COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), less politically correctly referred to as the "Wuhan virus" or the "China virus".

History

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic visit the institute in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on 3 February 2021.

The disease was first identified in 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, China, and has since spread globally, resulting in the 2019–22 coronavirus pandemic. The George Floyd riots and mass migration related disease transfer across the Mexico-United States border have been argued to have contributed to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the United States.

Wuhan

Many countries claimed early, the virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Some spoke of an accident, while a few suspected that the Chinese deliberately wanted to test the extent of the virus's spread. Donald Trump didn't call it the "China virus" for nothing. This information was quickly suppressed, by governments and legacy media. Alternative media outlets, however, persisted and were vilified as conspiracy theorists.

In mid-2019, WIV officials were evaluating and implementing biosafety improvements, training, and procurements in the context of a growing body of broader biosecurity PRC legislation. In November 2019, the WIV, in cooperation with other CAS entities, hosted a biosafety training course for WIV and non-WIV personnel that included speakers from the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Given the timing of the event, this training appears routine, rather than a response to a specific incident. As of January 2019, WIV researchers performed SARS-like coronavirus experiments in BSL-2 laboratories, despite acknowledgements going back to 2017 of these virus’ ability to directly infect humans through their spike protein and early 2019 warnings of the danger of this practice. Separately, the WIV’s plan to conduct analysis of potential epidemic viruses from pangolin samples in fall 2019, suggests the researchers sought to isolate live viruses. An inspection of the WIV’s high-containment laboratories in 2020—only months after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak’s emergence—identified a need to update aging equipment, a need for additional disinfectant equipment, and improvements to ventilation systems. As this inspection occurred in the midst of the WIV’s crisis response to the COVID-19 outbreak, these findings are not necessarily indicative of WIV’s biosafety status prior to the outbreak.

The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) spied on laboratories in Wuhan and, as early as 2020, assumed with an 80 to 95% probability that the coronavirus had broken out as a result of a laboratory accident. However, Angela Merkel and the German government suppressed this report and kept it under wraps. The socialist government under Olaf Scholz did the same. German Chancellor Scholz was also informed upon taking office and also decided against publishing it. In 2025, the BND went public. China denied German media reports of an assessment carried out by spying agency BND in 2020 supporting the theory.

Germany's foreign intelligence service believed there was a 80-90% chance that coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab, German media say. Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published. The intelligence service had indications that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been carrying out experiments where viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research, they say. [...] But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies – and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory. In January, the US CIA said the coronavirus was "more likely" to have leaked from a lab than to have come from animals. According to Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, the BND met in Berlin in 2020 to look into the origin of coronavirus in an operation called Project Saaremaa. [...] The assessment was commissioned by the office of Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor at the time, but was never publicly known of until now. According to the papers, the findings were shared with the CIA in autumn of last year. In January this year, the CIA said that a "research-related origin" of the pandemic was more likely than a natural origin "based on the available body of reporting" [...] Both the BND and outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to comment.

See also

• Race and health: Other diseases

External links

• How COVID-19 Will Test the West
• Incredibly, Stupid Party Hacks Want To Use WuFlu Crisis To INCREASE Immigration
• The “China Virus” Came From China And Chinese People. AND IT'S OK TO SAY SO
• The Coronavirus Reveals Our Lack of Social Trust
• Will the Coronavirus Kill the New World Order?
• U.S. intel report identified 3 Wuhan lab researchers who fell ill in November 2019, nbcnews.com, 24 May 2021

Vaccinations

• CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee: Let Elderly ("Overwhelmingly White ") And Teachers ("Often Very White") Die Waiting For Vaccines

Maps

• COVID-19 map, Johns Hopkins University & Medicine