SARS2 was in a UNC freezer back in 2018
But this story is much bigger than Ralph Baric
If you closely read what I tried to write, you are probably shocked at this one line from a recent 1,400-page FOIA: Dr Ralph Baric (RB) in 2018 “has already generated SARS-like chimeras…of bat viruses…which are 20% different from epidemic strains.”
SARS2 was 22% different than epidemic strains. To put it bluntly, a bat virus ~2% different from SARS2 was in a UNC freezer, in early 2018. The parameter was always on Baric’s mind starting in 2015:
A coronavirus expert, Baric said if the viruses were too distantly related to SARS — more than 25% different — they would not be able to make a hybrid that would infect human cells. “Not all SARS-like coronaviruses have the inherent potential to replicate in mammalian cells and replicate in human cells.”
Baric called this 25% idea a “bookend” to prevent future evolution of a “pandemic potential” pathogen. He always looked for a Chinese bat sample that was no “more than 25 percent different” than pandemic strains like SARS1. The RaTG13 sample, collected by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013, had a spike that was exactly 24.6% off SARS1. We discussed this in Part 6 and Part 7, but if you need a reminder:
Just six months earlier, in the summer of 2019, Baric’s “hypothesis” was submitted for NIAID’s CREID project. They were seeking viruses less than 25% different from SARS1. The circulating SARS2 was 22% different from SARS1, so mission accomplished, because they found what they had created!
To put Baric’s freezer in perspective, the nearest known sample to SARS2 was RaTG13, which was 4% different. But Baric had two bat viruses named “293” and “HK3” that were even closer!
2nd bombshell
Dr Danielle Anderson’s role in the DARPA Defuse document was unclear, but Duke was responsible for the bat vaccine trials in Wuhan. The DARPA Defuse draft was much more explicit, stating clearly that Dani “will lead the animal studies.”
In 2019, Dani was a full-time bat immunologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In 2021, she told Bloomberg she worked on Ebola at the BSL4 but never studied Ebola. In November 2019, Dani left Wuhan without reason and never disclosed her central role in the DARPA Defuse proposal. On Jan 10, 2020, her boss Dr Linfa Wang resigned as Duke’s EID director.
3rd bombshell
led a restriction enzyme crusade that was covered by the Economist.The preprint shows that restriction sites for two popular restriction enzymes—bsaI and bsmbI—are strikingly evenly spaced in SARS2’s genome. In fact, the authors say, the spacing of these sites is so unusual that it suggests the work of human hands. In other words, they are claiming that SARS2 is a product of laboratory engineering.
Those human hands were Dr Baric’s. Inside SARS2 are six neatly spaced “cDNA pieces linked by unique restriction endonuclease (biological welds) for full-length genome assembly.” He also used UNC’s exclusive human airway epithelial cells in Chapel Hill, NC, to create SARS2.
The Bruttel preprint referenced the UNC reverse genetic system (cDNA), but not the Chinese junk method used in Wuhan (BAC). In 2017, Baric published a reverse genetic system outlining a ”seamless assembly of all (six) fragments” into a full-length genome like SARS2. Baric gave a presentation on the assembly process and said it was like playing with “tinker toys.”
Fellow German scientists have not approved Bruttel’s preprint, but the latest FOIA proved his scientific point. In the DARPA Defuse draft, UNC planned to order BsmBI to assemble SARS2, in 2018! The same BsmBI sites are found in SARS2 at the same location.
Congratulations to Dr Richard H. Ebright for reading my hit piece and blocking everyone on Twitter, while calling this evidence the smoking gun for a lab construct!
SARS2 required a $186M lab to create a novel coronavirus. A typical reverse genetic paper listed nearly 50 UNC scientists. Many lab leak ‘scientists’ conflate the ease of assembling a genome already circulating in humans, versus the creation of a novel coronavirus never seen in nature. In other words, no other lab could mail order SARS2 in 2019, but any lab could isolate the human virus in 2020.
In 2020, Baric covered his biological tracks by using very different restriction sites to assemble the SARS2 genome. Remember when the US military asked Baric, “Are there any restriction sites in this strain…suggesting it is engineered?”
Baric replied, “No, there is absolutely no evidence that this virus is bioengineered.”
4th bombshell
Baric must have been blinded by the beauty of his own creation, because he missed those obvious restriction sites, along with the infamous furin cleavage site!
He proposed inserting the same SARS2 furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 border (R667) of a novel coronavirus like SARS2.
This was the same furin cleavage site that Baric forgot to mention, during a one-hour presentation to Congressional staff in Washington, D.C.
5th bombshell
Dr Tim Sheahan probably created SARS2 in his Chapel Hill, NC office. He described a division of labor at the UNC lab, with a large team dedicated to each part of the complicated assembly process.
Tim was Baric Jr and anointed a “genetics expert.” On Dec 11, 2019, he shared a screenshot of his monitor.
BatSRBD was the UNC consensus sequence paper from 2008. “We designed a consensus Bat-SCoV genome and replaced the Bat-SCoV Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) with the SARS-CoV RBD (Bat-SRBD).”
Part 1 title was a brilliant play on words that nobody understood?
SARS2 was a consensus sequence of various genomes collected over the past decade. These included RaTG13, Laos Banal, Thailand, Cambodia, etc. In 2018, Baric bragged about “several” bat samples “with pandemic potential” stored in his Chapel Hill, NC freezer.
Two of those 2018 viruses were called “293” and “HK3.” They will become the second most debated genome in human history, behind SARS2.
In a joint 2020 presentation with Tony Fauci, Baric referred to his 25% bookend for preventing future pandemics, but both neglected to mention the potential involvement in creating this current pandemic.
In his last interview, before DARPA Defuse leaked in September 2021, Baric claimed to have never sent “chimeric virus sequence, clones, or viruses” to Wuhan. Fauci then ‘donated’ $65M to Baric’s pet project, because this story is much bigger than Dr Ralph Baric.
Postscript
Many thanks to Gumby for releasing the FOIA, since USRTK was sitting on this explosive information for one month. To their credit, it was a ninja FOIA move to get the DARPA Defuse draft from USGS emails, since UNC was stonewalling for good reason.