A: P3 convincingly demonstrated how to find and manufacture antibodies in less than 90 days (vs. years), using influenza, Zika, and MERS as test cases. As the COVID-19 outbreak began early in 2020, P3 research pivoted to address the novel coronavirus.
Also, long before the missteps that led to awarding a Wuhan lab US taxpayer funds, a similar funding took place in Europe. In 2011, Ron Fouchier's lab at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, announced that they had modified the H5N1 bird flu virus to enable it to spread between ferrets, where the US was funding GOF work that had a problem in 2011, according to Science magazine. In a piece in that issue, scientists wonder "How Much Longer Will the Moratorium Last?," and Fauci says:
Scientists and funders will need to agree on which lines of H5N1 research are""and are not""worth the risks. Particularly problematic, say Fauci and others, are "gain of function" studies". [See Science article, 1496-7]
At that time, then virus czar VP Biden and America had just been through grappling with H1N1, an avian flu akin to the Spanish Flu, and might have been more cautious about the risky Rotterdam undertakings with GOF. But then Biden got poor grades for his handling of H1N1. One could argue that Biden's poor stewardship then, bequeathing the next president notes on how to bungle helped set the stage for Trump's total disaster as a pandemic president.
In any case, the partisan pendulum has a hypnotic soma effect after a while. Recently, hearings have begun in Congress to investigate and draw concrete conclusions about what happened, how did it all begin -- three years later. The headline from a recent Scientific American article speaks volumes about the way that the scientific methodists have been manhandled by dandies and pollies -- "Highly Politicized Congressional Hearings Air COVID Lab-Leak Hypothesis." Here is a taster of the confusion wrought by men in charge:
Republicans' desire for answers was heightened last week after The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Energy (DOE) had given a classified intelligence report to the White House in which it updated its stance on COVID-19's origins. The department, undecided previously, now says with "low confidence" that the pandemic probably got its start from a lab leak in China; however, the evidence behind this change is unclear. Soon afterwards, FBI director Christopher Wray told Fox News that his agency has for some time thought that SARS-CoV-2 escaped accidentally from a lab in China, but he did not reveal any evidence informing the agency's views.
This is borderline jabberwocky, lip-doodling frenzy work when all is added up.
The raccoon dog scenario that the Chinese are pushing has captured the limited imagination of some scientists, perhaps because of the anxious need for closure, so that science can get on with its work of making sense of the world that rhetoric alone just can't satisfy. But it still sells like pangolin soup being served up. Recently, Patrick Walsh, a professor in Intelligence and Security Studies from Charles Sturt University, wrote a piece for The Conversation, "Disputes over COVID's origins reveal an intelligence community in disarray. Here are 4 fixes we need before the next pandemic." He includes:
1. Better health intelligence collection and analysis
2. Fostering stronger ties with the scientific community
3. Creating a robust national health security strategy
4. Conducting a 9/11 commission-style review
At this juncture, Walsh's number 4 on the list would be the best way forward. It's sad to think it, but American taxpayers may have had a hand in funding dangerous research -- behind their backs and unknowing -- that led to millions of casualties (deaths and long covid cases).
Aside from a full Congressional investigation, we need a critique of the media that is similar to what Columbia Journalism Review did with Russiagate. The inadequacies in reporting need to be revealed and rectified.
It is likely we will never know for a certainty what happened in Wuhan in 2019. But the real story is how the science of the story was corrupted, reminding me of how the JFK "magic bullet" chain of custody developed problems and conspiracies because the science got politicized.
Maybe that's what they want. (wink)
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