Virus accidentally released from lab ?

[iam4liberty]

The amount of damage done by the PLA spies he brought into the country is incalculable.  We still dont have details on the secret biochemistry lab he set up there.  But we know the plan was to steal secret information from US companies, send it to China, then they would replicate it and file for patents before the true inventors.  Very clever scheme to launder stolen information.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5605910
Harvard professor indicted, accused of lying about ties to Wuhan university lab

Charles Lieber, the former chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology, was arrested in January on allegations that he hid his involvement in China's Thousand Talents Plan, a program designed to recruit people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China.

Lieber has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of making false statements to authorities – a charge that calls for up to five years in prison if he's convicted, authorities said. Prosecutors say he will be arraigned in federal court at a later date.
...
Authorities say Lieber, 61, was paid $50,000 US a month by the Wuhan University of Technology in China under his Thousand Talents Program contract and awarded more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at the Chinese university.
...
Authorities say Lieber lied about ties to the program and the university, telling federal authorities that he was never asked to participate in the Thousand Talents Plan. When the National Institutes of Health questioned Harvard about Lieber, the professor caused the school to falsely report that Lieber "is not and has never been a participant in" China's Thousand Talents Plan, prosecutors said.

Harvard said in January that Lieber had been placed on administrative leave.

[iam4liberty]

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/06/12/twitter-takes-down-china-linked-accounts-spreading-disinformation.html
Twitter takes down China-linked accounts spreading disinformation on Hong Kong and coronavirus

The accounts that Twitter took down also focused on China's response to Covid-19.

"The tweets in this set focused on cheering on the Chinese government epidemic response, calling for Chinese and global unity, painting China as a responsible stakeholder in the international environment," according to Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which analysed the removed accounts.
...
"This large-scale pivot to Western platforms is relatively new, and we should expect continued evolution and improvement, given the enormous resourcing the Chinese party-state can bring to bear in aligning state messaging across its diplomacy, state media and covert influence operations," ASPI said.

"The disruption caused by Covid-19 has created a permissive environment for the CCP to experiment with overt manipulation of global social media audiences on Western platforms," it added.

[iam4liberty]

Uh oh, the left's favorite science group have joined the party.  Oh, and somehow China's dishonesty is Trump's fault. 

https://thebulletin.org/2020/06/did-the-sars-cov-2-virus-arise-from-a-bat-coronavirus-research-program-in-a-chinese-laboratory-very-possibly/amp/
Did the SARS-CoV-2 virus arise from a bat coronavirus research program in a Chinese laboratory? Very possibly.

[iam4liberty]

Remember how China and their supporters claimed the Wuhan lab didn't have Ebola?  They lied and broke numerous national and international laws to acquire it.  The US media called it a conspiracy theory.  Well, now we know it is a conspiracy fact.

https://www.timesnownews.com/amp/international/article/wuhan-lab-received-shipment-of-deadliest-viruses-from-canada-months-before-covid-19-outbreak-report/607345
Wuhan lab received ‘shipment of deadliest viruses’ from Canada months before Covid-19 outbreak: Report

London: The Wuhan Institute of Virology received a shipment of deadly viruses from Canada's Microbiology Lab months before the outbreak of Covid-19, newly-released documents confirm.
...
the lethal delivery was sent from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Canada, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in early 2019.
...
Dr Xiangguo Qiu was removed from Canada's only level-4 lab over what is described as a possible "policy breach". Dr Qiu dispatched Ebola and Henipah viruses to the lab.
...
"In response to a request from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for viral samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sent samples for the purpose of scientific research in 2019."

Experts are not convinced, though.

Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News: "It is suspicious. It is alarming. It is potentially life-threatening."

"What we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximise the genetic diversity and maximise what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments.

"And that has links to the Chinese military."

In a gain of function experiment, a natural pathogen is made to mutate so humans can see if it has become more deadly or infectious.

Professor Attaran added: "The Wuhan lab does them and we have now supplied them with Ebola and Nipah viruses. It does not take a genius to understand that this is an unwise decision."

"I am extremely unhappy to see that the Canadian government shared that genetic material."
...
The revelations come amid soaring tensions between China and the West and, given the fact that the pandemic is said to have originated in Wuhan, news of the "policy breach" is a cause of concern.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Beijing for its campaign of "disinformation" relating to the coronavirus.

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, observed: "COVID-19, if it's done anything, it has woken up the world to this rather aggressive and concerning objective of China wanting to quietly advance its own influence across the world."

[surfivor]

Remember how China and their supporters claimed the Wuhan lab didn't have Ebola?  They lied and broke numerous national and international laws to acquire it.  The US media called it a conspiracy theory.  Well, now we know it is a conspiracy fact.

https://www.timesnownews.com/amp/international/article/wuhan-lab-received-shipment-of-deadliest-viruses-from-canada-months-before-covid-19-outbreak-report/607345
Wuhan lab received ‘shipment of deadliest viruses’ from Canada months before Covid-19 outbreak: Report

London: The Wuhan Institute of Virology received a shipment of deadly viruses from Canada's Microbiology Lab months before the outbreak of Covid-19, newly-released documents confirm.
...
the lethal delivery was sent from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Canada, to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in early 2019.
...
Dr Xiangguo Qiu was removed from Canada's only level-4 lab over what is described as a possible "policy breach". Dr Qiu dispatched Ebola and Henipah viruses to the lab.
...
"In response to a request from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for viral samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sent samples for the purpose of scientific research in 2019."

Experts are not convinced, though.

Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News: "It is suspicious. It is alarming. It is potentially life-threatening."

"What we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximise the genetic diversity and maximise what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments.

"And that has links to the Chinese military."

In a gain of function experiment, a natural pathogen is made to mutate so humans can see if it has become more deadly or infectious.

Professor Attaran added: "The Wuhan lab does them and we have now supplied them with Ebola and Nipah viruses. It does not take a genius to understand that this is an unwise decision."

"I am extremely unhappy to see that the Canadian government shared that genetic material."
...
The revelations come amid soaring tensions between China and the West and, given the fact that the pandemic is said to have originated in Wuhan, news of the "policy breach" is a cause of concern.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Beijing for its campaign of "disinformation" relating to the coronavirus.

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, observed: "COVID-19, if it's done anything, it has woken up the world to this rather aggressive and concerning objective of China wanting to quietly advance its own influence across the world."

 Is that illegal ? It's very unacceptable that labs have these dangerous viruses and we can't know the truth about it

[iam4liberty]

Is that illegal ? It's very unacceptable that labs have these dangerous viruses and we can't know the truth about it

Yes.  Acquiring these is a direct violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.  That is why China didnt have them.  Even Russia refused to provide them to China.  But in this case, China used one of its agents to get a top level position within the Canadian lab.  Then when policy violations were discovered (most likely theft of biotechnology) they were placed under investigation but allowed continued access.  During this time they arranged to have some of the most dangerous pathogens known to man shipped to the Wuhan lab just as they were starting gain of function work.  It is now clear to everyone that China haw been using the lab for bioweapon development in violation of treaty.

[surfivor]

Yes.  Acquiring these is a direct violation of the Biological Weapons Convention.  That is why China didnt have them.  Even Russia refused to provide them to China.  But in this case, China used one of its agents to get a top level position within the Canadian lab.  Then when policy violations were discovered (most likely theft of biotechnology) they were placed under investigation but allowed continued access.  During this time they arranged to have some of the most dangerous pathogens known to man shipped to the Wuhan lab just as they were starting gain of function work.  It is now clear to everyone that China haw been using the lab for bioweapon development in violation of treaty.

 I find that outrageous and highly unacceptable

[iam4liberty]

Preliminary analysis of Itallian water system supports lab leak timeline and bolsters claims of coverup by China.  Other studies in Spain and France are also consistent on this timing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-06-19/italy-had-coronavirus-in-sewage-as-early-as-december-study-says
Italy Had Coronavirus in Sewage as Early as December, Study Says

The coronavirus was present in Milan and Turin’s sewage systems as early as December, two months before the first Covid-19 cases were detected in Italy, a new study shows.

“Traces of SARS-Cov-2 have been found in samples of waste water taken in Milan and Turin on Dec. 18 and in Bologna on Jan. 29,” said Giuseppina La Rosa, who led the research for a coming study from the country’s ISS National Health Institute. “More traces were detected in other test samples through January and February.”
...
The new ISS study “may contribute to shedding light on the first phase of the virus’s circulation in Italy,” La Rosa said. The results are consistent with similar tests carried out on waste water in Barcelona and with clinical tests on patients hospitalized in France, which showed biological traces of the virus as early as last December.

[Mr. Bill]

It does suggest that China was either covering up the outbreak or was incredibly negligent in its disease data collection.  But I don't think this supports any particular timeline, because a natural-source virus could follow the same schedule.

[iam4liberty]

It does suggest that China was either covering up the outbreak or was incredibly negligent in its disease data collection.  But I don't think this supports any particular timeline, because a natural-source virus could follow the same schedule.

It does support it because we have clear times of when it occured from satellite data, conference proceedings, social media accounts, cell phone records, hospital accounts, etc.  This data falls directly in line.  It is completely out of line with what China' has been claiming..

[iam4liberty]

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/australia-under-malicious-cyberattack-from-state-actor-1.1592530328449
Australia under 'malicious' cyberattack from state actor
PM says broad attack targeting government, public services and businesses

“This activity is targeting Australian organizations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organizations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure,” he said.
...
Australia enraged China by calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and accusing China of fuelling a virus “infodemic” and engaging in economic “coercion”.

China — increasingly unwilling to tolerate criticism of its more aggressive foreign policies — has warned its students and tourists against going to Australia, threatened more sanctions and sentenced an Australian citizen to death for drug trafficking.

Morrison said that he had notified the leader of the opposition and state leaders of the cyberattacks, which he described as “malicious”.

[fred.greek]

MODERATORS:  It's been a long time since I started a new post, so please correct whatever mistake I made...

COVID-19 virus detected in a Barcelona sewage sample from back in March 2019.

Link to the study as pre-published in a medical journal.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.13.20129627v1.full.pdf

"...  All samples came out to be negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomes with the exception of March 12, 2019, in which both IP2 and IP4 target assays were positive.

This striking finding indicates circulation of the virus in Barcelona long before the report of any COVID-19 case worldwide. Barcelona is a business and commerce hub, as well as a popular venue for massive events, gathering visitors from many parts of the world. It is nevertheless likely that similar situations may have occurred in several other parts of the world, with circulation of unnoticed COVID-19 cases in the community..."

[LvsChant]

wow! Thanks for sharing that, Fred. It is very interesting... and hard to understand how that could be... more food for thought for sure.

[iam4liberty]

wow! Thanks for sharing that, Fred. It is very interesting... and hard to understand how that could be... more food for thought for sure.

Most likely a false positive given that all the surrounding samples were clean:

This possibility prompted us to analyze some archival WWTP samples from January 2018 to December 2019 (Figure 2). All samples came out to be negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomes with the exception of March 12, 2019, in which both IP2 and IP4 target assays were positive.

Also, that one "hit" is not aligned with similar studies from other European cities but the later times are. 

Net, it is worthy of a closer look but definitely needs confirmation.

[iam4liberty]

The thefts continue and the Dems are ok with that

https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/house-dems-reject-resolution-condemning-china-for-coronavirus-cyberattacks/
House Dems Reject Resolution Condemning China for Coronavirus Cyberattacks

No House Democrats voted in favor of Kinzinger's resolution.

National security agencies have been monitoring the issue. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a public service announcement in May to warn U.S. medical research organizations of "likely targeting and network compromise by the People's Republican of China (PRC)." The announcement accused China of seeking "valuable intellectual property and public health data through illicit means related to vaccines, treatments and testing."

[surfivor]

Most likely a false positive given that all the surrounding samples were clean:

This possibility prompted us to analyze some archival WWTP samples from January 2018 to December 2019 (Figure 2). All samples came out to be negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomes with the exception of March 12, 2019, in which both IP2 and IP4 target assays were positive.

Also, that one "hit" is not aligned with similar studies from other European cities but the later times are. 

Net, it is worthy of a closer look but definitely needs confirmation.

With all the problems and reports of shady things, I don't see how you can trust that the test kits are reliable at all. For all I know, some percentage of them may be pre configured to generate bad results. As far as I am concerned, the test kits are some black box that I have no reason to trust what they do and no one has tried to prove that they are trustworthy and not rigged or that they are reliable.

[iam4liberty]

Journalist who broke story in Western media of virus has been vanished day before WHO "investigators" arrived in China.  She first reported on the lab shut down, patients overwhelming hospital, panic among medical staff (many who died), and the crematoriums running 24/7.  If not for her, the West would have been caught completely flat-footed.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/journalist-who-reported-wuhan-story-is-arrested-r8lnvt8lk
Journalist who reported Wuhan coronavirus story is arrested

[iam4liberty]

Previous bat strain published by Shi Zhengli of Wuhan lab is easily transformed into SARS COV-2 using gain of function techniques they were proven to be using.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-wuhan-institute-virology-bats-research-sars-a9601951.html
Questions raised over whether virus sample in Wuhan lab could cause Covid-19

Scientists have raised fresh questions over whether a coronavirus sample held for years in a Wuhan laboratory could have mutated naturally or via genetic experimentation to become the virus which causes Covid-19.
...
In addition to giving a full genetic description of the virus, Dr Shi’s paper – published in Nature – revealed that the WIV housed a sample of virus collected from bats named RaTG13, which it said was a 96.2 per cent match with the Covid-19 virus – the closest yet discovered.
...
However, past research work carried out at VIW to improve the ability of pathogens to cause disease, known as “gain-of-function” research, has been documented in papers published between 2015 and 2017, described in one paper co-authored by Dr Shi as “virus infectivity experiments”.
....
The type of techniques required to turn RaTG13 into Sars-Cov-2 are “identical” to work previously carried out in Wuhan, alleges Professor Richard Ebright of Rutgers University’s Waksman Institute of Microbiology in New Jersey.

“The very same techniques, the very same experimental strategies using RaTG13 as the starting point, would yield a virus essentially identical to Sars-Cov-2,” he told The Sunday Times.

[iam4liberty]

There is very little doubt now.  We have direct documentary evidence of an origin virus which, through gain of function experiments, creates a perfect match for the covid-19 virus.  The chance of it also evolving naturally in the same exact way is vanishingly small and would require decades of natural evolution.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covid-like-virus-from-bat-infested-mine-sent-to-wuhan-lab-in-2013-says-report-2257717
Covid-Like Virus From Bat-Infested Mine Sent To Wuhan Lab In 2013: Report

Virus samples sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology seven years ago closely resemble Covid-19, according to a report in the Sunday Times that highlights unanswered questions about the origins of the global pandemic.

Scientists in 2013 sent frozen samples to the Wuhan lab from a bat-infested former copper mine in southwest China after six men who had been clearing out bat feces there contracted a severe pneumonia, the newspaper said.

Three of them died and the most likely cause was a coronavirus transmitted from a bat, the Sunday Times reported, citing a medic whose supervisor worked in the emergency department that treated the men. The same mine in Yunnan province was subsequently studied by Shi Zhengli, an expert in SARS-like coronaviruses of bat origins at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Shi, nicknamed "bat woman" for her expeditions in bat caves, described Covid-19 in a February 2020 paper, saying it was 96.2% similar to a coronavirus sample named RaTG13 obtained in Yunnan in 2013. The Sunday Times said RaTG13 is "almost certainly" the virus that was found in the abandoned mine.

[iam4liberty]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/07/politics/christopher-wray-fbi-director-china-speech/index.html
FBI director unleashes on China in speech

Chinese hackers have moved swiftly to target US pharmaceutical and research institutions making progress in the fight against coronavirus, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday in a wide-ranging speech that included some of the agency's starkest accusations about the country's threat to the US to date.
...
"The Chinese government is engaged in a broad, diverse campaign of theft and malign influence and it can execute that campaign with authoritarian efficiency," Wray said. "They're calculating, they're persistent, they're patient and they're not subject to the righteous constraints of an open democratic society or the rule of law."
...
Earlier this week, the White House chief of staff said that President Donald Trump would be signing an unspecified executive order about China as soon as this week.

In a tweet last week, the President said he is becoming "more and more angry at China" as the pandemic continues to spread.
...
Wray on Tuesday described how the FBI has observed "cyber activity tracing back to China" aimed at US organizations that have made a significant announcement about research relating to the pandemic within hours of their announcements, mirroring other warnings from US intelligence officials in recent weeks.

Chinese diplomats are also "aggressively urging" federal, state and local officials across the country to support China's handling of the crisis, Wray said, adding that a state senator, who he did not identify, had recently been asked by the Chinese government to introduce a resolution supporting the country's response to the pandemic.
...
"When it couldn't locate one Fox Hunt target, the Chinese government sent an emissary to visit the target's family here in the United States. The message they said to pass on? The target had two options: return to China promptly, or commit suicide,"

[iam4liberty]

Breaking news: Chinese whistleblowers now speaking out against chinese government suppression of scientists regarding lab leak

https://www.foxnews.com/media/gordon-chang-china-coronavirus-cover-up-credible.amp
Exiled virologist's claim of China coronavirus cover-up 'credible'

"She carries a message that is going to be discordant with what we hear elsewhere because this has become, like, President Trump versus everybody else," Chang told host Tucker Carlson. "And so you have a lot of people propagating China's narratives in this country because it is politically expedient for them to do so in the short term. And, of course, we are in a political season.
...
"But if she says, 'This is not an issue of politics,' then it's very important that we listen to what she says," Chang added, "because it does corroborate much of what we know about what the World Health Organization and China were doing in that critical January period."

Yan, who specialized in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health, told Fox News in an exclusive interview that she believes the Chinese government knew about the novel coronavirus well before it claimed it did. She says her supervisors, renowned as some of the top experts in the field, also ignored research she was doing at the onset of the pandemic that she believes could have saved lives.

Yan, now in hiding, claims the government in the country where she was born is trying to shred her reputation and accuses government goons of choreographing a cyber-attack against her in hopes of keeping her quiet.
...
Chang reminded Carlson that there are two main theories about how the coronavirus originated in humans.

"One of them is this was ... a transfer in the wild from an animal to a human. The other is that this was an accidental release from the Institute of Virology," Chang said. "And I have to say that my view is the latter one, because most diseases in China originate -- and these coronavirus diseases originate -- in southern China. All of a sudden, we have one originating in the middle of China within 20 miles of China's [Biosafety Level 4] lab.

"That is extremely suspicious. We know that a Chinese major general was put in charge of the lab sometime around March," Chang said. "And I believe that she cleaned up the lab to prevent the world from knowing any evidence of what was going on."

[iam4liberty]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8513631/amp/Scientists-Wuhan-virus-lab-defected-West-reveals-Steve-Bannon.html
Scientists from the Wuhan virus lab have 'defected' to the West, reveals senior Trump ally Steve Bannon - as FBI gathers evidence that coronavirus pandemic was caused by an accidental leak

Experts from the Chinese laboratory at the centre of global suspicion over the coronavirus pandemic have ‘defected’ and are in the hands of Western intelligence
...
Even the Chinese government’s own Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recently admitted that the virus had been brought in to the market, rather than originating there.
...
‘They are not talking to the media yet, but there are people out of the Wuhan lab and other labs that have come to the West and are turning over evidence of the culpability of the Chinese Communist Party.

[iam4liberty]

Video from the first one:

https://youtu.be/NUbrE1v4kuQ
Chinese virologist accuses Beijing of hiding details on coronavirus

"THE REASON I CAME TO U.S. IS BECAUSE I DELIVER THE MESSAGE OF THE TRUTH OF COVID-19. IF I TELL IT IN HONG KONG, THE MOMENT I START TO TELL IT, I WILL BE DISAPEARED AND  KILLED. NO ONE WILL HEAR ME. SO FOR THIS PURPOSE, I’D LIKE TO GO TO U.S. AND TELL THE TRUTH OF THE ORIGINS OF COVID-19 TO THE WORLD.  SO PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW TERRIBLE, HOW DANGEROUS IT IS.  THIS IS NOTHING ABOUT POLITICS.  THIS IS ABOUT WHETHER ALL THE HUMANS IN THE WORLD CAN SURVIVE."

[iam4liberty]

The fix is in.  So glad we aren't giving a dime in taxpayer dollars to these clowns anymore.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-who-visit-covid-19-china-a9614391.html?amp
Coronavirus: Wuhan lab that researches Covid-19 will not be visited by WHO investigators looking into origin of virus

Epidemiologists to focus only on idea novel virus naturally jumped species


WHO is sending a mission to Wuhan, in Hubei province, but has said investigators will be there only to “advance the understanding of animal hosts for Covid-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans”. ⁠
..
Bosses at WHO have also declined to provide details of places its investigators will inspect or the people they will meet ⁠— however, it is understood Chinese authorities will monitor and limit all movements.
. 
Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: “To have any value, an investigation must address the possibility the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident.”

He added WHO should also consider if the virus’s ability to infect humans was “enhanced through laboratory manipulation”.

[iam4liberty]

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6171023134001
Defected Chinese virologist blows whistle on Communist Party’s COVID cover-up

A Chinese virologist has spoken out against China’s cover-up of COVID-19, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to "cover-up its complete malfeasance”
...
Li-Meng Yan defected to the US and told Fox News she believes China knew about human transmission of the virus well before it publicly admitted it was infectious.

She also said she was silenced when she tried to raise the alarm.

Mr Ferguson told Sky News host Sharri Markson this is incredibly significant because ever since the initial outbreak, China  did its “absolute best to shine the spotlight away”.

“They know this is the closest that Xi Jinping’s regime has come to facing any sort of questions by the Chinese people,” he said.

“Xi Jinping’s grasp on power is looking more tenuous”.

[iam4liberty]

Meanwhile, Biden says if elected it is his day one priority to shift hundreds of billions of dollars from the American healthcare system to the communist controlled WHO.  I wonder what Hunter Biden's cut will be?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53332354
Coronavirus: Biden vows to reverse Trump WHO withdrawal

Mr Trump formally began the pull out on Tuesday after signalling the move in May. He said the WHO was under China's control during the coronavirus crisis.
...
"The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government," he said, adding that China had "instigated a global pandemic".

The president accused China of pressurising the WHO to "mislead the world" about the virus
...
"China has total control over the World Health Organization," the president said.
....

What did Mr Biden and others say?
...
"On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage."

Democrats in Congress confirmed that the legislature had been notified of the president's decision.

China also deplored Mr Trump's move
...
"This decision of the United States undermines international efforts and will have grave implications..." said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

"We urge the United States to fulfil its international responsibilities and obligations and to show the responsibility of a big country."

[iam4liberty]

This decision by WHO is sending shockwaves through science community with those who before said it was most likely naturally occuring now saying China clearly believes it came from the lab otherwise they would allow it to be examined and cleared.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12101454/wuhan-coronavirus-lab-dodge-who-investigation/amp/
NO SCRUTINY Wuhan coronavirus lab may DODGE investigation as WHO team hunting for origin of pandemic won’t bother visiting

The WHO – which has been accused of “parroting Chinese propaganda” and heaping praise on Beijing – said last week it was sending a mission to China.
...
And the WHO has now seemingly ruled out a visit to the now infamous lab in the city where very similar viruses were being studied, The Times reports.

Questions have been raised about the activities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, after reports China found an almost identical coronavirus strain in bats and sent it to the lab for examination.
...
But to the dismay of some scientists, the WHO indicated that its mission, being prepared by two of its experts who flew to Beijing last week, would look only at "the zoonotic source" of the outbreak.

Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: “An inquiry that presupposes – without evidence – that the virus entered humans through a natural zoonotic spillover and that fails to address the alternative possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident, will have no credibility.

But to the dismay of some scientists, the WHO indicated that its mission, being prepared by two of its experts who flew to Beijing last week, would look only at "the zoonotic source" of the outbreak.

Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said: “An inquiry that presupposes – without evidence – that the virus entered humans through a natural zoonotic spillover and that fails to address the alternative possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident, will have no credibility.

He said the WHO delegation must quiz their Chinese counterparts on RaTG13 – the virus strain reportedly being studied at the lab that is 96% identical to Covid-19.

Petrovsky said: “Was any attempt made to clone RaTG13 virus?

“Were any gene sequences from presumed RaTG13 virus ever synthesised? If so, where and when?

“What was done with these cloned sequences?”

[Mr. Bill]

A well-written overview of the mainstream opinion that SARS-CoV-2 arose naturally:

7/13/20: Here’s how scientists know the coronavirus came from bats and wasn’t made in a lab

...The genetic makeup or “genome” of SARS-CoV-2 has been sequenced and publicly shared thousands of times by scientists all over the world. If the virus had been genetically engineered in a lab there would be signs of manipulation in the genome data. This would include evidence of an existing viral sequence as the backbone for the new virus, and obvious, targeted inserted (or deleted) genetic elements.

But no such evidence exists. It is very unlikely that any techniques used to genetically engineer the virus would not leave a genetic signature, like specific identifiable pieces of DNA code. ...

The "no such evidence exists" link above points at this 3/17/20 article from Nature: The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2.  The relevant quote:

...It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. As noted above, the RBD [receptor-binding domain in the spike protein] of SARS-CoV-2 is optimized for binding to human ACE2 with an efficient solution different from those previously predicted. Furthermore, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one of the several reverse-genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used. However, the genetic data irrefutably show that SARS-CoV-2 is not derived from any previously used virus backbone. Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer. We also discuss whether selection during passage could have given rise to SARS-CoV-2. ...

Back to the previous article...

...Some scientists have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 may have come from another known bat virus (RaTG13) found by researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The genomes of these two viruses are 96% similar to one another.

This might sound very close but in evolutionary terms this actually makes them significantly different and the two have been shown to share a common ancestor. This shows that RaGT13 is not the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2. ...

The "significantly different" link is this 6/7/20 article from Taiwan researchers: The origin and underlying driving forces of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.  From the abstract:

...After correcting for mutational bias, the excess of low frequency mutations on both synonymous and nonsynonymous sites was revealed which is consistent with the recent outbreak of the virus. ... The sequence similarity in the spike receptor binding domain between SARS-CoV-2 and a sequence from pangolin is probably due to an ancient intergenomic introgression that occurred approximately 40 years ago. The current outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 was estimated to have originated on 12/11/2019 (95% HPD 11/13/2019–12/23/2019). The effective population size of the virus showed an approximately 20-fold increase from the onset of the outbreak to the lockdown of Wuhan (1/23/2020) and ceased to increase afterwards, demonstrating the effectiveness of social distancing in preventing its spread. Two mutations, 84S in orf8 protein and 251 V in orf3 protein, occurred coincidentally with human intervention. The former first appeared on 1/5/2020 and plateaued around 1/23/2020. The latter rapidly increased in frequency after 1/23/2020. Thus, the roles of these mutations on infectivity need to be elucidated. Genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 collected from China is two times higher than those derived from the rest of the world. A network analysis found that haplotypes collected from Wuhan were interior and had more mutational connections, both of which are consistent with the observation that the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak originated in China.

SARS-CoV-2 might have cryptically circulated within humans for years before being discovered. Data from the early outbreak and hospital archives are needed to trace its evolutionary path and determine the critical steps required for effective spreading. ...

Note the 40-years-ago estimate for the bat/pangolin virus mixing.  Again, back to the original article:

...the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in bat populations for a considerable amount of time. It then would have acquired the mutations that allowed it to spill over from bats into other animals, including humans.

It is also important to remember that around one in five of all mammal species on Earth are bats, with some found only in certain locations and others migrating across vast distances. This diversity and geographical spread makes it a challenge to identify which group of bats SARS-CoV-2 originally came from.

There is evidence that early cases of COVID-19 occurred outside of Wuhan in China and had no clear link to the city’s wet market where the pandemic is thought to have begun. But that isn’t evidence of a conspiracy.

It could simply be that infected people accidentally brought the virus into the city and then the wet market, where the enclosed, busy conditions increased the chances of the disease spreading rapidly. This includes the possibility of one of the scientists involved in bat coronavirus research in Wuhan unknowingly becoming infected and bringing the virus back from where their subject bats lived. This would still be considered natural infection, not a laboratory leak. ...

[David in MN]

I'm still waiting for the plan to protect North America's bat population...

[iam4liberty]

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/07/vatican-cardinal-suggest-covid-19-made-in-laboratory-condemns-bacteriological-wars/amp/
Vatican cardinal suggest COVID-19 made in laboratory, condemns ‘bacteriological wars’

Comastri said that the virus that has put the world on hold “does not come from God,” as “God is not a punisher but a redeemer.”

He also said that the world’s most powerful countries are “organizing world wars, including bacteriological wars; is not excluded that COVID-19 came out of one of these laboratories.”

The cardinal was referencing claims that COVID-19 may have escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been studying viruses in bats, the suspected vector species of the new coronavirus.