The following is from an article by Kakeya Hideki, Associate Professor of Systems and Information Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, which appeared in the October 1 issue of Sound Argument, a monthly magazine, titled "Monitor Life Scientists Who Claim Natural Origins.
It is a must-read not only for Japanese citizens but also for people around the world.
(Emphasis in the text except for the headline is mine.
On August 27, President Biden ordered the intelligence community to study the source of the new coronavirus was made public.
The document was no more than two pages long, and its contents were surprisingly thin.
It only reported that four intelligence agencies were divided in their opinion:
・One agency was of low confidence in a natural outbreak.
・One agency was of medium belief in a laboratory origin.
・The remaining agencies were neutral.
On August 2, the Republican members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs released an 83-page report, in which they presented new circumstantial evidence suggesting the origin of the institute.
The Republican report, however, only stated that there was a high possibility of a leak from the institute but did not make any definite statement. It is because there is only circumstantial evidence.
The surest way to obtain conclusive evidence would be to enter all the laboratories working on bat coronavirus in Wuhan and investigate their research history.
However, it is unlikely that the Chinese government would allow this to happen.
In fact, the World Health Organization's (WHO) investigation team from January to February this year could not examine the inside of the laboratories.
It does not mean that there are no other ways to obtain conclusive evidence other than on-site investigation.
One way is to obtain a more than 22,000 viruses database that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had made public until September 12, 2009.
It may provide conclusive evidence that the new coronavirus originated from the institute if this can be obtained.
On August 5, CNN reported that the U.S. intelligence community had obtained this database through hacking.
The article also said that it would take a considerable amount of time to analyze the database.
The U.S. intelligence report would only come to a definite conclusion if it were true that the intelligence agency had obtained the database and if the analysis was proceeding at a rapid pace.
Therefore, it was expected that the report would not determine the origin of the institute.
However, there is no doubt that the thinness of the report's content was a major disappointment to our prior expectations.
On the other hand, if the origin were natural, it would be necessary to identify the infection route to conclude it.
However, this has not been found at all.
Therefore, there was no possibility from the beginning that this report would conclude that it was of natural origin.
China Hides Abandoned Copper Mine
Some reports that it is difficult to identify the animal (intermediate host) that mediated the infection to humans.
However, in the case of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2002, the intermediate host was found within four months of the start of the epidemic, and in the case of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 212, within nine months.
(There are many other suspicious aspects of the new coronavirus, but for details, please refer to Chapter 1 of my book, "Scholars Run Amok.
What is more unusual is that although so many life scientists claim a natural origin, almost all of them are not interested in identifying the route of infection at all.
Identifying the source of infection is essential for preventing the next pandemic.
Nevertheless, many life scientists are eager only to deny the laboratory leak and have no intention of investigating the critical infection route.
Like the aforementioned virus database, one of the things that China is desperately trying to hide is an abandoned copper mine in Mukang, Yunnan Province.
In 2012, six patients with symptoms similar to those of SARS were found among people who had been in and out of the mine, and three of them died.
China is attributing the cases to fungal infections. Still, members of DRASTIC, an online research group investigating the origin of new coronaviruses, have found Chinese documents on the Internet, including the treatment histories of these six patients, and have determined that these are definitely cases of viral infections similar to SARS.
International health regulations require that any new cases of infection, including SARS, must be reported to the WHO.
China is in clear violation of this rule.
In addition, it has been revealed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology went to the abandoned copper mine several times afterward to collect the virus and brought it back to the institute for research.
The bat virus named RaTG13, the closest genetic match to the new coronavirus, was also collected from this abandoned copper mine.
Therefore, if many samples of the virus are collected from here and analyzed, it may provide a significant clue to the route of infection, whether it originated in nature or the laboratory.
However, China has stubbornly refused to disclose this abandoned copper mine.
Life scientists who believe in the natural origin of the disease are also not asking for access to the site, even though they might be able to prove their theory correct by examining it.
Once, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal tried to approach this abandoned copper mine on his mountain bike but was stopped by the local police.
None of the scholars have the same spirit.
This article continues.
