Gravitas: Covid-19 Origins: Was the virus "manipulated" in a lab?

meanwhile the hunt for the origin of the virus has intensified a question that we've been asking for more than a year now has suddenly become the top agenda of governments did the virus come from a lab is this a made in china pandemic investigations are on to find an answer to these questions last week u s president joe biden ordered an investigation now the british intelligence agencies say the lab leaked theory is plausible it's feasible they've said plus there are new studies that claim that they have new evidence here's the latest one it's a 22-page paper parts of which were reported by a british news website over the weekend what does it say it says the wuhan virus has quote unquote no credible natural ancestor in other words the wuhan virus is not natural in its origins how do we know that apparently the virus shows characteristics that it was manipulated in a laboratory now here are the arguments presented in the paper it says that this virus has some quote unquote unique fingerprints here's how researchers explained this the virus has a backbone of a natural coronavirus the kind of coronavirus found in chinese caves so the basic structure of the wuhan virus is natural but the rest of it is altered the virus has been spliced onto a new spike let's try to understand this you must have seen images digital recreations of the virus like the one that you see on your screen right now so there's a basic body and then there are spikes and they appear like a crown on the virus they act like hooks these spikes and they bind the virus to a cell of the human body now once the virus is the spike is hooked to your body it opens a channel and this is how the virus infects a human cell so how is this virus made the paper says it could have been the result of a gain of function research gain of function we've been telling you about this for a while now gain of function involves modifying viruses so you take a virus and you change it to make it more infectious essentially you're creating dangerous variants of a virus in a laboratory why would anyone do it researchers say they do this to study the effect of these variants on the human body but there's no telling how these viruses and altered viruses can then be used there is a growing belief that the wuhan institute of virology was conducting gain of function research into bat coronaviruses this claim is at the center of this new investigation or many investigations that are being conducted where bat corona viruses altered in the wuhan lab that is the question and did they leak from there it's hard to say for sure there is still no evidence these are at best theories and this particular study has still not been published in full this study was conducted by two researchers one is british professor angus douglas he teaches oncology in london he was also a candidate for the uk independence party or ukip in the 2015 parliamentary election the second researcher is norwegian scientist dr berger sorensen now they made the first claim of a lab leak last year but none of the major academics or journals have published their study why does it matter because that's how it works for any scientific study to be taken seriously it needs to be first published in a journal and the work needs to be evaluated this is called a peer review which basically means an assessment of the validity the quality and the originality of the research so this study from the uk must undergo more scrutiny but the lab theory in general is getting a lot of support after the us government the british intelligence has backed it they believe that a virus leak is quote unquote feasible and they they're hunting for clues this assessment was reported on sunday it led to a statement from the british vaccine minister he has demanded a full investigation from the world health organization back in america former secretary of state mike pompeo has made fresh claims he says that the wuhan lab is engaged in military activity of what kind he did not say that but pompeo believes that researchers in the wohan laboratory are working on something for the people's liberation army the chinese army and there is a connection between this pandemic the wuhan lab and the chinese military this is also something that we reported last year china's top military virologist was sent to wuhan she was apparently on a mission to quote unquote understand the virus chen wei was deployed to the wuhan institute of virology and reports say that chen was there to develop treatments for patients she later developed a vaccine too the chinese military has been taking a front-line role in medical research reports say that since 2015 the chinese military has rammed up recruitment of scientists why does the pla need scientists it sees them as part of the strategy to modernize the military as they put it so mike pompeo's statement is significant so are all the other assertions about the possibility of a lab leak but how many of them can be proved that's what it boils down to how many of these claims can be backed by evidence experts say the united states must share what it knows it must share the evidence it has a health expert affiliated to the world health organization is the latest to make this demand this is dr dale fisher he chairs the global outbreak alert response network this is a network of more than 250 technical institutions they track global outbreaks dr fisher says the possibility of a lab leak is quote unquote not off the table but it remains unverified and he has urged the us to share what it knows in fact this applies to all the world health organization says it wants to reach out to member states and discuss any intelligence that is available we will be reaching out to member states and the way we normally would in order to seek their guidance as to whether there is further expertise available that could join with this international effort especially in the next phase where more specialist studies may be needed in order to further elucidate the the origins of the virus america britain who independent researchers they're all talking about the virus leaking from the wuhan lab the chorus has rattled china it is relying on offense as the best form of defense it is slinging mud accusations and conspiracy theories and critics today it called the growing demands for a probe a quote-unquote hidden political agenda what do you say however some in the u.s turning a blind eye to facts signs and the questionable study of origins and bost response at home kept fabricating the lie that the virus was leaked from the wuhan institute of biology and unreasonably asking china to pay for their own inaction this shows that they don't care about the facts or truth and have zero interest in a serious science-based study of our agents their aim is to use the pandemic to pursue stigmatization and political manipulation they are being disrespectful to science irresponsible to our lives especially american lives and counterproductive to concerted global efforts to fight the virus from victim to wolf china has tried to play all but the world continues to push for answers on the wuhan lab last week india joined the global push for a further investigation this story we say has just begun vion is now available in your country download the app now and get all the news on the move

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Keywords: gravitas, britain, covid 19, coronavirus, lab leak theory, wuhan lab leak theory, britain on lab leak theory, covid 19 origin, coronavirus origin, britain on covid 19 origin, britain on coronavirus origin, who, wion, wion news, wion news today, world news, international news, latest english news, english news, english news today, world news today, latest world news, english world news, world news in english, global news

Id: wTNp6nG4dXA

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021