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tives, which have been used to enforce restric- that sells fresh meat and fish) in Wuhan. Some False
tions on civil liberties, including quarantining people who visited the market developed viral
healthy individuals. False positives also inflate pneumonia, presumably caused by the corona- positives
numbers and lead to aggressive treatment of virus. However, a study released on January 25, also inflate
misdiagnosed patients. 2020 concluded that the individual with the first numbers
To perform an RT-PCR test, a clinician reported case of Covid-19 fell ill on December
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takes a swab from a patient’s nose or throat, 1, 2019—and had no link to the market. and lead to
which might contain a tiny virus particle. RT- Francis Boyle is a professor of interna- aggressive
PCR tests “work” by detecting specific genetic tional law at the University of Illinois and is treatment of
material within the virus. Once a sample ar- the biological weapons expert who drafted the
rives at the lab, technicians extract its nucleic U.S. domestic implementing legislation for misdiagnosed
acid (RNA), which holds the virus’s genome. the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of patients.
Then, technicians “amplify” certain regions of 1989 signed into law by President George H.W.
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the genome. This, in effect, gives researchers a Bush. Professor Boyle theorizes that the virus
large sample that they can then compare to the likely escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Vi-
new virus. rology’s Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory,
A central problem with RT-PCR tests is that which was specifically set up to study corona-
they do not produce a positive-negative result. viruses. According to Boyle, BSL-4 facilities
Instead, they simply determine the number of around the world exist to research, develop,
amplification cycles required to detect sufficient test and stockpile offensive biological weapons.
material to beat the arbitrary cutoff between The Wuhan Institute houses more than one
positive and negative. In other words, techni- thousand five hundred strains of deadly viruses,
cians can get a positive result by setting the specializing in the study of “the most dangerous
specific number of cycles they do in the test. A pathogens,” including viruses carried by bats.
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second problem is that even assuming the tests In Professor Boyle’s opinion, China has made
can detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus, it “very clear” that they are “at war with their
the test does not say anything about how much own biological warfare agent.”
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virus is in the patient’s body. To cause illness, One hotly debated type of experiment car-
science says there must be millions of replicat- ried out at labs such as Wuhan’s BSL-4 facility
ing virus in the patient. Finally, we do not know is called “gain-of-function” research, which
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whether the RT-PCR test is testing for a virus involves attempts to create “potential pandemic
that actually causes disease because no one has pathogens” and manipulate or “enhance” vi-
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carried out the steps needed to prove causation. ruses such as influenza and coronaviruses. In
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Serological tests, a second type of test, are 2014, the Obama Administration halted funding
being used to detect the presence of antibod- for all U.S. research involved with dangerous
ies from blood samples. However, these tests coronavirus gain-of-function mutation, includ-
are notorious for cross-reactions and thus also ing work at America’s main military biologi-
have problems with false positives. In addition, cal warfare laboratory (Fort Detrick) and the
antibody tests can be unreliable because they University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
may not distinguish between various strains To sidestep this hurdle, the NIH’s Fauci turned
of human coronaviruses to which people have around and awarded a research grant of almost
been exposed. Adding to the confusion, the four million dollars to scientists outside the
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WHO says that developing antibodies to SARS- U.S. to create coronaviruses more lethal and
CoV-2 does not mean you will not get Covid-19 transmissible than wild coronaviruses. This
a second time! money went to Wuhan’s BSL-4 lab and other
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laboratories in Asia.
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THE INFAMOUS WUHAN LAB
Although health officials are still tracing the PLANNING A PANDEMIC IN ADVANCE?
exact source of the 2019 coronavirus, an early Many people question not only the origin of
hypothesis linked it to a “wet market” (a market the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak but also its timing,

SUMMER 2020 Wise Traditions 85