Research into making viruses dangerous – then research where they came from

In late fall 2019 – before the pandemic broke out – zoologist and researcher Peter Daszak conducted a podcast interview about the latest research on the coronavirus, reports Svenska Dagbladet, SvD.

He told Daszak during the interview about something he has first-hand experience with. A technique that virologists use to enhance the properties of the virus, by manipulating nail proteins, so that it can cause a pandemic.

It was the nail proteins that make the Coronavirus so contagious.

– We are working on doing this. Dazak said during an interview, that he matches the characteristics of another virus and is doing the job in the laboratory, but he complained that he had to spend a lot of time in China, at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan.

An institute he knows well as a zoologist.

Daszak Organization – closely linked to Wuhan Laboratory

Daszak leads the EchoHealth Alliance (EHA), which has collaborated since 2003 with the institute in Wuhan. EHA helped the institute collect and research samples of the virus from bats in China and Southeast Asia. A certain part of the research has been about making the virus more powerful and more dangerous to humans, according to the SvD reports.

This is in order to be able to develop vaccines into different types of infectious viruses.

Although closely associated with the Wuhan virus laboratory, Peter Daszak was subsequently assigned to lead heavy assignments, in part through the World Health Organization (WHO), and partly through the medical journal Lancet, to be included in the two largest investigations into the origin of the virus. , Reports SvD.

However, it was China, along with the WHO, that chose Dasak and other members to travel to Wuhan and investigate the origins of the virus.

As a leading member of the investigation team, Dazak has been a strong advocate for the Coronavirus to be zoonotic, and the virus is transmitted from animals to humans.

He denied the theory that the virus had spread through a laboratory leak from the Department of Virology in Wuhan calling it “notoriously” and describing those who wanted to reach the bottom with a “sharp balls” theory, according to SvD reports.

China categorically denied the theory that the virus may have spread from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Now Daszak is being published by many prominent researchers

But now more and more researchers and authorities are beginning to openly question the “deep-rooted financial and professional conflicts of interest in Daszak,” according to SvD reports, due to the close ties between the animal world and the institute in Wuhan.

Nikolai Petrovsky, professor of immunology at Flanders University in Australia, in an interview with SvD described the conflict of interest as “massive”.

Petrovsky says: “If it turns out that the virus comes from a laboratory leak from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan where Dazak is conducting research, his financial support and respectable standing will be greatly damaged,” SvD.

It is also believed that Daszak has a for-profit interest in claiming that the coronavirus comes from wild animals, as that is exactly what his organization receives funding to research.

And as recently as March 15th Dazak claimed during a US interview More NPR, That the coronavirus may have spread from animal farms in southern China.

Peter Daszak said during the interview that they take exotic animals like reeds, porcupines, anteaters and raccoon dogs and raise them in captivity.

The open letter requires a new independent investigation into the origin of the virus

Petrovsky now rejects both the WHO and Lancet investigations into the origins of the virus, due to the pioneering role Daszak played in them.

About two researchers criticized the investigations in two open letters for a conflict of interest at Daszak – and demanded a new independent investigation, according to the SvD report.

One of the signatories to the agreement is Philippa Lentzos, a biosafety researcher at Kings College London.

– Daszak has a very serious conflict of interest and will never be elected to the group. It has received funding for high-level research at the Wuhan lab and has long-term cooperation with the lab. He got out early and rejected the lab theory. Daszak’s choice shows how interested the study is in politics, she tells SvD.

The paper also interviewed Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at American University at Rutgers, who has seen the Daszak investigations.

Meanwhile, the US Public Health Agency, NIH, has decided since last spring to cut funding to Daszak’s EHA, according to reports. SvD.

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