Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made the shocking allegation in a recent opinion piece that, as early as January 2018, at least fifteen different government agencies were aware that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was working on developing a coronavirus similar to COVID-19.
However, the chiefs of these agencies withheld this information from the general public for years, purposefully refusing to provide politicians like Paul access to the project’s details while they attempted to conduct legislative oversight.
“I have been fighting for years to obtain records from dozens of federal agencies relating to the origins of COVID-19 and the DEFUSE project,” Paul wrote in a March announcement that he and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan would be officially initiating a bipartisan investigation into the virus’s origins.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the U.S. nongovernmental group EcoHealth Alliance, under the leadership of British biologist Peter Daszak, filed the DEFUSE project proposal. “Insert a furin cleavage site into a coronavirus to generate a new chimeric virus” was the stated goal of the proposal.
Paul also identified two other participants in the initial plan to produce chimeric coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab: Dr. Ian Lipkin, an epidemiology professor and co-author of the now-famous “Proximal Origin” paper, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a federal agency previously headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci. Even while they privately voiced worries that the data suggested the virus was genetically planned, the authors of the report, which was published in Nature in March 2020, declared that it was evident from the evidence that SARS-CoV-2 developed organically.
Following the disclosure, a few scientists have already voiced ethical issues.
In reaction to the news, Rutgers University genetics professor Bryce Nickels stated, “We now know Ian Lipkin was part of the first DEFUSE plan.” “In light of these new disclosures, everything he has asserted regarding the beginnings of COVID-19 and his involvement in the false ‘Proximal Beginnings’ article has to be reexamined.”
Naturally, Lipkin is not the only one.
Paul claims that when COVID-19, one of the deadliest viruses in a century, emerged from Wuhan, none of these parties spoke out, and that if it were not for a whistleblower (named Lt. Col. Joseph Murphy), information about the DEFUSE project may never have been discovered.
As Paul and Peters continue their inquiry, more information on what the Kentucky senator refers to as “the Great COVID Cover-up” is probably going to come to light. However, a wealth of data already indicates that the term “cover-up” is not hyperbole.
Paul is by no means the first public servant to coin the phrase.
David Asher, a bioweapons specialist who oversaw the State Department’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, spoke with journalist David Zweig of New York magazine almost a year ago. He gave an explanation for why there has not been much progress in figuring out the origins of COVID: those in positions of institutional power do not want to know.
Asher stated, “It is a gigantic coverup that spans from China to DC.” “Do not come near this monster; it will blow up in your face,” our own state department warned us.
There have been attempts by other government whistleblowers to reveal the cover-up as well.
August saw the CIA formally announce that it was “looking into” claims made by a CIA whistleblower that analysts assigned to trace the virus’s origins had received “significant” financial inducements to revise their conclusion that the virus most likely happened by accident in the Wuhan lab. Although the CIA was looking into the origins of COVID, it is important to remember that Fauci reportedly entered agency headquarters “without a record of admission.”
When one considers the nature of the plan, which British author Matt Ridley pointed out weeks ago featured a considerable amount of “wacky” (and risky) notions like pouring vaccinations into bat caves to immunize them, it becomes clear why the government would conceal DEFUSE.
In the end, Ridley claimed, “What they were doing was creating more hazardous viruses in an effort to comprehend them.” “There is a strong indication that they may have started a pandemic in an attempt to stop it.”
Although we cannot say for sure yet, it appears more and more plausible that gain-of-function research, which received some funding from the US government, gave rise to COVID-19.
While this outcome may come as a shock to many, particularly those who believe that the state is perfect and moral, history and economics students are far less surprised by it.
“Bad governments were the cause of the worst calamities that humanity has ever had to undergo,” Ludwig von Mises said in Omnipotent Government. “Throughout history, the state has frequently served as the primary cause of mischief and calamity.”
This is clearly due to one cause. Authority is less accountable the more concentrated it is, and unchecked authority is a surefire way to go wrong.