by WorldTribune Staff, April 18, 2023
Two separate leaks from a Chinese lab conducting gain of function research may have started the Covid pandemic, a Republican senator said on Monday.
A 301-page report issued by Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas “concludes most likely this was two leaks [including] a lab leak in the September-October [2019] timeframe, even as early as July or August.”
Sen. Roger Marshall / Steven Nelson Photo
Marshall, a medical doctor turned senator, added: “We’ve concluded that [China] started vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation. There are key data points that are being held back that could help us prove that.”
According to the report, the first lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology went unrecognized by the global community as the Chinese government raced ahead with early vaccine development. The theory of an earlier lab leak, Marshall said, is unproven but the senator says he welcomes debate and the exploration of other possibilities.
The theory of two lab leaks relies on scientific conjecture on previously reported details, including an assessment of the amount of work that would have had to predate a Feb. 24, 2020, vaccine patent filed by Dr. Zhou Yusen, a Chinese military scientist who later died under mysterious circumstances. Investigators concluded that China’s vaccine development would have had to start in November 2019, using the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed’s course as a benchmark.
A pre-November series of additional events adds weight to the theory, Marshall said, including the deaths of 11 Iranian athletes, publicly reported in 2020. Some of the athletes reportedly attended the Olympics-style World Military Games held in Wuhan in October 2019.
There are additional scientific clues, according to the report.
“Epidemiological and genetic molecular analyses of the early published circulating Wuhan [Covid] strains supported the possibility of two spillover events two or more weeks apart,” the report says.
“This assessment was made based on minor genetic differences in early circulating strains suggesting that two lineages of the same virus may have emerged simultaneously and progressed on different paths or sequentially separated by some period of time. One lineage showing more mutations than the other implying it had been circulated longer than the other or had potentially passed through more individuals.”
by WorldTribune Staff, April 18, 2023
Two separate leaks from a Chinese lab conducting gain of function research may have started the Covid pandemic, a Republican senator said on Monday.
A 301-page report issued by Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas “concludes most likely this was two leaks [including] a lab leak in the September-October [2019] timeframe, even as early as July or August.”
Sen. Roger Marshall / Steven Nelson Photo
Marshall, a medical doctor turned senator, added: “We’ve concluded that [China] started vaccine development in November 2019. And then another lab leak seems to be the most sensible explanation. There are key data points that are being held back that could help us prove that.”
According to the report, the first lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology went unrecognized by the global community as the Chinese government raced ahead with early vaccine development. The theory of an earlier lab leak, Marshall said, is unproven but the senator says he welcomes debate and the exploration of other possibilities.
The theory of two lab leaks relies on scientific conjecture on previously reported details, including an assessment of the amount of work that would have had to predate a Feb. 24, 2020, vaccine patent filed by Dr. Zhou Yusen, a Chinese military scientist who later died under mysterious circumstances. Investigators concluded that China’s vaccine development would have had to start in November 2019, using the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed’s course as a benchmark.
A pre-November series of additional events adds weight to the theory, Marshall said, including the deaths of 11 Iranian athletes, publicly reported in 2020. Some of the athletes reportedly attended the Olympics-style World Military Games held in Wuhan in October 2019.
There are additional scientific clues, according to the report.
“Epidemiological and genetic molecular analyses of the early published circulating Wuhan [Covid] strains supported the possibility of two spillover events two or more weeks apart,” the report says.
“This assessment was made based on minor genetic differences in early circulating strains suggesting that two lineages of the same virus may have emerged simultaneously and progressed on different paths or sequentially separated by some period of time. One lineage showing more mutations than the other implying it had been circulated longer than the other or had potentially passed through more individuals.”