The Intercept_ has just reported on a 2018 DARPA grant proposal for gain-of-function research on corona viruses. It’s another piece of evidence in the question of the provenance of COVID-19. That question is the contentious issue of whether COVID-19 had a natural zoonotic origin or was the result of a laboratory accident. There’s still no definitive answer one way or the other but many scientists in the field feel like this is a tipping point in favor of the lab accident hypothesis.
Why is that? The researchers proposed to build a virus exactly like COVID-19. In particular, they proposed to modify a bat coronavirus to have a furin cleavage site at the S1, S2 junction on the virus genome. That’s unusual—actually, unheard of—in SARS-related betacoronaviruses but is, in fact, exactly what COVID-19 had. That feature is what makes COVID-19 so contagious and deadly.
Who were these researchers? Those who have been following the story won’t be surprised to learn that the PI was none other than Peter Daszak who keeps popping up in this saga. He was, you’ll recall, behind the disinformation campaign insisting that a lab accident was a conspiracy theory. He was also part of the WHO investigation team that went to China and concluded, guess what, that COVID-19 had natural origins. Needless to say, he neglected to reveal this grant application and the obvious conflict of interest it entails.
This is a serious, existential matter. If it’s true that this was a lab accident, it’s an expensive wake-up call to stop doing this type of research before we manage to wipe out everyone. That sounds hyperbolic but here’s the Intercept_ quoting Stuart Newman, a professor of Cell Biology at New York Medical College,
Newman, a longtime critic of gain-of-function research and founder of the Council for Responsible Genetics, said that the proposal confirmed some of his worst fears. “This is not like slightly stepping over the line,” said Newman. “This is doing everything that people say is going to cause a pandemic if you do it.”
It’s time Daszak and some of the other players in this drama were subpoenaed to appear before Congress, put under oath, and asked what they know about the happenings in Wuhan. That may finally give us some answers.