China : Was COVID-19 Created In Fort Detrick Bio Lab?

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China keeps suggesting that COVID-19 was created as a bioweapon by the US Army bio lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Find out what why China wants the world to believe this, and what the FACTS really are!

 

China : Was COVID-19 Created In Fort Detrick Bio Lab?

For more than a year now, Chinese spokespersons and media have aggressively promoted the claim that the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not originate in Wuhan.

Instead, the virus was created as a bioweapon by the US Army at their bio lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

Their evidence? The fact that the CDC shut down the Fort Detrick lab on 2 August 2019 after finding “biosafety lapses” there.

But how did the SARS-CoV-2 virus get from Maryland in the United States to Wuhan, China?

They claimed that the US Army sent their soldiers to spread COVID-19 in Wuhan during the 2019 Military World Games held there from 18 to 27 October 2019.

They even spread a fake video, claiming to show an American soldier spreading the COVID-19 virus in a subway in Wuhan.

The theory heavily promoted by Chinese media and even Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, who asked, “When did patient zero begin in the US? It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan!

They also spread the fake story that Japanese Nobel laureate Professor Dr. Tasuku Honjo confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was created at the Fort Detrick lab.

Recommended : Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo confident US created COVID-19?

Fact Check : Tasuku Honjo Confident USA Created COVID-19!

 

Fort Detrick COVID-19 Origin : Just Chinese Propaganda

The Fort Detrick origin story of COVID-19 is really nothing more than Chinese propaganda.

And here are the FACTS…

Fact #1 : SARS-CoV-2 Is Natural, And Related To Bat Coronaviruses

Genomic analysis have proven that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is natural, for these reasons :

  • an artificial virus would have to be created from existing viruses
  • the SARS-CoV-2 virus has components that have never been seen before
  • it is very similar to existing bat coronaviruses.

Therefore, it is unlikely to be created in a biological lab like the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases lab at Fort Detrick; or the Wuhan Institute of Virology, for the matter.

China : Was COVID-19 Created In Fort Detrick Bio Lab?

Fact #2 : Multiple Strains Denote A Later Time Line

Viruses mutate and create new strains over time. A novel virus like SARS-CoV-2 would start with a single strain and evolve into multiple strains as it spreads globally and mutate over time.

Hence, the very fact that there are five strains in the United States would actually refute it as the source of SARS-CoV-2 – the COVID-19 coronavirus.

In fact, by analysing the genomic changes of these strains, scientists have pretty much concluded that SARS-CoV-2 did indeed originate in China.

COVID-19 strains by nextstrain

Fact #3 : Fort Detrick Sterilisation Plant Failed

The CDC temporarily shut down the US Army lab at Fort Detrick on 2 August 2019, after finding “biosafety lapses” there.

However, that was not because viruses actually leaked from the facility, but rather :

  • the lab was no longer able to decontaminate wastewater from its highest security labs.
  • their steam sterilisation plant was damaged in a flood in May 2018, and they had been using a chemical decontamination method instead.
  • no disease-causing materials were found outside authorised areas
China : Was COVID-19 Created In Fort Detrick Bio Lab?
USAMRIID Steam Sterilisation Plant at Fort Detrick, when it first became operational in May 2012 | Photo Credit : US Army Corps of Engineers

Fact #4 : Wuhan Was Epicentre Of COVID-19 Outbreak

China’s continuous suggestions that there may have been a leak at the Fort Detrick laboratory is illogical.

If SARS-CoV-2 leaked from Fort Detrick, Maryland would have been the epicentre of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, not Wuhan.

Now, this does not mean that the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It merely means the Chinese claim about Fort Detrick is nonsensical.

Wuhan Institute of Virology

 

Why Would China Push Fake Fort Detrick Claim?

With China’s aggressive foreign policy moves in recent years, it is not uncommon to see fake pro-China, anti-America stories being created and shared.

Many believe it’s part of a concerted attempt to burnish China’s image overseas, and drown out negative coverage of China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative, and their aggressive moves in the South China Sea..

China has also been blamed for not handling the initial epidemic better, and unfairly – for being the origin of this new virus.

Hence, they have been trying their best to deflect blame by casting aspersions unto others, using aggressive Wolf Warrior diplomacy tactics, propaganda outlets like GlobalTimes and CTGN, and their 50 Cent Army.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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