Seemingly providing more anecdotal evidence that the Covid-19 outbreak was caused by an accidental leak of a bio-engineered virus and not by some freak of nature in Wuhan's market, China's Communist Party has issued a serious "Wartime Order" demanding more care and containment be taken with virus handling. Specifically:

“Strengthen laboratory management and resolutely put an end to the theft, leakage, and loss of pathogenic bacteria (poisons) and various samples...”

As we detailed previously, scientists have expressed concern about China’s ability to safely monitor this BSL-4 lab in Wuhan since it opened in 2017:

“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.'”

This lab is at most 20 miles from the wet market where the virus had been assumed to have jumped from animal to human.

However the idea that a Chinese lab could have a viral sample escape is well-documented – as mentioned, one lab in Beijing has had four separate incidents of the SARS virus leaking out accidentally .

“These narratives of escaped pathogens have common themes,” argued an analysis of biocontainment failures by medical historian Martin Furmanski in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “There are unrecognized technical flaws in standard biocontainment... The first infection, or index case, happens in a person not working directly with the pathogen that infects him or her, as in the smallpox and SARS escapes. Poor training of personnel and slack oversight of laboratory procedures negate policy efforts by national and international bodies to achieve biosecurity, as shown in the SARS and smallpox escapes.”

And given our previous detailing of the possible source of the virus and the sudden militarization of the lab and response in Wuhan, one might wonder if the Chinese are closing the barn door after the deadly viral horse has bolted.

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Full Wartime Status Order below....

Party Committee of Beijing Centers for Disease Control

In order to further discipline, compact responsibility, and ensure that all prevention and control work is carried out in an efficient and standardized manner, the Party Committee of the Beijing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a wartime state order, requiring its party members and employees to fully recognize the "critical period", "critical moment", and "keys" The urgency and importance of the moment, consciously established a "very conscious" and entered a "wartime state."

The first is to insist on using "state of war" to lead the thinking. The center not only fulfills the city's epidemic prevention and control duties, provides professional technical support duties for government decision-making, but also implements the "unit responsibility" of the "quartet responsibility" to protect the safety and health of all employees, both of which are equally important and cannot be sidelined. Under the unified leadership of the Party Committee, it unconditionally obeys the decision-making and deployment of the Party Committee in the wartime state and serves the current prevention and control work. It resonates at the same frequency, obeys unified orders, unified commands, and acts. The second is to insist on strengthening implementation with "wartime standards." All party members and cadres must take overall consideration into account and resolutely put an end to work mistakes caused by this mistake. All employees must unconditionally obey work scheduling and consciously obey management. Strengthen the work style and achieve "the end of the day and the end of the day"; adhere to the problem-oriented, responsibility-oriented, sensitive matters in the prevention and control, unexplained events and the work of leaders at all levels, to understand the situation at the grassroots level and guide commence to work. The third is to strictly control contact with "wartime thinking." Minimize "cross-contact". During the epidemic, all staff members are strictly prohibited from leaving Beijing, strictly commuting to work, eating out, and consciously doing good health management after work. The Security Section should strengthen the access control of the three courtyards, and strictly control the entrance and exit of the gates and all foreign personnel. All personnel enter the hospital area for temperature monitoring and must enter the hospital with work cards to reduce unnecessary travel during work. Non-work must not be connected to the department, try to use the phone or WeChat, SMS and other means of communication. Try to have as few meetings and short meetings as possible to control the number of participants. The fourth is to insist on strict management with "wartime thinking." Highlight political security, ideological security, network information security, security of confidential work, laboratory biological security, food security, etc. The epidemic data collection, statistics and reporting will be done well, and information security and confidentiality security incidents will be resolutely prevented. Front-line personnel engaged in flow regulation, pathogen inspection, and close management should strictly implement prevention and control guidelines and operating specifications, do a good job of personal protection requirements, and ensure personal safety. Strengthen laboratory management and resolutely put an end to the theft, leakage, and loss of pathogenic bacteria (poisons) and various samples. Fifth, we must adhere to the "wartime need" service guarantee. The equipment and material security department shall fully protect the front line, make plans in advance in accordance with the needs of the prevention and control of the flow of returning adults in Beijing, and evaluate and reserve and manage protective materials daily. Implement the "precision arrangement of materials" requirements, timely grasp the material inventory and daily consumption, and carry out scientific and efficient deployment, not only to implement a convenient procurement process to meet the needs of prevention and control, but also to seriously fulfill the "three major and one big" and internal control requirements. All employees should implement self-protection requirements, and non-epidemic personnel should not wear medical N95 masks, including N95 masks purchased by themselves. Sixth, we must adhere to "war discipline" and take it seriously. The current situation of epidemic prevention and control is extremely severe, and the responsibility for prevention and control is more important than Mount Tai. The big battle is coming. All party branches must mobilize their thoughts and gather the masses to give full play to the role of battle fortress; cadres at all levels must lead by example, dare to take the lead and give full play to the leading role; each party member must advance, take on the burden and give full play to the vanguard Exemplary role. All party branches, departments, and cadres at all levels must earnestly perform their main responsibilities, and disciplinary commissions must perform their supervisory responsibilities to ensure the smooth flow of government orders and prohibitions. All middle-level cadres and branch secretaries who violated the disciplinary requirements in the entire epidemic prevention and control work and caused significant adverse effects and serious consequences to the center and the city's prevention and control work were all suspended or dismissed in advance; timely public notification of typical problems investigated and dealt with.

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We hope you are now reassured this won't happen again...