A report by a US Air Force officer and bioweapons expert has suggested, in a new report, that the Covid-19 pandemic could have resulted from a military-research-related accident in a Chinese laboratory, and that the work there was possibly part of research by China that possibly violated a treaty banning biological weapons.
The report also asserts that China knew, even before the outbreak, that the SARS-CoV-2 virus appeared to have severe, enduring neurological effects, according to City Journal.
The 172-page report was written by Robert Kadlec, a bioweapons expert and career Air Force officer whom President Donald Trump has nominated as Assistant Secretary of Defence for Nuclear Deterrence, Chemical & Biological Defence Policy & Programmes, the Defence Department’s most senior post overseeing efforts to combat WMD threats.
He is well regarded for his expertise. If confirmed by the Senate, which is probable, he will be in a position to help shape policy on countering Chinese nuclear and biological threats.
Kadlec said there was no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately released, but while illicit research aimed at developing bioweapons is extremely difficult to detect and prove, his report cites what he calls “concerning writings by Chinese military strategists indicating an interest in biology’s potential as a weapon”, including bacteria and viruses, even after the country joined the treaty banning bioweapons in 1984.
The SARS-Covid virus released from the lab in China may well have been part of that offensive bioweapons effort.
Kadlec’s report, published this week by the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A & M University’s Bush School of Government & Public Service, concludes that China’s troubling research, its lack of transparency, and its systematic efforts to cover up the possible lab leak and other biosecurity problems at high-containment labs justify prioritising US intelligence efforts aimed at Chinese bioweapons research – as well as developing enforceable safety standards for labs that conduct dual-use research around the world.
While voluntary standards exist, there is presently no enforced system for safety measures globally.
“Accidents are a constant risk, and, without extreme precaution, inevitable,” Kadlec warned. “New facilities attract funding and attention, but maintenance and biosafety workforce development receive much less of either.”
Kadlec’s report adds to the growing consensus that the pandemic was the result of a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and not a naturally occurring outbreak of a deadly virus originating in animals.
The report’s most contentious claim is that Chinese military scientists understood that the virus had “acute and chronic” short- and long-term effects on the brain and may have been working not only to weaponise the virus but also to develop a vaccine to counter its effects even before the outbreak.
To support his hypotheses, Kadlec cites patent applications, requests for medical equipment, published and unpublished Chinese research, tips from Chinese dissidents, emails, and other evidence that suggests the possibility that Chinese military scientists were working on a SARS-CoV-2 weapon to attack the brain, and that this “offensive biological weapons (BW) research occurring in China” was linked “to the creation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus” at Wuhan.
Chinese scientists, he writes, had been interested in using biology to manipulate the brain’s functions – or neurocognition – at least since 2006.
Kadlec stressed the need for expanded research on the virus’ effects.
While resistant to conspiracy theories, his report should deepen the convictions of those who have argued for years that official explanations of Covid’s origins are dubious at best.
City Journal article – Was Covid a Chinese Bioweapons Research Project? (Open access)
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