First case in Sri Lanka

First suspected case of coronavirus in Bihar

The deadly animal-borne coronavirus spreading globally may have originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, said an Israeli biological warfare analyst.

Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese biological warfare, said the institute is linked to Beijing’s covert bio-weapons program.
“Certain laboratories in the institute have probably been engaged, in terms of research and development, in Chinese [biological weapons], at least collaterally, yet not as a principal facility of the Chinese BW alignment,” Mr. Shoham told The Washington Times.

The Wuhan institute has studied coronaviruses including the strain that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H5N1 influenza virus, Japanese encephalitis and dengue. Researchers at the institute also have studied the germ that causes anthrax, a biological agent once developed in Russia.

“Coronaviruses [particularly SARS] have been studied in the institute and are probably held therein,” Mr. Shoham said. “SARS is included within the Chinese BW program, at large, and is dealt with in several pertinent facilities.”

The former Israeli military intelligence doctor also said suspicions were raised about the Wuhan Institute of Virology when a group of Chinese virologists working in Canada improperly sent to China samples of what he described as some of the deadliest viruses on earth, including the Ebola virus.

In a July article in the journal Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, Mr. Shoham said the Wuhan institute was one of four Chinese laboratories engaged in some aspects of biological weapons development.

Throughout its history, The Washington Times has been known for its conservative political stance.[6][7][8][9] It has drawn controversy for publishing racist content, including commentary and conspiracy theories about United States president Barack Obama[10][11] and support for neo-Confederatism.[12] It has published material promoting Islamophobia.[13] It has published many columns which reject the scientific consensus on climate change,[14][15][16] as well as on ozone depletion[17] and on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.[18][19]

Scientific American@sciam
 
Some infectious disease experts are warning that it may no longer be feasible to contain the new coronavirus circulating in China.

“The more we learn about it, the greater the possibility is that transmission will not be able to be controlled with public health measures,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, a Toronto-based infectious disease specialist who contracted SARS in 2003 and who helped Saudi Arabia control several hospital-based outbreaks of MERS.
 
If that’s the case, she said, “we’re living with a new human virus, and we’re going to find out if it will spread around the globe.” McGeer cautioned that because the true severity of the outbreak isn’t yet known, it’s impossible to predict what the impact of that spread would be, though she noted it would likely pose significant challenges to health care facilities.

Erster Fall des Coronavirus in Deutschland bestätigt
Das Coronavirus breitet sich weiter aus. Nun gibt es den ersten Fall in Bayern.

Ces compétences de haut niveau sont l'une des raisons pour lesquelles Pékin a décidé d'implanter à Wuhan le premier laboratoire du pays consacré aux maladies hautement contagieuses et mortelles, telles que le virus Ebola. Hébergeant des germes extrêmement pathogènes, ce laboratoire P4 a été construit en coopération avec l'Institut Mérieux, l'un des rares organismes dans le monde à gérer un tel centre de recherche.