International financial interests and the global scientific establishment have never wanted the true source of the COVID-19 virus to be revealed, despite the fact that its laboratory origin was suspected early after the onset of the pandemic.

There is now evidence that elements within the U.S. government coordinated with selected members of the U.S. scientific community, no doubt with the blessing of international business and the media, to protect China from responsibility and, in doing so, protected their own interests.

By January 13, 2020, there were already comments on the internet that the COVID-19 virus was manufactured in a laboratory in China and that U.S. scientists may have helped Chinese scientists obtain the knowledge to do so, specifically in the laboratory of Dr. Zheng-Li Shi at the Wuhan Institute of Virology with the assistance of Dr. Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina.

On January 26, 2020, respected investigative reporter and defense expert, Bill Gertz, in his Washington Times article wrote:

“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.”

On February 3, 2020, Kelvin Droegemeier, a product of the Republican establishment and then Director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), wrote a letter to Dr. Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, asking:

“the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to rapidly examine information and identify data requirements that would help determine the origins of 2019-nCoV, specifically from an evolutionary/structural biology standpoint.”

Oddly, his concern was precipitated by an obscure, non-peer-reviewed and already retracted Indian study “Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Hag.”

In retrospect, that article appears to have been a scientific strawman, suggesting that other government motives were involved, but what they were remains unclear.

Nevertheless, based on the scientists enlisted to formulate a response to OSTP’s request, the outcome of Droegemeier’s inquiry was preordained, that is, the complete absolution of China’s responsibility.

Those scientists were Kristian G. Andersen (Scripps Research Institute), Ralph Baric (UNC School of Public Health), Trevor Bedford (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Institute), Aravinda Chakravarti (New York University School of Medicine), Peter Daszak (EcoHealth Alliance), Gigi K. Gronvall (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), Tom Inglesby (Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security), and Stanley Perlman (University of Iowa).

By citing a scientific article from the Wuhan Institute of Virology stating the disease outbreak “started from a local seafood market,” the National Academy of Science’s letter to OSTP unequivocally supported the contention made by China’s Communist Party government that the COVID-19 pandemic was a naturally-occurring transmission from animals to humans

Additionally, the three presidents of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recommended that the United States continue to work closely with China, in particular, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Most of the scientists consulted for the National Academy of Science response had long histories of collaboration with China and/or were later associated with a robust support of China and the theory that COVID-19 originated as a naturally-occurring event.

In some important respects, the final National Academy of Sciences response dated February 6, 2020, bears little resemblance to the original draft, dated February 4, 2020. (see “OSTP NAS emails 2” PDF)

According to the email exchanges between the National Academy of Science and the consultant scientists, there appeared to be a clear effort by the scientists to support the naturally-occurring theory and to eliminate or downplay any mention that the COVID-19 virus was engineered, had unique human binding characteristics, might mutate towards higher infectivity and possessed a furin polybasic cleavage site not found in any related coronavirus.

Subsequently, scientists consulted for National Academy of Sciences response began their own public relations campaign to support China and the theory that the COVID-19 virus was a natural transmission from animals to humans.

On March 7, 2020, Peter Daszak and Stanley Perlman were authors on an article in the British medical journal The Lancet, which stated “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”

On March 17, 2020, Kristian G. Andersen appeared as senior author on the article “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which claimed that the COVID-19 virus was “not a purposefully manipulated virus.”

On September 21, 2020, Gigi K. Gronvall was part of a Johns Hopkins University team that wrote a criticism of Chinese whistleblower, Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who presented evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in a laboratory.

It is also well-known that Ralph Baric has been a long-time collaborator with Zheng-Li Shi, the “bat woman” from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including conducting experiments involving highly dangerous “gain of function” research.

As recently described by Neil Patel in the Daily Signal, Peter Daszak, the sole U.S. representative on the World Health Organization team investigating the origin of the COVID-19 virus, is also a close associate of Zheng-Li Shi and was a key figure in directing American taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Daszak even organized a public relations campaign to paint the lab leak hypothesis as a “conspiracy” before any thorough investigation had been conducted. His spokesperson later said the goal was to protect the lab’s scientists, but ultimately and, perhaps intentionally, the beneficiaries were China, international financial interests and the global scientific establishment.

To be continued.