Perspectives

COVID-19 Pandemic Origins: Bioweapons and the History of Laboratory Leaks

Authors: Dacre Knight, MD

Abstract

To date, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taken more than 3.5 million lives. Many of these deaths
have been attributed to misleading information that fragmented a coordinated effort to mitigate loss of life. Future pandemics will continue to be a threat, so it is important to lay bare the true cause of this devastation.
Posted in: Infectious Disease143

Full Article

Having trouble viewing the article content below? Click here to open it directly.

References

1. Johns Hopkins University Medicine. Coronavirus resource center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Accessed December 3, 2020.
 
2. Pamuk H, Brunnstrom D. U.S. summons Chinese envoy over Beijing’s coronavirus comments. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-diplomacy-idUSKBN2102XW. Updated March 13, 2020. Accessed December 1, 2020.
 
3. Stevenson A. Senator Tom Cotton repeats fringe theory of coronavirus origins. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/coronavirus-tom-cotton-china.html. Updated February 18, 2020. Accessed December 1, 2020.
 
4. Palestinian writers: the coronavirus is a biological weapon employed by U.S., Israel against their enemies. https://www.memri.org/reports/palestinian-writers-coronavirus-biological-weapon-employed-us-israel-against-their-enemies. Updated March 24, 2020. Accessed December 1, 2020.
 
5. Rogin J. State Department cables warned of safety issues at Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/14/state-department-cables-warned-safety-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/. Updated April 14, 2020. Accessed December 1, 2020.
 
6. Barnes JE. C.I.A. hunts for authentic virus totals in China, dismissing government Tallies. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/politics/cia-coronavirus-china.html. Updated April 16, 2020. Accessed Dec 1, 2020.
 
7. Cohen J, Normille D. China delivers verdict on gene editing of babies. Science 2020;367:130.
 
8. Rabinowitz P, Gordon Z, Chudnov D, et al. Animals as sentinels of bioterrorism agents. Emerg Infect Dis 2006;12:647–652.
 
9. Bartlett SL, Diel DG, Wang L, et al. SARS-COV-2 infection and longitudinal fecal dcreening in Malayan tigers (Panthera tigris jacksoni), Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), and African lions (Panthera leo krugeri) at the Bronx Zoo, New York, USA. J Zoo Wildl Med 2021;51:733–744.
 
10. Alibek K, Handelman S. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World—Told from the Inside by the Man Who Ran It. New York: Random House; 1999.
 
11. Koopmans M. SARS-CoV-2 and the human-animal interface: outbreaks on mink farms. Lancet Infect Dis 2021;21:18–19.
 
12. Riedel S. Biological warfare and bioterrorism: a historical review. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) 2004;17:400–406.
 
13. United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. Biological weapons convention. https://www.un.org/disarmament/biological-weapons/#:~:text=The%20Biological%20Weapons%20Convention%20(BWC,of%20mass%20destruction%20(WMD). Accessed June 1, 2021.
 
14. US Department of State. Executive Summary of the 2020 Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments (Compliance Report). https://2017-2021.state.gov/2020-adherence-to-and-compliance-with-arms-control-nonproliferation-and-disarmament-agreements-and-commitments-compliance-report/index.html. Accessed June 1, 2021.
 
15. Arms Control Association. Chemical and biological weapons status at a glance. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/cbwprolif. Accessed December 7, 2020.
 
16. Andersen KG, Rambaut A, Lipkin WI, et al. The proximal origin of SARSCoV-2. Nat Med 2020;26:450–452.
 
17. Zhang L, Yin F. Wildlife consumption and conservation awareness in China: a long way to go. Biodivers Conserv 2014;23:2371–2381.
 
18. Nakajima K, Desselberger U, Palese P. Recent human influenza A (H1N1) viruses are closely related genetically to strains isolated in 1950. Nature 1978;274:334–339.
 
19. Walgate R. SARS escaped Beijing lab twice. Genome Biol 2004;4:spotlight20040427–03.
 
20. Meselson M, Guillemin J, Hugh-Jones M, et al. The Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak of 1979. Science 1994;266:1202–1208.
 
21. Thanh Le T, Andreadakis Z, Kumar A, et al. The COVID-19 vaccine development landscape. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2020;19:305–306.
 
22. Lu R, Zhao X, Li J, et al. Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. Lancet 2020;395:565–574.