Who instigated the cover-up of the lab leak theory of Covid’s origins? Many of us have assumed it was Anthony Fauci, then-Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). However, newly released emails and messages indicate that initially Fauci was open to investigating the possibility of a lab leak properly. Following his now infamous February 1st 2020 teleconference with leading virologists Kristian Andersen, Eddie Holmes and others, Fauci wrote to several Government officials to inform them that Jeremy Farrar, the Director of the Wellcome Trust, and Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, had been tasked with contacting the WHO to set up an international investigation group into virus origins with “no judgement at all” on the outcome. “Where that leads remains to be seen,” he wrote.
Fauci writes that some of the scientists on the call deemed a lab origin possible or likely, doing so even “more strongly” after the call, while just two said they believed such a scenario could be ruled out (these were Ron Fouchier and Christian Drosten). Fauci thus presents the matter to Government colleagues as an unresolved scientific argument, with a number of scientists favouring a lab origin. The main course of action he proposes is to organise a group under the auspices of the WHO to look into it in an impartial way.
The following day, Collins wrote to Farrar to confirm he was following this up with WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Collins told Farrar he was “coming around to the view that a natural origin is more likely” but said it needed to be looked into by the WHO – though also added that he “shares your view” that this is mainly to be a “confidence-inspiring” initiative to pre-empt “voices of conspiracy” that would otherwise do “great potential harm to science and international harmony”. This does suggest a non-neutral political agenda being pursued, much more so than Fauci’s email of the day before, an agenda apparently being driven by Farrar.
What happened next is crucial. The impartial investigation Fauci proposed never took place. What happened instead was that on February 3rd – two days after the teleconference and Fauci’s email – another teleconference was convened, this one hosted by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS). This was in response to requests from the U.S. Government for scientific advice on the origin of the virus. Fauci was invited to give the “perspective from NIH/NIAID” ahead of an open discussion. The proposed output prior to the meeting appears to have been a “based on science” web posting, not unlike what Andersen and others were already working on.
However, the following day an email went out from Andrew Pope, an official in the NAS, saying the “plans have changed” and in place of a ‘based on science’ web posting there was now to be a statement signed by the Presidents of the three National Academies and sent to the Government. It appears that this change was what was agreed at the teleconference, though that is not completely clear as the email doesn’t specify who the “we” are who now think the original plan is not “appropriate”. What makes it likely it was agreed at the teleconference is that the email does not seem to expect anyone to object to the change and assumes all are on board with the new proposal.
As can be seen below, the statement from the NAS (in the form of a letter) claims to have consulted relevant scientific specialists (this presumably was what the teleconference was doing) and reports from them a consensus that the available genomic data are “consistent with natural evolution” and there is “no evidence” the virus was engineered. This is not a fair summary of the conversations the scientists were actually having at the time, of course. Rather, it represents a political effort to shut down the lab origin theory – the beginning of such an effort, in fact.
Kristian Andersen was involved in both the Fauci teleconference of February 1st and the NAS teleconference of February 3rd, and interestingly his contribution after the latter was to push for the statement to be stronger on rejecting the idea that the virus was engineered, claiming that the “data conclusively show” that it wasn’t. This is despite him being a key voice both before and after this arguing that a lab origin can’t be ruled out.
Andersen seemed to take a very different attitude two weeks later, when Nature rejected the first version of the ‘Proximal Origin’ paper because one of the reviewers (who was never publicly identified) said it was not strong enough on dismissing a lab origin. Andersen responded (on February 20th) with a robust defence of not dismissing the possibility of a lab origin, saying the evidence didn’t allow ruling it out and it “must be considered as a serious scientific theory”. It seems odd that this is the same scientist who was urging the NAS to go further in dismissing a lab origin. The most likely explanation is that Andersen is making an obscure distinction between an engineered virus and a virus that originated in a lab from serial passage through cell culture. This is a distinction that will be lost on most people, and indeed some of the scientists in the email discussions themselves said the distinction was not valid in this context. Andersen’s arguments ruling out engineering are also not sound.
The ‘Proximal Origin’ paper was then amended to reject a lab origin more strongly before being accepted for publication in Nature Medicine. Andersen told the House Pandemic Subcommittee that he had changed his view on the possibility of a lab origin between the rejection and re-submission, which must therefore have occurred between February 20th and 27th. However, as the team at Public have shown, it’s clear that Andersen did still think a lab origin (including engineering) was plausible after this date. On April 16th he wrote to his co-authors: “I’m still not fully convinced that no culture was involved. We also can’t fully rule out engineering (for basic research).” It’s apparent from Andersen’s messages that pressure to reject a lab origin came from ‘higher-ups’ and he was either feigning rejecting the theory or had artificially talked himself into it for a period of time.
So who did orchestrate the suppression of the lab origin theory? We can now see for the first time when precisely the cover-up began. It began with the NAS teleconference on February 3rd and not, as many have previously assumed, with the Fauci teleconference on February 1st. This is clear because while Fauci came away from his teleconference proposing an impartial investigation “with no judgement” to see “where that leads”, the outcome of the NAS teleconference was an explicit plan to dismiss a lab origin and artificially claim consensus.
Who made that decision? It seems to have been something agreed at the NAS teleconference. But who pushed it in that direction, and why did scientists like Andersen endorse it despite not really being in agreement? Indeed, Andersen and Co were still trying to get a lab theory into Nature on February 20th, only abandoning it because a hostile reviewer insisted the possibility be ruled out. So despite Andersen, Holmes and others stating at times in their private messages that they are keen to try to disprove the lab idea, they don’t appear to be the instigators of the cover-up.
It is possible Fauci suddenly changed his mind overnight, but it also seems unlikely, at least without some pressure put on him from elsewhere. So he does not seem to be the original source of the suppression idea, even if he soon became a ruthless enforcer of it – though we’d need to know more about his role at the NAS teleconference to know for sure.
It also seems unlikely to be the biodefence people like Robert Kadlec, as Kadlec was and continues to be a lab leak proponent, being the main author of the recent Muddy Waters Senate report pushing the theory. U.S. security services are known to have been involved in pushing lab origin theories right from the start of January 2020. Why they were doing that is not fully clear, but it may relate to wanting to paint China as the villain and upping the fear of the virus as a potential biological agent to allow activation of biodefence protocols. It’s fair to say that the clash between the security services pushing the lab origin theory and the suppression of that theory by other parts of the state, and even at times by the security services themselves, has been one of the more confusing aspects of the pandemic origin picture. It might be thought, for example, that the biodefence people would want to protect their biodefence research and not jeopardise it by convincing everyone that the virus could have come from such research. But this doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not for all of them.
So whom does that leave? Farrar seems a prime suspect, as it was him who seems to have been persuading Francis Collins of the importance of avoiding “harm to science and international harmony” by dismissing a lab origin. But a glance at the NAS teleconference invite list below indicates he doesn’t appear to have been involved (unless he was blind copied). EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak is on there, but why would he have authority to demand a cover-up? Ralph Baric is also there, whose paper with the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Shi Zhengli on manipulating coronaviruses had so startled Andersen. But what authority would he have in this group?
Perhaps then it was just a groupthink that took over during the teleconference out of a misplaced sense of needing to protect “science and international harmony”. But is groupthink really sufficient to explain such a powerful and sustained move to suppress the theory?
Despite all the effort that has gone into investigating Covid origins, this key question remains outstanding. Who ordered the cover-up?
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https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/is-there-a-bigger-agenda-to-the-farmers-inheritance-tax-sick-joke/
This really is the last chance saloon for our farmers.
“Supermarkets will be entirely reliant on overseas produce which – as the recent floods in Spain show – is a fragile and unreliable ecosystem.
‘What we will see in the next 18 months is a rushed sell-off of farmland, likely to overseas developers. Those who remain in the industry will halt all investment. The countryside economy will slow, splutter and die. By April 2026, British farming will be a forgotten phrase.”
This really is about destroying the people of the greatest nation on earth.
Short of a nuclear war the Deagel forecasts for Britain’s population in 2025 look wrong but perhaps there was a misprint and it should read 2035. Depopulation is the aim.
Agreed. More on the farming theme here;
”Welsh pressure group Enough is Enough has just called on “those who are able” to begin a week-long strike, stopping to produce food.
Welsh farmer and media personality, Gareth Wyn Jones, posted on his social media: “British farmers have simply had enough, and for those who are able will be going on strike for the first time in history on Sunday the 17th of November for one week.
“We are being suffocated by a government that seems determined to destroy our livelihoods,our future and our ability to feed the nation.
“This country wilĺ be facing massive food shortages with potential significant price increases and the demise of the rural economy, along with serious implications of food security.
“We simply cannot allow the destruction of our industry to continue and our responsibility to feed our nation be taken away.
“This is a last resort but we as farmers are in despair as we simply cannot afford to provide food to the public.
“We ask this govt to talk to us,to listen to us,and allow us the freedom and flexibility to feed our nation.”
https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/business/politics/britain-may-face-national-farmers-strike-next-week/
https://youtu.be/-k_ZvwxU0bg?si=Zid0EiSmpQC4sII0
And here is ‘the bowlerhat farmer’ with a warning about the fragility of our food system. His advice – stock up.
This evil PoS is not going to get very far with his deliberately obtuse and childish behaviour once his trial begins, is he? He will have to actually show his face and speak at some point. Is this why all we ever get is the same photo from when he was a kid?
”Axel Rudakubana will face a trial lasting up to six weeks over the Southport stabbings. The 18-year-old, of Banks in West Lancashire, appeared before Liverpool Crown Court this afternoon, Wednesday, via video link to HMP Belmarsh.
Wearing a grey prison issue tracksuit, the jumper of which he used to cover his face throughout the hearing, Rudakubana did not speak when twice asked to confirm his identity. Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, told the court: “As far as the identification of the defendant is concerned, he has taken the position he has on every occasion he has appeared so far.”
Carmel Wilde, defending, instead confirmed his identity on his behalf. Rudakubana was due to be arraigned today but was not ultimately asked to enter any pleas.
This will instead take place on December 12, and he was remanded into custody by Mr Justice Goose ahead of a four to six-week trial which is scheduled for January 20 next year. The judge asked him to raise his hand to indicate that he was able to hear at the conclusion of his court appearance, but he again failed to do so.
Rudakubana has so far made three previous court appearances before Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, Liverpool Crown Court and Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He did not speak to confirm his identity during any of these hearings.”
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/axel-rudakubana-face-trial-lasting-30356764
It should be illegal to allow a defendant to cover his face in the dock.
Definitely. Well, even during the Covidmania weren’t trials taking place where people weren’t allowed to wear masks? I presume so, anyway.
I’ll be very interested to see how things proceed once the trial gets going. I’m wondering if it’s his defence that’s advising him to behave like this, but surely adopting such an uncooperative manner will both not be acceptable or advisable once his court case begins, so what’s the point of going on like this now? We’re going to see his identity sooner or later. And can you imagine the national outrage if we don’t and he’s given permission to hide his face?
I’m also wondering why we haven’t seen/heard hide nor hair of his parents. As far as I’m concerned there’s a high probability they were complicit, so surely this needs to be ruled out or they need arresting as well. They seem to be shrouded in mystery. There’s rumours going around, and I’ve no source to back it up, that his father is something to do with the Rwandan government and complicit in committing genocide and they’re getting protection from Starmer so their identities cannot be revealed, but I’m not sure how much, if any, of that is true. Either way, the fact we’ve heard nothing regarding his parents role in all this is suspicious as hell, to my mind.
I’ve heard exactly the same story Mogs.
There has to be a reason why the alleged terrorist connections and the story itself was kept under wraps for so many months.
This may have something to do with border inspections beginning on the Dutch/Belgian border as reports elsewhere say he came over from Belgium. This happened in Rotterdam ( see video ) but his previous poor homeless victim unsurprisingly died;
”A man suspected of embarking on a murderous rampage across Western Europe and crushing the skulls of sleeping homeless men with concrete slabs has been arrested in France.
A 37-year-old Cameroonian national was detained by French authorities at Toulon train station on Tuesday evening after he reportedly attacked a young woman on board a train, according to Europe 1.
Police detained the suspect at around 7 p.m. when train controllers alerted authorities to his violent behavior.
Levis E. is understood to have previously been served an order to leave French territory; however, he remained in the country and traveled freely across Europe indiscriminately targeting multiple victims.
He is accused of murdering a homeless man in Lyon by slamming a concrete slab down on his head, a brutal assault that sparked outrage across the country.
It is believed the suspect is also responsible for an attempted homicide in Rotterdam a few days later, an attack reported by Remix News in which CCTV footage showed the migrant spot his victim sleeping, leave the area before returning with a concrete block, and slamming it down with force on the man’s head, leaving him in critical condition in the hospital.”
https://rmx.news/article/suspected-migrant-killer-targeting-homeless-in-deadly-concrete-slab-attacks-arrested-in-france/
Literally an animal.
I’ve never met an animal that wandered around crushing people’s heads with concrete slabs.
Wednesday Morning Windsor Rd & Holyport Rd
Maidenhead
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-12/finland-s-president-sees-trump-seeking-peace-in-ukraine-quickly
Maybe Peace
Trump needs two things in the realm of foreign policy: to win the upcoming trade war with China and to find a way to exit the war in Ukraine in a way that his voters perceive as a “dignified withdrawal.”
Donald Trump is very serious about getting a peace deal sooner rather than later. There’s a window of opportunity for these negotiations between the election and inauguration day (20 Jan 2025)’
Finnish President Alexander Stubb
Or maybe not
‘(President Trump) reminded the Russian president “of Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”
“I think the scenario where Putin and Trump don’t find common ground is the most favorable for us,” Bronzhukov said. “Because that would mean increased military aid and substantial financial support.
Putin will choose peace (to rearm) but peace will be doubly difficult:
‘Maria (64) knew Illya Navalny well and saw him on March 12 when he was shot by Russian soldiers. “We entered our apartment block at the moment Illya came down the stairs. I told him: Don’t go out, there’s shooting going on. But he still wanted to go out for a moment to smoke a cigarette. Then I kept hearing shots.”
When Maria came out of the basement an hour later, she saw him lying on the floor. Executed. “They had shot him in the head. His passport with the name Navalny was right next to him.”
Residents in Bucha witnessed the execution of Illja Navalny (60), a namesake of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
He was killed because of his last name.’
Actions have consequences:
There are currently 124 states parties to the Rome Statute, and the ICC’s arrest warrants are binding in 125 states
‘Accused Last Name
Vladimirovich Putin
Accused FirstName
Vladimir
Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/with-russias-full-scale-invasion-two-years-ago-an-act-of-aggression-that-is-a-crime-under-international-law-the-tragically-familiar-human-rights-catastrophe-extended-acros/
So the residents did not actually witness the death. They found him dead. The rest is supposition.
Two tier policing? Surely as long as they keep moving at 1 mph like the JSO protesters they’ll be fine.
Was just typing the same.
Blatant two tier policing in action. Can’t stop the purple haired eco zealots blocking roads under any regulation, but British farmers!
Exactly.
“We are equipped with legislation to prevent obstruction and breaches of the peace”
Well the next demonstration by eco nutters, pally supporters should be interesting.
I can’t wait to see them arrest the drivers and then decide what to do with the now stationary tractors.
Like to see them finding the tow trucks to move them.
Or will they use wheel clamps
Have you seen the size of tractor wheels?
one of them is racist, and it’s not Trump!
“Trump is a racist, says Sadiq Khan” – Sadiq Khan says Donald Trump criticised him in the past because the President-elect is “racist”, according to the Telegraph
You do realise that makes you a racism denier, don’t you?
Thanks for the link to “The effectiveness of lockdowns, face masks and vaccination programmes vis-à-vis mitigating COVID-19”. It’s a useful summary – and quite a large document, with 651 pages, published as a 32MB pdf file. Just browsing through it, but if you’re short of time, dive into page 60 which is a UK financial analysis.
And in the “Lockdown” section, their conclusion is: “Most of the quality empirical research is consistent with lockdowns having no significant impact on the transmission of COVID-19. Whilst there is overwhelming evidence that lockdowns have had negative impacts on physical and mental health. With, most notably, an increase in heart
disease deaths and the diagnosis and treatment of cancer being compromised, lockdowns have caused significant collateral damage. Not to mention the huge financial costs in the form of tax rises and inflation. Children and the third world had the least to gain and the most to lose from lockdowns, and the costs were severe and long-term. To conclude, the data is consistent with lockdowns having no significant impact on COVID-19 infections or deaths, with an increase in non-COVID-19 deaths in both the short term and the long term, and a long-term financial burden.” Amen.
In the meantime the following is happening with bird flu, H5N1. CDC in the USA did serological testing of a cohort of dairy farm workers and found 7% seropositivity. Not always clear that they had symptoms. CDC now advises that all farm workers should be (PCR) tested, so antivirals can be used. No mention of the ineffectiveness of these drugs, side effects, the rapidly appearing antiviral resistance mutations in the virus.
And by the way… there was an association between seropositivity and speaking Spanish.. You cannot make it up.
That would be the PCR test that Kary Mullis who invented it warned should not be used for diagnostic purposes.
I see.
There’s a palpable feeling in the air that Trumps presidency cannot arrive soon enough!
Would anyone have even noticed a Boots advert if it wasn’t controversial. It is a deliberate ploy by Boots marketing wonks to increase the viewing figures and penetration of their message. Their target audience is women, and most women seem to like the advert.
This one doesn’t!
I suggest the problem with procurement of paper in Grmany for an election is the difficulty of making sure the “X”s go in the right place.
It’s difficult to print large batches of papers with apparently different Xs on each. Gotta try to make it look realistic.
Of course, once thev green messiah had left, the orang utan went back to building his dining suite in privacy.
“Anger as CofE commission suggests congregations are ‘racist’”
Since 8 of the 11 commissioners are Ethnic Africans, Ethnic Orientals and Ethnic Indian Subcontinentals, may we ask them in all fairness to investigate rural parishes in their own ancestral homelands to decide if they are also “racist”.
“Farage rated most favourable of Britain’s politicians”
He really is the Prime Minister that Britain needs most.
His words in defence of British farmers were truly eloquent:
“Remember this: Our landscape is one of the most beautiful in the world, and the reason is the farming practices we’ve used over centuries. All of that, all of that, is directly under threat.”
Labour’s plan to destroy family farms. – YouTube