Wuhan virus : The infodemic of Chinese weaponised coronavirus or US biowarfare attack?

As the Wuhan virus spread globally, a different pandemic has been circulating faster than the virus itself. Suggestion are swirling in the internet that what started in Wuhan in December of 2019 was China’s bioweapons research gone awry, or a US covert biowarfare attack. In the era of distrust of media and governments, journalists who feed sensationalism for ratings, influence peddlers promoting secret agendas, and social media sites that vie for hits to feed egos or earn advertising dollars, misinformation fill the space.

WHO has renamed the Wuhan virus SAR-cov-2 and the disease covid-19. Its guidelines for naming avoid association with geographic location, animals or groups of people to prevent stigmatism. The pandemic has already aroused ostracism and racist slurs against the Chinese. Biological warfare conspiracy theories feed to the rising frenzy of hate and distrust toward China.

Coronavirus are carried by bats so many “experts” immediately jumped to the conclusion a particular exotic meat market in Wuhan is ground zero. This is guesswork, not established fact. Does not the fact that bats are migratory animals matter? The Spanish flu of 1918 which killed 50m was first reported in Fort Riley, a military facility in USA, but its origin is still unsolved to this day.

The conspiracy theory that China weaponised the coronavirus has its origin from 2 different sources - Danny Shoham and Greatgameindia.com (GGI).

Danny Shoham : Coronavirus may have originated in a lab linked to Chinas biowarfare programme

Lt-col (retired) Danny Shoham was a senior analyst with Israeli Defence Force specialising in intelligence for biological and chemical warfare in the Middle East. Washington Post 26 Jan 2016 reported an interview with Shoham who suggested that China, a signatory to the Biological Weapons Convention, may have a biological warfare programme, has several biological research labs in Hubei, and the virus could have come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) which is just 20 miles from the exotic meat market. He said WIV studies pathogens and it's likely to include coronavirus. Shoham’s comments were peppered with “may be”, “could have”, “possible” and no shred of evidence to support his views.

GreatGameIndia (GGI): Coronavirus Bioweapon – How China Stole Coronavirus From Canada And Weaponized It

On 26 Jan 2019 GGI published on its website an article with juicy details about Canadian authorities arresting Chinese spies who worked as researchers in a Canadian bioogica research lab and stole coronavirus which they shipped to WIV where it was cultured for military application.

These two originating sources were picked up by many other players and media over the next few days. Popular conspiracy sites like Zerohedge and Infowars spinned it they way they do best. Journalists in regular media like Washington Times, joined in the fray with no regards to authenticity. Soon people were tweeting, blogging, sharing, and cooking up more dicey details. Videos appeared on Youtube and Tik Tok. In a matter of a week, millions think bioweapons is the “truth” behind the Wuhan outbreak.

Can Shoham and GGI be right? Shoham is used to making wild claims in the past and GGI is a small website that churns out conspiracy theories while professing its focus on geopolitics and international relations.

CBC 14 Jul 2019: Chinese researcher escorted from infectious disease lab amid RCMP investigation

GGI’s “scoop” on the Canadian spies is based on a 14 Jul 2019 article by Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It was a report on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation of National Micrology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. Dr Xiangguo Qiu, her husband, and some research students from China had been removed from NML.

Qiu's primary field is immunology. She does research on vaccine development, post-exposure therapeutics and rapid diagnostics of viruses. She is a prominent virologist who helped develop ZMapp, a treatment for Ebola. She is also an adjunct professor in the University of Manitoba. Her husband, Keding Cheng is a biologist who also works at WIV. Cheng has written several research papers on HIV, SARS, E-coli and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome.

Public Health Agency of Canada described it as a possible 'policy breach,' no risk to Canadian public, and purely of an administrative nature. RCMP said there is no security risk. No one is arrested or confined to their home. Least of all, no one has been accused of spying.

CNC reported responsibly and factually. But their report has been twisted totally out of proportion by GGI which made no mention of their source. GGI is afterall, an Indian creature, who has nothing but delight to cast aspersions on an old foe. It matters not to raise claims without an iota of evidence.

Miles Kwok’s explanations of the Chinese Communist Party’s intention to unleash the virus

China has to face other enemies who consider the virus outbreak an opportunity to plunge the dagger in. For the latest devastating, explosive, never told before, no-holds barred most libellious, news on China, visit Gnews.org. This site is owned by Chinese billionaire exile Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok. He is a self-proclaimed China’s enemy number one, a fugitive on the run for what he claims is political persecution. Miles is on China’s most wanted list for fraud, bribery and money laundering. He fled China to seek assylum in US and turned into a vocal critic of China. Miles is on a  one-man crusade to bring the CCP down by exposing deep secrets that he, as an insider, has access to. (See the enigma of Miles Kwok. )

According to Gnews, WIV is now under the PLA, China has a biological warfare program, SARS-Cov-1 is an artificially engineered virus, there is huge mismanagement at WIV, the pandemic was caused by a failed test run on a limited scale. Gnews carries the most far-fetched claims that stretches credulity simply on account of one too many. If Miles is to be believed, Jack Ma should be dead by now as he was targeted for assassination by the CCP as he predicted.

Steve Bannon is pushing debunked claims about the coronavirus that are linked to his billionaire benefactor

If Miles isn’t believable, perhaps Steve Bannon is more authentic. The former Trump White House Chief strategist is a reknown China basher. Bannon is an ultra-Rightist and his hawkish position on China is the pet topic he dumps down on all his guest appearances on TV, which are many. Recently, he posited impeachment is a side show, the real enemy is China. Naturally, there is a Miles-Banon affinity, a pretty close one. Banon has been going the rounds promoting a view on Covid-19 parallel to Miles’. The PLA has weaponised the SARS-Cov-1. What Banon does not reveal is that he has a million dollar business relationship with Miles. The investigative reporting site Axios.com has written on this, together with a copy of a service contract. Apparently, Banon has a sort of consultative and editorial role in Gnews, which of course requires him to sing anti-China tunes like a parrot in sync with Miles. Banon has never responded to Axios’ request for confirmation.

Biohazard containers found in US Consulate

Another conspiracy theory going round is the Chinese government is demanding an answer from the US for 8 biohazard containers found buried in the compounds of the American consulate in Wuhan after the site has been evacuated of personnel. It’s a suggestion the US is responsible for releasing the virus. I was unable to fact-check so source is unknown. A simple check shows the consulate is located in World Trade Centre Tower 1, 218 Xingua Road, Jiangnan District, Wuhan. The US consulate has no compound to bury anything. It’s an obvious fake, most likely by Chinese netizens sick of seeing the China bashings online.

Washing Post 29Jan 2019: Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research

To those who think there is traction in the weaponising of virus, consider first of all, the theoretical design requirement of a bioweapon must be targeted in its effect, highly lethal but low communicability. The global contagion and 14 or is it 24 days incubation, and under 2% fatality rate, demonstrate the abject failure of the virus as a bioweapon. Both the US and Russia have worked on bioweapons but have since concluded on its non-viability.

WIV is a world class SPL-4 lab. A bio-safety level 4 lab has extremely high level security operational requirements. It is authorised to handle dangerous pathogens. It is almost impossible to smuggle or accidentally leak pathogens out.

Far from being a secretive enterprise, WIV was developed with French engineering expertise, it is relatively open compared with other Chinese institutes, and it has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

China sequenced the genome of the SARS-Cov-1 very quickly and on 9 Jan 2020 openly shared with the scientific community worldwide. This has allowed Inovio Pharmaceuticals of San Diego to develop a vaccine within 3 hours of receiving. Their ability for a remarkably short curve to come up with a vaccine is due to an algorithm that they developed when working on vaccines of previous SARS outbreak. The vaccine is currently rushed through animal testing phase.

To put the bioweapon false news to rest, Trevor Bedford from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and one of the scientists at the forefront of an international team to track down the virus in Wuhan, said:“There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find. The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution.”


Conclusion:

In an international crisis, some seek to dwell on negatives, others work hard to save lives, some live in the danger zones to collect data, and still others find solutions. On 25 Jan 2020 Veridus Laboratories, a Singapore company, announced it has developed a tool kit that can detect, differentiate and identify Sars, Mers and Wuhan virus with high specificity and sensitivity within 2 hours. They expect its commerciality by Feb. Scientists in Japan, Australia and Singapore have managed to culture the Wuhan virus. This is an essential step towards finding a vacine. Whilst China has already cultured it, they have not shared it.

The conspiracy theories and false news spread faster than the virus that WHO has coined the term “infodemic”. Ostracism, racism, fear and hate toward Chinese people is a consequence of infodemic. As for Banon, no doubt he hopes to impact US foreign policies toward China. As I was drafting this blog, I read an act of violence against an East Asian has already taken place in London. We may be living in modern times, but the spectre of Hollywood’s stereotype of Chinese in the evil Fu Man Chu remains in the Western pysche. This explains the quick rise in bigotted attitude toward an anti-Chinese mood. It does not matter that for all we know, the culprit was a bat that came from the dungeon of Dracula’s castle in Pennsylvania, fed on a plum in a Wuhan village, the fruit was picked by a farmer with his bare hands, and who unknowingly rubbed his eyes.

Purveyors of these infodemic are evil and mindless. If you share such articles mindlessly without some critical assessment or fact checking, you are part of the problem.