Category Archives: Germ Warfare

Published by news@presspubli... on Fri, 08/13/2021 - 4:00pm

Viral questionsTo the editor: It has been common knowledge for years that all major developing countries have possessed the ability to conduct germ warfare. The Wuhan crisis is no exception.Was a virus created in the lab and deliberately leaked into the local wet markets for experimentation on the people of Wuhan?This is totally consistent with China's poor record on civil rights and its complete lack of concern for all of the Chinese people.The virus created in Wuhan is by no means a poor reflection on all Asians especially Asian-Americans. It is simply a reaffirmation of the Communist Chinese government's unconscionable disdain for human life. They are to blame.Now we the American people will soon be required by our government to get the vaccine without being told what are the short/long term side effects. This is inherently a violation of our civil rights since the vaccine has never been approved by the Food & Drug Administration.The one benefactor from the spread of the virus is the environment. Consider how working from home reduces the amount of carbon emissions caused by the automobile. Why aren't the Biden Administration and various environmental groups encouraging this?Joe BialekCleveland

Keep R-2 zoningTo the editor: As reported in The Press, the Elmore Planning Commission recently voted 3-2 to forward a proposal to rezone farm property on Dischinger Road from R-2 to R-3 on to village council for consideration.The mayor pointed out that the planning commission held a public hearing as required when a zoning change is proposed. Unfortunately, he failed to point out that the planning commission voted to send the proposal to council after many residents voiced opposition to the rezoning at the hearing. About 50-75 village and township residents attended the hearing and several spoke in opposition to changing the current zoning to multi-family.In addition, contingent property owners received notification to submit their comments in writing. Every letter read voiced opposition to rezoning.This property is annexed and is contiguous to the village only by the bike trail. At this time, all other property surrounding this parcel is not within the village. It will be difficult and expensive to provide the infrastructure necessary for services needed to support multi-family dwellings as it also involves crossing a creek.Village council will hold a public hearing before it votes on the proposal. The hearing is scheduled for Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Elmore Community Center. I do not feel that multi-family dwellings on a 52-acre parcel are in the best interest of the village or the school district. I encourage council to grow our village with single-family and two-family dwellings and keep the current zoning R-2.Becky BusdekerElmore

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Letters To The Editor Week of 8/16/2021 | The Press - Press Publications Inc.

I almost focused this weeks Talk of the Town column on ambulance service to Blowing Rock but decided to save that for another day. For this week, I want to say how blessed we are to have things returning to some semblance of normal.

First, on July 23 we enjoyed the return of Symphony by the Lake at Chetola Resort. The Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce sold out of their 2,500 available tickets within a very few hours of their becoming available. There were patron tents aplenty, which is another good revenue source for one of the chambers biggest fundraising events of the year.

It felt like there were more than 2,500 in attendance. The weather was fantastic, the music was wonderful, and spirits were high.

Kudos and thanks, really to the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce team led by events chair Suzy Barker. Execution had to have been near flawless because we heard zero complaints. From the introductory remarks by Charlie Sellers, Greg Tarbutton and Hendrick Automotives Bobby Rice to the extraordinary fireworks display that capped off the evening, it was a magical night. And, of course, a tip of the cap also goes to Cornelia Laemmli Orth and the Symphony of the Mountains for a grand orchestra performance.

Yesterday (Monday, July 26), I ventured out to the Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve to witness firsthand the preparations for the Hunter-Jumper Division of the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show. It runs the next two weeks, through August 8, and it is as big as ever. With the more than 500 horses on the property and almost 2,000 people directly associated with the horse show, there is an enormous economic impact on the Town of Blowing Rock, not to mention inspiring entertainment. Watching those men and women, boys and girls put the magnificent athletes through their paces is fascinating, to say the least.

On the front page of this edition of The Blowing Rocket, there is a story about the horse show and its scope. I marvel that only about 36 people on the horse show staff make it possible for the competitors to do their thing, and to do it safely. All of those horses and people moving about this way and that at the same time on what amounts to a 20-acre postage stamp requires a lot of coordination, collaboration, and cooperation from all parties.

Can you imagine? 7,000 bags of wood chips for the stalls, 4,000 bales of hay for the horses to munch on, and they spend $30,000 during the events just to manage and dispose of the manure.

Both at the Symphony, as well as at the horse show, I saw few masks being worn. As a consequence, I saw some terrific smiles.

There are reports of an uptick in COVID-19 infections, especially among the unvaccinated. I get it that vaccination is and should be a personal choice, but it is hard to comprehend, given the evidence, why someone would not be vaccinated at this point. After we witnessed what the disease can do if unchecked, this isnt about losing our personal freedoms or government control. It is about the survival of the human race. If everyone in history had the same fear of getting a shot, a much larger share of our population would probably have contracted polio by now. Then there is the mumps, measles, small pox, shingles, SARS, chicken pox, hepatitis, mumps, whooping cough, and more. Without vaccinations, I hate to think what kind of plagues would have gripped the worlds human populations.

I was initially skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccinations, too. I admit it, but I got over the distrust. Yeah, like just about everyone else, I was flat on my back for a day so and missed work and one party as a result. But that was it. One day and I bounced right back, good as new.

Conspiracy theorists have offered that COVID-19 was part of some Chinese plot to develop germ warfare and the virus leaked out of a lab in Wuhan, perhaps on purpose as a sinister human trial or, more likely, accidentally.

While yes, it would be nice to know how the virus was able to jump from bats to humans, it really doesnt matter. The world mobilized like never before to control the virus spread and, at the same, the biopharmaceutical industry developed multiple and effective vaccines faster than had ever been previously accomplished.

It is annoying that we still have to wear a mask when we visit a healthcare facility. Reluctantly, I still comply. It is not that I am a lemming following a pied piper of the government, but if that is the price of getting a checkup, treated for cancer or blood clots, or having cataracts removed from my eyes, well it is a small inconvenience.

I dont like even the idea of masks, but I hope that we can get through what they are calling an uptick in recent incidences of COVID-19 quickly. After all, football season is coming and while it is better viewing to watch it on television, there is nothing like going through the ups and downs of a game with a crowd, up close and personal.

David Rogers is the editor of the Blowing Rocket.

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Talk of the Town: | Blowing Rocket | wataugademocrat.com - Watauga Democrat

COVID-19

It has been common knowledge for years that all major developing countries have possessed the ability to conduct germ warfare. The Wuhan crisis is no exception. Was a virus created in the lab and deliberately leaked into the local wet markets for experimentation on the people of Wuhan? This is totally consistent with Chinas poor record on civil rights and its complete lack of concern for all of the Chinese people. The virus created in Wuhan is by no means a poor reflection on all Asians, especially Asian-Americans. It is simply a reaffirmation of the Communist Chinese governments inhuman disdain for human life. They are the ones to blame.

Now we, the American people, are required by our government to get the vaccine without being told what the short/long-term side effects are. This is inherently a violation of our civil rights.

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The one benefactor from the spread of the virus is the environment. Consider how working from home reduces the amount of carbon emissions caused by the automobile.

Joe Bialek, Cleveland, Ohio

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Letter to the Editor: Joe Bialek - Atlanta Jewish Times

The Biden Administration, the mainstream media and pretty much all the politicians in our country continue to throw fuel on the Sinophobia fire initially stoked by former President and current Mar-a-lago fungineer Donald Trump.

(Word to the wise, Sinophobia means anti-China hatred, not anti-cinema hatred as I had thought. So I apologize to all the people who posted a movie review forFast And Furious 27and noticed a response comment from me reading GODDAMN SINOPHOBE! Under the circumstances, that was an odd thing to yell.)

During the Trump Administration, the Wuhan lab leak theory was called a ridiculous conspiracy that blossomed out of Trumps racist brain which it did. It absolutely did. And he should get some credit for that because anyone can be racist but Trump is a racistinventor. He comes up with new and exciting ways to be racist. So he deserves some credit for his innovation.

Last year, Trumps racist lab leak theory was thrown out by both the Democratic establishment and most of the mainstream media. However, now that the crackpot conspiracy can be useful for President Bidens deranged anti-China rhetoric, all of a sudden the establishment and the media think its a wonderful conspiracy.

A recent CNNheadline blared: What the lab-leak theorys new credibility means for social media! A CNBCheadline screamed: Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak theory. While just a couple weeks ago, Yahoo News quietlyreminded us: Theres still no evidence of a Chinese lab leak.

But mainly you have to go to independent news sources to get the reality. Heres Danny Haiphong atBlack Agenda Report: Similar to Russiagate, U.S. intelligence has run with an entirely unsourced narrative, that conveniently pins blame on another country for domestic ills and labels that country a national security threat. The lab leak conspiracy is an effective psychological operation because it is difficult to imagine evidence that could disprove or prove the claim.

Ah, those are the best kind of racist stories the ones that cant be disproven.

But one thing youll certainly neverhear from the mainstream media is that all of this is stacked on top of a mostly-forgotten, yet impressively prodigious, history of the American people provably being used as lab rats by our own government. For example, as reported atBusiness Insider, On September 20, 1950, a US Navy ship just off the coast of San Francisco used a giant hose to spray a cloud of microbes into the air and into the citys fog. The military was testing how a biological weapon attack would affect the 800,000 residents of the city.

So they, uh, perpetrated a biological attack on American citizens to find out what would happen in the event of a biological attack on American citizens?! Honestly, the mind reels. In one of the largest human experiments in history, our military covered the people ofSan Francisco with two kinds of bacteria, Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii (Nowadays you can only find that kind of treatment from Clevelands tap water.)

The gas attack sickened many and was known to kill at least one man. According to Rebecca Kreston at Discover Magazine, this event ranked as one of the largest offenses against the Nuremberg Code since its inception because the code requires voluntary, informed consent to, you know, hit people with bioweapons. (Unless youre trying to kill them, in which case I think the informed consent is off the table.)

But that experiment did not mark the end of such things,just the beginning. Over the next 20 years, the military would conduct 239 germ warfare tests over populated areas, according to news reports from the 1970s after the secret tests had been revealed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, and other publications, and also detailed in congressional testimony from the 1970s.

After it came out, the government explained that their goal was to deter the use of biological weapons and be prepared for them. Apparently we wanted to deter biological weapons attacks on Americans by dropping biological weapons on Americansfirst. What a genius strategy. Our enemies would never see it coming. Plus, why would our global nemeses attack us with germ warfare if we do it toourselves? You cant threaten to kill a man if hewantsto die!

Of the 239 biological and chemical warfare tests by the military, some were done across the Midwest to see how the pathogen would spread throughout the country (and probably to clear out some parking spots). When asked why military planes were dispersing unknown clouds of shit over cities, they claimed they were testing a way to mask the cities from enemy bombers.

In another study of how vulnerable New York City subway passengers were to covert biological agents, for six days the U.S. military broke light bulbs brimming full of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and S. marcescens inside NYC subway stations and watched it spread throughout the city. Clouds would engulfpeople as trains pulled away, but documents say that the people brushed their clothing and walked on. No one was concerned.

Thats New York for ya. Hit commuters with germ warfare they just brush it off and keep moving. Every day to a New Yorker is germ warfare. I once rode from Montauk to Hoboken sitting across from a man relieving himself. A little experiment by the Military Industrial Complex doesnt even register on a New Yorkers list of things to worry about.

Yet, the military was testing more than just germ attacks. Other experimentsinvolved testing mind-altering drugs on unsuspecting citizens. That program went by the name MKUltra (which is also a great name for a metal band or a homemade cocktail containing absinthe). MKUltra continued fortwenty years, during whichthe CIA triedto achieve mind control by using torture, LSD, hypnosis, and electro-shock therapy sometimes on unwitting subjects. (And even if they were witting going into the experiment, afterwards not so much.)

Among other things, this program resulted inthe murderof a scientist named Frank Olson in 1953 and (accidentally)the creation of the Unabomber. (Who said the CIA doesnt work hard? Theyre killin people here, electrocutin people there, creatin terrorists. Thats a hell of a workload.)

Next, theres the well-knownTuskegee Experimentsin which government researchers studied the effects of syphilis on black Americans without informing the men that they had the disease they were instead told they had bad blood.

Not to worry, young man you just havebad blood. Its gonna be fine. But you will also die soon. Thats one of the negative side effects.

The researchers withheld treatment from the participants so they could continue to study the illness, which the men werent even toldthey had.

In sum, the Military Intelligence Industrial Complex are serial murderers not just overseas but of our own citizens. They performedhundredsof experiments on unsuspecting Americans, and yet the organizations responsible still exist and enjoy budgets in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year. No one went to prison for these heinous acts because when you or I do it, its called a horrible crime, but when the ruling elite do it, its called research.

This piece first appeared at ScheerPost.

Link:

America's Impressive History of Bioweapons Attacks Against Its Own People - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch

Forget China-bashing conspiracy theories, let's look at the fogging of SF, the microbial attack on the NYC subway and other unpleasantries perpetrated by the CIA and US military in our not-so-distant past.

This article was originally published by ScheerPost.

The Biden administration, the mainstream media and pretty much all the politicians in our country continue to throw fuel on the Sinophobia fire initially stoked by former president and current Mar-a-Lago fungineer Donald Trump.

(Word to the wise, Sinophobia means anti-China hatred, not anti-cinema hatred as I had thought. So I apologize to all the people who posted a movie review for 'Fast And Furious 27' and noticed a response comment from me reading GODDAMN SINOPHOBE! Under the circumstances, that was an odd thing to yell.)

During the Trump administration, the Wuhan lab-leak theory was called a ridiculous conspiracy that blossomed out of Trumps racist brain which it did. It absolutely did. And he should get some credit for that because anyone can be racist but Trump is a racistinventor. He comes up with new and exciting ways to be racist. So he deserves some credit for his innovation.

Last year, Trumps racist lab-leak theory was thrown out by both the Democratic establishment and most of the mainstream media. However, now that the crackpot conspiracy can be useful for President Bidens deranged anti-China rhetoric, all of a sudden the establishment and the media think its a wonderful conspiracy.

A recent CNN headline blared: What the lab-leak theorys new credibility means for social media! A CNBC headline screamed: Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as US intel weighs Wuhan lab-leak theory. While just a couple weeks ago, Yahoo News quietly reminded us: Theres still no evidence of a Chinese lab leak.

But mainly you have to go to independent news sources to get the reality. Heres Danny Haiphong at Black Agenda Report: Similar to Russiagate, US intelligence has run with an entirely unsourced narrative, that conveniently pins blame on another country for domestic ills and labels that country a national security threat The lab-leak conspiracy is an effective psychological operation because it is difficult to imagine evidence that could disprove or prove the claim.

Ah, those are the best kind of racist stories the ones that cant be disproven.

But one thing youll certainlyneverhear from the mainstream media is that all of this is stacked on top of a mostly forgotten, yet impressively prodigious, history of the American people provably being used as lab rats by our own government. For example, as reported at Business Insider, On September 20, 1950, a US Navy ship just off the coast of San Francisco used a giant hose to spray a cloud of microbes into the air and into the citys fog. The military was testing how a biological weapon attack would affect the 800,000 residents of the city.

So they, uh, perpetrated a biological attack on American citizens to find out what would happen in the event of a biological attack on American citizens?! Honestly, the mind reels. In one of the largest human experiments in history, our military covered the people of San Francisco with... two kinds of bacteria, Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii (Nowadays you can only find that kind of treatment from Clevelands tap water.)

The gas attack sickened many and was known to kill at least one man. According to Rebecca Kreston at Discover Magazine, this event ranked as one of the largest offenses against the Nuremberg Code since its inception because the code requires voluntary, informed consent to, you know, hit people with bioweapons. (Unless youre trying to kill them, in which case I think the informed consent is off the table.)

But that experiment did not mark the end of such things, just the beginning. Over the next 20 years, the military would conduct 239 'germ warfare' tests over populated areas, according to news reports from the 1970s after the secret tests had been revealed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Associated Press, and other publications, and also detailed in congressional testimony from the 1970s.

After it came out, the government explained that their goal was to deter the use of biological weapons and be prepared for them. Apparently we wanted to deter biological weapons attacks on Americans by dropping biological weapons on Americansfirst. What a genius strategy. Our enemies would never see it coming. Plus, why would our global nemeses attack us with germ warfare if we do it toourselves? You cant threaten to kill a man if hewantsto die!

Of the 239 biological and chemical warfare tests by the military, some were done across the Midwest to see how the pathogen would spread throughout the country (and probably to clear out some parking spots). When asked why military planes were dispersing unknown clouds of s**t over cities, they claimed they were testing a way to mask the cities from enemy bombers.

"Yeah, were just covering up the city from the bad guys. Just covering it with a warm blanket of bacteria. Just a big ol protective germ blanket. All cozy and safe from the bad guys who are not us. The bad guys are other people who are not currently hitting you with bio-weapons like we are." A US military spokesman, probably, at some point

In another study of how vulnerable New York City subway passengers were to covert biological agents, for six days the US military broke light bulbs brimming full of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and S. marcescens inside NYC subway stations and watched it spread throughout the city. Clouds would engulfpeople as trains pulled away, but documents say that the people brushed their clothing and walked on. No one was concerned.

Thats New York for ya. Hit commuters with germ warfare they just brush it off and keep moving. Every day to a New Yorker is germ warfare. I once rode from Montauk to Hoboken sitting across from a man relieving himself. A little experiment by the Military Industrial Complex doesnt even register on a New Yorkers list of things to worry about.

Yet, the military was testing more than just germ attacks. Other experimentsinvolved testing mind-altering drugs on unsuspecting citizens. That program went by the name MKUltra (which is also a great name for a metal band or a homemade cocktail containing absinthe). MKUltra continued for 20 years, during which the CIA triedto achieve mind control by using torture, LSD, hypnosis, and electro-shock therapy sometimes on unwitting subjects. (And even if they were witting going into the experiment, afterwards not so much.)

Among other things, this program resulted in the murderof a scientist named Frank Olson in 1953 and (accidentally) the creation of the Unabomber. (Who said the CIA doesnt work hard? Theyre killin people here, electrocutin people there, creatin terrorists. Thats a hell of a workload.)

Next, theres the well-known Tuskegee Experimentsin which government researchers studied the effects of syphilis on black Americans without informing the men that they had the disease they were instead told they had bad blood.

Not to worry, young man you just havebad blood. Its gonna be fine. But you will also die soon. Thats one of the negative side effects.

The researchers withheld treatment from the participants so they could continue to study the illness, which the men werent even toldthey had.

In sum, the Military Intelligence Industrial Complex are serial murderers not just overseas but of our own citizens. They performedhundredsof experiments on unsuspecting Americans, and yet the organizations responsible still exist and enjoy budgets in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year. No one went to prison for these heinous acts because when you or I do it, its called a horrible crime, but when the ruling elite do it, its called research.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Lee Camp: Americas impressive history of bioweapons attacks against its own people - RT

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a global centre for coronavirus research

Who is responsible for the deaths of at least 3.5 million people from Covid? President Biden has asked the American intelligence agencies to find out. Presumably he suspects that the explanation isnt totally innocent.

His predecessor, Donald Trump, wasnt shy in blaming the Chinese authorities. What he called the China Virus was, as he put it with characteristic hyperbole, worse than Pearl Harbour. This is worse than the World Trade Centre. There has never been an attack like this.

The idea that the Chinese had organised some kind of germ warfare attack was as ridiculous and offensive as the Chinese counter-claim that Americans had deliberately sent the virus to China.

But the Chinese authorities had already poisoned the atmosphere and fomented distrust by seeking to cover up the outbreak for several weeks and to suppress whistleblowers. The combination of Chinese government opacity and the bluster of Trump and his allies helps to explain the very sharp increase in hostility towards China in the west, as charted by Pews international opinion surveys, as well as outbreaks of anti-Chinese racism.

The sense of mutual hostility and resentment was demonstrated when Australia demanded that China open itself to independent inspection of the causes of the outbreak. This, along with a considerable number of other actions, led to severe economic sanctions directed by China at Australian exports.

For most of 2020, however, the atmosphere calmed down. Mainstream scientific opinion embraced the idea of zoonotic transmission: the crossover from one species to another, as occurs in most new diseases involving viruses. Chinas wildlife markets are a potential breeding ground for such transmission. The assumption has been that Wuhans wet fish and animal market was the source. China has since banned wildlife consumption and trade in recognition of the problem. However, precise evidence of the source the smoking bat or the smoking pangolin has never been found.

Story continues

The alternative theory of an accidental laboratory leak from Wuhan Institute of Virology, a global centre for coronavirus research, or from the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control has been widely circulated on the internet but discounted by most scientists, and was dismissed by a WHO investigative team as very unlikely.

But the head of the WHO is among those not fully satisfied with closing down the laboratory leak theory, which is certainly plausible. It has happened elsewhere, more frequently than we would like to believe. Britain was responsible for a fatal leak of smallpox in 1978. China has had several such incidents, including a leak of Brucellosis in 2020 which infected more than 3,000 people in the northwest province of Gansu. Tougher rules on biosafety came into force in April this year.

Political considerations have prevented rational discussion of the issue, but there are several reasons why it is necessary to get to the bottom of the leak theory. The first is to learn lessons and ensure that such a global catastrophe as Covid doesnt happen again. In an ideal world, the Chinese authorities would embrace transparency and the search for truth. They would be given credit for opening up their facilities and subjecting the findings of their epidemiological research to independent international inspection.

A related point is that scientists working in this field, in Wuhan and elsewhere, have been experimenting with making the infections worse than their natural form in order to better develop treatments. This so-called gain of function research is a form of human meddling which could create bigger problems than it solves, and should stop.

The suspicion of the Chinese that demands for inspection are designed to score propaganda points and humiliate them may be eased by the suggestion that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was co-funded by the US National Institutes of Health. The idea that a disastrous leak might have emanated from a collaborative project between American and Chinese scientists is certainly a neat way of diffusing blame.

Either way, this vast human tragedy risks being subsumed within the propaganda of the new Cold War between China and the United States (and its allies, including the UK). From an American perspective, what is particularly galling is that the Chinese seem to be winning. After the negative impact of the initial outbreak and cover-up, the Chinese got a lot of credit for their effective, ruthless lockdown which appears to have been very successful, in marked contrast to the stumbling efforts of the worlds leading democracies.

The Chinese have also scored points by making their vaccines available to the world, in contrast to alleged hoarding by the west (Britains AstraZeneca being a very honourable exception). It appears that the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, in particular, is not as effective as the western (or Russian) alternatives, but for countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe it has been better than nothing. Now China is vaccinating its own population with great speed.

President Bidens decision to shift the debate back onto the origins of the pandemic may be partly motivated by a wish to reclaim the moral high ground in this propaganda war. The fact that he is so careful in his language, in contrast with his predecessor, makes him a very plausible proponent of the western case. But I somehow doubt that the CIA investigation, which is due to report in just under 90 days, will be a game-changer. We have all become cynical about dramatic revelations and dodgy dossiers.

Instead it will be another episode in the Covid blame-game box set, illustrative of a wider breakdown of trust between China and the west. The west has adopted a strategy of calling out China with strong public denunciations on a variety of matters, notably those involving human rights. Now we have turned our attention to its record on biosafety. It makes us feel good, no doubt, and is sometimes merited, but it has no impact on the behaviour of the Chinese leadership. It merely reinforces the assumption that the west is out to humiliate China in public.

One practical consequence of a propaganda war is that both sides start to believe their own version of the truth. Cooperation becomes impossible. Constructive initiatives become devious ploys. The fact that pandemic prevention and management constitute an international public good takes second place to the opportunity to score a point. Finding the smoking bat, or the lab leak, becomes more important than dealing with the problems of the pandemic itself.

The risk for the whole world now is that the same happens on climate change, nuclear proliferation, and other areas in which we need the Chinese to be allies, not adversaries.

Read More

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Britain is not yet embroiled in a US-style culture war

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Laboratory leaks have happened before more frequently than we would like to believe - Yahoo Eurosport UK

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2021) US President Joe Biden's acknowledgment of the "lab leak" origin theory of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Facebook's immediate decision to stop banning posts about the possible artificial origin of the virus, are likely to aggravate anti-Asian sentiment in the United States and potentially worldwide, analysts told Sputnik, with some suggesting that the situation may contribute to the worsening of relations between Beijing and Washington.

Biden has recently directed the US Intelligence Community to redouble efforts to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and to report their findings to him in 90 days. The intelligence services that have insisted that there is insufficient evidence to assess whether COVID-19 came from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory leak, are expected to reach out to China on the issue. The announcement comes on the heels of the reports claiming that three laboratory employees in Wuhan, became sick in November 2019 with symptoms similar to those caused by COVID-19, which, according to the reports, should support the hypothesis that the virus could have originated in a laboratory.

Meanwhile, China rejected the reports as not corresponding to reality and said that Washington's intention to release a report on the origins of COVID-19 is just a political game and an attempt to shift the blame. In March this year, World Health Organization concluded in its official report that the leak from the lab was "extremely unlikely" and added that the virus was transmitted to humans from bats through another animal.

As a result, more people started linking the deadly virus to people who looked like Chinese. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, hate crimes against Asian Americans jumped by over 160 percent in the first quarter of 2021.

Several days after Biden's statement, Facebook announced that it would no longer delete posts that describe the coronavirus as artificially created "in light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts." Previously, the social media giant fought fiercely with fake news about the alleged artificial origin of the virus.

Observers believe that the move by Facebook, a social media corporation with enormous influence on its users, can indeed affect the minds and attitudes of people toward the virus and China.

"Renewed interest in the 'lab leak' theory from China coming out of Washington and then cascading across Facebook could, unfortunately, raise anti-Asian hate. Sadly, Anti-Asian violence has risen since the beginning of the pandemic," Erik Qualman, an author and Social economics expert, told Sputnik.

Qualman said the dilemma for social media stretches beyond COVID-19 and is bigger than Facebook, yet with over 2 billion users, the network is the most influential.

"The key question is: should Facebook be treated like a news/media outlet like the New York Times or more like the AT&T [telecommunications company] and the phone lines? If it is, later than Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. could say we don't listen into your phone calls, we respect your privacy, we aren't going to censor anything," he said.

If social media, like Facebook, is viewed more as a media outlet, then one could argue they should censor the material, Qualman said.

"This is a slippery slope as Facebook then becomes judge and jury and you are trusting a public company to properly decide between what should be censored and what shouldn't be censored. Something that's an impossibility for them to get right 100% of the time. That's a high concentration of power ultimately in one person, Mark Zuckerberg," he explained.

Following Facebook's move, now in the world of massive social media influence, social networks like Facebook may dictate to people what to think. Qualman drew attention to the fact that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other major social media giants would prefer not to have to censor any comments as it is very costly for them.

"They are in the business of making money and anything that is a cost their shareholders don't like. But, as the public and governments demand that they censor certain things, you need to be careful what you wish for because that ultimately makes these platforms more powerful than they already are as they are then the judge and the jury on what we see and don't see," he concluded.

Now, as the topic of origins of COVID-19 resurfaced, there is the potential for conflict between the two sides over the matter, Matthew Carlson, professor of Political science at the University of Vermont, told Sputnik.

"I am not sure whether President Biden will apply sanctions because most likely the intelligence community will struggle to understand the origins of the virus. And sanctions in general are usually not a very effective tool. But nonetheless, efforts to push the laboratory accident in the US and in Washington are likely to lead to deteriorating relations between the two sides," he said.

Carlson noted that many pundits have predicted a war between China and the US for decades, none has happened so far.

"The conflict that emerges is most likely to be a war of words and a debate over how COVID emerged," he said.

Carlson hopes that the rhetoric of politicians and the media does not aggravate the situation or lead to violence against Asian Americans.

"While it is important to study the origins of COVID-19, it is also important to not stir up anxieties and anti-Asian attitudes that may lead to further violence against Asian Americans," he said.

Nevertheless, Carlson believes that asking to search for the origins of the virus is a good idea.

"There are conflicting theories on how the virus started and to prevent similar outbreaks in the future it is important to know more about the origins," he said, while admitting that it would be difficult to find an answer since China is opposing this sort of inquiry.

However, some experts like Benjamin Page, Professor of Decision Making of Northwestern University, do not believe that Biden's statement and actions should disrupt relations with China or worsen the public's attitude toward the Chinese people.

"The context is that accusations of 'germ warfare' by The 'China virus,' made by Donald Trump and right-wing Republicans, have already caused serious damage. The Biden investigations of a possible accident at the Wuhan bio research lab are very different," Page, whose work focuses on American politics, said.

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Biden's Renewed Interest in COVID Lab Leak Theory Likely to Worsen Anti-Asian Sentiment - UrduPoint News

The U.S. Army has a long and decorated history. Its inception began during the Revolutionary War, and it has since gone on to become the most powerful military force in the world. Here are some facts you might not have known about it, from the inception of its official song to its first female service member.

The first submarine used by the Army was invented by Yale graduate David Bushnell. Named the Turtle, it was a wooden craft that could be propelled by a single individual using a hand crank and a foot treadle. It rose and sink via a pedal-operated tank and a lead ballast helped keep it upright.

The Turtle saw its first military activity on September 7, 1776, during a mission to blow up the HMS Eagle. The ship was of British origin and had moored in New York Harbor.

Unfortunately, its pilot, Ezra Lee, received little training and aborted the mission. After several other botched trials, the craft was abandoned. Despite this, the Patriot Army, including George Washington, praised Bushnell for his invention.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. Army conducted chemical tests on large civilian populations. Operation Large Area Coverage (LAC) was designed to assess the threat of biological attacks by simulating germ dispersal in the air. Motorized blowers were placed atop buildings in St. Louis, San Francisco, Minnesota, and the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia, spreading zinc cadmium sulfide into the air.

Cadmium was used for its dispersal potential, despite being a harmful carcinogen. It was mixed with silicate and small amounts of copper and silver, with the latter allowing it to better glow under ultraviolet light. While the tests were isolated to a few U.S. cities, the effects were felt across a large portion of the country and as far away as Mexico and Canada.

The federal government claimed the tests were guarding the country against Russian aerial observation and attacks until 1994. The admission came after citizens complained of health issues, as long-term cadmium exposure can cause lung cancer and bone and kidney problems.

The Army Goes Rolling Along wasnt always the Armys official song. In fact, it didnt receive that distinction until Veterans Day 1956, after a lot of trial and error.

Its origins are in the Philippines, where West Point graduate Edmund Louis Gruber was stationed in 1908. He found inspiration upon overhearing a section chief shout commands at a caisson driver, and ended up writing The Caissons Go Rolling Along.

John Philip Sousa turned it into The Field Artillery Song. When the Army failed to find the perfect song during contests held in 1948 and 1952, they returned to the tune with one condition: that the lyrics be reworked. The rest, as they say, is history!

The University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies was established in 2004 in response to a review regarding the shortcomings that led to the attacks on 9/11. Students from the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) are trained to challenge the concepts and planning brought forth by military officials in order to strengthen the decision-making process. Their official title? The Red Team.

Unfortunately, this innovative course is set to end on October 1, 2021. With the Army planning to repurpose the $2.5 million set aside for the program, it will no longer have the ability to train new students.

Deborah Sampson served in the Revolutionary War between 1782 and 1783. She enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment under the name Robert Shurtleff and was assigned to Captain George Webbs Company of Light Infantry. There, she fought against the British alongside male infantrymen.

In order to keep her identity hidden, Sampson often treated her wounds herself. She managed to keep up the charade for a year before falling ill and being admitted to hospital, where she lost consciousness. She was given an honorable discharge in 1783, and was the first-ever woman to receive a military pension.

The rank was introduced in 1944 in order to allow U.S. officers to better command Allied officers from other countries who were technically of a higher rank. The Navy also introduced a similar rank, the Fleet Admiral. Between 1944 and 1945, the Army promoted Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry H. Arnold, George C. Marshall, and Douglas MacArthur to the rank, with Omar N. Bradley being promoted in 1950.

While still in existence, the rank has not been used since Bradley died in 1981. The President has the power to promote an Army General to the rank with Senate approval, but many feel there isnt a reason to do so, given the reason for its origins.

DU is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process. Bullets made from it were first used during the Gulf War and have been standard issue ever since. Their high density allows them to pierce armored vehicles, and the impact often causes the rounds to ignite, causing more destruction.

Despite DU being depleted of its radioactivity by 40 percent, its chemical toxicity remains. This has led many to question the ethics of its use, as veterans have begun to experience health issues tied to it.

General Francis Marion nicknamed the Swamp Fox is credited with pioneering the tactics behind modern guerrilla warfare. A student of Major Robert Rogers 28 Rules of Ranging, he spent his military career molding the techniques to fit his own style of fighting.

This, paired with his experience during the French and Indian War, allowed him to create a form of combat instrumental to Americas victory over Britain. Many recount that he and his troops would launch surprise attacks against the enemy before leaving almost as unexpectedly.

The green beret became standard issue for the Special Forces after President John F. Kennedy visited Fort Bragg in 1961. He observed Brigadier General William P. Yarborough wearing one and decided it was just the article of clothing needed to distinguish the Special Forces from their counterparts.

At Kennedys funeral, Command Sergeant Major Francis Ruddy placed his own beret on the Presidents grave, a tradition that continues to this day at Arlington National Cemetery.

The U.S. Army is considered one of the countrys top employers. As of 2017, there were 1.3 million active-duty service members across all branches and 142.5 million civilians employed. This means civilians outnumber service members 110 to one.

More from us: 10 Everyday Products That Were Invented By The Military

While service members participate in traditional military tasks, civilian workers bring their skills to the support services.

Other top employers, unsurprisingly, are Walmart and Amazon, the latter of which saw exponential growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as shoppers moved online.

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10 Fascinating Facts About The US Army - War History Online

This undated transmission electron microscope image shows novel coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19. [Photo/Agencies]

All the COVID-19 lab-related theories lack serious evidence, and the US has no right to point a finger at other countries, especially China, when it comes to "biological warfare", Tom Fowdy, an Oxford graduate and East Asia specialist, said in an article published on RT.com Thursday.

The lab-related claims, and their overwhelmingly political character, have been extremely disruptive toward scientists' bid to establish facts about the pandemic, the article said.

However, the suggestion in the US that COVID-19 came from a Chinese lab just won't go away. The thought that a state could act malevolently in this way has taken hold for a reason: the US has its own checkered past in biological research.

In 1942, the US launched its own biological warfare program. It was first alleged to have been utilized in the Korean War, ironically against the Chinese. In 1952, reports began to emerge of Chinese soldiers from different cities dying with what appeared to be anthrax and from uncommon conditions such as encephalitis.

During the Vietnam War, a number of chemical and biological weapons were also used, with severe implications for the population.

The US itself has heavily invested in and used biological warfare. Fort Detrick, a site in Maryland that has long been the heart of US biological weapons research, closed down its germ research operations in August 2019, after two bio safety breaches involving dangerous pathogens.

The idea of a lab leak is unsubstantiated and arguably nonsensical. But the thought that a state could act in such a way is on America's national conscience for a reason.

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US targeting China to hide its own past: expert - Chinadaily USA

JASON: As you all know by now well, you should three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology suddenly became sick in November of 2019. They sought hospital care. Covid-like illnesses. Rush was talking about this. I was talking about it in my campaign for the United States Senate in 2020 here in Minnesota where my opponent and the Minnesota media pooh-poohed the idea, This came from a bat. We know that. It didnt come out of a lab. It was biological warfare. You know why they were covering for China?

They were getting donations, of course, from their Big Tech friends who do business in China, from the NBA and the Timberwolves owner and those sorts of things who all have Chinese connections business-wise.

No, no. They knew that American memory, those of us that have a semblance of memory of the Cold War knew that the idea that a foreign adversary, our number-one enemy, was conducting experiments in biological warfare and whether it was unleashed indirectly or directly because of the Trump threats to China would have been considered not long ago an act of war. They didnt want to go to war with our number-one enemy. They wanted to puff up Russia for political expediency. This is how sick and how despicable and how duplicitous the American left is right now.

This morning on Fox, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo spoke with Perino and Hemmer on the possibility of this lab leak. Roll it.

POMPEO: I made remarks over a year ago now, early May of 2020, talking about this risk. And it was outrageous. It was outrageous to see scientists, even government, U.S. government scientists who were denying this when they surely must have seen the same information that I had seen. That includes certainly Dr. Fauci as well. We need to know what happened here. The Chinese Communist Party knows what happened here. They know who patient zero was.

They know precisely where this began. These three individuals who became sick, the symptoms were consistent with what someone would get, be symptomatic of if they had covid-19, the Wuhan virus. We need to get to the bottom of this because this could happen again. Theyre still conducting research in these same laboratories today.

Its being done in ways that were similar to what happened back over a year ago. This is dangerous. We could end up with something much like this again being foisted upon the world. The United States has a responsibility to demand that the Chinese Communist Party give us the things that they simply know. They know the answer to these things, and they refuse to hand over this information.

JASON: Yeah, amen to that. Weve been saying it for over a year now and what has the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, all the major networks, and your local affiliate basically following in the footsteps of those network, what have they be saying? This is a conspiracy theory. Why, its like voter fraud. Its like, you know, the Florida whistleblower. You cant believe what these Limbaugh type people are saying.

I wish it werent true.

But this is a game-changer. This is something that we have been dragged kicking and screaming into realizing now that this gain-of-function research, experimenting with viral infections for warfare purposes has been going on more than likely. And now the next question is, as the secretary of state alluded, what did Dr. Fauci know, and when did he know it with regard to gain-of-function research but also the funding of it. I dont care if it was indirect funding. Fauci says no NIH funding. Except it went to another outfit, Eco Alliance, I think it was, and that money went to gain-of-function research.

Sources in Australia and youve gotta rely on the foreign press these days for the truth sources in Australia have detailed how the Chinese may have been contemplating new viruses, quote, said to be more transmissible and more lethal. This is shocking stuff, folks, Rush obviously was right on top of this not that long ago. Roll audio 2.

RUSH: This is Paul in Greensboro, Georgia. Im glad you waited. Its great to have you here with us. Hello.

CALLER: Rush, two nights ago Tucker Carlson had a scientist on who worked in the Wuhan lab in China, and she basically stated that this virus was a designed virus, it was not something that was in nature. And, I wanted to talk about that and I dont want to go with the obvious that Google Facebook and Twitter censored her, but theres two things very interesting about that interview.

One, she didnt have an answer as to why they would be creating the virus. And the other thing is, the deeper ramifications. If what shes saying is true, what I think is very obvious, its a country that has 1.4 billion people to feed and its struggling to do that. All this urbanization that you see taking place every place in both China and India is just really another source for the irrigation that comes out of the Himalayan mountains. And Chinas on a buying binge across the globe, buying land across the globe. So I think theres an obvious answer to the why.

But the deeper question also is, if thats true, what the hell else is going on in that lab? If they can create a very specific virus thats tailored to the old, the people that are weak that have pre-existing conditions, what else are they working there? Suppose we get a vaccine which theyre gonna have very shortly

RUSH: I dont think its that complicated and I dont think there needs to be this much intrigue about. If what she said is true I saw her interview I fully expect this woman to be disappeared very shortly. The ChiComs will find a way to find out where she is. Im stunned she got out of China. It was thought that she had been disappeared months ago. I dont mean to be dismissive here. I just think that the ChiComs and the Russians and us, we are working on the old name for this germ warfare. We are constantly working on biowarfare. The fact that the Chinese would be doing this is not a surprise.

The fact that they might use it as a way to eliminate some of their own population because they cant feed them all and they cant keep them all in the countryside and out of the cities. Theyre communists. Communists kill their own people. None of that would surprise me if thats whats going on. The why of this, if this Chinese scientist is right, is not hard to understand at all. The more troubling aspect here is the reluctance of people who otherwise have common sense to reject this out of hand as an impossibility.

JASON: That is why we loved Rush. This was a while ago, and Rush saw it for what it was. I mentioned before the break that another reason that the evidence is starting to mount that this was came out of a lab in China deliberately engineered whether it was deliberately leaked, they dont know, because the Chinese are communists, as Rush said. Theyre not gonna tell us. But think about where we are in 2019. I was served in the 115th Congress. What have we done in the 115th Congress? We cut taxes domestically and we raised tariffs on other foreign adversaries, primarily China. Think about that.

When it comes to fiscal policy here, friends. You gotta make certain youre rewarding domestic production. If you gotta raise revenue some time and taxes do distort, you dont distort your workers at home, your manufacturers at home. If you must distort a market, you distort somebody elses market. You have taxes on foreign consumption, and you reward domestic work and savings and production. Thats what we did, and China was apoplectic about it. So what could they do to level the playing field in 2018 and 2019? Hm-hm. Food for thought.

Good news is, this particular virus wasnt especially virulent that we know of. But what are they doing in you? Rush talked about this once again back in February of 2020.

RUSH: Folks, this coronavirus thing, I want to try to put this in perspective for you. It looks like the coronavirus being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. You think Im wrong about this you think Im missing? The coronavirus is the common cold, folks. The Drive-By Media hype of this thing as a pandemic, as the Andromeda Strain, as, Oh, my God. If you get it, youre dead.

Do you know what the I think the the survival rate is 98%. Ninety-eight percent of people who get the coronavirus survive. Its a respiratory system virus. It probably is a ChiCom laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized. All superpower nations weaponize bioweapons. They experiment with them. The Russians, for example, have weaponized fentanyl. Now, fentanyl is also not what it is represented to be.

Nobody wants to get any of this stuff. I mean, you never I hate getting the common cold. You dont want to get the flu. Its miserable. But were not talking about something here thats gonna wipe out your town or your city if it finds its way there. This is a classic illustration of how media coverage, even if this media coverage isnt stacked, even if this is just the way media normally does things, this is a hyped, panic-filled version exactly how the media deals with these things to create audience, readership, interest, clicks, what have you. It originated in China natal well, not a little town. Towns 11 million people, Wuhan, China. And one of the reasons theyre able to hype this is that the doctor who warned everybody about it came down with it and died.

And so if a doctor Oh, my God. Rush, a doctor got it, you cant possibly be right, if a doctor cant protect didnt know what he was dealing with. Discovered it back in December. Im telling you the ChiComs are trying to weaponize this thing. Well, every nation is working on things like this, and the ChiComs obviously in their lab are doing something here with the coronavirus. And it got out. Some people believe it got out on purpose, that the ChiComs have a whole lot of problems based on an economy that cannot provide for the number of people they have.

So losing a few people here, there be not so bad for the Chinese government. Could be anything to explain this.

It came from a country that Bernie Sanders wants to turn the United States into a mirror image of, communist China. Thats where it came from. It didnt come from an American lab. It didnt escape from an American research lab. It hasnt been spread by Americans. It starts out in a communist country. Its tentacles spread all across the world in numbers that are not big and not huge, but theyre being reported as just the opposite. Just try to keep it all in perspective.

JASON: It had precisely that effect. It destroyed the economy in a Trump reelection year. It shut down his campaign.

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Dr. Fauci Just Discovered What Rush Told Us Last Year - Rush Limbaugh