was formed to eliminate the issue.

Daily Mail Link here
Link


Arabia
Saudi MERS infections soar ahead of hajj pilgrimage
2015-08-21
[AlAhram] MERS coronavirus infections have soared in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, forcing the closure of a major hospital's emergency ward in Riyadh and killing three people, officials and the press said.

The Saudi Gazette said Thursday authorities shut the emergency ward at the King Abdulaziz Medical City, one of the capital's largest hospitals, "after at least 46 people, including hospital staff" contracted the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

The closure was confirmed to AFP by a hospital employee.

The health ministry has said it registered 21 confirmed MERS infections, all except one of them in Riyadh, between August 9 and 15.

There was no immediate explanation for the difference in the figures.

Health Minister Khalid al-Falih said late Wednesday the hospital "has faced a spread of the coronavirus during the past few weeks, which started as one case."

However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
in remarks carried by the official SPA news agency, he gave reassurances that the cases were "still limited."

He urged "vigilance when contacting people with respiratory illnesses" and preventive measures when visiting MERS patients.

The latest deaths occurred in Riyadh, and the victims were all Saudis aged between 65 and 86, the ministry said.

That raises to 483 the number of deaths from 1,118 MERS infections in Saudi Arabia, where the virus first appeared in 2012, according to the health ministry.

Saudi Arabia, preparing to host more than two million Moslems from all over the world for the annual hajj pilgrimage -- expected to begin on September 21 -- has been worst hit by the coronavirus.

Falih said authorities have "prepared a comprehensive preventive plan starting from entry points, to hajj sites, until the pilgrims return home."

The ministry will "dedicate all its efforts to prevent any infectious disease from spreading in the kingdom," SPA quoted him as saying.

Officials have declared last year's pilgrimage as epidemic-free after the oil-rich kingdom, home to Islam's holiest sites, engaged thousands of health workers to make sure pilgrims were protected from two deadly viruses -- Ebola and MERS.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less infectious cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and killed hundreds of people, mostly in China.

Its symptoms can include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.

There are no approved vaccines against MERS, which is believed to originate in camels.
Link


Arabia
Riyadh governor orders anti-MERS push
2014-11-01
[ARABNEWS] The Riyadh governorate is set to launch an awareness program on the dangers of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), targeting camel breeders, schools, malls and King Khaled International Airport.

Riyadh Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah issued the directive during a meeting with senior health officials including Adnan Al-Abdulkareem, director general of the region's health department.

Al-Abdulkareem thanked Prince Turki for his concern and highlighted the various efforts underway to prevent the virus from spreading.

He said that treatment of people infected with the virus is taking place at the newly built Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital, designated by Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih as the region's MERS center.

Al-Abdulkareem said that the directorate has formed 20 teams to conduct awareness sessions at schools, malls and King Khalid International Airport, to highlight its efforts to fight the virus, including how it spreads and preventative measures.

He said the teams are using print, broadcast and social media to spread the message.
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Arabia
No Ebola, MERS in Hajj, Saudi minister says
2014-10-07
[Iran Press TV] This year's Hajj pilgrimage has been free of epidemic diseases such as Ebola and MERS, says a Soddy Arabian
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
minister.

Saudi acting Health Minister Adel bin Muhammad Fakeih said on Monday that there were no reports about any patients with Ebola or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
Link


Africa North
Ministry: First MERS Death in Algeria
2014-06-12
[AnNahar] An Algerian man in his fifties has died of the MERS virus, the first such fatality in the country, the health ministry announced Tuesday.

The 59-year-old victim was among the first two cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus to be discovered in Algeria late last month.

Both men had just returned from a pilgrimage to Moslem holy sites in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, where most cases and deaths from the disease have been reported.

The unnamed man died after 11 days in hospital in the town of Tlemcen, 600 kilometres west of Algiers, following a deterioration of his vital functions overnight Monday.

Moslem pilgrims from around the world are pouring into the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, undeterred by the spread of the deadly virus.
The condition of the second confirmed MERS case, a 66-year-old man hospitalised in Kolea near Algiers, is improving, the health ministry said.

Other countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Leb, Iran, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, have also recorded cases, mostly in people who had been to Saudi Arabia.

The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and killed hundreds of people, mostly in China.

Like SARS, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and a temperature. But MERS differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure.

MERS has killed 284 people in Saudi Arabia since it first emerged in 2012, and hundreds more have been infected.

Moslem pilgrims from around the world are pouring into the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, undeterred by the spread of the deadly virus.

Research has suggested that the virus has been quite common in camels for at least the past 20 years.

Last week, researchers said they had found the first direct evidence that MERS jumps directly from camels to humans.
Link


Arabia
Silently among us: Scientists worry about milder cases of MERS
2014-05-17
[Yahoo] Scientists leading the fight against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome say the next critical front will be understanding how the virus behaves in people with milder infections, who may be spreading the illness without being aware they have it.

Establishing that may be critical to stopping the spread of MERS, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and has so far infected more than 500 patients in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
alone. It kills about 30 percent of those who are infected.

It is becoming increasingly clear that people can be infected with MERS without developing severe respiratory disease, said Dr David Swerdlow, who heads the MERS response team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A CDC study published earlier this week looked at some of the first cases of MERS that occurred in Jordan in 2012.

Initially, only two people in that outbreak were thought to have MERS. When CDC disease detectives used more sensitive tests that looked for MERS antibodies among hospital workers, they found another seven people had contracted MERS and survived it.
MERS Mariam or MERS Mohammed? Typhoid Mary had nothing on them, especially with the Haj coming up.
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