Juno News - April 16, 2020


Fake news journalists need to be called out for their dishonesty


Episode Stats

Length

9 minutes

Words per Minute

154.12372

Word Count

1,495

Sentence Count

65


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The theory that the coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan is gaining more
00:00:11.200 credibility each and every day. When the world first learned about the coronavirus, after weeks
00:00:17.040 of cover-up by the Chinese Communist government and their friends in the World Health Organization,
00:00:22.400 we were told the origin of this virus came from a wet market in Wuhan. We were told to ignore the
00:00:29.040 fact that China's only high-security infectious disease laboratory, a lab infamous for its
00:00:35.040 controversial research and the Chinese government's secrecy around it, the Wuhan Institute for Virology
00:00:41.760 Lab, is located a stone's throw from the wet market where we were told the coronavirus originated.
00:00:49.040 But this was simply a coincidence, we were told, and the mainstream media insisted that we have
00:00:54.560 full faith in the explanation given by the Chinese government. Dissenting thinkers who raised
00:01:00.720 questions about the links between this new coronavirus and China's lone biosafety level 4
00:01:06.640 laboratory located in the same city, well, they were attacked and maligned, and this includes myself.
00:01:12.320 All the way back in January, I raised some concerns. I thought they were valid concerns,
00:01:16.240 asked questions just as journalists are supposed to do, questioning the link between the possibility
00:01:22.640 that these labs or China's biological warfare program was somehow linked to the deadly virus.
00:01:31.680 Now this is the angle that I'm a little bit more worried or concerned about, which is interesting
00:01:36.320 because nobody else is covering it. Nobody else is covering it. I noticed this story in the Washington
00:01:41.040 Times over the weekend. It says virus hit Wuhan, has two laboratories linked to Chinese biological warfare
00:01:49.200 program. So the deadly animal virus epidemic spreading globally may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory
00:01:55.840 linked to China's covert biological weapons program, according to an Israeli biological warfare expert.
00:02:01.760 Radio Free Asia this week rebroadcasted a local Wuhan television report from 2015 showing China's most
00:02:07.600 advanced virus research laboratory known as the Wuhan Institute for Virology, Radio Free Asia reported.
00:02:14.640 The lab is the only declared site in China capable of working with deadly viruses. So Danny Shohan,
00:02:20.880 who is a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese biological warfare,
00:02:26.000 said the institute is linked to Beijing's covert biological weapons programs. This is a quote from Shohan.
00:02:32.400 Certain laboratories in the institute have probably engaged in terms of research and development in
00:02:37.280 Chinese biological weapons, at least collaterally, yet not as a principal facility of the Chinese
00:02:43.200 biological warfare alignment, he told the Washington Times. Work on biological weapons is conducted as
00:02:49.280 part of a dual civilian military research and is definitely covert, he said in an email. Mr. Shohan
00:02:54.800 holds a doctorate in medical microbiology from 1970 to 1991. He was a senior analyst with the Israeli
00:03:00.000 military intelligence and biological and chemical warfare in the Middle East and worldwide, holding
00:03:04.800 the rank of lieutenant colonel. So that is a little bit concerning. I mean, we don't know anything,
00:03:10.400 and I'm not going to speculate, but I'm just saying that, you know, an expert who knows what he's
00:03:13.920 talking about is linking this. We don't really know exactly what the origins are. Nobody in the media
00:03:18.080 is talking about, but it is definitely worth knowing that China's covert biological weapons
00:03:23.360 is centered in the exact same city where this virus was originating. I'll just leave it at that,
00:03:29.520 not going to speculate, but I think it's interesting, worth noting, not sure why my colleagues in the
00:03:33.680 mainstream media are completely ignoring that fact. But as has become a sad sign of our times,
00:03:39.760 agenda-driven journalists quickly attempted to discredit this line of thinking and this line
00:03:45.760 of questioning. For example, freelance journalist Justin Ling wrote a column in Foreign Policy
00:03:51.920 magazine regurgitating Chinese propaganda and accusing me of spreading misinformation and conspiracy
00:03:58.160 theories simply for asking some questions and quoting an Israeli scientist who is also raising
00:04:03.680 similar concerns. Well, in the past few weeks, major news outlets around the world have begun to revisit
00:04:11.440 and re-question China's initial claims and raise new questions about the origin of this coronavirus.
00:04:19.280 On April 2nd, The Washington Post published a widely shared article by senior foreign affairs columnist
00:04:25.440 David Ignatius entitled, How did COVID-19 begin? Its original story is shaky. I'm going to read from
00:04:32.880 this article because it is really interesting and it really reveals a lot about the questions around the
00:04:38.480 origin of the coronavirus. So he says, scientists have identified the culprit as a bat coronavirus through
00:04:46.560 genetic sequencing. Bats weren't sold at the seafood market, although that market or others could have sold
00:04:52.800 animals that had contact with bats. The Lancelot noted in a January study that the first COVID-19 case
00:04:59.280 in Wuhan had no connection to the seafood market. There's a competing theory of an accidental lab release
00:05:07.040 of bat coronavirus that scientists have been puzzling about for weeks. Less than 300 yards from the seafood
00:05:13.920 market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from that
00:05:20.720 facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses
00:05:27.840 from around China for study to prevent future illnesses. Did one of those samples leak or was
00:05:34.240 hazardous waste deposited in a place where it could have spread? Ignatius goes on, he quotes a Rutgers
00:05:41.360 microbiologist and biosafety expert who described a December video from the Wuhan CDC that shows staffers
00:05:49.840 collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate personal protective equipment and unsafe operational practices.
00:05:58.320 So this story really, really raised eyebrows. It made a lot of people sort of reconsider the initial
00:06:05.200 Chinese claim. So following this report, officials in the UK said that they too agreed with the possibility
00:06:11.840 that the virus came out of a laboratory in the area. According to a report in the Daily Mail,
00:06:17.520 top British officials stated, quote, there is a credible alternative view to the zoonic theory
00:06:24.080 based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is a laboratory in Wuhan.
00:06:29.440 It is not discounted. Well, this week saw several more groundbreaking reports that give this alternative
00:06:36.560 theory more credibility. First, the Washington Post released a report this week revealing that the US
00:06:43.440 state department cables warned of safety issues at that same Wuhan lab studying bat coronaviruses all
00:06:50.400 the way back in 2018. According to the report, US embassy officials visited a Chinese research facility
00:06:57.520 in the city of Wuhan several times and sent two official warnings back to Washington about inadequate
00:07:03.760 safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats. So that was the first
00:07:11.120 indication that we knew that there were problems at these labs and that it went all the way to the
00:07:16.560 top within the US government. Okay, second, on Wednesday evening, we had a bombshell of a news report
00:07:23.200 from Fox News about the same Wuhan lab and the possibility of a leak. So Fox News White House
00:07:30.240 correspondent John Roberts reported that US officials had a high confidence that the coronavirus leaked from a
00:07:38.240 Wuhan lab. He asked the question to President Donald Trump during Trump's nightly briefing on the
00:07:44.800 coronavirus. And this is what that sounded like. John, go ahead. Mr. President, multiple sources
00:07:51.280 are telling Fox News today that the United States government now has high confidence that while the
00:07:56.960 coronavirus is a naturally occurring virus, it emanated from a virology lab in Wuhan, that because of
00:08:04.640 lack safety protocols, an intern was infected, who later infected her boyfriend, and then went to the
00:08:10.880 wet market in Wuhan, where it began to spread. Does that correspond with what you have heard from
00:08:16.400 officials? Well, I don't want to say that, John, but I will tell you more and more we're hearing the story.
00:08:21.120 And we'll see when you say multiple sources. Now, there's a case where you can use the word sources.
00:08:26.320 On Wednesday evening, Fox News also reported that US officials say that Chinese officials not only lied
00:08:33.600 about the origin of the virus coming from a wet market in Wuhan in order to deflect blame, but
00:08:39.840 also that they destroyed evidence from the lab to prevent a smoking gun. It may have been the
00:08:46.000 costliest government cover-up of all time, a US official told Fox News. Look, as the Chinese communist
00:08:53.840 officials ramp up their propaganda efforts, working hand in hand with the corrupt and discredited World
00:09:00.000 Health Organization, it's more important than ever that Canadians know the truth. And that's why it's
00:09:06.400 so important that fake news journalists like Justin Ling at Foreign Policy be called out for their
00:09:12.480 dishonesty. Journalists are supposed to ask questions and search for the truth, not push Chinese propaganda,
00:09:19.120 and not shame other journalists for asking what they think are the wrong questions. Justin Ling's calm in
00:09:25.680 foreign policy is fake news, and it should be taken down immediately. For True North, I'm Candice Malcolm.