==Gain-of-Function: Baric -Fauci -> Daszak -> Wuhan==
A succinct connect-the-dots on one gain-of-function path that could have led to Covid-19. Also, perjury.
"BREAKING: Video Shows Fauci Lied to Congress About Funding Virus Weaponization at Wuhan"
Jennifer Van Laar | Jun 06, 2021
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2021/06/06/breaking-video-shows-fauci-lied-to-congress-about-funding-virus-weaponization-at-wuhan-n392473
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…So, to recap, studies that
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increase transmissibility (makes it easier for the disease to spread from person to person),
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increase pathogenicity (the ability to cause harm/disease), or
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alter the host range (increase the number of species affected by the virus)
are gain-of-function,
and those viruses can be altered by using
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reverse genetics,
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passage adaptation, or
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genetic reassignment.
In 2015, results of an NIH-funded study spearheaded by Dr. Ralph Baric at UNC-Chapel Hill and Dr. Shi created a new coronavirus, as we’ve reported. How did they do that? Reverse genetics.
"Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone."
So, using reverse genetics they engineered a virus that “grew equally well to SARS in human cells,” as Dr. Baric explained to Vice that year. That certainly sounds like altering the host range of that virus, which had been found in bat guano in a cave 900 miles from Wuhan (yes, that cave).
But there’s more. A key feature of this coronavirus was a “novel,” or new, spike protein. The study revealed that available immune-therapeutic and preventative modalities weren’t very effective against it, and vaccine approaches “failed to neutralize and protect from infection.”
Kinda sounds like that research led to increased pathogenicity of the virus, right?
And, as Hounsell has pointed out, Baric was asked by NIH to pause that research in 2014 due to a federal moratorium but somehow received permission to go ahead — from Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Fauci also approved a $3.7 million grant to Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance — of which $500,000 was sent to Wuhan — in June 2014 (during the moratorium) for a study titled “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.” Its purpose:
“This project seeks to understand what factors allow animal Coronaviruses to evolve and jump into the human population by studying virus diversity in a critical group of animals (bats), at sites of high risk for emergence (wildlife markets) in an emerging disease hotspot (China).”
Hmmm.
How did they plan to do that? One method mentioned in the abstract:
“Predictive models of host range (i.e. emergence potential) will be tested experimentally using reverse genetics….”
So, this one is studying the host range — one of the criteria mentioned by Fauci — using reverse genetics — another thingmentioned by Fauci as gain-of-function…