Seem’s like too much of a coincidence, but in Wuhan, China (the epicenter of the virus), they built the most advanced biocontainment/biohazard (BSL-4) research lab to study viruses. They were actually “studying” novel strains of Coronavirus at the facility – the same type of pathogen that now has almost 20 million people quarantined in China, and is currently spreading like wildfire.

A research article published in 2015 on “Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Bat Coronavirus Closely Related to the Direct Progenitor of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus” shows that they have been researching the exact type of virus which is currently infecting individuals globally.

In February 2017, Nature wrote an extensive profile of what it called the “Chinese lab poised to study world’s most dangerous pathogens."

A quick read of what this lab in Wuhan was meant to do, prompts the immediate question of whether the coronavirus epidemic isn’t a weaponized virus that just happened to escape the lab.

The Wuhan lab cost 300 million yuan (US$44 million), and to allay safety concerns it was built far above the flood plain and with the capacity to withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake, although the area has no history of strong earthquakes. It will focus on the control of emerging diseases, store purified viruses and act as a World Health Organization ‘reference laboratory’ linked to similar labs around the world. “It will be a key node in the global biosafety-lab network,” says lab director Yuan Zhiming.

Also, while we’re at it, what does BSL-4 mean?

BSL-4 is the highest level of biocontainment: its criteria include filtering air and treating water and waste before they leave the laboratory, and stipulating that researchers change clothes and shower before and after using lab facilities. Such labs are often controversial.

And here’s why all this is an issue…

Worries surround the Chinese lab. How do you keep a biohazard lab safe in a country like China? How is it regulated? How do you prevent outbreaks of dangerous pathogens from occurring?

The nature article mentions that;

The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says.

Here’s a link to the full Nature article because it strongly hints that the coronavirus epidemic may well have been a weaponized virus that "accidentally” escaped the Wuhan biohazard facility. These details from Nature, along with the prior published research on the same type of virus, is highly questionable.

What do you think?

Sources: Here’s the full-text link to the research article, and a link to the genome they researched in 2015-2016.

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