Study claims that Chinese scientists not only created the Coronavirus in a lab through gain of function research, they also covered it up.

 

Timeline of the pandemic. Daily Mail. 

A new study due to be published soon claims that Chinese scientists not only created the Coronavirus in a lab through gain of function research but that they also covered it up. Daily Mail. The studies authors said they found markers that would make a natural origin very unlikely. The virus has four amino acids in a row that all have a positive charge, which allows them to cling to human cells with a negative charge. But since positive charges repel positive charges the arrangement would be extremely unlikely to occur in nature. In another explosive claim, the authors said that China had manipulated samples of the SARS-COV2 virus and edited it to make it look like it evolved naturally. The idea that the Coronavirus was a lab experiment that somehow escaped has been dismissed as a conspiracy theory but the idea has gained more traction after a CIA report claimed that three Wuhan lab workers got sick in November of 2019. 

My Comment:

A few disclaimers. First of all I rarely use Daily Mail as a source as they are little better than a tabloid and have an extremely busy website that I don't like. But this article was the best there was for this story and it was a Daily Mail exclusive so I thought I could make an exception in this case.

The other point is that it's critical to note that this study hasn't been peer reviewed yet. Though the peer review process is far from perfect it does help to wait until other scientists have reviewed the data and conducted their own investigation into the study. That doesn't mean the study is wrong or right, just that it's still unproven at this point. 

With that being said, if this report is true then it may be a smoking gun for the idea that the Coronavirus pandemic was a man made disaster and not a natural one. I am far from an expert on viruses but the argument makes sense to me. If the amino acids had a positive charge and were all lined up together that could be strong evidence that the virus was man-made. 

It's important to note that does not confirm the conspiracy theory that China let the Coronavirus out on purpose. That seems extremely unlikely and completely idiotic because it would be an act of war that China would gain nothing from. Instead I think it's evidence that the virus escaped from a lab. 

My guess is that the Coronavirus was being worked on in a lower biosafety lab and due to the lack of precautions and the general incompetence of Chinese scientists the virus escaped. My guess is that the lab workers were exposed to the virus and then brought it back home where it spread until it hit the Wuhan wet market and then the world. Given that the original SARS virus had escaped from Chinese labs several times it would not be a surprise if 2nd SARS virus did the same thing. 

This was already the prevailing theory after the CIA report was released (and probably should have been long before but the media and scientific community had a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome), but I think this new evidence would probably come to as close as confirming it as we are going to get without a confession or a whistleblower from China. 

What is especially damning would be evidence of the Chinese government engaging in a coverup. It's true that some scientists have disappeared or otherwise been silenced but if this report is true and the Chinese created a bunch of viruses to make it look like the SARS-COV-2 virus was natural than that would be damning. However this part of the article was less specific on what evidence they have of that being the case, so I would advise caution. 

The problem of determining the truth here is that there are vested interests in either concealing or fabricating the origin of the Coronavirus. China has every motivation to lie if they were responsible and have extreme amounts of power and control over the World Health Organization. And, in fairness, there are people that would love to blame China regardless of their guilt. Determining the truth is going to be extremely difficult for laypersons. 

What happens if this is the smoking gun? As much as I would like to think that it would cause the fall of the Chinese Communist government, it likely won't. Indeed, I doubt that the Chinese would face any punishment at all, other than a strongly worded letter or some public scolding. Other lab leaks that caused pandemics didn't result in punishment after all.  

What would I want to have happen if the accidental release theory turns out to be fact? A global ban on gain of function research, major sanctions against China and for the worlds government to sue to Chinese Communist government for every penny they have got for the damage they caused. We aren't likely to see that but in a perfect world...