The ‘lab leak’ theory has long moved from the realm of ‘dangerous misinformation’ and ‘conspiracy theory’. With a wave of the official narrative, the media-political elite late last year decreed that we plebs were finally allowed to talk about it publicly. Gee, thanks, guys.
That doesn’t, of course, mean that the lab leak theory is true. That’s a long way from being proved – mostly because so much evidence was destroyed by Chinese authorities so early in the pandemic.
But, whether or not the virus originated as part of Chinese bio-weapons research, a great many of the people are certainly acting very suspiciously. Not just the Chinese, who destroyed critical early samples from the Wuhan wet market and deleted an entire viral database; some of the very people tasked with investigating the virus’ origins (who, as it happened were also some of the same people involved in the suspicious research) blatantly lied about China’s cover-up.
Now, thanks to the excellent investigative work of Judicial Watch, we also know that scientists in America were warning their Chinese counterparts about possible investigations and coaching them in how to answer awkward questions.
Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained 412 pages of new records that show the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Dr James W Le Duc warned Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology of potential investigations into the Covid issue by Congress.
Additionally, the documents show Le Duc praising the Wuhan researchers and Chinese officials for their transparency and handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, and, in April 2021, Le Duc accepting a request to be on the Biosafety Advisory Committee of Westlake University in Hangzhou, China.
(James Le Duc, PhD, is the former director of the Galveston National Laboratory, one of the largest active biocontainment facilities on a US academic campus.)
Nope, nothing suspicious, there. Conflict of interest? What’s that?
The records include an email dated 16 April 2020, with the subject line “Rubio” from former Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases David Franz who informs Le Duc, “I heard from someone in government this evening that Senator Rubio is starting to push for an investigation regarding Wuhan lab […]
Le Duc then forwards the email to Dr Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist known for her work with coronavirus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, requesting a phone conversation “soon” about the email.
On April 18, 2020, Zhengli rejects Dr De Luc’s request: “Due to the complicated situation, I don’t think it’s a right time to communicate by the call. What I can tell you is that this virus is not a leaky [sic] from our lab or any other labs. It’s a shame to make this scientific question so complicated.”
Zhengli is, of course, Wuhan’s notorious “bat lady”. Shengli was involved in collecting samples from bats in Yunnan that are believed to be the ultimate origin of Covid. Zhengli’s research was located in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, just 10 miles from the wet market where the first cases of Covid broke out.
Not satisfied with a mere heads-up, Le Duc proceeds to coach Director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Dr Yuan Zhiming on how to answer questions about the Wuhan lab.
The questions Le Duc helped his pal Zhiming prepare for covered a wide range of possible topics. They covered everything from accounting for possible discrepancies between records of virus stocks and the actual current inventory, whether anyone on his team was conducting gain of function research, whether there was “any indication of unusual illness similar to that seen for nCoV among institute staff” and whether staff of the institute lived near or frequented the wet market.
In mid-2019, Le Duc was passing the hat, trying to drum up support and funding for working in China. In May, he emailed National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) regional program officer for Global Research for East/South Asia and Pacific Gale Bernabe to discuss “possible funding sources for collaborative work with China”.
Le Duc informs Bernabe about a proposal to begin work in Wuhan later in the year.
We have already submitted a proposal and if successful we would begin work in Wuhan later this year.
A year later, and he was patting his Chinese colleagues on the back.
In an email dated 20 March 2020, Le Duc thanks Zhiming for his, “heroic efforts to control the epidemic in Wuhan. Your success is an inspiration to all of us as we work to halt transmission here in the USA and in other countries.”
Judicial Watch
As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton observes, “These startling documents show that China had partners here in the United States willing to go to bat for them on the Wuhan lab controversy”.
Other documents unearthed by Judicial Watch have exposed that Anthony Fauci’s NIH and NIAID were funnelling money to research in Wuhan, studying coronaviruses in bats, and the close ties between the Bill Gates Foundation and the Chinese government.
Maybe this all adds up to nothing. But, if there was no raging dumpster fire of dodgy bioweapons research found, there’s no shortage of smoke billowing from the US and Chinese military-scientific industrial complexes.
But I’m sure that’s all just a conspiracy theory.