◆In July 2019, a mysterious pneumonia outbreak associated with e-cigarette use was reported in U.S. state of Wisconsin. Symptoms included shortness of breath, fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, and chest pain. Starting from then, an unprecedented outbreak of lung disease spread across the country. As of Dec. 17, 2019, more than 2,500 hospitalizations had been reported across 50 states. Experts believe this type of disease might represent one or more new clinical syndromes, and more research is needed to determine the cause.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190821/Mysterious-lung-disease-linked-to-vaping-spreads-across-14-US-states.aspx

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/17/health/vaping-lung-disease-states/index.html

Academic paper: Pulmonary Illness Related to E-Cigarette Use in Illinois and Wisconsin--Final Report.

Articles published on mainstream international journals and media, such as the Lancet, said that it was difficult to distinguish between e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) and COVID-19, which was later discovered, because some of their symptoms are similar, which could added difficulties to diagnosis.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30450-1/fulltext

https://www.medpagetoday.com/pulmonology/smoking/90294

After studying 250 chest CT scans and clinical information from 142 EVALI patients selected from some 60 related studies that have been published, some leading Chinese experts who once fought the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan found that 16 of the EVALI patients were part of a viral infection chain, which indicates that they could have had COVID-19. Five of the cases were determined as "moderately suspicious," who have relatively complete clinical symptom and treatment information. In 12 of the 16 EVALI patients, symptoms started before 2020.

http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2021/8/462683.shtm

◆In March 2020, the public initiated a petition on the White House petition website, asking the U.S. government to disclose information related to Fort Detrick, especially the reason why the USAMRIID lab was shut down in 2019 and whether it had anything to do with COVID-19. The U.S. government made no response, and the petition website was taken offline.

2. Safety accidents occur frequently in the University of North Carolina's biological laboratory.

◆From January 2015 to June 2020, the University of North Carolina reported 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered organisms to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Six of these incidents involved coronaviruses including SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2. Many of the viruses had undergone genetic engineering. Eight researchers may have got infected. Except for a researcher quarantined for 14 days at home after a mouse bite caused potential exposure to a strain of SARS-CoV-2 in April 2020, other members of staff facing risks of infection continued their work and life as normal. Besides, key details like the nature of the genetic modifications and how the incidents were handled were deliberately removed from the incident reports, and the public was not informed of the potential risks.

https://www.propublica.org/article/here-are-six-accidents-unc-researchers-had-with-lab-created-coronaviruses

https://www.propublica.org/article/near-misses-at-unc-chapel-hills-high-security-lab-illustrate-risk-of-accidents-with-coronaviruses

3. The United States has the world's largest number of biological labs with the least transparency.

◆The United States has over 200 overseas bio-labs in 25 countries and regions including Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union. The sites where some bio-labs are based have seen outbreaks of large-scale infectious diseases. A Russian official has said that Russia believes that labs under U.S. control along the Russia-China border are developing biological weapons. Officials from Ukraine, Georgia, Iran, and other countries have all expressed concern about the security of U.S. labs overseas and the clandestine activities they have been engaging in.

◆In September 2021, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported that the Korea Fire Safety Education Culture Association (KFSECA) sued the Fort Detrick biological laboratory and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). South Korean military figures have revealed that the USFK had brought in anthrax samples 15 times from Fort Detrick, and the U.S. forces even set up a biochemical lab at the Busan port. Sources said the South Korean civic group sued the U.S. army and Fort Detrick out of fear that anthrax bacteria had been used as a biological weapon. Fort Detrick shipped the dangerous substances to the U.S. biochemical lab in South Korea, indicating that the United States is working on something big.

4. Professor of the University of North Carolina Ralph Baric, known as the "Coronavirus Hunter," has acquired a technique to modify a virus without leaving a trace, and has long been conducting close collaboration with the U.S. military.

◆Baric said in an interview with an Italian media outlet in September 2020 that "it is possible to engineer a virus without leaving a trace."

https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/e-possibile-creare-un-virus-in-laboratorio-senza-lasciare-traccia-la-risposta-dellesperto_it_5f5f3993c5b62874bc1f7339

◆In 2003, a paper of which Baric was a co-author showcased the power of this technique. In the research, scientists successfully resurrected a SARS virus. Later Baric and others applied for a patent for this achievement, which was approved in 2007, with the patent code US7279327B2.

https://www.pnas.org/content/100/22/12995

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7279327B2/en

◆With this technique, Baric began collecting samples of various coronaviruses around the world for research. According to the MIT Technology Review, Baric aims to resurrect and create more coronaviruses in a bid to develop drugs against the viruses.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027290/gain-of-function-risky-bat-virus-engineering-links-america-to-wuhan/

◆In May 2020, WRAL, a local channel of NBC News, reported that Baric's research on coronavirus was seen by some as groundbreaking, but by others as reckless. They fear that if Baric's technique is not used properly, or if the viruses that he researched were leaked, there could be dreadful consequences. (more)

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