# Post Emergence: The Cover-up **Nov 14:** Goes viral - see above **Dec 15:** [Ian Lipkin, WHO adviser, 16:44:](http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-lipkin/)* I first heard about this outbreak on the ****15th Dec f****rom *[*Lu Jia-hai*](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2911)* .. who runs a ****large One-Health**** program - ****we*** *have a program with Prof Lu - it’s been ****funded*** *for about 6 months by the* ***Chinese Government*** *but doesn’t really have any _support in the US - and I‘d like to talk a little bit about that program - it’s called ****Gideon -*** *it’s this Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network … * Yeah, not now Ian - we’re compiling a timeline here - we’ll get to that later. But you are the world-record holder for the first admitted *date-of-awareness* by a non-Chinese scientist/person. It wasn’t a fluke. Since 2013 Ian was saying: [Lipkin/Nature:](https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2949?platform=oscar&draft=collection) *The integration of human and animal medicine .. and the emphasis on the use of social media to promote early detection of risk together have great potential for the development of a truly global immune system.* [William Karesh (2009) :](https://www.rcpjournals.org/content/clinmedicine/9/3/259) *Recent changes in WHO's guidance related to the International Health Regulations will allow for information gathering ****without going through official channels**** and this could **greatly help** in global response time.* Lipkin was a WHO advisor . We can assume WHO knew by at least Dec 16. Unfortunately it didn't *greatly help*. **Dec 26:** [WP:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/) *An account published Thursday in ****multiple Chinese news sites**** by an anonymous lab technician who claimed to work at a lab contracted by hospitals said that his company had received samples from Wuhan and reached a stunning conclusion ..(:) (t)he samples contained a new coronavirus with an 87 percent similarity to SARS. .. The technician’s account included extensive images of test results and contemporaneous messages sent by the technician.* **Dec 27**: [Lab technician:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/)* Lab executives held urgent meetings to brief Wuhan health officials and hospital management.* **Dec 30, 5:43pm:** *Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, told his fellow medical school alumni in a private chat that seven people had contracted what he believed to be SARS, and one patient was ****quarantined*** *at his hospital*. .*. He posted a snippet of an RNA analysis finding “SARS coronavirus” and extensive bacteria colonies in a patient’s airways.* [BBC:](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51403795) *Li Wenliang .. sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.* This is hard-evidence of human-to-human transmission. WHO was still denying it over two weeks later. **Dec 30, 7pm:** *The *[*mysterious patient samples*](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/)* arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology at 7 P.M. on Dec 30, 2019*. **Dec 30, 7:03:** *Moments later Shi Zhengli’s cell phone rang. It was her boss, the institute’s director.* *The Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention had detected a novel coronavirus in two hospital patients with atypical pneumonia, and it wanted Shi’s renowned laboratory to investigate. * [Director:](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/) *Drop whatever you are doing and deal with it now* Shi does. But it’s too late for the bullet train **Dec 30, evening:** *The health commission sent an *[*“urgent notice” *](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/)*to all hospitals about the existence of “pneumonia of unclear cause” * **9:02 pm:** [Train Z27](https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/shanghai-wuhan.htm), Shanghai to Wuhan, first available: 9h34m travel time. [Shi, on the train:](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/)* I wondered if \[the municipal health authority\] got it wrong. I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China. Could they have come from our lab?* (Virus Hunter (frequent Batman collaborator - who is Bat Lady’s colleague-in-arms - who is Virus hunter’s protegee) knew about it by at least Dec 15 - but Bat Lady’s Bat-phone doesn’t ring until Dec 30, 7:03 pm? Not plausible. **Dec 30:** [Drastic (PDF p6):](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349073738_An_investigation_into_the_WIV_databases_that_were_taken_offline) *New version of the database factsheet was uploaded at the time Pr. Shi Zhengli was on the Shanghai to Wuhan high speed night train.* **Dec 31:** *Chinese government started to censor .. *[*“Unknown Wuhan Pneumonia”*](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wechat-users-posted-coronavirus-before-china-confirmed-cases-2020-2)* and “Wuhan Seafood Market” on YY, a Chinese live-streaming platform.* **Dec 31:** *Chinese authorities alert WHO to*[ *unusual pneumonia*](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/31/timeline-how-the-new-coronavirus-spread)* in Wuhan*. [Reuters:](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pneumonia-idUSKBN1YZ0GP)* Chinese health authorities said they are investigating 27 cases of viral pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan, after rumors on social media suggested the outbreak could be linked to .. (SARS). * *(S)even were in critical condition and 18 were in stable condition, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said on Tuesday on its Weibo social media account. * **Dec 31:** [People’s Daily:](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pneumonia-idUSKBN1YZ0GP) *The cause of the disease is not clear. We cannot confirm it is what’s being spread online, that it is SARS virus. Other severe pneumonia is more likely.* **Dec 31:** Taiwanese health experts[ warn WHO about human-to-human transmission](https://www.ft.com/content/2a70a02a-644a-11ea-a6cd-df28cc3c6a68). The warning is[ ignored](https://twitter.com/who/status/1217043229427761152?lang=en). (Two weeks later WHO is still insisting there's *no evidence*. When the clamour grows in Taiwan, a free country, Tedros accuses the Taiwanese of being[ *racist*](https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3912961).) **Jan. 1:** *(T)he Wuhan Public Security Bureau summoned eight people for posting and spreading “rumors” about Wuhan hospitals receiving SARS-like cases — detentions that were reported on “Xinwen Lianbo,” a newscast watched by tens of millions. .. * [Wang Guangbao:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/) *The eight posters getting seized made all of us doctors feel we were at risk.* **Jan 1:** [Xinhua:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/) *The police call on all netizens to not fabricate rumors, not spread rumors, not believe rumors .. (but rather) jointly build a harmonious, clear and bright cyberspace. *(sounds just like FB) Jan 3: [Nature:](https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-020-03435-6/index.html) Prof Zhang Yongzhen’s* laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center received a sample of the pathogen on 3 January. * *On the same day, the Chinese government circulated an order forbidding local authorities and labs from publishing information about the virus.* Using an *Illumina *sequencing machine, Prof Zhang Yongzhen (Kunming/Fudan Uni/CDC/ST[Asian of the Year](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/professor-zhang-yongzhen-decision-to-publish-genome-map-made-at-some-personal-risk-0)) began sequencing **2 a.m., Jan 5:** [Nature:](https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-020-03435-6/index.html)* (T)eam member Chen Yan-Mei alerted Zhang that the virus was related to SARS. Later that day, Zhang notified Shanghai’s municipal health authority of the threat and uploaded the data to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a ****sequence repository run by the US National Institutes of Health****.* (So NIH had it, was sitting on it. Why?) **Jan 5:** Using an *Illumina *sequencing machine, Prof Zhang Yongzhen (Kunming/Fudan Uni/CDC/ST[Asian of the Year](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/professor-zhang-yongzhen-decision-to-publish-genome-map-made-at-some-personal-risk-0)), at a CDC facility in Beijing, completed the sequencing of SARS-Cov-2 and shared it with his *long-time collaborator* Eddie Holmes (Sydney Uni/NSW[ Scientist of the Year](https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/10/27/evolutionary-virologist-Edward-Holmes-2020-NSW-Scientist-Year.html)). Holmes *helped him work out what it meant* - he was the only non-Chinese scientist granted access at this point. **January 6:** [WHO:](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/mystery-pneumonia-outbreak-sickens-dozens-china/story?id=68094861) *There is no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.* **January 7:** [Eddie:](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943251#vp_3) We submitted a[ paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2008-3) on January 7 to *Nature*, and they were very keen for us to release it. **January 8:** [Eddie:](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943251#vp_3) *the Wall Street Journal, of all places, published an*[ *article*](https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-virus-discovered-by-chinese-scientists-investigating-pneumonia-outbreak-11578485668)* saying it's a novel coronavirus* *Then, social media people were discussing that it's a coronavirus and we need to know what it is. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, certainly was very vocal in that. *(Jeremy - always the political perspective - sees need to get on top of the narrative) Jan 9: [Eddie:](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943251#vp_3) *Chinese authorities confirmed that it was a novel coronavirus. At that point, it just seemed to me ****quite ridiculous**** because everyone knew this was a coronavirus, but ****we're*** *not saying what it is. It got to the point where I thought, We have to get this out, because it was just crazy. *(This is NIH still sitting on it time) **Jan 10, 8am:** [Eddie:](https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/943251#vp_3) *I called him very early Saturday morning my time, even earlier his time. He was on a plane. He was about to fly between Shanghai and Beijing — I can't remember which direction he was going, but he was strapped in his seat.I said, "Zhang, we have to release the sequence." He said, "Give me a minute to think about it," and he said, "Okay, do it."* **Midday (Aus) Jan 10:** *Luckily, my good friend and colleague*[ *Andrew Rambaut*](https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/research/themes/disease-dynamics/andrew-rambaut)*, from Edinburgh, was still awake — it was about 1 AM his time. He runs this website called*[ *virological.org*](https://virological.org/)*, which has been a very nice open-access forum. We had some frantic emails, and then we wrote some text for the release, and then I posted the sequence on that website at lunchtime on Saturday here and*[ *posted it simultaneously*](https://twitter.com/edwardcholmes/status/1215802670176276482)* on Twitter. That was the open-access moment.* *Zhang was not the only one or even the first one, but it turned out that we first made it open access.* **Jan 11:** Holmes[ tweets](https://twitter.com/edwardcholmes/status/1215802670176276482) that the genome is now available at[ Virological.org](https://t.co/EeqQXCs3n3?amp=1) (Rambaut’s website). **Jan 11-31:** Holmes and Rambaut collaborate with Garry (Tulane), Andersen (Scripps/WuXi PharmaTech) to analyse the virus and[ draft Prox O](https://youtu.be/IxwrDSYrhjU) whilst communicating with Farrar/Fauci/Collins. **Jan 14:** [WHO:](https://twitter.com/who/status/1217043229427761152?lang=en) *Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found ****no clear evidence**** of human-to-human transmission.* (!!!) **Jan. 20, morning:** [WP:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/) *For the first time .. Wuhan public health officials changed the wording of their daily statements to omit their previous references to “limited human-to-human transmission.”* **Jan 20, pm:** *Zhong Nanshan, an 83-year old and veteran of the SARS crisis who is considered a national hero, appeared on state media to announce the virus was in fact ****transmissible*** *between people.* This crucial information was suppressed for at least 21 days - during the CNY period when people travelled widely throughout the world. With full WHO complicity. Jan 21: Xi issued “important instructions” to cadres to “put the people’s health and safety first.” **Jan 21:** [Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission:](https://inews.co.uk/news/china-virus-outbreak-coronavirus-wuhan-sars-cover-up-government-warning-388384) *Anyone who puts the face of politicians before the interests of the people will be the sinner of a millennium .. They will be ****nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity****.* Wonder how many western scientists who collaborated in the cover up will end up on the* pillar of shame for eternity*. **Jan. 23, 2020:** *China imposes *[*aggressive containment*](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/timeline-coronavirus-started/story?id=69435165)* measures in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, suspending flights and trains and shutting down subways, buses and ferries in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.* Having ensured its spread throughout the world - CCP swings Lipkin’s containment plan into action domestically. **Jan 27:** [*Wuhan Mayor*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/)* Zhou Xianwang said he was not authorized by his superiors to disclose the epidemic earlier.* (Evidence the higher-ups knew) **Jan 29:** Lipkin flies into Guangzhou China to [*see for myself*](https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-lipkin/)* what the issues were. *Meets with* pulmonologist, *Zhong Nanshan; Foreign Minister for Health Chen Zhu ( 陈竺); the Minister of Science and Technology; George Gao (China CDC) and Premier, Li Keqiang. **Jan 31:** Andersen emails Fauci to say *some of the features (potentially)*[ *look engineered*](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20793561/leopold-nih-foia-anthony-fauci-emails.pdf)*. .. Eddie, Bob, Mike, and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.* (Andersen’s brackets) **Feb 1:** Garry says draft of [Prox O is complete](https://youtu.be/IxwrDSYrhjU?t=775). (So, overnight, Prox O authors went from *looks engineered* to completing a full-draft that [*irrefutably shows*](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095063) it wasn’t?) **Feb 1/(Feb 2 Aus):** Pivotal teleconference[ organized/chaired by Farrar](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2947) with Fauci, Prox O authors, Koopmans (WHO), Ferguson, Fouchier to form *agreement on next steps*. **Feb 2 or 3:**[ Teleconference organized by Farrar](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2947) with Tedros, (includes Fauci and Collins) to lock in a *prevaricating *Tedros. It was in these two crisis meetings where the *Covid Conspiracy *was formulated, *potentially*. They went into the Feb 1 meeting thinking it was a lab-leak - came out with a co-ordinated plan to cover that up. Then Farrar/Fauci/Collins on-sold it to WHO. Which wasn't hard. **Feb 4:** Lipkin, Prox O co-author, returns from China begins media offensive [ref](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/09/a-local-guide-to-the-coronavirus), [ref](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KmFbVfwZQU), [ref](https://www.indiatoday.in/programme/newstrack-with-rahul-kanwal/video/dr-ian-lipkin-dismisses-china-lab-theory-says-virus-came-from-bat-not-lab-1669524-2020-04-21,), [ref](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/epidemiologist-veteran-of-sars-and-mers-shares-coronavirus-insights-after-china-trip/), [ref](https://www.brisbanenews.net/news/265643621/gideon-a-vision-for-ending-pandemics-with-dr-ian-lipkin): *I started going onto the news media and *[*sharing as much as I could*](http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-lipkin). [Says:](https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/our-experts-respond-coronavirus-outbreak) *(T)here is no evidence that the Wuhan virus will spread to the same extent as SARS, * [*emphasizes *](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KmFbVfwZQU)that Covid is less dangerous than the flu, advises **against** face masks, [despite knowing](https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-lipkin/) they were effective. (32:35) [TWIV interviewer (talking to Garry):](https://youtu.be/IxwrDSYrhjU) *At that time (Feb 1) there was barely any infection outside of China, right? * [*Garry:*](https://youtu.be/IxwrDSYrhjU)* Yeah, ****that's true****.* In fact there was only one case of[ local transmission](https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-02-20-intl-hnk/index.html) in the US by then. So the window to take decisive action to stop the spread, stop all that followed, was still wide-open when the teleconference was held. That’s where the *culpability *comes in.