One of the researchers in the BL-4 lab in Wuhan had been publishing studies on genetic tinkering with “addition of function” to bat coronaviruses in Nature back in 2015.
The Wuhan lab was advertising in Nov 2019 for postdocs to study how coronaviruses hide from the immune system.
This coronavirus has a cleavage center on the spike, which reacts with furin enzymes on human cells. The enzyme cuts open the spike, allowing the virus and human cell membrane to merge, so the virus can get into the cell.
This cleavage site is NOT found in the closely-related bat coronaviruses.
Nor in MERS.
Guess where it *is* found? Ebola and AIDS among others.
I’ll admit up-front that I know nothing about virology or the state of viral engineering.
All of the actions of China, however, are positively SCREAMING that they are responsible for this viral outbreak. I don’t have any way to know the origins of the virus, itself. I only hope that our government does.
also didn’t the wuhan doc do this kind of work at the UNC experiements some years ago?
seems pretty likely to a layman this is someone’s bat testing ending up in a soup bowl (or a bat bite).
that furin cleavage enhancement is a huge infection advantage for the virus. when I read about that I ratcheted my plans another 2 notches forward.