The independent investigative group US Right to Know has concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was artificially created in the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The members of the association discovered a grant application from 2018 that was submitted to DARPA, a Pentagon agency that conducts breakthrough research, City Journal writes, citing the findings of the independent investigation group US Right to Know. The initiative was authored by an international group of scientists, including the notorious Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli.
The project, called DEFUSE, involved the creation of a coronavirus with a six-part genome to develop new effective SARS vaccines. This coincides with the findings of virologists who noted in a 2022 scientific paper that the SARS-CoV-2 genome includes six identical components.
In addition, the DNA of the covid pathogen contains so-called furin cleavage sites, which are absent in all 870 coronaviruses known to science. DEFUSE offered to use them. After the application submitted to DARPA was rejected, the authors of the development, according to City Journal journalists, found funding in China.
In short, the likelihood of such viruses occurring accidentally in nature is not zero, but extremely low.
DARPA rejected the application and, according to City Journal, the scientists found funding elsewhere. According to the publication, the work was carried out in the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Finally, the most important thing is that so far, after three years of intensive searching, no natural ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 has been found.
“The game is over,” summarized Matt Ridley, author of The Virus: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19.
However, its co-author, Alina Chan, warns against jumping to conclusions. In her opinion, it is necessary to study DEFUSE’s application and everything that happened after it was rejected more closely.
