Scientists Backtrack, Admit Proposed Virus Experiments Could Have Been Done In China

Authorized by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Scientists with closeties to China and the U.S. government is now saying that rice experiments he proposed—which any experts believe could have been led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2—may have been done, deviating from earlier statements.

Peter Dazak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, Testifies before the choice Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in Washington, on May 1, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Another scientist active in the proposed besides says he doesn't know if the work was done.

“To the very best of my cognition ... the work hasn't been done,” Peter Dazak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, told a congressional panel this week.

Mr. Dazak, however, admitted that he doesn't know who scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China have done the proposed experiments.

“Do you know if the WIV started this work?” he was asked during a U.S. home of Representatives choice Subject on the Coronavirus Pandemic proceeding in Washington.

“No,” Mr. Dazak replied.

“Then you can’t say that the work was not done‘’ Mitch Benzine, the staff manager for the panel, said.

“There is no evidence of the work being done. There is no evidence that WIV started it,” Mr. Dazak said.

Has he always asked Shi Zhengli, a top scientist at the WIV, whother she carried out the proposal?

“No,” Mr. Dazak acknowledged.

The proposal in question, dubbed task DEFUSE, was subject to the U.S. government as EcoHealth and its partners, including WIV, thought to take viruses from bats, reverse engineer them, and add features. any outside scientists say the proposed work could have led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The defence Advanced investigation Projects Agency (DARPA) declined to fund the proposal, expressing agreements that add features to coronaviruses could make a dangerous virus.

After the proposal was left to the public in 2021, Mr. Dazak and EcoHealth have said definitively that the proposed experiences never looked place.

“The DARPA proposed you not funded. Therefore, the work was not done. Simple,” Mr. Dazak told The Intercept in 2022.

“The proposed investigation was never done,” EcoHealth added in a fresh statement.

Ralph Baric, a University of North Carolina virologist who was besides listed in the DEFUSE proposal, besides said in recently disclosed evidence that he did not know who the proposed experiments were conducted.

“Certainly not by my group,” Mr. Baric told the subcommittee. “I don’t know what China did.”

Mr. Baric and Ms. Shi have created chimeras, or combination viruses, among another work together.

“There was no evidence that they were doing this kind of work,” Mr. Baric said. “Well, there was evidence that they were building chimeras utilizing WIV1 as a backbone, so they were doing any discovery work about the functions of spice genes of zoonotic strains that they discovered later on, but I don’t know if they did any of the engineering or anything.”

WIV1 is simply a bat coronavirus that was found in China.

Mr. Baric besides claimed he had forgotten about DEFUSE so he didn’t discuss it while gathering with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. government official, on Feb. 12, 2020.

Mr. Dazak said Wednesday that DARPA later returned to EcoHealth “to effort and fund portions” of DEFUSE, but no lawmakers pressed him on that discretion.

‘They’ve Always Been Truthful’

EcoHealth separately for years funneled grant money from the U.S. National Institutes of wellness (NIH) to Wuhan researchers, including money that funded experiments that increased the virulence of a bat coronavirus.

Asked how his group verified information about these experiences, Mr. Dazak acknowledged it reported on statements from the WIV. “I have no another way to verify,” he said.

The scientists in Wuhan “have always been received with us,” he added later. “They’ve always been true. There’s never any untoward, underhand things going on. I have no reason to think that they were under force to lie. There’s no indication of that.”

After the pandemic started, WIV researchers refused to hand over laboratory notebooks and another files to EcoHealth after the U.S. government asked for the records, results in the government debarring WIV from receiving U.S. grant money.

“Nearly 2 years have passed since the NIH first requested that WIV supply the requested information and materials, and yet WIV has inactive failed to do so,” a feature authoritative gate to Ms. Shi.

In comments on a draft of the DEFUSE proposal, Mr. Dazak said that any of the work would be done at the Wuhan lab.

“If we win this contract, I do not propose that all of this work will necessarily be conducted by Ralph, but I do want to stress the US side of this proposal so that DARPA are comfortable with our team,” Mr. Dazak gate in 1 comment. “Once we get the funds, we can then allocate who does what actual work, and I believe that quite a few these assays can be done in Wuhan as well.”

Mr. Dazak told Mr. Baric in a May 27, 2021, email release by the subcommittee that Ms. Zhengli said culture of animal viruses was being done under biosafety level 2 conditions, or 1 level below that applied in many another countries.

“We checked with Zhengli, who let us know that she utilized ‘BSL-2 with negative force and adoption PPE.’ I besides know that they are strict now on SADS-CoV... always since you showed it was able to infect human airline epithelial cells,” he gate.

Mr. Baric responded by saying Mr. Dazak was “being old a bang of [expletive].”

“BSL-2 w[ith] negative pressure, give me a break,” he gate, adding later, “You believe this was appropriate condition, if you want but don’t anticipate me to believe it. Moreover, don’t insult my intelligence by trying to feed me this burden of [expletive].”