Already by the end of January 2020, elements within the U.S. government and the U.S. scientific establishment were becoming increasingly concerned that the American people might learn the truth about the origin of the COVID-19.
That is, it was an artificial virus created in a laboratory in the People’s Republic of China with the assistance of U.S. scientists and funding from the U.S. government.
In addition to pressure coming directly from the Chinese Communist Party, there was, no doubt, similar coercion being brought to bear on susceptible and compliant people in Washington D.C. by international financial interests, whose investments in China would be placed in jeopardy if it was widely accepted that China manufactured the COVID-19 virus.
Similarly at stake were the careers of prominent members of the U.S. scientific establishment, who could be considered complicit or potentially culpable.
There was also the likely loss of trust by the American people in the integrity of science overall.
Like their partners in China, what U.S. government officials and members of the U.S. scientific establishment feared most was accountability.
That was the primary selfish motive for the cover-up they appeared to have initiated.
It began on February 3, 2020, when a meeting was held at U.S. National Academy of Science, led by Kelvin Droegemeier, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; D. Christian Hassell, Senior Science Advisor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health.
The emails related to the February 3, 2020 meeting are contained in the file NAS meeting 3 Feb 2020.pdf
Attendees included other U.S. government staff members from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Most of the participating scientists either had long histories of collaborative coronavirus research with China or were later associated with a robust support of China and the theory that COVID-19 originated as a naturally-occurring disease outbreak.
According to the Statement of Task and Work Plan, which were distributed before the meeting, it was already decided that the COVID-19 pandemic originated as a natural-occurring or “evolutionary” event and that arguments to the contrary needed to be countered.
That is, it was the responsibility of U.S. government officials and members of the U.S. scientific establishment to provide a continuous stream of evidence to support a preordained outcome, one that protected China, international financial interests and themselves from potential complicity or culpability.
As revealed in their own emails, the deliberations by the scientists involved in preparing a response to the February 3, 2020 meeting were primarily focused on suppressing any discussion that the COVID-19 virus might have originated in a laboratory.
Yet, the efforts to create a narrative that the COVID-19 pandemic was a naturally-occurring transmission from animals to humans for which no one is to blame went far beyond the response to the February 3, 2020 meeting.
Before the ink was dry on that response, Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, on February 6, 2020, separately contacted selected scientific participants from the February 3, 2020 meeting in order to launch a public relations campaign in scientific journals in support of China, the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was a naturally-occurring event and to condemn a laboratory origin as a conspiracy theory.
The statements made in these emails are stunning and can be construed as conspiratorial.
The emails related to the February 6, 2020 letter are contained in the file Daszak letter 6 Feb 2020.pdf
Not surprisingly, none of the U.S. government officials or members of the U.S. National Academy of Science were copied on the email exchange.
More surprisingly, however, Daszak included Lin-Fa Wang, who previously worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and was considered by some as a conduit to the Chinese Communist Party.
Daszak’s own words in that email exchange suggest that his public relations campaign was supported if not initiated by China and that Daszak’s and the others’ continued research collaboration with China was at risk:
“This letter is carefully worded to avoid political statements, and we have been told [by China?] would go a long way to supporting continued collaboration in this outbreak.”
“I hope you are willing to sign on to this – your voice will be very influential, particularly in keeping these critical bridges open between the USA and China. You should know that the conspiracy theorists have been very active, targeting our collaborators with some extremely unpleasant web pages in China, and some have now received death threats to themselves and their families. They have asked for any show of support we can give them.”
On March 7, 2020, an article appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet entitled “Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19,” co-authored by some of those on Daszak’s February 6, 2020 email, which stated:
“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
That initial effort was followed by a flood of China-promoted and Western media articles supporting the contention that the COVID-19 pandemic was naturally-occurring.
Since then, there have also been reports that scientific and medical journals were censoring views opposed to a natural explanation for the origin of COVID-19.
It has been a highly successful public relations campaign.
No less than the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States has blindly accepted the scientific “conventional wisdom” promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, issuing the following April 30, 2020 statement:
“The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.”
Remarkably, compared to the overwhelming evidence that the COVID-19 virus was a laboratory creation, there has never been conclusive scientific evidence to support a natural origin.
Yet many appear content endorsing the naturally-occurring narrative, mostly out of ignorance, vested interests, political pressure or simply an unwillingness to accept the ugly truth.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
