A Note on 2019-nCoronaVirus (COVID-19) FROM CHINA!

The recent coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, has sparked widespread suspicion about the potential laboratory-related origin of the virus, or even being part of the Chinese biowarfare program, with Senator Tom Cotton as one the most prominent figures publicly alluding to this point. We hereby present a systematic analysis of available information, based on the viral genomic sequence as deposited by Chinese investigators to public database, to unambiguously rule out the possibility of a laboratory-related origin.

As noted by many believers of the conspiracy theory, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology once participated in a study creating a chimera virus to test the human pathogenicity of novel coronaviruses detected in the bat population (Menachery et al 2015 Nature Medicine, note that this study was not performed in Wuhan but at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). When creating such chimera viruses artificially, scientists need to use recombinant DNA technology to splice sequences derived from different origins together. In the case of the Nature Medicine paper, scientists put the S gene of a bat coronavirus into the backbone of a mouse-adapted coronavirus, which is analogous to installing an Audi engine to a BMW shell. Such chimera virus sequences are extremely easy to recognize as all one needs to do is to use a bioinformatics tool known as BLAST to scan the sequence and one would immediately know whether the sequence is assembled from pieces of known origin. The sequence of the 2019 NcoV has been analyzed by BLAST by scientists throughout the world and the conclusion is simple: no sign of a chimera being produced via artificial splicing can be detected at all. Instead, the 2019 NcoV sequence displayed a remarkable level of global similarity (96.2% identical) to a strain of coronavirus identified in wild bat, coded RaTG13 and captured by Dr. Zheng-li Shi’s group in 2013, which almost definitively indicates that 2019 NcoV has evolved from RaTG13 but not assembled from separate pieces.

We now have ruled out the possibility that 2019 NcoV is a man-made chimera virus. What about the possibility that 2019 NcoV is modified from RaTG13 by human? Whereas manually introduced mutations are localized and well-defined, the differences between NcoV and RaTG13 sequences are randomly scattered throughout the genome and the nature of the mutations is highly variable, which is exactly what one would expect for mutations accumulated over the course of natural evolution. Although it is theoretically possible to artificially re-create all those natural-looking mutations, it would entail an unreasonably large workload. More importantly, the impact of most of the mutations in 2019 NcoV relative to RaTG13 on viral infectivity or pathogenicity are difficult to predict and therefore it is against experimental logic to intentionally make them. Hence the only sensible explanation is 2019 NcoV is a result of natural evolution from a common ancestor shared by RaTG13.

Even if one admits that 2019 NcoV is of pure natural origin, some people may still argue that it could have transmitted to local animal habitants of Wuhan from bats kept at Wuhan Institute of Virology, perhaps out of negligence in management. To critically examine this possibility, we need to estimate how long it would take for a bat virus to evolve into the 2019 NcoV. As we discussed, the closest relative of 2019 NcoV at Wuhan Institute of Virology is the RaTG13 bat captured in 2013. Suppose the leakage happened immediately after the bat was transferred to Wuhan in 2013, there would be 6 years for the RaTG13 virus to evolve into the current form of 2019 NcoV. The 3.8% difference between RaTG13 and NcoV translates into approximately 1100 nucleotides. Estimation of the speed of natural mutation of coronaviruses varies but 90 nucleotide per year seems to be an upper limit. In this case, it would take at least 12 years for RaTG13 virus to evolve into 2019 NcoV, which certainly does not fit into the present scenario.

What is the likely origin of 2019 NcoV? The fact that it bears striking resemblance to RaTG13 strongly argues that bat was the original host of the virus. However, the host that directly transmitted the virus to human still remains a mystery, because a direct host must carry a virus that is more than 99% identical to 2019 NcoV, and such a species has not been identified. On Feb 7, scientists at South China Agricultural University announced detection of fragments of coronavirus retrieved from pangolin that are about 99% identical with 2019 NcoV. The detailed results have not been published and the quality of the data awaits further scrutiny, but it certainly hints at the possibility that pangolin may be on the chain of potential intermediate hosts linking bat to human.

This is what COVID-19 Looks Like!

Mise en point de Dr. Cynthia McKinney au sujet de la RDCongo

Étant en possession d’importantes informations sur le processus électoral actuel en République Démocratique du Congo et sur le trucage prévu lors du scrutin présidentiel de 2016 où certains, aux États-Unis et dans la région des Grands Lacs, ont déjà choisi le futur le président de la RDC, j’ai été contactée par des Congolais qui souhaitaient que j’aide à dénoncer cette mascarade, comme je l’avais déjà fait il y a plusieurs années au moment de la publication du rapport des Nations Unies de 2001 sur le pillage du Congo.

Je rappelle qu’à l’époque, j’avais communiqué plusieurs documents bancaires et autres preuves en ma possession aux enquêteurs de l’ONU. Connaissant donc mon engagement en faveur du respect des droits humains et de la souveraineté de la RDCongo lorsque je siégeais au Congrès américain, des Congolais sont venus me voir espérant que je pourrais à nouveau contribuer à rendre publiques des informations majeures sur la RDC. J’ai donné mon accord de principe pour cette action mais j’ai été surprise d’apprendre, dans un document diffusé sur internet et visant manifestement à nuire à ma réputation, que j’étais prête à faire du lobbying en faveur du gouvernement congolais alors que je n’ai jamais eu d’atomes crochus avec le régime de Kinshasa.

Vu la façon dont ce document est formulé et la vitesse avec laquelle il a été publié sur les réseaux sociaux, cela me donne surtout l’impression que soit quelqu’un a cherché à me salir soit que j’ai été victime d’un traquenard.
Dans tous les cas, si je m’exprime publiquement sur cette affaire, c’est pour dire qu’ayant toujours demandé la vérité sur l’assassinat de Patrice Lumumba, celui de Laurent-Désiré Kabila et sur tous les crimes commis contre le peuple congolais, je ne peux pas tolérer que mon nom soit associé à des basses manœuvres politiciennes qui visent à défendre le régime de Kinshasa ou à spolier le peuple congolais qui souffre depuis plus de soixante ans de violence et d’injustice.

Je rassure tous les Congolais sur le fait que je n’ai touché aucun centime du gouvernement de Kinshasa et que je n’ai jamais touché un centime pour tout ce que j’ai fait jusqu’ici pour la République Démocratique du Congo. Je vais soumettre cette affaire à mon avocat pour savoir quelle suite lui donner.

Ceux qui espèrent par ces actes indélicats m’empêcher de défendre le droit du peuple congolais à l’autodétermination, à la vérité et à la justice se trompent. J’aiderai de vrais patriotes Congolais déterminés à sortir leur pays de l’impasse, de l’occupation étrangère et du pillage dont il est, aujourd’hui encore l’objet.

Truth Foretold, Specious Journalism, And Spurious Assertions: The Case of Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg View, and The Charlotte Observer

While it is true that I was “booted” by pro-war Democrats who worked in concert with like-minded Republicans, your assertion of my being booted for “peddling conspiracies” deserves a deeper look. My booting, by the way, resulted in the GOP takeover of my home State of Georgia, an outcome that seemingly makes both pro-war Democrats and Republicans (now called “globalists”) comfortable. Therefore, I want to take a deeper look at what I did “peddle:”

 

  1. That Presidential candidate George W. Bush worked with his Florida Governor brother, Jeb, to orchestrate election theft in the 2000 Presidential election. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2000 and 2001 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdPhXuTzQeI), this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;
  2. That President George W. Bush received warnings about an impending attack on the US (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/cia-directors-documentary-911-bush-213353) and actively blocked an investigation (http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/29/inv.terror.probe/) into the September 11, 2001 attacks. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2001, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;
  3. That the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (https://www.vcf.gov/faq.html) was really set up to thwart 9/11 wrongful death lawsuits because it prevented victims’ survivors from getting justice in US Courts; I felt that victims and victims’ survivors should be able to sue the culprits as well as receive support from the Fund. The President recently vetoed legislation that would allow lawsuits to move forward against Saudi Arabia and Congress just overrode his veto. Fourteen years later, I am pleased that, once again, my position has been supported by evidence that has been clearly available to all for at least a decade;
  4. That the US was not justified in attacking Iraq in 2003. The most thorough investigation into the 2003 decision to go to war against Iraq is the Chilcot Report (http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-report/) which found that war was not the last option and that U.S. allegations of Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq were not justified. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2002, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all;
  5. That the then-Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, failed to perform his job during Hurricane Katrina and that thousands needlessly died because he failed the Gulf States and the country. After joining with Republicans and writing a Congressional Report on the subject that is available to the public (www.nola.com/katrina/pdf/mainreport.pdf), my position is supported by evidence that is available to all;
  6. That a specific allegation had been made to my Congressional Office that thousands of bodies had been dumped in Louisiana swamps after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, we know that 9/11 human remains were dumped in a landfill (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/us/panel-recommends-more-oversight-and-training-at-dover-mortuary.html?_r=0) with such action having been deemed “dereliction of duty,” so who has conducted an independent investigation into what happened in Louisiana, in particular, with respect to body disposal?
  7. That racism exists in Capitol Hill Police Department similar to what exists in other police departments around the U.S. and that I was a victim of that discrimination after I supported a lawsuit filed by Black police officers after one of their superior officers used the word “nigger.” Black police officers have been waiting fifteen years for justice and recently held a demonstration in support of their claim (http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/former-capitol-police-call-attention-discrimination-lawsuits). One need only hear the moving testimony of the U.S. Senate’s lone Black GOP Member and his interactions with the Capitol Hill Police (http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/floor-speeches/tim-scott-black-republican-emotional-powerful-dramatic-race-speech-targeted-capitol-police) to understand that my experience was surely possible. Now, again—after the fact— that the public has caught up with the evidence that I put on the table in 2006, my position is supported by evidence that is available to all, sadly now most of all, the family of Keith Lamont Scott and all of those young people who were just recently in Charlotte’s streets.

 

If only the press had decided to investigate my assertions rather than castigate me for making them! Maybe things would be far different than they are today in Iraq, Libya, Louisiana, and elsewhere. But, instead of investigation of the inconvenient or unpleasant facts that I repeatedly put on the table, the response was a frenzy of specious journalism and spurious assertions where true journalism was needed. Your column, with mention of my name, is an example of that. Such “reporting” is precisely why Trump’s attacks on the media resonate so well with the American and global public. The polling data on the public perception of the U.S. media is a damning indictment of the role the media has played in this country for too many years. That is why the U.S. public more and more now seeks its information from foreign media outlets, the internet, “alternative” media, and less and less from “newspapers” like yours.

 

Cynthia McKinney, Ph.D.

Cynthia Speaks To Graduates At Cal State: Make Gentle Our Country In This World

And you, my proud graduates. How many of you are in debt because of student loans. In other parts of the world, education is valued and so the people demand and the policy makers provide affordable higher education, within the average family’s reach. Why not here? We do not have to have a 50% high school drop out rate, either.

But we will continue to get what I’ve described and worse if we continue to accept what we’ve been given. Frederick Douglass reminded us that power concedes nothing without a demand. What I want to tell you today is that you have the power to lodge a demand for a public policy result that will make our communities more prosperous and the world a safer place for us all. But understanding what our demands must be requires critical thinking and deep analysis of our current situation.

Sadly, even in this year of decision, however, these were not the issues that were put before you. And the reason is so that you will not lodge the demand. The organization of politics today, in combination with the media, is so that you won’t put forward the correct demand that will result in public policy changes desperately needed in this country.