Recently, the discovery of “Langya virus” in China’s Shandong and Henan provinces has quickly attracted the attention of medical experts around the world. This virus is a type of zoonotic hernipavirus and 35 people have been identified to be infected with this Langya virus in these two provinces of China since 2019.
Notably, the virus is related to the Mojiang virus – found in the infamous Mojian caves, where a bat-borne coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2 was discovered.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has recently become very interested in the Henipavirus, working very hard to obtain and reconstruct the Nipah virus, which is not even a threat in China.
What does all this mean, and what is going on inside China’s military laboratories?
What is ‘Langya Virus’? What are its symptoms?
Langya virus is part of the Henipavirus family. Other henipaviruses include Nipah virus, which has received widespread attention and is known for its high mortality rate, and Hendra virus and Mojiang virus.
Henipavirus is a genus of negative-stranded RNA viruses that have a lipid membrane on their surface. This membrane is easily damaged in dry environments, so henipavirus is not primarily transmitted through the respiratory tract, but through direct contact with infected people or animals, or through contact with their feces.
According to an article published on August 4, 2022 in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), there have been at least 35 infections with Langya virus in Henan and Shandong, China, and the report did not mention any related deaths. has gone. Of all the patients, 26 were infected with Langya virus only, and nine others were infected with other pathogens at the same time.
All 26 patients with Langya virus infection have experienced fever. Their chances of suffering from anorexia, cough, weakness, muscle pain and leukopenia are up to 50 percent. Apart from this, decreased liver function, thrombocytopenia and headache are also common symptoms of Langya viral infection.
This report also noted that live Lanya virus was isolated from a patient sample and characterized by complete genome sequence. Phylogenetic analysis based on L gene homology indicated that Langya virus was closest to Mojiang virus, but not Nipah or Hendra virus, the two more commonly known henipaviruses.
Mojiang virus: Henipavirus from a mysterious mine in Yunnan, China
The Mojiang virus was found in a notoriously abandoned mine in Mojiang County, Yunnan Province, China.
The mine in Yunnan first gained attention in 2012, when six miners working inside it contracted severe pneumonia of unknown origin, and three of them died.
In addition, the researchers discovered the Mojiang virus from rats in the mine.
In 2013, virologist Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered the coronavirus RATG13 from bats at the Mojiang mine — the closest known relative of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, with 96 percent similarity between the two and the Mojiang mine. As a result, he gained a lot of fame.
This mine resembles a “cave of viruses”, harboring these two dangerous viruses in different hosts: coronaviruses in bats, and Mojiang virus in rodents. Many questions still remain unanswered about this mysterious cave: What happened to the other three miners who had unknown pneumonia but did not die? Did they have any other coincidences with other viruses? After the identification of Mojiang virus, were the samples of those miners re-tested for any possible zoonotic infection with Mojiang virus? What is so unique about this cave that makes it a hotbed of emerging pathogens?
However, for scientists and journalists, the mine in Yunnan has become a “black hole without notice”. The Chinese Communist regime has barred any scientist or journalist from going there for investigation due to so-called political sensitivity. For example, a group of Associated Press reporters followed several plain-clothed police vehicles while trying to enter the mine to investigate, and were stopped from entering it. Another group of researchers who managed to collect samples from the mine were all confiscated.
In addition to the discovery of the coronavirus and the Mojiang virus, the Chinese military and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) are very interested in another Henipavirus—the Nipah virus. Is WIV Working on Nipah Virus as a Biological Weapons Candidate?
Recently, a renowned scientist pointed out that the WIV is still conducting genetic research on Nipah virus.
Dr. Steven Quay, Etosa Therapeutics, Inc. (a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company), is a highly experienced physician and scientist who has published over 300 articles and obtained over 80 patents. Dr Quay is particularly concerned about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and has published articles suggesting that all indirect evidence so far suggests that this new coronavirus is likely to have come from a laboratory.
On August 3, 2022, Dr. Quay testified before the US Senate that his analysis of the original genetic sequencing raw data published by WIV for the SARS-CoV-2 virus contained contaminated sequences. If the laboratory’s genetic sequencing equipment was not sufficiently cleaned between sequencing runs, trace amounts of its components will be left on the equipment from the previous run, and the next sample may be contaminated with the previous sample.
Dr Quay had found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus contained part of the genome sequence of the Nipah virus in the original raw data from the study, and that some gene sequences were relatively complete. In addition, it also contains part of the vector sequences that are used for synthetic biology. Therefore, Dr. Quay suspected that WIV was working on reconstitution or engineering an infectious clone of the Nipah virus strain, a highly lethal and very dangerous virus.
This was not just a speculation as the WIV’s keen interest in Nipah virus was found in another very unusual phenomenon:
In 2019, a very skilled microbial virologist at the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory, Dr. Jiangguo Qiu secretly sent samples of Ebola virus and Nipah virus to the WIV after stealing it from his workplace. After his crime was uncovered, an investigation was conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and Dr. Qiu was fired from his job.
Nipah virus, which was procured by the Wuhan Institute of Virology at great cost, is a very dangerous virus, which has caused many outbreaks mainly in South Asia and South East Asia, and it has been in some outbreaks. Can kill up to 90 percent of the infected population. ,
Bats are very active in tropical and subtropical regions, and the main natural hosts of Nipah virus are fruit bats. Bats can also transmit the virus to other large animals, such as horses and pigs.
China does not currently face the threat of Nipah virus, and there is no urgent need to develop a vaccine for it. So why is the WIV so interested in the Nipah virus? This is a worrying question.
The CDC has listed Nipah virus as “bioterrorism agents” and classified it as a Category C pathogen – a virus that has the potential to be engineered into a biological weapon.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, the WIV website also listed a “Military Management Division”. This suggested that the WIV was not merely an ally of the People’s Liberation Army. The military campaign was part of the entire WIV operation even before Xi Jinping began a nationwide military-civilian fusion transformation for many institutions.
Although China joined the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984, it is suspected that it would not have ceased its research on biological and chemical weapons.
A military field-testing dangerous pathogens?
Indeed, the discovery of the Langya virus also showed elements of military involvement.
The lead author of that report is Drs. Li-Kun Feng and Wei Liu, whose institutional affiliation was shown as “Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology (BIME)”. However, BIME is actually the same entity as the “Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, People’s Liberation Army”. In addition, it was clearly indicated in the supplementary material of this report that the 990 military hospital of the PLA in Henan Province was involved in this study. And the report indicated that 34 of the 35 patients were local farmers. Why were farmers’ samples analyzed at a military hospital as part of the Sentinel Surveillance Program?
In addition, although the report indicated that 35 of those patients infected with Langya virus were identified during “sentinel fever disease surveillance”. It is very unusual to report the discovery and isolation of a live henipavirus with a significant delay of two years. The discovery of the henipavirus should be very alarming news in the public health aspect, and should have been reported in 2019. Meanwhile, out of 35 patients, six patients were found to be co-infected with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) with severe fever. And two patients were found to be co-infected with hantavirus.
SFTSV and Hantaan virus are highly contagious viruses that can cause severe viral bleeding and outbreaks in China are very rare events. So, in this so-called “sentinel fever disease surveillance,” this group of military scientists identified three dangerous pathogens at a time, and many of them co-infected with two rare pathogens? How likely is this to happen in a natural state? And in routine sentinel fever surveillance, these viruses will not be listed in the routine screening process.
Notably, all three viruses, Langya, SFTSV, and Hantan virus, can all infect rodents. So, this study appears to be a targeted surveillance project to look for zoonotic infections transmitted by rodents. Would it be possible that this study was a test of these dangerous pathogens and see which of them were more likely to cause human infection? With the participation of scientists from a military hospital and the PLA, would it be possible that this was a field release of several dangerous pathogens, followed by field screening of rodents and possible human infections due to infected rodents? Was it part of the Bio Weapons Program?
Of course, we have no direct evidence. And of course, this speculation may be wrong if SFTSV and Hantaan virus infections have become endemic in recent years in Shandong or Henan province. But if not, it could serve as an alarm to national security experts, beyond reasonable speculation.
Virus research like this endangers the health of mankind and needs to be stopped
Following the outbreak of COVID-19, there has been increased concern about the risks associated with research into the virus.
As mentioned earlier, scientists and journalists attempting to enter the Mojiang mine to investigate are now being blocked on grounds of “political sensitivity”. However, if this chain of events directly endangers the health of all human beings, then it should not be considered merely a political issue.
At this stage, various viruses, bacteria and other public health crises are already posing a great threat to the people. On this basis, some organizations are still conducting daring research, such as modifying human genes and/or viral genes, and using various synthetic biology means to collect new viruses and bacteria.
These alarming studies have been glorified as a way to better understand pathogens and develop vaccines and drugs.
However, during this process, people may have created more dangerous pathogens that further endanger the health of mankind. An outbreak of a dangerous pathogen, whether from a natural zoonotic infection, or a laboratory leak, or the release of a biological weapon, can become a major global disaster, as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated.
Therefore, we need to be more stringent in monitoring, controlling or prohibiting such dangerous research.
In the process of promoting the development of biotechnology, we must first protect the most basic medical ethics and the ethics of researchers.
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