1120 Dr. Francis Boyle: Coronavirus leaked from Wuhan BioLab, as Lyme Disease & West Nile Disease leaked from US Lab at Plum Island. All these labs should be closed.

Dr. Francis Boyle: Coronavirus leaked from Wuhan BioLab, as Lyme Disease
& West Nile Disease leaked from US Lab at Plum Island. All these labs
should be closed.

Newsletter published on February 8, 2020

(1) Dr. Francis Boyle: Coronavirus leaked from Wuhan BioLab, as Lyme
Disease & West Nile Disease leaked from US Lab at Plum Island
(2) TRANSCRIPT: Bioweapons Expert Dr. Francis Boyle interview with
Geopolitics & Empire on Coronavirus
(3) Lancet study showed that early Coronavirus cases had no connection
to Wuhan market
(4) White House Asks Scientists To Investigate Whether 2019-nCoV Was
Bio-Engineered
(5) Wuhan Institute Of Virology – Epicentre Of Coronavirus
(6) Doctor who sounded alarm over Coronavirus - branded Fake News - has
died; public anger unsettles Xi

(1) Dr. Francis Boyle: Coronavirus leaked from Wuhan BioLab, as Lyme
Disease & West Nile Disease leaked from US Lab at Plum Island. All these
labs should be closed.

Dr. Francis Boyle: "It's clear this thing blew back on the Chinese"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pur2NIh9Zrs

Dr. Francis Boyle: Coronavirus Is Twice As Potent As SARS

7 Feb 2020

Dr. Francis Boyle joins The Alex Jones Show to expose the potent dangers
of a coronavirus outbreak in comparison to previous viral pandemics. (3:41)

1.55 It's clear this thing blew back on the Chinese, just as all these
hideous biological warfare agents that we're working on in our own BSL-4
facilities.

Alex J: like Lymes Disease, that came from that New York offshore lab
... Plum Island ...

FB: Yes the Lyme Disease clearly came out of the Bioware Lab at Plum
Island. Likewise West Nile Disease clearly came out of the Bioware Lab
at Plum Island.

(2) TRANSCRIPT: Bioweapons Expert Dr. Francis Boyle interview with
Geopolitics & Empire on Coronavirus

https://greatgameindia.com/transcript-bioweapons-expert-dr-francis-boyle-on-coronavirus/

TRANSCRIPT: Bioweapons Expert Dr. Francis Boyle On Coronavirus

By GreatGameIndia - February 5, 2020

A recent interview with Bioweapons expert Dr. Francis Boyle published by
GreatGameIndia and conducted by Geopolitics & Empire, has been exploding
across the world the past few days as the truth is emerging on the
origins of the Coronavirus Bioweapon.

Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of
Illinois College of Law. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing
legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the
Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved
unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by
President George H.W. Bush.

Geopolitics & Empire is joined by Dr. Francis Boyle, who is
international law professor at the University of Illinois. We'll be
discussing the Wuhan coronavirus and biological warfare. He's served as
counsel to numerous governments such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and the
Palestinian authority. He's represented numerous national international
bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear
policy, and biowarfare. He's written numerous books, one of my favorites
being "Destroying Libya and World Order", which I assigned as mandatory
reading material for my own students when I taught at the Monterrey
Institute of Technology.

India in Cognitive Dissonance Book by GreatGameIndia But most important
for this interview, he's written a book called "Biowarfare and
Terrorism", and drafted the US domestic implementing legislation for the
biological weapons convention, known as the Biological Weapons
Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that was approved unanimously by both houses
of the US Congress and signed into law by President Bush. Thanks for
joining us, Dr. Boyle.

Dr. Francis Boyle: Wow. Thank you so much for having me on and thanks
for that kind introduction.

Geopolitics and Empire:  Now let's get to what's been on the news
recently. This coronavirus in Wuhan. There have been some reports
recently, there's a really interesting website called GreatGameIndia
that has been reporting on this. They've been talking about China, which
they say has been complying with biological weapons convention in recent
years.

But then there are some people in the US and experts that have been
saying that in reality, China isn't complying with the weapons
convention. And I think neither, perhaps the US as well. I'm wondering
if China is developing its own biosafety level four lab in Wuhan and
elsewhere, as you know, as a type of deterrence. Is it a type of a
biological arms race that we have going on?

You told me in an email that you suspect China was developing the
coronavirus as a dual use of biowarfare weapons agent. Also, what do you
make of reports that Chinese scientists have been stealing research and
viruses, including the coronavirus from a Canadian bio lab this past
December?

And as well, Chinese nationals have been charged with smuggling vials of
biological research to China from the US with the aid of Charles Lieber
who was the chair of Harvard's chemistry department. And he also happens
to be in 2011 a strategic scientist at Wuhan University. So, can you
tell us what's going on with this recent outbreak in Wuhan?

Dr. Francis Boyle: Well, that's a lot of questions. I guess we can take
them one at a time, but if you just do a very simple Google search on
"Does China have a BSL-4 laboratory?", Wuhan comes up right away. It's
at the top of the list. That's all with the moment this type of thing
happened I began to do that. So a BSL-4 is the most serious type. And
basically BSL-4 labs, we have many of them here in the United States,
are used to develop offensive biological warfare weapons with DNA
genetic engineering.

So it does seem to me that the Wuhan BSL-4 is the source of the
coronavirus. My guess is that they were researching SARS, and they
weaponize it further by giving it a gain of function properties, which
means it could be more lethal.

Indeed, the latest report now is it's a 15% fatality rate, which is more
than SARS at 83% infection rate. A typical gain of function travels in
the air so it could reach out maybe six feet or more from someone
emitting a sneeze or a cough. Likewise, this is a specially designated
WHO research lab. The WHO was in on it and they knew full well what was
going on there.

Yes. It's also been reported that Chinese scientists stole coronavirus
materials from the Canadian lab at Winnipeg. Winnipeg is Canada's formal
center for research, developing, testing, biological warfare weapons.
It's along the lines of Fort Detrick here in the United States of
America. I have three degrees from Harvard. It would not surprise me if
something was being stolen out of Harvard to turn over to China. I read
that report. I don't know what was in those vials one way or the other.

But the bottom line is I drafted the US domestic implementing
legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention that was approved
unanimously by both Houses in the United States Congress signed into law
by President Bush Sr. that it appears the coronavirus that we're dealing
with here is an offensive biological warfare weapon that leaked out of
Wuhan BSL-4. I'm not saying it was done deliberately. But there had been
previous reports of problems with that lab and things leaking out of it.
I'm afraid that is what we are dealing with today.

Geopolitics and Empire: We'll be talking about the Wuhan and the
coronavirus and China, but can you give us kind of like a bigger
context. I know you've, previously, in interviews said that since 9/11,
you think that the US has spent $100 billion on biological warfare
research. We know the Soviet Union, if I'm not mistaken, developed
anthrax as a bioweapon. And you've also mentioned that UK, France,
Israel and China are all involved in biological warfare weapons research.

And something interesting, I believe one or two years ago a Bulgarian
journalist and the Russian government shared their concern of the
discovery of a US bioweapons lab in the country of Georgia. You've
commented how in Africa, US has set up bioweapons labs to work on Ebola,
which I think is illegal under international law. But they were allowed
somehow to put those in Africa. Can you give us like a bigger picture?
What's going on with these different countries and what's the purpose of
this research?

Dr. Francis Boyle: All these BSL-4 labs are by United States, Europe,
Russia, China, Israel are all there to research, develop, test
biological warfare agents. There's really no legitimate scientific
reason to have BSL-4 labs. That figure I gave $100 billion, that was
about 2015 I believe. I had crunched the numbers and came up with that
figure the United States since 9/11.

To give you an idea that's as much in constant dollars as the US spent
to develop the Manhattan Project and the atom bomb. So it's clearly all
weapons related. We have well over 13,000 alleged life science
scientists involved in research developed testing biological weapons
here in the United States. Actually this goes back it even precedes 9/11
2001.

I have another book, The Future of International Law and American
Foreign Policy, tracing that all the way back to the Reagan
administration under the influence of the neocons and they got very
heavily involved in research development testing of biological weapons
with DNA genetic engineers. It was because of that I issued my plea in
1985 in a Congressional briefing sponsored by the Council for
Responsible Genetics, I'm a lawyer for them. They're headquartered in
Cambridge, Mass. All the MIT, Harvard people are involved in that, the
principal ones. And then they asked me to draft the implementing
legislation.

The implementing legislation that I drafted was originally designed to
stop this type of work. "Death science work", I call it, "by the United
States government". After 9/11, 2001, it just completely accelerated. My
current figure, that last figure a 100 billion. I haven't had a chance
to re-crunch the numbers because I just started classes. But you have to
add in about another 5 billion per year.

Basically, this is offensive biological weapons raised by the United
States government and with its assistance in Canada and Britain. And so
other States, the world have responded accordingly including Russia and
China. They were going to set up a whole series of BSL-4 facilities as
well. And you know Wuhan was the first. It backfired on them.

Geopolitics and Empire: Would you basically consider what happened and
Wuhan and just boil it down to ineptitude or incompetence on the Chinese
part?

Dr. Francis Boyle: Well, it's criminality. It does appear they stole
something there from Winnipeg. This activity that they engaged in
clearly violates the Biological Weapons Convention. Research development
of biological weapons these days is an international crime, the use of
it would be. That was criminal.

I'm not saying they deliberately inflicted this on their own people, but
it leaked out of there and all these BSL-4 facilities leak. Everyone
knows that who studies this. So this was a catastrophe waiting to
happen. Unfortunately, it happened. The Chinese government under Xi and
his comrades there have been covering this up from the get-go. The first
reported case was December 1, so they'd been sitting on this until they
couldn't anymore. And everything they're telling you is a lie. It's
propaganda.

The WHO still refuses to declare a global health emergency. It said
Tedros was over there shaking hands with Xi and smiling and yanking it
up. The WHO was in on it. They've approved many of these BSL-4 labs.,
they know exactly what's going on and that is a WHO research-approved
laboratory. They know what's going on too. You can't really believe
anything the WHO is telling you about this, either they're up to their
eyeballs in it, in my opinion.

Geopolitics and Empire: I'd probably agree with you that this outbreak
in Wuhan was an accidental leak from the laboratory. But just your
thoughts, it's happening at quite an opportune time because namely we're
smack in the middle of a US-China new Cold War, which is currently
characterized by economic warfare such as the trade war among other
forms of hybrid and technological warfare. And it seems the Wuhan
outbreak will likely hit the Chinese economy hard. The Chinese are flat
out dismissing any idea that the US is involved in. Like I said, it's
probably they made the mistakes in the Wuhan lab. What are your thoughts
of any seemingly, this would benefit the US…

Dr. Francis Boyle: When the outbreak occurred, of course I considered
that alternative too. When you have an outbreak, you're never quite sure
who or what is behind it. It certainly isn't bats, that's ridiculous.
They made the same argument on Ebola in West Africa. I demolished that
online. You can check it out. So I kept competing theories about this.

But right now, when you originally contacted me, I said I wasn't
prepared to comment because I was weighing the evidence. I'm a law
professor and a lawyer,  I try to do the best I can to weigh the
evidence. But right now, the Wuhan BSL-4 in my opinion is the most
likely source, apply Occam's razor, the simplest explanation. I'm not
ruling out some type of sabotage. But right now, I believe that is the
source here.

Geopolitics and Empire: And you mentioned WHO. I'd like to just get your
thoughts on the WHO and the Big Pharma. There's also some analysts who
are downplaying this news media hype of the coronavirus. You've just
said that it seems to be lethal, but if we go back a decade to the 2009
swine flu, which I believe didn't have too many casualties, but I think
profited greatly the pharmaceutical companies. If I recall that back in
2009, many countries purchased great stocks of the vaccines and they
ended up not using anywhere from 50 to 80% of the vaccines that they
purchased.

You've previously stated in an interview that the World Health
Organization is a front for Big Pharma if I'm not mistaken. Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. also agrees and he says, you know, 50% of WHO funding comes
from pharmaceutical companies. And that the CDC itself is also severely
compromised. What are your thoughts on the WHO? The CDC?

Dr. Francis Boyle: Can't trust anything the WHO says because they're all
bought and paid for by Big Pharma and when they work in cahoots with the
CDC, which is the United States government, they work in cahoots with
Fort Detrick, so you can't trust any of it.

However, the swine flu and yes, I agree pharma made a lot of money, but
that swine flu which I looked at it, it did seem to me to be a
genetically modified biological warfare weapon. It was a chimera of
three different types of genetic strains that someone put it together in
a cocktail. Fortunately, it was not as lethal as all of us fear. So
fine. But as I said, this figure I just gave to you was Saturday from
Lancet, which is a medical publication, saying it's a 15% fatality rate
and an 83% infection rate. So it's quite serious, I think, far more
serious than the swine flu.

As for big pharma, sure they're all trying to profit off this today as
we speak. There was a big article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal,
all big pharma trying to peddle whatever they can over there in China
even if it's worthless and won't help. We do know, if you read the
mainstream news media they say there isn't a vaccine.

Well, there is, it's by the Pirbright Institute in Britain that's tied
into their biological warfare program over there. They were behind the
hoof and mouth disease outbreak over there that wiped out their cattle
herd and it leaked out of there. So it's clear they're working on a hoof
and mouth biological warfare weapon, but the vaccine is there. I have
the patent for it here, I haven't had a chance to read the patent it's
about 25 pages long and my classes just resume. So eventually, I get
some free time and I'll read the patent.

You can't patent a vaccine with the United States patent office unless
the science is there. So there is a vaccine. Everyone's lying about
that, no one's pointing this out – there's a vaccine but instead big
pharma wants to make money and the researchers say, well, it'll take
three months and we're racing forward, you know. Everyone's gonna make a
buck off of this, that's for sure. But there is a vaccine, I have the
patent here. It's been patented by the United States government.

So obviously, I don't know exactly how workable it is, but it's a
vaccine. I don't know why it isn't out there now? Why isn't someone
saying there is a vaccine? Perhaps political leaders have already been
vaccinated for all I know, I really don't know.  But there is a vaccine,
Pirbright is well known there in Britain and it's tied into Fort Detrick
and CDC is tied into Fort Detrick too. So they all know there's a
patented vaccine.

Geopolitics and Empire:  And just to get your comment on, I mean,
something to related to this, which was my next question. So I think,
I'm not sure if it's that same Institute that you just mentioned that
has the patent.  I read somewhere that the Bill & Melinda Gates
foundation maybe funds or has some connection to that Institute that has
the patent.

Dr. Francis Boyle:  I think they do. The Bill & Melinda Gates
information, they fund this type of DNA genetically engineered
biological warfare work. That's correct. So you can't trust anything
they're telling you that somehow they're out there trying to make the
world a better place.  I mean, we have Bill Gates publicly admitting
that the world be a better place if there were a lot less people. So the
Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, they are wolves in sheep's clothing and
they are funding this type of stuff. Sure.

Geopolitics and Empire: And just your comment, there was also the report
that I guess it was a consortium of companies which included the Gates
foundation that back in just two or three months ago in October of 2019
they held a pandemic exercise simulating an outbreak. I mean, what are
the chances specifically of a coronavirus and it was called events 201.
People can find this online online and they gave a list of seven
recommendations for governments and international organizations to take.
I also find that kind of interesting how they had this simulation.

Dr. Francis Boyle:  That's correct. It raises that question,  the
origins of what happened here.  But right now, I'm just looking at the
evidence I have and applying Occam's razor and we know that Wuhan BSL-4
was research developing, testing, SARS as a biological warfare agent. So
it could have been, they gave it this DNA genetic engineering enhanced
properties gain of function which we do here in the West, in the United
States all the time. We have  all sorts of research that is clearly a
bio warfare research that has been approved by the National Institutes
of Health, it's a joke. They know full well they are proving all kinds
of biological warfare research and it gets funded by the United States
government.

Geopolitics and Empire:  And you've also mentioned in the email to me
that what happened in the biosafety lab level 4 in Wuhan calls into
question the safety of all of these level 3and 4four labs around the world.

Dr. Francis Boyle:  They're complete unsafe. BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs are
only designed for research development testing of offensive biological
warfare agents.  In my opinion, they serve no legitimate purpose at all.
They should all be shut down, every one of them. Even assuming, they're
simply too dangerous. If you want, there's an excellent  documentary
called Anthrax Wars by Nadler and Coen and I'm in there.  Repeatedly at
the end, I say with respect to these labs, three and four, this is a
catastrophe waiting to happen. Well, I'm afraid the catastrophe is now
happened. So there it is.

Geopolitics and Empire:  Yeah, I was just watching that documentary
before we connected and I recommend the listeners go check that out. Do
you see, in the future, any countries,  if we come to a conflict between
US, EU, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia,  I mean you name it.
Do you see any of these countries actually utilizing these biological
weapons?  I mean, it's illegal under international law but we know like
in the past that international law isn't followed. Do you think that
there's a real danger of this escalating?

Dr. Francis Boyle: For sure. That's the only reason they develop these
biological weapons to eventually be used, sure.  I mean, it's like the
Manhattan project, we put all that money into developing an atom bomb
and even though it was not needed to end world war II they still knew
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, yes,  I think that's correct.  And also
these can be used covertly. Anytime you see an unexplained  sudden
outbreak of a disease like this anywhere in the world, both for human
beings and or animals, I always suspect the bio warfare agent is at
work.  I monitor the situation like I did at Wuhan until I can reach a
conclusion. Yes, they can be used as the eyes for the United States
government, today they are fully prepared, armed, equipped, supplied to
wage a biological warfare with anthrax.

These other more exotic things I don't know, but they have the weapons,
there are stockpiles. We have to understand if you read Seymour Martin
Hersh's book published about 1968, he won the Pulitzer prize, he had the
whole offensive US biological warfare industry in there back before it
was illegal and criminal. Basically after 9/11, 2001, that entire
industry – offensive biological warfare industry has been reconstituted
here in the United States with all these BSL-4 BSL-3 labs, well over
13,000, alleged scientists sort of like Dr. Mengele working on these
things. Other countries have responded in kind like Russia, like China,
France is involved, Britain's involved. Sure.

Geopolitics and Empire: I just wanted to get your thoughts on, in the
last few years there was the Russian double agent spy Sergei Skripal who
had been allegedly poisoned with Novichok out in Britain and  I thought
it was funny. It just so happened where he was allegedly poisoned, he
was right in Porton Down the British bio weapons lab, I guess the
world's first bio weapons lab that was created in 1916. I mean,  I don't
know if you have thoughts on that whole incident.

Dr. Francis Boyle: Yeah, I was right down the street from Porton Down,
so applying Occam's razor who you think might've been behind this and it
was not a nerve agent. A nerve agent would have killed him immediately.
This is Novichok. It was something else like DX or something like that.
So fine. But, I would just say that I don't think that was a
coincidence, but, you know, there you go. There's the, obviously there's
a lot of speculation on that.

Geopolitics and Empire: Something else that's kind of interesting.
You've written in bio warfare and terrorism in your book and there's
also Graeme Macqueen, I think your colleague who wrote the Anthrax
Deception the case for domestic conspiracy…

Dr. Francis Boyle:  Everything you said in there. That's correct.

Geopolitics and Empire:  I'm wondering also if this new war for
biotechnological dominance, whatever you want to call it, if it can also
be used kind of as a pretext for the centralization of political power
and the initiation of wars like I guess it did in the 2003 Iraq war. I
mean, is this another danger that we get these events like now this
coronavirus and then governments will call for a centralization of
greater power and taking away some of our civil liberties?

Dr. Francis Boyle:  Sure. If you look at the October, 2001 anthrax
attacks here in the United States, that was clearly by elements of the
United States government that was behind that. That was a super weapons
grade anthrax with a trillion spores per gram and it floated in the air.
Solely a very sophisticated biological weapons lab like Fort Detrick
could produce that. And they used that anthrax attack including on
Congress to brand through the USA Patriot act which basically turned the
United States to a police state which is what we have now. You have to
understand the Pentagon, Fort Dietrich made the dugway proving ground
still has a stockpile of that super weapons grade anthrax that we saw in
October of 2001 that they can use the next time they want to do
something like that to further develop the American police thing. Right.

Geopolitics and Empire:  Is there anything else you feel important to
mention regarding this Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak or biological warfare
or any other thoughts you'd like to leave us with?

Dr. Francis Boyle:  Well, you just can't believe anything the Chinese
government, the WHO,  the CDC are telling. They're all lies because they
know what's going on here  and so you're going to have to figure it out
as fast as you can. But in my opinion, as of this time and I'm fully
prepared to consider further evidence on this, it does seem to me that
this was  a DNA genetically engineered biological warfare agent leaking
out of Wuhan that has gain-of-function properties which can make it more
lethal.  I think they are probably doing something with SARS to make it
a lot more lethal and more infectious. And so for that reason,  you have
to take extreme precautions and they're now finally admitted anyone
within six feet can be infected, whereas with SARS that was about two
feet. Well, that's gaining a function right there and that should be a
tip off.

So, I guess you're gonna have to protect yourself.  Laurie Garrett had a
pretty good essay in a foreign policy yesterday and she was over there
covering the SARS and she has very good advice in there except that she
took the SARS figure out two to three feet and said  well, you gotta
stay to two to three. I think you've got to stay at least six feet away
because this is gained function. It can flow through the air and infect
and it can get you in the eyes. Any orifice, the mouth, maybe the ears,
we're not sure at this point.

Geopolitics and Empire: I'm here on the border of China in Kazakhstan
and I was just reading yesterday – today that they're no longer allowing
Chinese citizens into Kazakhstan without a medical paper, a medical
check to get their visas to enter Kazakhstan

Dr. Francis Boyle:  Those medical checks are worthless because this is
just public relations by all the governments involved because there is a
14 day incubation period where people can still be infected. So someone
could walk right through a medical inspection and passing a gate into
your country and then they come down with the coronavirus. So that's all
public relations in my opinion by governments and they know it and
they're just sending people out there with temperatures and things like
that. It's not like SARS, this is more dangerous than SARS.  As I said,
I think that Wuhan lab, we know they had SARS in there that they were
dealing with and I think they enhanced it at and I'm afraid that's what
we're dealing with. But you know, I'm keeping an open mind as to what
other sources that might have and I wasn't prepared to say anything
until that Wuhan lab is right there and it's dealing with coronavirus.
So again, apply Occam's razor. It seems to me that's the simplest
explanation here.

Geopolitics and Empire: I guess my, one of my final question would be in
the months ahead, apart of what you say staying six feet away from
people.  I've read taking high doses of vitamin C and other things like
this can help you. But, if they come out as the situation develops and
if it gets worse and they come out with a coronavirus vaccine,  should
people take it or not? What are your thoughts?

Dr. Francis Boyle:  Well, what I would say is this. Right now, if you
look at the article at the Wall Street Journal, big pharma is trying to
sell all sorts of – they're taking all their drugs off the shelf and say
well let's see if it works. Which is preposterous. Okay. The scientists
are saying, well, we can get you a vaccine maybe two to three months but
they're not tested.  So what we do know, however, is that Pirbright
vaccine has been patented. So all I can assume is that that might work.
But I don't think I'd be taking any of these other vaccines. No, you
have no idea what's in there. You'll be the Guinea pig for big pharma
and everyone figures they're gonna make a lot of money here. So I'll
keep my eye open on this  and how it develop but I wouldn't trust
anything they're trying to sell right now. They're just pulling these
things off the shelf.

If they do come up with something in two to three months, even that's
not going to be tested in accordance with normal scientific protocol. So
it's going to be a crap shoot. If it's going to help you, indeed it
might not help you because they'll be using for this vaccines (these DNA
genetic engineered vaccines) they'll be using live coronavirus probably
and sticking it in there and giving you some live coronavirus on the
theory you'll develop an immunity. That's the way a lot of these
vaccines worked out, that's what happened with the Ebola vaccine that
created the Ebola pandemic there in West Africa. They were testing out a
vaccine on poor black Africans, as usual, and  this vaccine had live
Ebola in it so it gave them Ebola. So again, I'd be very careful even if
they do come up with these vaccines two to three months from now, very
careful. Why would you want to inject the live coronavirus in you?

Geopolitics and Empire: All right. I don't believe you have a strong
online presence. How can people best follow your work? I suppose to
search for interviews as well as get your books.

Dr. Francis Boyle: Well, basically I'm blackballed and blacklisted off
all the mainstream news media here on purpose. As far as I can figure
out, the US government gave an order that I should not be interviewed by
anyone, so I'm not.  I guess you could just put my name in there under
Google, Google alert, and some interviews might come up. What happened
was, right after the anthrax attacks of 9/11 2001, I was giving a
lecture out at Harvard m Alma Mater.  I was running a panel on
biological warfare for the council for responsible genetics and it was
at Harvard Divinity School and as I was going in, there was a Fox camera
crew there from Boston and I said it looks to me like this has come out
of the US government lab. We know they do research and testing on
anthrax. Then I said the same thing there at Harvard then I gave an
interview to a radio station in Washington, D C then I gave an interview
on that to the BBC. So the whole world saw it and at that point I was
completely cut off and I've been cut off  ever since. So you  probably
not going to hear too many  interviews from me here. As for my book.
Biowarfare & Terrorism, you can just get it at amazon.com. That picks up
the story pretty much from 9/11 2001 and until it went to press and then
there are interviews I'd given to an investigative reporter, Sherwood
Ross and a big one I just sent you and you might want to put that on
your web page. That was pretty comprehensive.

Geopolitics and Empire: Yeah,  I read that as well and I'll include the
link in the description of this interview so people can go check that
out. You're not the only academic I know and have heard of others that
similar things have happened and that's just I guess the price we pay
for telling the truth. Again, for listeners, if people wanted to have a
broader context and deeper understanding of what's happening today
especially with biological warfare as well as us foreign policy and
international affairs, I urge you to get Dr. Francis Boyle's books and
listen to his interviews as well as his colleagues book. Graeme
Macqueen, The Anthrax Deception, The Case For Domestic Conspiracy. Thank
you for being with us, Dr. Boyle.

Dr. Francis Boyle: Well, thank you and again, please understand these
are my current opinions.  I could change my opinion here based on more
evidence. So  I'm just looking at the evidence out there as I see it and
you have to understand there is so much disinformation, lies and
propaganda that it's kind of very difficult to distinguish truth from
fact.  I'm doing the best job I can here.

— end interview —

(3) Lancet study showed that early Coronavirus cases had no connection
to Wuhan market

From: chris lancenet <chrislancenet@gmail.com>

https://www.infowars.com/creator-of-us-bioweapons-act-says-coronavirus-is-biological-warfare-weapon/
NEWSLETTER

Creator Of US BioWeapons Act Says Coronavirus Is Biological Warfare Weapon

The WHO knows full well what is occurring

GreatGameIndia.com - FEBRUARY 4, 2020

In an explosive interview Dr. Francis Boyle, who drafted the Biological
Weapons Act has given a detailed statement admitting that the 2019 Wuhan
Coronavirus is an offensive Biological Warfare Weapon and that the World
Health Organization (WHO) already knows about it.

Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of
Illinois College of Law.

He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological
Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act
of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S.
Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

In an exclusive interview given to Geopolitics and Empire, Dr. Boyle
discusses the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China and the Biosafety
Level 4 laboratory (BSL-4) from which he believes the infectious disease
escaped.

He believes the virus is potentially lethal and an offensive biological
warfare weapon or dual-use biowarfare weapons agent genetically modified
with gain of function properties, which is why the Chinese government
originally tried to cover it up and is now taking drastic measures to
contain it.

The Wuhan BSL-4 lab is also a specially designated World Health
Organization (WHO) research lab and Dr. Boyle contends that the WHO
knows full well what is occurring.

Dr. Boyle also touches upon GreatGameIndia‘s exclusive report
Coronavirus Bioweapon – where we reported in detail how Chinese
Biowarfare agents working at the Canadian lab in Winnipeg were involved
in the smuggling of Coronavirus to Wuhan's lab from where it is believed
to have been leaked.

Watch Dr. Francis Boyle's interview with Geopolitics and Empire below:

Dr. Boyle's position is in stark contrast to the mainstream media's
narrative of the virus being originated from the seafood market, which
is increasingly being questioned by many experts.

Recently, American Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas also dismantled the
mainstream media's claim on Thursday that pinned the coronavirus
outbreak on a market selling dead and live animals.

Alex Jones shares his insight on the explosive interview of Dr. Francis
Boyle.

In a video accompanying his post, Cotton explained that the Wuhan wet
market (which Cotton incorrectly referred to as a seafood market) has
been shown by experts to not be the source of the deadly contagion.

Cotton referenced a Lancet study which showed that many of the first
cases of the novel coronavirus, including patient zero, had no
connection to the wet market — devastatingly undermining mainstream
media's claim.

"As one epidemiologist said: ‘That virus went into the seafood market
before it came out of the seafood market.' We still don't know where it
originated," Cotton said.

"I would note that Wuhan also has China's only bio-safety level four
super laboratory that works with the world's most deadly pathogens to
include, yes, coronavirus."

Tom Cotton?@SenTomCotton

China claimed—for almost two months—that coronavirus had originated in a
Wuhan seafood market. That is not the case. @TheLancet published a study
demonstrating that of the original 40 cases, 14 of them had no contact
with the seafood market, including Patient Zero.

Such concerns have also been raised by J.R. Nyquist, the well known
author of the books "Origins of the Fourth World War" and "The Fool and
His Enemy," as well as co-author of "The New Tactics of Global War". In
his insightful article he published secret speechs given to high-level
Communist Party cadres by Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chi Haotian
explaining a long-range plan for ensuring a Chinese national renaissance
– the catalyst for which would be China's secret plan to weaponiz viruses.

Nyquist gave three different data points for making his case in
analyzing Coronavirus. He writes:

The third data point worth considering: the journal GreatGameIndia has
published a piece titled "Coronavirus Bioweapon – How China Stole
Coronavirus From Canada And Weaponized It."

The authors were clever enough to put Khan's Virology Journal article
together with news of a security breach by Chinese nationals at the
Canadian (P4) National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, where the novel
coronavirus was allegedly stored with other lethal organisms. Last May,
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called in to investigate; by late
July the Chinese were kicked out of the facility. The chief Chinese
scientist (Dr. Xiangguo Qiu) was allegedly making trips between Winnipeg
and Wuhan.

Here we have a plausible theory of the NCoV organism's travels: first
discovered in Saudi Arabia, then studied in Canada from whence it was
stolen by a Chinese scientist and brought to Wuhan. Like the statement
of Taiwan's intelligence chief in 2008, the GreatGameIndia story has
come under intensive attack. Whatever the truth, the fact of proximity
and the unlikelihood of mutation must figure into our calculations.

It's highly probable that the 2019-nCoV organism is a weaponized version
of the NCoV discovered by Saudi doctors in 2012.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media's narrative still maintains that the
origin of the 2019 Coronavirus is the Wuhan Seafood Market. After
GreatGameIndia published the story on Coronavirus Bioweapon – not only
were our databse tinkered with and our reports blocked by Facebook on
the flimsy reason that they could not find GreatGameIndia Facebook page,
but the report itself was viciously attacked by Foreign Policy magazine,
PolitiFact (known widely as Facebook's propaganda arm) and BuzzFeedNews.

It is not GreatGameIndia alone which is being viciously attacked. Zero
Hedge, a popular alternate media blog was suspended by Twitter for
publishing a story related to a study by Indian scientists finding 2019
Wuhan Coronavirus to be not naturally evolved, raising the possibility
of it being created in a lab. Shockingly, the study itself came under
intense online criticism by Social Media experts resulting in the
scientists withdrawing the paper.

In retaliation India has launched a full-scale investigation against
China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Indian government has ordered
an inquiry into a study conducted in the Northeastern state of Nagaland
(close to China) by researchers from the U.S., China and India on bats
and humans carrying antibodies to deadly viruses like Ebola.

The study came under the scanner as two of the 12 researchers belonged
to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's Department of Emerging Infectious
Diseases, and it was funded by the United States Department of Defense's
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

The study, conducted by scientists of the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Wuhan
Institute of Virology, the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences in the U.S. and the Duke-National University in Singapore, is
now being investigated for how the scientists were allowed to access
live samples of bats and bat hunters (humans) without due permissions.

The results of the study were published in October last year in the PLOS
Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, originally established by the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation.

As the author J.R. Nyquist puts it:

We must have an investigation of the outbreak in Wuhan. The Chinese must
grant the world total transparency. The truth must come out. If Chinese
officials are innocent, they have nothing to hide. If they are guilty,
they will refuse to cooperate.

The real concern here is whether the rest of the world has the courage
to demand a real and thorough investigation. We need to be fearless in
this demand and not allow "economic interests" to play a coy and
dishonest game of denial. We need an honest inquiry. We need it now.

(4) White House Asks Scientists To Investigate Whether 2019-nCoV Was
Bio-Engineered

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/white-house-asks-scientists-investigate-whether-2019-ncov-was-bio-engineered

by Tyler Durden

Fri, 02/07/2020 - 17:26

A week ago, we published details that raised questions about the source
of the Wuhan novel coronavirus, specifically questioning the official
theory for the spread of the Coronavirus epidemic, namely because
someone ate bat soup at a Wuhan seafood and animal market as a
fabricated farce.

The real reason behind the viral spread, we suggested, was that a
weaponized version of the coronavirus (one which may have originally
been obtained from Canada), was released by Wuhan's Institute of
Virology (presumably accidentally ), China's only top, level-4 biohazard
lab, which was studying "the world's most dangerous pathogens." [...]

But, bygones being bygones, we moved on... until today when no lesser
entity than The White House began asking questions about the origin of
the deadly coronavirus.

As ABC News reports, the director of the White House's Office of Science
and Technology Policy (OSTP), in a letter to the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, requested that scientific experts
"rapidly" look into the origins of the virus in order to address both
the current spread and "to inform future outbreak preparation and better
understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of
coronaviruses."

Specifically, ABC News' Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton
asked the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Disease about concerns that stem from misinformation online that the
novel coronavirus could have been engineered or deliberately released.

     "There's always that concern," Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

     "And one of the things that people are doing right now is very
carefully looking at sequences to see if there's even any possibility
much less likelihood that that's going on. And you could ultimately
determine that. So people are looking at it, but right now, the focus is
on what are we going to do about what we have."

The White House has good reason to question the official story as expert
virologist Dr. James Lyons-Weiler of the Institute for Pure and Applied
Knowledge, showed and explained how the coronavirus' genetic sequence -
which has been publicly released by China - contains a unique "middle
fragment" encoding a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) spike
protein that appears, according to his genomic analysis, to have been
inserted into the 2019-nCoV virus using "pShuttle" technology. This
technique can only be done in a lab, as it has never occurred naturally
in nature.

     "This isn't a 'conspiracy theory', it is a scientific, medical
theory," says Del Bigtree, the Emmy-winning producer and founder of
non-profit Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN).

     "Its foundation is based on sound science, logic, and research, and
the mainstream media needs to be asked whether it is going to pursue
this link to SARS instead of trying to censor anyone who is trying to
pursue truth via scientific fact."

One additional, major reason we suspect this line of logical reasoning
could be correct - as conspiratorial as it may seem - is that Chinese
authorities have launched a full-scale crusade to disprove the fact that
this deadly virus was man-made.

     "Conspiracy theorists don't believe in science. I hope that the
national professional department will investigate and give us an
innocence," Shi Zhengli, a director at the Wuhan Institute of Virology -
the only P4 level biosafety laboratory in China - responded to Caixin on
February 4.

Faced with external doubts and accusations, on February 2nd, Shi Zhengli
responded angrily in the WeChat circle of friends:

     "The new coronavirus in 2019 is a punishment for uncivilized living
habits of human beings by nature. It doesn't matter. I advise those who
believe and spread rumours of bad media, believe in the so-called
academic analysis that Indian scholars do not rely on, and close your
mouth. "

Additionally, as The Washington Times reports, one ominous sign, said a
U.S. official, is the that false rumors since the outbreak began several
weeks ago have begun circulating on the Chinese Internet claiming the
virus is part of a U.S. conspiracy to spread germ weapons.

     That could indicate China is preparing propaganda outlets to
counter future charges the new virus escaped from one of Wuhan's
civilian or defense research laboratories.

As a reminder, it was discovered that Shi Zhengli had participated in a
study published in Natural Medicine on November 9, 2015, about a disease
that can be caused by a SARS-like coronavirus (SHC014-CoV) found in
Chinese horseshoe bats.

     The researchers used the SARS reverse genetics system to generate
and identify a chimeric virus. In simple terms, this chimeric virus
consists of the surface protein of SHC014 and the backbone of the SARS
virus. The chimeric virus can infect human respiratory cells,
demonstrating that the surface protein of SHC014 has the necessary
structure to bind to key receptors on cells and infect cells. Chimeras
can cause disease in mice, but they are not lethal. Studies have shown
that viruses currently circulating in bat populations could potentially
trigger the potential risk of SARS-CoV (SARS virus) outbreaks.

We are sure this is all just a coincidence - Wuhan epicenter... Only P4
facility in China... A lab investigating bats infected with genetically
engineered Coronavirus... Coronavirus infected Bats... Chimeric
bio-engineered viruses.... and that is probably why The White House is
now asking authorities to investigate the source of the disease.

Of course, when Zero Hedge suggested the same thing, highlighting key
personnel in the Wuhan lab that were publicly acknowledged as
responsible for that research, we were immediately banned by Twitter. We
look forward to reading Buzzfeed's article decrying The White House for
daring to ask questions about the origin of this deadly pandemic.

https://apnews.com/PR%20Newswire/ff548c99a03afb0d69bb7871f7cd4fc0

Did the Internet News Program "The HighWire With Del Bigtree" Break the
Coronavirus Code?

February 5, 2020

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/

Last Thursday's episode of "The HighWire With Del Bigtree" featured the
expert analysis of virologist Dr. James Lyons-Weiler, who used science
and facts to make a strong case that the coronavirus is lab created, not
a naturally occurring organic permutation of a prior virus.

Dr. Lyons-Weiler, of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge,
showed and explained how the coronavirus's genetic sequence--which has
been publicly released by China-- contains a unique "middle fragment"
encoding a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) spike protein that
appears, according to his genomic analysis, to have been inserted into
the 2019-nCoV virus using "pShuttle" technology. This technique can only
be done in a lab, as it has never occurred naturally in nature.

Dr. Lyons-Weiler buttresses his point with the following facts:

"This isn't a ‘conspiracy theory,' it is a scientific, medical theory,"
says Del Bigtree, the Emmy-winning producer and founder of non-profit
Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN). "Its foundation is based on
sound science, logic, and research, and the mainstream media needs to be
asked whether it is going to pursue this link to SARS instead of trying
to censor anyone who is trying to pursue truth via scientific fact."

Dr. Lyons-Weiler has put all of the scientific evidence backing his
theory on the web for other scientists and interested parties to
research on their own. He says that new sequences related to the study
come in every day, and that he will publish a definitive final study
that challenges the contention that 2019 n-CoV has no history of
recombination. He told Highwire that if there have been covert
vaccination studies using this virus in China, the human subjects in
such trials may have become super-sensitized to secondary challenge from
natural infection, which is what animal studies to date have found for
every experimental vaccines that uses recombinant SARS proteins.

"The older animals tend to die due to upper and lower respiratory
distress syndrome," says Lyons-Weiler. "This is part of the reason why
we don't have a vaccine for the common cold."

"It is highly likely the coronavirus was lab-created, and if that is the
case, the public needs to know," Bigtree, who produced the controversial
and revolutionary documentary "Vaxxed: From Coverup To Catastrophe"
asserts. "Particularly as we keep reading of ‘a race for a vaccine,' at
a time when the World Health Organization's claims about vaccine safety
have been exposed as mere talking points for the pharmaceutical industry."

"The HighWire With Del Bigtree" streams live every Thursday at 11am PST
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and its website thehighwire.com, among
other platforms.

View original content to download multimedia:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/did-the-internet-news-program-the-highwire-with-del-bigtree-break-the-coronavirus-code-300998426.html

(5) Wuhan Institute Of Virology – Epicentre Of Coronavirus
https://greatgameindia.com/wuhan-institute-of-virology-epicentre-of-coronavirus/

By GreatGameIndia - February 7, 2020

The source of the novel coronavirus that has led to the lockdown of 34
Chinese cities, and has now spread to 35 countries outside China, is
still unknown. Initial reports from China claimed the source was a live
food market in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, and may have been
caused by bats. Other reports claimed the source of Coronavirus may have
been the state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology near the market, where
the virus may have been leaked from the country's first top-level "P4"
lab, which handles the most dangerous types of pathogens.

The original report making the claim about the P4 lab as a potential
source was published by GreatGameIndia, a journal on geopolitics and
international relations in its report Coronavirus Bioweapon. Other
publications, such as The Washington Times, followed, with additional
claims based on interviews.

While the narrative of the virus coming from the lab hasn't been
debunked, it has been criticized by several news outlets, since some of
the connections still aren't proven.

Regardless of where the coronavirus came from, the attention on the P4
lab has focused a spotlight on the Chinese regime's alleged biological
warfare program and is raising questions about the nature of the P4 lab
in Wuhan.

The main argument against the idea that the Chinese regime has a
biological warfare program is the fact that China became a state party
to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984, which would forbid
it from developing biological weapons.

A brief perusal of official documents and strategies, however, quickly
fuels doubt about how closely the Chinese regime has followed the BWC. A
U.S. State Department report from August 2019 notes the U.S. assessment
that China had an offensive biological weapons program from at least the
1950s to the late 1980s, and despite signing the BWC, "there is no
available information to demonstrate that China took steps to fulfill
its treaty obligations" to "divert or destroy" any offensive biological
weapons it previously developed.

The report also notes that the Chinese regime "engaged during the
reporting period in biological activities with potential dual-use
applications, which raises concerns regarding its compliance with the BWC."

In other words, some research programs done by the Chinese regime could
be used for both peaceful and hostile purposes. The report notes,
"Available information on studies from researchers at Chinese military
medical institutions often identify biological activities of a possibly
anomalous nature … with potential dual-use applications."

Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and
Strategy Center and an Epoch Times contributor, said in an interview
that U.S. assessments in the government and intelligence communities
hold that "China has been developing these weapons all along."

Fisher noted that it was suspected that biological warfare program in
China were connected to leakages of the SARS virus, following its
outbreak in 2002 and 2003, and to a viral outbreak in the late 1980s in
Xinjiang.

"They are still disasters—breakdowns—in the process of these
laboratories that allowed for these very harmful viruses to leak out
into the public and cause extensive, but clearly unnecessary, death,"
Fisher said.

The P4 lab in Wuhan has connections to the Chinese military, the
People's Liberation Army. When the U.S.-based company Gilead Sciences
recently sent a new drug (remdesivir) to China that could possibly treat
the novel coronavirus, the Wuhan Institute of Virology quickly moved to
apply for a patent.

In a Feb. 4 statement published on the institute's website about the
patent, the institute notes it conducted research alongside the National
Academy of Military Medical Research Institute of Emergency Medicine for
Prevention and Control of Drugs. It also notes ties to the Prevention
Engineering Technology Research Center of Military Medical Research
Institute, and to the National Institute of Emergency Medicine Control
and Engineering Research Center for Military Medical Research.

The Wuhan P4 lab is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has
close ties to the Chinese military in its research programs.

Meanwhile, Chinese military doctrine has identified biological warfare
as a key part of the regime's military strategies—particularly in any
war scenarios with the United States. Among the key programs is its
Assassin's Mace ("Sha Shou Jian") strategy.

Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant, warned of the strategy in his
2016 book "The Hundred-Year Marathon," in which he noted the only time
China won in a simulated war game with the United States, the China team
used the Assassin's Mace strategy. He wrote, "whenever the China team
used conventional tactics and strategies, America won—decisively.
However, in every case where China employed Assassin's Mace methods,
China was the victor."

Fisher said that Assassin's Mace is designed around using various
unconventional weapons in conjunction for a brutal surprise attack, and
that "when used at the right time, and targeted against a specific
weakness of the enemy, can result in the rapid collapse of that enemy's
military threat."

He also noted that Chinese military officials haven't shied away from
discussing the use of brutal attacks and weapons, including biological
weapons. Some of the statements are so brazen and extreme, however, that
many in the U.S. defense analyst community tend to dismiss them.

In regard to rumors about the new coronavirus spreading in China, he
noted that while they're still unproven, they also shouldn't be written
off without some investigation.

Also read: India to Investigate Wuhan Institute of Virology

"Reputable scientists are beginning to coalesce around the idea that at
a minimum, the coronavirus that we're facing today is the product of a
laboratory [and] not the product of some kind of naturally occurring
process," Fisher said.

He said the "developing consensus that this coronavirus is a man-made
virus naturally links this to China's biowarfare capabilities and programs."

"The world should take this as a very serious possibility, and it should
affect our policy and relationships with the People's Republic of China."

(6) Doctor who sounded alarm over Coronavirus - branded Fake News - has
died; public anger unsettles Xi

https://www.economist.com/china/2020/02/07/li-wenliangs-death-is-a-new-crisis-for-chinas-rulers

Mourning for a medic

Li Wenliang's death is a new crisis for China's rulers

Sympathy for the doctor who sounded the alarm over coronavirus is mixed
with anger at the government

Feb 7th 2020

BEIJING

"IF YOU KEEP being stubborn, fail to repent and continue illegal
activities, you will be brought to justice." So read the warning that
police in Wuhan issued to Li Wenliang early in January. Mr Li, an
ophthalmologist at a hospital in the city, had been summoned by officers
after sharing information through WeChat, a social-media platform, about
a new coronavirus that few people then knew about. On the evening of
February 6th Mr Li was killed by the pathogen, having been infected by a
patient a few days after the police told him to shut up. His death has
prompted one of the biggest outpourings of online criticism of the
government in years. Officials struggling to contain the virus are also
now battling to assuage public anger.

Mr Li is being hailed by Chinese netizens as a whistleblower, but all he
did was post a few sentences about the virus on a private forum used by
former classmates from his old medical school, most of whom are also
practising doctors. On the evening of December 30th he warned them that
a group of patients with links to one of Wuhan's live-animal markets
were believed to be infected with the SARS virus that killed hundreds of
people during an outbreak in 2002-03, or something similar to it. He
suggested that they adopt more stringent precautions against infection
in their hospitals, and asked them not to share the information with others.

But screenshots of his message circulated widely and eventually came to
the attention of his hospital bosses. They summoned him for a
dressing-down, then ordered him to write a letter of self-criticism. The
police called him in for questioning three days later and said he had
"gravely disturbed social order". Without naming them, the police
publicly accused eight people of spreading "false information". Mr Li
was reportedly one of them. Later in January, as the impact of the virus
became more evident and officials abandoned their secretive approach to
handling the outbreak, Mr Li and his co-accused were absolved by the
government. The supreme court issued a rare rebuke to the authorities in
Wuhan for trying to silence them. Chinese and international media were
able to interview Mr Li, who by then was lying sick in hospital. The
eight became online heroes. Many messages on social media criticised the
government's earlier treatment of them.

Mr Li's death has fanned netizens' resentment. Messages commemorating
him and lambasting the authorities have blanketed social media. Most
people in China are stuck at home as a result of measures implemented by
local governments to curb the spread of the virus. So they have plenty
of time to vent their feelings online. Many have expressed support for
Mr Li's young child and pregnant wife, and shock that, having mostly
killed older people, the virus has taken the life of a 34-year-old. Some
have posted links to "Do you hear the people sing", a song from "Les
Misérables" that is often heard at anti-government protests in Hong Kong
and elsewhere. Others have quoted from an interview Mr Li gave to
Caixin, a Chinese magazine, in which he said: "A healthy society should
not only have one voice." There have been calls for people to light
candles in memory.

These are fraught times for Chinese officials. They are caught between a
desire to promote awareness of the virus and its dangers, and a fear of
anything that could trigger social unrest. Media firms have been ordered
to "safely control the temperature" of debate about Mr Li's death,
according to a leaked directive published by China Digital Times, a
website based in America. Posts containing the phrase "I want freedom of
speech" have disappeared fast. The central government appears to hope
that making a scapegoat of Wuhan's officials will help to restore calm.
Hours after Mr Li's death the Communist Party's internal
discipline-enforcement agency said it was dispatching a team to
investigate "questions raised by the masses" in connection with Mr Li.
Expect much official praise for the doctor. On Twitter, China's
ambassador to America, Cui Tiankai, said it was unfortunate that
"devoted" people such as Mr Li had not at first been "fully understood
and appreciated by all". Less encouragingly, however, he said "this
could happen anywhere".

The party would doubtless prefer that mourning remain confined to
cyberspace. It has not forgotten that the nationwide anti-government
protests of 1989 were sparked by the death of a sympathetic public
figure (a former party chief, Hu Yaobang, who had lost his job for being
too reformist). No one is expecting another political explosion of that
nature—not least because public gatherings would be very difficult to
organise amid widespread fear of contagion by the virus. But like the
cases of coronavirus, the party's problems are multiplying.

1