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Wednesday, June 2, 2021

UPDATED: What Did Fauci Know And When Did He Know It?

There's a lot of buzz about the Fauci emails. It's clear that Fauci has been dishonest on multiple levels, has been playing politics, and preening for publicity purposes. It's a very bad look for the guy who's supposed to be handling a pandemic. The email that really caught my eye was fingered by Australian writer Sharri Markson in a tweet. What's eye-catching about the email is that--unlike some that Fauci claimed were too long to read--this one features Fauci engaging in an exchange with a scientist that is at least 3 emails long.

What's going on in this exchange is that Fauci apparently sent an article from ScienceMag to the scientist in question--Kristian Andersen. Andersen is a recognized expert in the field of viral immunology. You can read his creds at Scripps Research:


Department of Immunology and Microbiology

Faculty

Kristian G. Andersen, PhD

Professor

Department of Immunology and Microbiology

California Campus


Laboratory Website

Scripps Research Joint Appointments

Professor, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology

Director of Infectious Disease Genomics, Translational Research Institute

Faculty, Graduate Program

Other Joint Appointments

Vice President, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium

Research Focus

Kristian Andersen is a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, with joint appointments in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, and at the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Over the past decade, his research has focused on the complex relationship between host and pathogen. Using a combination of next-generation sequencing, field work, experimentation, and computational biology he has spearheaded large international collaborations investigating the emergence, spread and evolution of deadly pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, Zika virus, Ebola virus, West Nile virus, and Lassa virus. His work is highly cross-disciplinary and exceptionally collaborative.


Kristian earned his doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge and performed postdoctoral work in Pardis Sabeti's group at Harvard University and the Broad Institute.


Education

Ph.D., Immunology, University of Cambridge, UK, 2009

B.Sc., Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, DK, 2004

Professional Experience

Postdoc

Harvard University & Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard


Graduate

University of Cambridge & MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology


Undergraduate

Aarhus University & University of Kent, Canterbury


There's lots more where that came from, but I think you get the picture--Andersen is a world class scientist in his field, a guy that you want to pay attention to if you're trying to figure out where a virus came from and he says he has some ideas.

So, Andersen, it seems, was trying to get across to Fauci that there some suspicious features to the Covid genome--features that suggested that Covid was "engineered."

In response, Fauci sent Andersen the article from ScienceMag:


Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak’s origins


The article is by Jon Cohen, "a staff writer for Science. In other words, in response to Andersen's concerns that Covid is an engineered virus, Fauci sends this world class scientist an article by "a staff writer for Science." The article is a news type article, not scientific analysis. As such, it features paragraphs such as these:


In the absence of clear conclusions about the outbreak’s origin, theories thrive, and some have been scientifically shaky. A sequence analysis led by Wei Ji of Peking University and published online by the Journal of Medical Virology received substantial press coverage when it suggested that “snake is the most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the 2019‐nCoV.” Sequence specialists, however, pilloried it.

Conspiracy theories also abound. A CBC News report about the Canadian government deporting Chinese scientists who worked in a Winnipeg lab that studies dangerous pathogens was distorted on social media to suggest that they were spies who had smuggled out coronaviruses. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is the premier lab in China that studies bat and human coronaviruses, has also come under fire. “Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research,” read a headline on a story in The Washington Post that focused on the facility.


That's what led to the exchange between Fauci and Andersen that we see in Markson's tweet, and in which Andersen responds to Fauci sending him the Cohen article. Reading between the lines, Andersen appears to be politely telling Fauci--Tony, you don't get it. A very small percentage of a genome can make a huge difference. Check it out:



These passages are really telling:


... the problem is that our phylogenetic analyses aren't able to answer whether the sequences are unusual at individual residues, except if they are completely off. On a phylogenetic tree the virus looks totally normal and the close clustering with bats suggest that bats serve as the reservoir. The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome (<0.1%) so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.

... Eddie, Bob, Mike, and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory. ...


The email exchange took place January 31, 2020, to February 1, 2020. The implication is clear. Fauci knew at a very early date that not only did the USIC suspect engineering was involved, but world class scientists in the field suspected the same based on their own analysis.

Fauci needs to go back to the Senate for another session with Rand Paul. I think things are heating up. An interesting aside--according to John Solomon both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have scrubbed Fauci's forthcoming book. Do they know something?

UPDATE: Scott Hounsell at Red State has done some excellent additional investigation re Dr. Andersen, and it looks suspiciously like Andersen may have caved to the emerging consensus to absolve China of responsibility:


Andersen later published a paper identifying the result of the studies, and suddenly they were convinced that the virus was of a likely natural origin, stating that no virus could have been used as the backbone to SARS-CoV-2.  While I certainly am no virologist, you’d think that a virus that shares 96.4% of its genomic code as well as nearly 29,000 nucleotides, would have provided an excellent backbone for SARS-CoV-2.  That virus, RaTG13, was discovered in a bat-infested cave in China in 2013 after it infected several miners, killing three (meaning, it had already made the leap from bats to humans).

Additionally, according to the very article that Dr. Fauci sent to Andersen, Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists were able to create 5 genetically altered versions of RaTG13 in 2019, the year before the pandemic outbreak, including WIV2, WIV4, WIV5, WIV6 and WIV7. Could it be there was an additional virus created (SARS-CoV-2) and then accidentally released?  If we can say they were definitely conducting gain-of-function research on these new viruses, why is it so hard that they may have created SARS-CoV-2 at the same time?

Another interesting fact about Dr. Andersen?  He sits on a US committee called the “Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health” with our old friend, Peter Daszak.

Stay tuned. Daszak seems to have the same email problem Fauci has.


No wonder Andersen hasn't been shouting "I told you so!" ??


15 comments:

  1. I am the most laid back guy in the world IMHO, but all of this is beginning to peeve me, to say the least. I spent way too much time in Federal bio labs a dozen years ago to cut this octogenarian any slack. I knew when I saw him try to explain to the public how to properly remove a potentially contaminated face mask that he was only in it for the celebrity...coupled, of course, with an email in which he professed his "love" for HRC some years previously. This jerk has worn out his welcome by at least a couple of decades and richly deserves whatever tarnish may befall his "reputation". I hope he rots in retirement, dribbling on his bib in some institution that will have him for their entertainment. What a POS! It is only the Christian in me that restrains further comment...

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  2. The absolute frauds & hoaxes perpetrated on the American people over the last few years by the so-called “elite” are beyond comprehension.

    I never would have thought this level of incompetence imaginable.

    Boarwild

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    1. Quite the combination of incompetence and evil.

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  3. Minutes ago, Martha MacCallum had Collins on, claiming that he only dissed the most wild of the conspiracy theories about the Wuhan lab, and whining about how little attn. the virus' dangers are getting recently.

    Alas, MacCallum let him off, w/o pressing hm on, say, whether he'd had boo to say, vs. his allies (e.g. social media) systematically suppressing, not just references to the most wild of the conspiracy theories, but any references to the lab's possible role.

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    1. She left the ball on the 50yrd line. She should know better.

      That said, Martha MacCallum is so hot she sets charcoal briquettes alite simply by walking by them. ;<)

      Boarwild

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  4. If Solomon's reporting is true that both Amazon and Barnes are scrubbing distributing Fauci's book, that strikes me as a very curious development. We're used to these companies caving to criticism of conservatives, but this is almost unheard of to see someone on the other side similarly sidelined.

    The criticism at least appears to just be that Fauci's book release has the appearance of unseemly greed, which has never been the sole reason to pull any book ever--that's entirely the point for many book releases. I could not even speculate what it is, but we have to be missing something as to the reasons for pulling his book.

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    1. I think it likely this particular FOIA isn't the only one being dealt with by various agencies of the US government. There are probably even more damaging ones coming. You have to remember- people like Andersen and Daszac are also covered by the corresponding state and federal open records laws. Add in the guys at the University of North Carolina, and you have potentially conclusive documentary evidence that will be difficult to hide.

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  5. Just read an amazing article on the sleuthing of the WIV lab leak, unbelievably from Newsweek. HT - CFP

    https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-how-amateur-sleuths-broke-wuhan-lab-story-embarrassed-media-1596958

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    1. Yes, I read that last night. It's long and complex, but remarkable. What it shows especially is the Chinese inventing stories about the miners. This GOF stuff in Wuhan has been going on for a long time between US/PRC--as a Brit I recently quoted pointed out--and Fauci and Daszak and many others in the science establishment know all about it.

      People need to get a clue about "science". It's not some disinterested non-political pursuit of the common good.

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    2. Have you seen this piece in Epoch? It throws serious shade on Anderson:
      https://www.theepochtimes.com/fauci-team-scrambled-in-january-2020-to-respond-to-lab-leak-allegations-emails-show_3842427.html

      Money quote: "In March 2020, Andersen co-authored the highly influential paper “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which remains widely cited as proof of natural origin. Andersen and his coauthors received funding from both NIH and Farrar’s organization."

      I admit that I am confused.

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    3. That's why I updated with Scott Hounsell. It looks like there was a bit of uncertainty on how to deal with this at the beginning, but that the science establishment--and those who knew what side their bread was buttered on, like Andersen--circled the wagons around the 'natural origin' theme. I think that's what we're gonna be finding out.

      Sundance has a link to a very long article at Vanity Fair that appears to focus more on the political aspects than the article last night at Newsweek, which focuses mostly on the freelance investigators.

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  6. Lee Merritt, MD, whose videos we have seen (or should have seen - they were linked here some time ago), remarked about Fauci’s lack of virology credentials in at least one of those videos.

    Add to that the fact that he was a flop when it came to HIV/AIDS….

    He’s a celebrity. Who - other than Fauci himself - promoted him into such a longterm power position?

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  7. The Fauci e-mails are strikingly similar to the Page-Strzok texts. Two completely different scandals in two completely different organizations, yet in both you have senior leaders towards the top if not at the very top doing very naughty things, clearly cognizant of the fact they're doing very naughty things, and nevertheless coordinating their misconduct over their employer provided, government, electronic communications medium. They have no fear of being caught. This isn't a criminal conspiracy, because these people have no fear of being charged with a crime, and therefore barely bother to conceal their misconduct. This is way beyond conspiracy to the land of the entire organization is so tolerant of willful lying to outsiders, even the President of the United States, that the very culture permits what an earlier generation would have regarded as at least scandalous, if not criminal conduct.

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  8. Hmm…

    I agree with treehouse that the foia is being spun, and trying to make it a certain narrative. It’s damage control since most people believe it came out of a lab.

    My guess is Fauci is being made into a scapegoat. It’s all his fault due to his huge ego…. Just as he was made into the hero of Covid, now he becomes the villain.

    Fauci knew hcq worked and downplayed it. Unbelievable.
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/smoking-gun-fauci-lied-millions-died-fauci-informed-hydroxychloroquine-worked-lied-public-instead-despite-science-fauciemails/

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    1. OTOH, the current occupants of the WH seem to be circling the wagons around Fauci. Seems foolish to me, but works against the scapegoat theory.

      For a frustratingly written alternative--but also suggesting that things are being staged and scapegoats are being offered up ...

      https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/luongo-fauci-files-wuflu-war-come

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