I wrote a piece for the Harvard Petrie Bill of Health detailing the conventional spread patterns of accidental releases. The WHHAN covid theory/accidental leak manner of transmission doesn't match any other lab leak I could find, corroborating your analysis. Thank you for setting this all out in one piece.
Thank you for laying out this evidence so clearly. Until further actual evidence is provided that leads to different conclusions this sounds like the best we have so far.
This was really good (thank you!), but an even more exhaustive discussion of the arguments and data occurred during the 17 hr Rootclaim debate, summarized brilliantly in the link below. Conclusion by the two judges picked by each debate side was the same as yours...Zoonosis is overwhelmingly more likely than a lab leak. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/practically-a-book-review-rootclaim
Great start to covid history; look forward to more. Thanks for running through the arguments for lab-leak that never seemed strong enough to review; and you have saved me the trouble. Is there really no stronger argument for it? Wet markets were identified as issue in 2003 for China. They were to be stopped but re-started. (And now continue?) A different type of commercial determinant of health?
Great piece. One of the frustrating things about "we've never seen this before in nature" is that in order to see it in nature, you have to actually look. And disease surveillance in animals has always been woefully underfunded, and my god, bats alone harbor so. many. viruses. So the work is underfunded, and I think the work is really, really hard. How many bats from a cave do you need to sample to feel like you've got a good representation of the cave's virome?
This is an excellent piece. Thank you. I will save it for the future.
The basic point is that there is a ton of evidence favoring a natural spillover event and none at all supporting the other hypotheses.
I would not have justified the scenarios with the word theory. I would have called them hypotheses. A theory is a system that is supported by multiple lines of evidence. The conspiracy theories described above have no supporting evidence, only lots of hand waving.
Very commendable work, great summary! To be frank, when I saw the revised CDC page with the picture, I almost lost my laptop. There's no question about the political attempt to give a rosy retrospective. Maybe we should could just call it political revisionism.
Many thanks for taking on the currently very thankless task of calling out the revisionist history of COVID that is going on, I look forward to more in this series!
Great job! Regardless of the origin, the world did an extremely poor job of mitigating the spread of the virus and communication to health officials and the public, especially in the United States.
The most plausible explanation for COVID-19’s origins has been repeatedly discussed by credible medical experts and virologists. Far from being a novel virus, COVID-19 is likely another variant of coronaviruses that have coexisted with humans for centuries, if not longer. Although coronaviruses were first identified in the 1960s, this does not preclude their presence in human populations for centuries prior, as detection depended on advancements in virology.
One prominent and respected figure who has articulated this perspective is Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician and epidemiologist. Several other experts have expressed similar views, supported by extensive research into coronaviruses and their historical presence.
The narrative surrounding COVID-19 may have been amplified by medical interventions that contributed to excess deaths, enabling media outlets to sensationalize the crisis. Pharmaceutical companies, often major advertisers on television, wield significant influence over media content due to their substantial share of advertising revenue. Rather than merely promoting drugs to consumers, their advertising investments may grant them leverage over editorial decisions, shaping what news is broadcast. It’s unlikely that patients frequently approach their doctors requesting medications based solely on TV advertisements, suggesting these ads serve broader strategic purposes. No one goes to their doctor and says, “ I think this medicine would look great in my medicine cabinet.” Wake up America, big pharma are nothing more than criminal enterprises. All we witnessed during COVID-19 was the biggest medical crime in the history of mankind.
The United States is not the world, and your claims fall apart when considering the global context.
Consider India. Most of the population could not afford medical interventions that could have contributed to excess deaths. If more people died there than in an ordinary year, it had to be either a natural disaster - of which there were none of unusual size at the time - or a disease outbreak.
Now take a look at what happened: Mortality almost 50% higher than in 2019.
The numbers are even more stark if you break them down monthly, which I haven't been able to find here.
Big pharma didn't need to influence the media to sensationalize the scale of the problem, and their power over the media is considerably less outside the US, since advertising prescription drugs direct to the public is illegal in many other countries.
Your take is sloppy and half-baked. Excess deaths in India didn’t surge until late 2021, *after* nearly 60% of the population was vaccinated, so your timeline’s garbage. The regions with the lowest vaccination rates—mostly poorer states and union territories—had the *fewest* excess deaths. These areas leaned hard into paramedical treatments like ivermectin, which you brain-dead COVID zealots sneer at as “horse dewormer.” Big Pharma’s tentacles are all over India’s media, just like everywhere else, pushing their narrative. The poorest states, with minimal medical infrastructure and intervention, came out on top. Get your facts straight before spewing nonsense.
I dug into COVID-19 data relentlessly, and the numbers don’t lie: the poorest countries had the *lowest* excess deaths, period. Excess deaths spiked *after* the vaccine rollout, not before. The pathetic “lamestream” media, Big Pharma’s obedient puppets, won’t touch this truth. It’s funny how they won’t mention excess deaths at all on TV. During the so-called plandemic, they hyped every death, using those garbage PCR tests that’d call a splinter a COVID case. Meanwhile, hospital protocol, remdesivir, and ventilators were killing the morbidly obese and walking dead who died for one of the multiple comorbidities they had. You’re a moron for buying their lies—but go ahead keep trying to lie with bullshit lies and stats that aren’t accurate.
This is fairly straightforwardly false. A series of errors.
Vaccinations in India were much delayed. By September 2021, there were only 45 doses per 100 people as per OWID, based on a range of sources, and 36% or so having received at least one dose: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
The biggest wave in India started in March 2021, and continued until June. By August 2021, most of the excess deaths had already occurred:
Moreover, around half of the excess deaths caused by COVID-19 in India were in 2020.
I lead a team looking into this in 2022, and we proved that mortality due to COVID-19 was substantially higher in low-income countries. The perceived lower death rates are due to age differences, but once you correct for age someone living in India was around 2x as likely to die as someone living in Europe:
Continue to do your homework. India had a smaller number of excess deaths than most of the world both in 2020 and 2021. The excess deaths started in late 2021, and most of India or about half of what ended up being about 70% of the nation had one shot before the end of 2021. The 9.3% increase in deaths was inline with the data and suggested that it was a normal trend not something that was out of line and certainly not because of COVID-19.
Also explain to me how the USA had a larger number of excess deaths in the years after the vaccine was rolled out to almost all the sheep in this country. This data is similar all over the world.
And here are free-access excerpts of my book, where I tell the inside story of the search for the origin of COVID-19 and the many manipulations surrounding it.
For all those who liked my post- thank you! And thank you to Health Nerd for allowing me the forum to post. For anyone interested, I write a weekly column on these and similar issues for the American Council on Science and Health, posted at thttps://www.acsh.org/profile/barbara-pfeffer-billauer-jd-ma-occ-health-phd. HOpe to see you there.
I think your timeline is off. I can only comment on my first hand experience. Near the end of Nov 2019, I was involved in caring for a man who had become progressively ill through the month of Dec. It started with flu like symptoms. He had quit smoking a couple of months before, and thought maybe this was a rebound "quitters flu" senario. He got worse, night sweats, a strange type of nightmare sleep, at one point he asked "can you die from quitting smoking"?, it was so bad. That was the closest he came to going to the ED.
By Jan 2020, before the pandemic was declared, he was improving slightly, very weak but with a new complaint. He couldn't smell anything, or what he could, smelled like feces. Literally. Food had no taste. He had lost a lot of weight, too much. He has long-covid symptoms to this day.
To answer an obvious question, no, he never got tested or sought medical attention.
I was in face to face, same room contact with him often during this time. About mid month in Dec 2019, I became ill as well. My symptoms weren't respiratory, but for me, a constant migrain level headache, and fatigue.
I did seek attention, but of course at that time they weren't looking for Covid, it hadn't even been named. My symptoms were treated with minimal success. I still deal with fatigue, new tinnitus and my blood pressure is erratic. Cause unknown, by Dr.
IMO there is a huge amount of information not known, will never be known and even if exposed won't bring back the millions dead. Millions of lives forever changed for the worse.
As mentioned, this didn't happen in the space of a few months. This is decades of research covering multiple administrations from both sides. They are all the same, all responsible.
Let me put it this way - epidemiologically, we are as close to 100% certain as it is possible to be that the pandemic started in late November in Wuhan. There is a vast quantity of evidence proving this (I cite several papers in my piece).
COVID-19 shares similarities with many other respiratory diseases. The symptoms you've describe above could be caused by anything from influenza to parapertussis. Without a positive COVID-19 test, I would say that it is all but certain that you caught something else.
In looking at RSV symptoms, I had TWO, intense headache for about 10 days, followed by fatigue that still troubles me five years later. I was ALWAYS high energy before. My Dr finds nothing obvious to explain it.
RSV Common Symptoms:
Runny or stuffy nose: Similar to a common cold, a runny or congested nose is a frequent symptom.
Sore throat: A scratchy or painful throat is another typical sign of RSV.
Cough: A persistent cough, which may be dry or produce mucus, is common.
Fever: A low-grade fever is often present, though some may experience higher fevers.
Fatigue: Feeling tired and run-down is a common complaint.
Headache: Many adults with RSV report experiencing headaches.
Muscle aches: Body aches and pains can also occur.
Not thinking RSV but I thank you for the thought. I blame covid virus. I see a direct connect in the timing, and symptoms. If the man I described in my post hadn't lost his sense of smell and taste, BEFORE that was identified as a covid symptom, I might not question the authors timeline.
THIS is a reason not to believe the "narrative". Anyone remember why it was called "Spanish Flu" in 1918?....cuz it started in Spain right?! Point being, don't expect the truth.....
Press Release
Published: Jun 4, 2024
Hearing Wrap Up: Dr. Fauci Held Publicly Accountable by Select Subcommittee
MADE UP OF REPRESENTATIVES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE
WASHINGTON — The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing titled “A Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci.” This hearing is the first time Dr. Fauci has testified publicly since retiring from public service. Earlier this year, Dr. Fauci appeared in front of the Select Subcommittee for a closed-door, two-day, 14-hour transcribed interview where he testified to serious failures in America’s public health system. During Dr. Fauci’s public hearing, he confirmed previous, concerning testimony and refused to take responsibility for the actions of his office. Members questioned Dr. Fauci about his facilitation and promotion of a singular COVID-19 narrative, his clearly misleading statements before Congress and the public, and his gross mismanagement of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Fauci reaffirmed shocking testimony that the “six feet apart” social distancing recommendation that he promoted was arbitrary, not based on science, and “sort of just appeared.” Conclusively, the Select Subcommittee held Dr. Fauci publicly accountable for pandemic-era failures.
Key Hearing Takeaways
Dr. Fauci showed no remorse for the millions of lives affected by his divisive rhetoric and his unscientific policies. He did not apologize to the thousands of Americans who lost their jobs because they refused the novel vaccine, nor did he apologize to children experiencing severe leaning loss as a result of actions he promoted.
Dr. Fauci confirmed that his Senior Advisor — Dr. David Morens — violated official NIH policies and potentially broke federal law. Evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee suggests that Dr. Morens deliberately obstructed the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, unlawfully deleted federal COVID-19 records, and shared nonpublic information about National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant processes with his “best-friend” EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. (EcoHealth) President Dr. Peter Daszak.
Dr. Fauci maintained his misleading claim that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. In 2021, he told Sen. Rand Paul that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” During yesterday’s hearing, Dr. Fauci doubled down on his previous claim by stating “the NIH did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Notably, former Acting NIH Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak told the Select Subcommittee recently that the NIH did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
Dr. Fauci agreed with the Select Subcommittee that EcoHealth and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, should never again receive a single cent from the U.S. taxpayer. Two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released evidence of EcoHealth’s contempt for the American people, its flagrant disregard for the risks associated with gain-of-function research, and its willful violation of the terms of its NIH grant, the Department of Health and Human Services commenced formal debarment proceedings against the organization and its president.
Dr. Fauci corrected his previous testimony that his staff did not possess conflicts of interest. During his transcribed interview he claimed, “the only people that I am involved with is my own staff, who we’ve mentioned many times in this discussion, who don’t have a conflict of interest.” During yesterday’s hearing, he changed his tune testifying that Dr. Morens “definitely had a conflict of interest.”
Dr. Fauci publicly acknowledged that the lab leak hypothesis was possible and not a conspiracy theory. Yesterday, he told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he falsely claimed that he has kept an “open mind” about the origins of the pandemic. This comes nearly four years after prompting the publication of the now infamous “Proximal Origin” paper that attempted to vilify and disprove the lab leak hypothesis.
I listen to the Michael Shermer show- he is promoting the lab leak theory. This is a skeptic, a man of reason, who has written books about crazy conspiracy theories as his focus for years. Why does he believe it? Anyway, great article- and once again we see the simplest explanation is almost always correct. 👍
It was known that bats carries a COVID-like virus in certain caves in China prior to the epidemic. Bats are a breeding ground for man viruses because they are unaffected by these viruses and they just go on about their business as usual. The problem is that bats lack the ACE2 receptor that is required to infect humans because our ACE2 receptor is fundamentally different. It would be very hard for a human to be directly infected by by a bat in this particular circumstance. However, pangolins do have a very similar ACE2 receptor and they often cohabitate in hollowed out trees along with four species of bats, and would be constantly wallowing in the bat excrement filled with virus. There are records of Traders bringing pangolins from southern China and Vietnam that had gotten sick but there are very few records to chronicle this important step in the evolution of the disease. Once the pangolins were infected by the virus it would only take a few genetic modifications to make it good-enough to transfer to an immunologically compromised human where evolution of billions of viruses per day could easily make this modified virus adapt to the new host. No conspiracy necessary. This it exactly what evolution does very well.
I wrote a piece for the Harvard Petrie Bill of Health detailing the conventional spread patterns of accidental releases. The WHHAN covid theory/accidental leak manner of transmission doesn't match any other lab leak I could find, corroborating your analysis. Thank you for setting this all out in one piece.
Barbara Pfeffer Billauer JD MA PHD
Thank you for laying out this evidence so clearly. Until further actual evidence is provided that leads to different conclusions this sounds like the best we have so far.
This was really good (thank you!), but an even more exhaustive discussion of the arguments and data occurred during the 17 hr Rootclaim debate, summarized brilliantly in the link below. Conclusion by the two judges picked by each debate side was the same as yours...Zoonosis is overwhelmingly more likely than a lab leak. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/practically-a-book-review-rootclaim
Great start to covid history; look forward to more. Thanks for running through the arguments for lab-leak that never seemed strong enough to review; and you have saved me the trouble. Is there really no stronger argument for it? Wet markets were identified as issue in 2003 for China. They were to be stopped but re-started. (And now continue?) A different type of commercial determinant of health?
Great piece. One of the frustrating things about "we've never seen this before in nature" is that in order to see it in nature, you have to actually look. And disease surveillance in animals has always been woefully underfunded, and my god, bats alone harbor so. many. viruses. So the work is underfunded, and I think the work is really, really hard. How many bats from a cave do you need to sample to feel like you've got a good representation of the cave's virome?
This is an excellent piece. Thank you. I will save it for the future.
The basic point is that there is a ton of evidence favoring a natural spillover event and none at all supporting the other hypotheses.
I would not have justified the scenarios with the word theory. I would have called them hypotheses. A theory is a system that is supported by multiple lines of evidence. The conspiracy theories described above have no supporting evidence, only lots of hand waving.
Very commendable work, great summary! To be frank, when I saw the revised CDC page with the picture, I almost lost my laptop. There's no question about the political attempt to give a rosy retrospective. Maybe we should could just call it political revisionism.
I would add that those in public health been warning about the wet/wild animal markets for a quite some time in a recent post. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01690-z
As for the origin, think this a good NEJM perspective piece. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2305081
Many thanks for taking on the currently very thankless task of calling out the revisionist history of COVID that is going on, I look forward to more in this series!
Great job! Regardless of the origin, the world did an extremely poor job of mitigating the spread of the virus and communication to health officials and the public, especially in the United States.
The most plausible explanation for COVID-19’s origins has been repeatedly discussed by credible medical experts and virologists. Far from being a novel virus, COVID-19 is likely another variant of coronaviruses that have coexisted with humans for centuries, if not longer. Although coronaviruses were first identified in the 1960s, this does not preclude their presence in human populations for centuries prior, as detection depended on advancements in virology.
One prominent and respected figure who has articulated this perspective is Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician and epidemiologist. Several other experts have expressed similar views, supported by extensive research into coronaviruses and their historical presence.
The narrative surrounding COVID-19 may have been amplified by medical interventions that contributed to excess deaths, enabling media outlets to sensationalize the crisis. Pharmaceutical companies, often major advertisers on television, wield significant influence over media content due to their substantial share of advertising revenue. Rather than merely promoting drugs to consumers, their advertising investments may grant them leverage over editorial decisions, shaping what news is broadcast. It’s unlikely that patients frequently approach their doctors requesting medications based solely on TV advertisements, suggesting these ads serve broader strategic purposes. No one goes to their doctor and says, “ I think this medicine would look great in my medicine cabinet.” Wake up America, big pharma are nothing more than criminal enterprises. All we witnessed during COVID-19 was the biggest medical crime in the history of mankind.
The United States is not the world, and your claims fall apart when considering the global context.
Consider India. Most of the population could not afford medical interventions that could have contributed to excess deaths. If more people died there than in an ordinary year, it had to be either a natural disaster - of which there were none of unusual size at the time - or a disease outbreak.
Now take a look at what happened: Mortality almost 50% higher than in 2019.
https://www.dataforindia.com/population-mortality/
The numbers are even more stark if you break them down monthly, which I haven't been able to find here.
Big pharma didn't need to influence the media to sensationalize the scale of the problem, and their power over the media is considerably less outside the US, since advertising prescription drugs direct to the public is illegal in many other countries.
Your take is sloppy and half-baked. Excess deaths in India didn’t surge until late 2021, *after* nearly 60% of the population was vaccinated, so your timeline’s garbage. The regions with the lowest vaccination rates—mostly poorer states and union territories—had the *fewest* excess deaths. These areas leaned hard into paramedical treatments like ivermectin, which you brain-dead COVID zealots sneer at as “horse dewormer.” Big Pharma’s tentacles are all over India’s media, just like everywhere else, pushing their narrative. The poorest states, with minimal medical infrastructure and intervention, came out on top. Get your facts straight before spewing nonsense.
I dug into COVID-19 data relentlessly, and the numbers don’t lie: the poorest countries had the *lowest* excess deaths, period. Excess deaths spiked *after* the vaccine rollout, not before. The pathetic “lamestream” media, Big Pharma’s obedient puppets, won’t touch this truth. It’s funny how they won’t mention excess deaths at all on TV. During the so-called plandemic, they hyped every death, using those garbage PCR tests that’d call a splinter a COVID case. Meanwhile, hospital protocol, remdesivir, and ventilators were killing the morbidly obese and walking dead who died for one of the multiple comorbidities they had. You’re a moron for buying their lies—but go ahead keep trying to lie with bullshit lies and stats that aren’t accurate.
This is fairly straightforwardly false. A series of errors.
Vaccinations in India were much delayed. By September 2021, there were only 45 doses per 100 people as per OWID, based on a range of sources, and 36% or so having received at least one dose: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
The biggest wave in India started in March 2021, and continued until June. By August 2021, most of the excess deaths had already occurred:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9128677/
Moreover, around half of the excess deaths caused by COVID-19 in India were in 2020.
I lead a team looking into this in 2022, and we proved that mortality due to COVID-19 was substantially higher in low-income countries. The perceived lower death rates are due to age differences, but once you correct for age someone living in India was around 2x as likely to die as someone living in Europe:
https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/5/e008477?fbclid=IwAR2c-UwRtalmCk9zSXV-_2eiUJsCJPc9RTy4nZIWmUn-p104G5zLdGcRo0k
Continue to do your homework. India had a smaller number of excess deaths than most of the world both in 2020 and 2021. The excess deaths started in late 2021, and most of India or about half of what ended up being about 70% of the nation had one shot before the end of 2021. The 9.3% increase in deaths was inline with the data and suggested that it was a normal trend not something that was out of line and certainly not because of COVID-19.
Also explain to me how the USA had a larger number of excess deaths in the years after the vaccine was rolled out to almost all the sheep in this country. This data is similar all over the world.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-saw-9-3-excess-deaths-during-first-2-covid-years-government-sources/articleshow/121071073.cms
I quite literally published scientific research proving you wrong. I cannot force you to read it, but that does not make you correct, just stubborn.
Excellent article. Thank you.
As you might have seen, I have written extensively about this topic.
So I can provide some extensive resources for further reading; if anybody really wants to understand what we know about this topic.
Here are two articles laying out the totality of evidence:
https://www.protagonist-science.com/p/natures-neglected-gof-laboratory
https://www.protagonist-science.com/p/treacherous-ancestry
And here are free-access excerpts of my book, where I tell the inside story of the search for the origin of COVID-19 and the many manipulations surrounding it.
Inside Wuhan during the outbreak:
https://www.protagonist-science.com/p/exclusive-the-inside-story-behind
Inside the WHO mission to Wuhan (2021):
https://www.protagonist-science.com/p/exclusive-inside-the-who-mission
Book will come in English soon; had my US publisher get cold feet after Trump won the election.
For all those who liked my post- thank you! And thank you to Health Nerd for allowing me the forum to post. For anyone interested, I write a weekly column on these and similar issues for the American Council on Science and Health, posted at thttps://www.acsh.org/profile/barbara-pfeffer-billauer-jd-ma-occ-health-phd. HOpe to see you there.
I think your timeline is off. I can only comment on my first hand experience. Near the end of Nov 2019, I was involved in caring for a man who had become progressively ill through the month of Dec. It started with flu like symptoms. He had quit smoking a couple of months before, and thought maybe this was a rebound "quitters flu" senario. He got worse, night sweats, a strange type of nightmare sleep, at one point he asked "can you die from quitting smoking"?, it was so bad. That was the closest he came to going to the ED.
By Jan 2020, before the pandemic was declared, he was improving slightly, very weak but with a new complaint. He couldn't smell anything, or what he could, smelled like feces. Literally. Food had no taste. He had lost a lot of weight, too much. He has long-covid symptoms to this day.
To answer an obvious question, no, he never got tested or sought medical attention.
I was in face to face, same room contact with him often during this time. About mid month in Dec 2019, I became ill as well. My symptoms weren't respiratory, but for me, a constant migrain level headache, and fatigue.
I did seek attention, but of course at that time they weren't looking for Covid, it hadn't even been named. My symptoms were treated with minimal success. I still deal with fatigue, new tinnitus and my blood pressure is erratic. Cause unknown, by Dr.
IMO there is a huge amount of information not known, will never be known and even if exposed won't bring back the millions dead. Millions of lives forever changed for the worse.
As mentioned, this didn't happen in the space of a few months. This is decades of research covering multiple administrations from both sides. They are all the same, all responsible.
Let me put it this way - epidemiologically, we are as close to 100% certain as it is possible to be that the pandemic started in late November in Wuhan. There is a vast quantity of evidence proving this (I cite several papers in my piece).
COVID-19 shares similarities with many other respiratory diseases. The symptoms you've describe above could be caused by anything from influenza to parapertussis. Without a positive COVID-19 test, I would say that it is all but certain that you caught something else.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-dr-fauci-held-publicly-accountable-by-select-subcommittee/
Since you mentioned you didn't have much connection with him, here's a summary of what he had to say to the committee.
There's three sides to every story. Your side, my side and the truth.
Dr. Fauci: “He should not have done that. That was wrong.”
I understand your opinion.
RSV would be a good bet.
In looking at RSV symptoms, I had TWO, intense headache for about 10 days, followed by fatigue that still troubles me five years later. I was ALWAYS high energy before. My Dr finds nothing obvious to explain it.
RSV Common Symptoms:
Runny or stuffy nose: Similar to a common cold, a runny or congested nose is a frequent symptom.
Sore throat: A scratchy or painful throat is another typical sign of RSV.
Cough: A persistent cough, which may be dry or produce mucus, is common.
Fever: A low-grade fever is often present, though some may experience higher fevers.
Fatigue: Feeling tired and run-down is a common complaint.
Headache: Many adults with RSV report experiencing headaches.
Muscle aches: Body aches and pains can also occur.
Not thinking RSV but I thank you for the thought. I blame covid virus. I see a direct connect in the timing, and symptoms. If the man I described in my post hadn't lost his sense of smell and taste, BEFORE that was identified as a covid symptom, I might not question the authors timeline.
THIS is a reason not to believe the "narrative". Anyone remember why it was called "Spanish Flu" in 1918?....cuz it started in Spain right?! Point being, don't expect the truth.....
Press Release
Published: Jun 4, 2024
Hearing Wrap Up: Dr. Fauci Held Publicly Accountable by Select Subcommittee
MADE UP OF REPRESENTATIVES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE
WASHINGTON — The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing titled “A Hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci.” This hearing is the first time Dr. Fauci has testified publicly since retiring from public service. Earlier this year, Dr. Fauci appeared in front of the Select Subcommittee for a closed-door, two-day, 14-hour transcribed interview where he testified to serious failures in America’s public health system. During Dr. Fauci’s public hearing, he confirmed previous, concerning testimony and refused to take responsibility for the actions of his office. Members questioned Dr. Fauci about his facilitation and promotion of a singular COVID-19 narrative, his clearly misleading statements before Congress and the public, and his gross mismanagement of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Fauci reaffirmed shocking testimony that the “six feet apart” social distancing recommendation that he promoted was arbitrary, not based on science, and “sort of just appeared.” Conclusively, the Select Subcommittee held Dr. Fauci publicly accountable for pandemic-era failures.
Key Hearing Takeaways
Dr. Fauci showed no remorse for the millions of lives affected by his divisive rhetoric and his unscientific policies. He did not apologize to the thousands of Americans who lost their jobs because they refused the novel vaccine, nor did he apologize to children experiencing severe leaning loss as a result of actions he promoted.
Dr. Fauci confirmed that his Senior Advisor — Dr. David Morens — violated official NIH policies and potentially broke federal law. Evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee suggests that Dr. Morens deliberately obstructed the Select Subcommittee’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, unlawfully deleted federal COVID-19 records, and shared nonpublic information about National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant processes with his “best-friend” EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. (EcoHealth) President Dr. Peter Daszak.
Dr. Fauci maintained his misleading claim that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. In 2021, he told Sen. Rand Paul that “the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” During yesterday’s hearing, Dr. Fauci doubled down on his previous claim by stating “the NIH did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.” Notably, former Acting NIH Director Dr. Lawrence Tabak told the Select Subcommittee recently that the NIH did, in fact, fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
Dr. Fauci agreed with the Select Subcommittee that EcoHealth and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, should never again receive a single cent from the U.S. taxpayer. Two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released evidence of EcoHealth’s contempt for the American people, its flagrant disregard for the risks associated with gain-of-function research, and its willful violation of the terms of its NIH grant, the Department of Health and Human Services commenced formal debarment proceedings against the organization and its president.
Dr. Fauci corrected his previous testimony that his staff did not possess conflicts of interest. During his transcribed interview he claimed, “the only people that I am involved with is my own staff, who we’ve mentioned many times in this discussion, who don’t have a conflict of interest.” During yesterday’s hearing, he changed his tune testifying that Dr. Morens “definitely had a conflict of interest.”
Dr. Fauci publicly acknowledged that the lab leak hypothesis was possible and not a conspiracy theory. Yesterday, he told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he falsely claimed that he has kept an “open mind” about the origins of the pandemic. This comes nearly four years after prompting the publication of the now infamous “Proximal Origin” paper that attempted to vilify and disprove the lab leak hypothesis.
I listen to the Michael Shermer show- he is promoting the lab leak theory. This is a skeptic, a man of reason, who has written books about crazy conspiracy theories as his focus for years. Why does he believe it? Anyway, great article- and once again we see the simplest explanation is almost always correct. 👍
It was known that bats carries a COVID-like virus in certain caves in China prior to the epidemic. Bats are a breeding ground for man viruses because they are unaffected by these viruses and they just go on about their business as usual. The problem is that bats lack the ACE2 receptor that is required to infect humans because our ACE2 receptor is fundamentally different. It would be very hard for a human to be directly infected by by a bat in this particular circumstance. However, pangolins do have a very similar ACE2 receptor and they often cohabitate in hollowed out trees along with four species of bats, and would be constantly wallowing in the bat excrement filled with virus. There are records of Traders bringing pangolins from southern China and Vietnam that had gotten sick but there are very few records to chronicle this important step in the evolution of the disease. Once the pangolins were infected by the virus it would only take a few genetic modifications to make it good-enough to transfer to an immunologically compromised human where evolution of billions of viruses per day could easily make this modified virus adapt to the new host. No conspiracy necessary. This it exactly what evolution does very well.