Tag Archives: Fort Detrick

Did COVID-19 Leak From Gilead Sciences Lab In Fort Detrick?

Did a lab assistant expose how Gilead Sciences covered up the leak of COVID-19 from their Fort Detrick laboratory?

Take a look at the viral farewell note exposing this cover-up, and find out what the FACTS really are!

 

Claim : COVID-19 Leaked From Gilead Sciences Lab In Fort Detrick!

A document with the filename “Covid -19 Truth_Confession Exposed.pdf” is being shared on WhatsApp, together with this message :

👆The farewell note by an Ex-Gilead Sciences Fort Derrick Lab assistant who confessed COVID-19 leaked from the lab in Maryland. CDC covered up the facts. Her supervisor Prof Frank Plummer and others who know the facts were all killed and she now fears for her life. Virus was transported to Wuhan by seafood. She apologized to the world.

The PDF document contains the screenshot from an August 2020 post by one “Samantha Hill“, together with a diagram.

Sorry, we played an evil part in the outbreak of COVID-19

I am anonymous, I used to be an American, but I am more of an Indian. I learnt in the University of Manitoba and did some trivial work in the Fort Detrick Laboratory after graduation. My supervisor and I know almost everything about COVID-19, and that’s why he was killed. Now I came back to India. I gather myself up and decide to tell the truth, hoping I will still be alive when all of you learn the truth.

Note : We added the FAKE overlay to prevent the diagram from being further abused.

 

No, COVID-19 Did Not Leak From Gilead Sciences Lab In Fort Detrick!

This is yet another FAKE STORY that appears to be part of a Chinese propaganda effort to shift the blame for COVID-19 to the United States.

Let me show you why this is completely made up, and is nothing more than Chinese propaganda.

Fact #1 : This Fake Story Was Posted In August 2020

This fake story was originally posted on a new Facebook account with the name “Samantha Hill” on 11 August 2020.

The writer tried to frame himself as an American of Indian descent, even using Hindi hashtags. But her post gained little traction on Facebook. It was only widely shared on Weibo by Chinese netizens.

It appears to have been resurrected after the United States under President Biden started an earnest look at whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have accidentally been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fact #2 : The Writer Is Not A Scientist Or American

The writer, Samantha Hill, claimed to be an American who worked as Gilead Sciences lab assistant at their Fort Detrick Laboratory.

However, the Facebook post is rife with numerous scientific and linguistic mistakes, like :

  • virusology : the proper term is virology
  • breeding : viruses are not living organisms – they do not breed. They replicate, and we manufacture them in host cells.
  • villagers : a common term in China, but have you seen Americans call anyone a villager?
  • SARS II : this is a nonsensical name. The official name for the COVID-19 virus was nCoV-2019, before it became SARS-CoV-2 on 11 February 2020.
  • practitioners : Americans call them scientists…

These linguistics mistakes suggest that the writer is most likely a layperson of Chinese origin, not Indian and certainly not American.

Fact #3 : Screenshot Was Taken By Creator

The Facebook account was deleted, but the screenshot is now being circulated in June 2021 in the form of a PDF document.

Interestingly, this new screenshot can only come from the person who created the Samantha Hill post.

We know this because the screenshot shows the Facebook privacy selector (marked in red below), which only appears for the post creator!

Only the person who created the post would be able to take that screenshot.

Fact #4 : 赵盛烨 (Zhao Shenye) Could Be The Creator

Samantha Hill claimed to be an American of Indian ethnicity. But I will now show you why “she” is most likely a Chinese man called 赵盛烨 (Zhao Shenye).

As I noted in Fact #3, the screenshot can only be taken by the post creator, “Samantha Hill”.

If you look at the bottom right corner of the screenshot, you will find a watermark – the Weibo handle of 赵盛烨 (Zhao Shenye), who also goes by the name xodn.

And if you take a look at Zhao Shenye’s Weibo page, the latest post (on 14 February 2021) is about Gain of Function (GOF) virus modification by Professor Baric and Dr. Peter Daszak!

Looks like we hit pay dirt! Zhao Shenye could be the mysterious Samantha Hill…

Fact #5 : Fort Detrick Belongs To US Army

Fort Detrick is a massive 13,000-acre campus that belongs to the United States Army.

It is home to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) laboratory, which China has suggested leaked the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Fort Detrick is completely owned and managed by the US Army Futures Command, and that includes the USAMRIID laboratory.

There are NO PRIVATE laboratories inside Fort Detrick. So Gilead Sciences cannot possibly operate one inside Fort Detrick.

Fact #6 : Gilead Sciences Does Not Have Labs In Maryland

Gilead Sciences Inc. does not own or operate any laboratory in the state of Maryland. Here are the current locations of their US laboratories :

  • Foster City, California : headquarters and antiviral research facilities
  • Miami, Florida : respiratory research and clinical development activities
  • Seattle, Washington : respiratory research and clinical development activities

Fact #7 : Fort Detrick Sterilisation Plant Failed But Posed No Risk

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

Fact #8 : 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, the city of Frederick in 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.

Fact #9 : Remdesivir Is Pretty Much Useless Against COVID-19

GS-5734 is the development code name for Remdesivir, and it is pretty much useless against COVID-19.

There were promising early results which led to the US granting it emergency use authorisation on 1 May 2020 for severe COVID-19.

However, by September 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued guidance NOT to use remdesivir in people with COVID-19, as “there was no good evidence of benefit”.

So the idea that Gilead Sciences created the SARS-CoV-2 virus to sell remdesivir is idiotic.

Fact #10 : Gilead Sciences Does Not Own BlackRock

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management company, and is more than 50% larger than Gilead Sciences by market capitalisation.

BlackRock is certainly NOT a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, as Samantha Hill claimed. In fact, BlackRock owns about 8.9% of Gilead Sciences shares (as of 29 January 2021)!

Fact #11 : Dr. Frank Plummer Died Of A Heart Attack

Dr. Frank Plummer was not assassinated while flying from Kenya to China.

He died of a heart attack in Kenya on 5 February 2020, where he was attending the 40th anniversary of the HIV research collaboration between the University of Manitoba and the University of Nairobi.

Fact #12 : SARS-CoV-2 Was Detected By Chinese Doctors

The SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected by Chinese doctors, not by “Chinese epidemic prevention departments”.

It appears that Dr. Ai Fen was the first Chinese doctor who “discovered” SARS-CoV-2 when she treated two patients who presented with symptoms of COVID-19.

The test at that time came back as “SARS coronavirus”, so she reported it to the hospital’s public health department and infectious diseases department.

She took a picture of the report, circled the word “SARS” and sent it to a colleague at another hospital in Wuhan. The picture circulated until it reached Dr. Li Wenliang – the famous whistleblower doctor, who sent it forward as a warning to former classmates on WeChat.

Both Dr. Ai Fen and Dr. Li Wenliang were reprimanded for spreading rumours. So the claim that COVID-19 was caught by Chinese epidemic prevention departments is nonsense.

Fact #13 : No Evidence COVID-19 Spread Through Frozen Food

It is plausible that the SARS-CoV-2 can be contracted through fomites – contaminated items or surfaces. That would include food items, both fresh and frozen.

However, WHO points out there has been NO SPECIFIC REPORTS of anyone getting COVID-19 through fomite transmission.

The US CDC also has a specific page on fomite transmission of COVID-19, whether they concluded that as of 5 April 2021…

  • People can (potentially) be infected with SARS-CoV-2 through contact with surfaces.
  • Based on available epidemiological data, the risk surface transmission is considered to be low.
  • Cleaning surfaces using soap or detergent is enough.
  • Risk of fomite transmission can be reduced by wearing masks, good hand hygiene and cleaning.

In addition, imported frozen seafood are sold all over China. If COVID-19 was intentionally seeded through frozen seafood by the United States, it would have sparked multiple outbreaks, not just in Wuhan.

There is also the inconvenient fact that it was discovered later that the first COVID-19 case in Wuhan had NOTHING to do with the Huanan seafood market!

 

Why Would China Push Fake Gilead Sciences 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 COVID-19 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 Global Times 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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China : Was COVID-19 Created In Fort Detrick Bio Lab?

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?

 

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.

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.

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

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.

 

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.

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

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.

 

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Health | Fact CheckTech ARP

 

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!