# The Influencer
The man who single-handedly invented the bat virus industry - rode it all the way to the mega-billion/all powerful gravy-train it is today
# The Godfather of Bat Viruses
Artwork credit: [*Science*](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19), Katty Huertas
[Linfa Wang:](https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus/2021-issue2/covid19-pandemic-puzzle) *It is human activity that enabled the virus to jump to people, and if nothing changes, many other pandemics of this nature will follow.*
Funnily enough, we agree straight off the bat!
In the Covid Conspiracy card pack, Chinese-Australian Linfa Wang\* is up there - Jack of Diamonds territory. Don’t know why he hasn’t had more attention. Is it a kind of perverse form of racism? He gets overlooked coz he's not a white-guy? Or is it the buttoned-down (boring) persona he projects of the nice scientist toiling quietly away for the common good?
It's a great painting by Huertas- very skillful. It captures his veneer. Which is, paradoxically, who he is: a Master Veneerist.
This was meant to be a deep-dive into a *high-hanging* fruit - if that makes sense - which it doesn't. Turned out everything we need to know about Linfa is in the shallows of his veneer. Weird, right?
Whatever - let’s give Linfa some love …
[Science, Sep 30, 2020:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *The work* (on Covid)* is a **natural** next chapter for Wang, who has been tracking viruses from bats to humans for **more than 2 decades**.*
Firstly - Covid does have a natural origin - h*uman nature* natural - second:
*more than two decades* - so before even SARS.
That’s uncanny.
As soon as Linfa starts studying bat coronaviruses, humanity, at the exact same point in space/time, is plagued with a series of bat virus events. We’re fortunate Linfa came along when he did! Right in time to save us all. Don’t know if Linfa is religious but i’d love to ask: *Did you have some kind of premonition - a revelation from God?*
[Science: ](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19)*Marion Koopmans* (WHO investigator/Feb 1 Teleconferencer)**,** *a virologist at Erasmus Medical Center, credits him for essentially ****launching the field of bat immunology**** and developing the **tools to pursue it.** *
[Koopmans:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *He has made a **heroic** effort to establish a very challenging research line, which needed to ****start from scratch****.*
Holy Bat Cave! Mr. Under-the-radar-Wang-Lin-fa invented bat viruses - *from scratch*.
Can’t get more proximal origin than that. Not only Covid, but the whole shebang chain of events. I’m upgrading his card to *Joker in the pack*.
[CSIRO, 2007:](https://csiropedia.csiro.au/geelong-scientist-receives-eureka-recognition/) *Geelong scientist, Dr Linfa Wang .. also led Australian research efforts to characterise a new virus named **Beilong**. This discovery was the result of another **global research partnership**. The paramyxovirus is named after the two cities that collaborated – Beijing and Geelong.*
*Beilong*. So poetic. Linfa, the ultimate interface guy, led the invention of not only bat viruses but a Sino/Aus-friendship commemorative virus. No better person to do it than the pioneer embedder from the United Front Work Dept.
[Science, Sep 30:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *By* ***pure chance,*** *Linfa Wang, one of the world's foremost experts on emerging viruses, was in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January. *
If you don't believe *Science*, ask Duke, his employer:
[Duke Singapore:](https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus/2021-issue2/covid19-pandemic-puzzle) *It was by **pure chance** that bat expert[ Wang Linfa](https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/eid/faculty/tenure-track-faculty/tenure-track-faculty-staff-details/Detail/wang-linfa) **found himself** in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January 2020. *
*[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) The biologist was ****visiting collaborators**** at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) just as SARS-CoV-2 was starting to spread from the city to the rest of the world.*
[Duke Singapore:](https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus/2021-issue2/covid19-pandemic-puzzle) *Wang was attending the annual **scientific retreat** at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).*
Ohr. By *pure chance,* Linfa Wang was in Wuhan in early Jan, attending a *scientific retreat* - at the Bat Lab - with Shi Zhengli. The Bat Lab, by *pure chance*, is right in the vicinity of where SARS-2 originated.
Then, by even more pure serendipity, straight after Linfa Wang returned to Singapore he got involved in drafting the Lancet Statement with Daszak. We’ll explore those juicy details later - but first some backstory …
(\* His surname is Wang - in China he’s Wang Professor or Wang Lin-fa - (Wung Lin-far - not Linffer) in the west he’s Linfa Wang - Wang is a super-common Chinese surname - most of them are - Linfa is more distinctive - it’s pretty cool that he kept it - most (George Gao) adopt an English name.)
# Curriculum Vitae - Mr Interface
Everything you need to know about Wang is in [this CV](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf) helpfully posted by his current employer, Duke - though pretty sure Linfa wrote it himself (a couple of typos Linfa- but otherwise excellent). His journey from East China Normal University to the New Global Normal Universe - it’s all there.
I’d love to say i had a network of deepthroats for sources - but it’s not like that. Often enough - the best stuff is on the subject's own website - or in puff-piece interviews they give to enabling media platforms. Vanity is their *great undoing*. Making their own publicity - fervently *believing *it, preaching it …
Thereby leaving a trail of incrimination. Thanks!
[GlobalHealth.Duke.edu:](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf)
***CURICULLUM VITAE*** (sic)
*Linfa (Lin-Fa) Wang*
***EMPLOYMENT AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE***
***2012.7-present:**** Director and Professor, Program in ****Emerging*** *Infectious Diseases, ****Duke****-NUS Graduate Medical School, ****Singapore***
***1990-2015:**** CSIRO,* (Commonwealth **Science & Industrial** Research **Organisation**).
including:
***2008-2015:*** ***Science Leader****, ****CSIRO*** *Australian Animal Health Laboratory*
He's only had those two jobs - held them simultaneously from 2012-15. He's no fly-by-nighter.
*ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS*
*January ****1982-1986:*** *B.S. (Honour) Biology (Biochemistry), ****East China Normal University***
*June, ****1986 - 1989:*** * Ph.D. Biochemistry (Molecular Biology), ****University of California, Davis***
**1981-1982:** Linfa won *Outstanding Undergraduate Award, East China Normal University*, top notch uni in a country of 1.3 billion. Then a scholarship to UC Davis. So, unlike Farrar or Daszak for instance, Linfa *is *genuinely smart - as a geneticist at least. Pretty smart at keeping in the shadows as well. You can have all the FOI emails you like, i'll be surprised if you catch Linfa saying anything self-incriminatory - not like the other idiots - your Andersens, Garrys, Lipkins, Holmess, Daszaks etc
Funnily enough, he didn’t want to study biology:
[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *As a child growing up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, Wang would listen to Mao Zedong's speeches through a loudspeaker in kindergarten. "I was thinking: ****‘My God … how does his voice transfer from Beijing to Shanghai?'"*** *Electrical engineering became his passion. *
Inspired to study electrical-engineering by listening to Mao speeches on the public brainwashing system in kindergarten. Thinking *My God…* not at the content of the speeches (give him a break - he was 5-6 ), but the incredibleness of live broadcasting - the simultaneous *oneness* of it. Developing that into a passion as a brilliant young student.
I bet Linfa would have been great at electrical-engineering - but that’s not quite how it works in the CCP universe.
He’d been identified as super-smart - his guardians had a field in mind for him deemed a higher priority:
[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *But after getting into the prestigious East China Normal University, Wang was dismayed when the faculty assigned him to study biology. *
[Linfa:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *I thought, ‘I don't like plants, **I don't like animal**s.' Going to a renowned university felt like going to heaven but the* ***wrong door of heaven,**** basically, because I went to a biology department.*
*The wrong door of heaven.* The wrong door to heaven is ... hell? Is that what happened? The world, through the agency of Linfa Wang, had a S*liding Doors moment* - where humanity went through the wrong door?
[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *Secretly listening to Voice of America, Wang eventually became so proficient at English that he was ****chosen*** *for a scholarship to study abroad.*
*Science *is writing this as a puff-piece for Linfa - which is funny - coz i’m reading it as evidence of someone groomed from childhood by the CCP, inserted into UC Davis, then CSIRO Australia - where he invents bat viruses.
That makes Linfa one of *The Originals.* In 1979, Deng Xiaoping[ re-invented/expanded the United Front Work Dept](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/deng-xiaoping/1979/18.htm) to include infiltration operations overseas. The simple, long-term goal was to influence the influencers - especially in academic institutions. This is the exact time that Linfa was entering university in China, where he was groomed for an overseas posting at UC Davis upon graduating. He was then assigned to Australia in 1990, where, over the next 25 years, he succeeded in rising to the top of CSIRO.
One thing that maybe western thinking doesn't get about Chinese thinking is the long game ...
*surround the city with the country*
Initially employed with great success in the civil war, it was repurposed to slowly, methodical infiltrate bio-security global institutions (amongst others). China's control of WHO is the obvious example.
It's important to remember, in China,[ Sun Tzu's *Art of War*](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2014/05/23/sun-tzus-33-best-pieces-of-leadership-advice/?sh=1640a20d5e5e) is not some fleeting pop-psychology thing trending on Twitter - Tzu's philosophy is a core pillar of Chinese thought-culture. *Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer*.
In a war, gradually infiltrate the system you wish to influence - don't go for the shock n awe big-prize at the start - take your time. If you do it right, you will win control without a shot being fired.
Wang Linfa was an original graduate direct into this fledgling UFWD academia program. George Gao was slightly later. They both proved to be legendary students.
# Bat Lady & The Dark Knight
[](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-02/image-1645000779434.png)
Courtesy WIV website, 2005 (now deleted): Cohorts Cahooting. From left: Don't know, (i'd like to), Hume Field (Aus), Bat Lady, The Dark Knight, Batty Man
[ABC interview at the Bat Lab](https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2011-08-16/scientists-scramble-to-stop-hendra-outbreaks/6181256)[, 2011:](https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2011-08-16/scientists-scramble-to-stop-hendra-outbreaks/6181256) *Waiting on the secure side is* *Dr Linfa Wang - leader of the group known as the **"bat pack"** - and personally known as the **bat virus man**. He's been working at the Animal Health Lab for 20 years.*
Yeah, *Bat Virus Man* is pretty good - i still like Dark Knight - now i'm in a quandary. *Bat Pack* though, that's great - can i use that?
As published by [Formosahut in May 2020](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2055), there was a pivotal *Bat-Pack* GoF experiment in 2008 (same year Bat Virus Man was promoted to [Head Scientist](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf) at CSIRO) that*[ inserted a SARS S sequence into a bat virus](https://jvi.asm.org/content/82/4/1899)* *to enable ACE-2 binding*.
The experiments were conducted at WIV, led by Bat Lady & The Dark Knight - with Meng Yu, his wife, [also employed by CSIRO.](https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01085-07?permanently=true)
[Differences in Receptor Usage:](https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01085-07?permanently=true) *ACE2-binding activity of SL-CoVs was ****easily acquired**** by the replacement of a relatively small sequence segment of the S protein from the SARS-CoV S sequence.*
Easy-peasy.
*[Differences in Receptor Usage:](https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01085-07?permanently=true) This work was jointly funded by .. ****a special fund**** from the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (no. 1009), the ****Knowledge Innovation Program**** Key Project (KSCX1-YW-R-07) to ****Z. Shi*** (Bat Lady),* .. and the ****Australian Biosecurity CRC**** for Emerging Infectious Diseases (project 1.026RE) to* ***L.-F. Wan*g** (the Dark Knight)
(Aside: This is how rabbit-holey everything is: ***CRC***, the funding arm for Linfa, was set up in **2002** (so pre-SARS) - one of its supporting members is *Consortium for Conservation Medicine* - which was one of Daszak’s & Epstein’s first incarnations of EcoHealth. What are they doing on an Australian bio-security org in 2002? [CRC:](https://www.publish.csiro.au/ma/pdf/ma03238) *The threats may be natural, accidental, or deliberate (as in ****bioterrorism****).* (CRC’s brackets))
So how did Linfa and Zhengli meet?
Their relationship, like most things Covid, goes back to SARS. Technically, Anthrax ignited the funding explosion, but SARS provided a new rallying point once it became clear the whole Anthrax bioterrorism attack [was literally](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/books/anthrax-rap/page/who-dunnit) a(/some) Fort Detrick scientist(s) drumming up business for vaccines.
[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *After WHO declared the epidemic over in July 2003, it put together a mission of eight scientists, including Wang, to investigate the origins of the virus in China. *
Cool. Linfa was an original WHO investigator representing CSIRO, Australia. [Dominic E. Dwyer](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2860) (Westmead, Aussie) was also a WHO investigator for SARS - wonder if he was one of the eight?
*[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) Wang **had a hunch** bats could be the source, but the rest of the team was skeptical. At a meeting in Beijing, Wang met the head of WIV, who suggested he collaborate with a scientist at her institute: Shi Zhengli, who was then studying viruses in fish and shrimp.
*
Linfa:* She was the* ***only virologist who believed me**** and was willing to collaborate with me.
*
So a legend was born: Bat Lady & the Dark Knight. Bound by science - but also *belief*.
As Science notes, they took bat viruses from a fringe theory to an industry where *the two have co-authored **dozens** of papers*.
In 2005, they published a landmark paper with Daszak, Epstein (EHA) and other scientists from WIV/CSIRO, the [original Bat Packers](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1118391), titled *Bats are Natural Reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses -* which established their reputations in virology.
Zhengli & Linfa then shot to fame (along with Daszak) for *finding *the SARS-1 bat virus from the famous Yunnan caves. Though in fact, it was [nothing of the sort](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?mode=entry&id=2861) - less than 97% - same range as RaTG13 & the Lao sample but typical zoonati - never let facts get in the way of a good zoonosis narrative. As Linfa admits in a different article:
[Nature, Feb 26 2020:](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00548-w) *Even a 99% similarity between the RBDs of the two viruses is not necessarily enough to link them, says Linfa Wang, .. who was part of the team that* ***found the origin**** of the SARS virus.*
(A neat example of how blithely Nature pedals misinformation - If 99% isn’t definitive, then how does *nearly 97%* = *found the origin of SARS*?)
In 2006 Linfa won: *CSIRO Award for [Excellence in Partnership](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf), (SARS Team)* (with Bat Lady),
Together they launched a worldwide bat virus hunting movement (with Dazza coming on as PR guy), often funded under the PREDICT umbrella. They were especially attracted to the Yunnan caves - but also SE Asia & Africa - the [WIV website](http://english.whiov.cas.cn/About_Us2016/Address_from_the_Director2016/) from 2016 says: *WIV has also played a key role in the development of the CAS-African Research Center in Nairobi.* (What are they up to there i wonder?)
[NPR:](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/29/847948272/why-the-u-s-government-stopped-funding-a-research-project-on-bats-and-coronaviru) *Daszak says the China bat sampling project has already racked up [quite a number](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2422) of successes (*to the tune of) *15,000 samples from bats.* *From these they have already **identified** ...about 50 (that) fall into a category that caused SARS and ... COVID-19,* including *[all the building blocks](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?mode=entry&id=2861) for SARS.*
Technically, i doubt Linfa was/is traipsing through the batcaves of SE Asia collecting samples - he doesn't like plants or animals for a start - Bat Lady does - loves the outdoors. Not Linfa's cup of tea though. His job starts when the samples get to the Bat Lab - that's where the magic begins.
So our duo are a slight odd couple - but they *are* old friends - and they do click:
[Science:](https://www.science.org/content/article/biologist-helped-trace-sars-bats-now-hes-working-uncover-origins-covid-19) *They also like to team up in karaoke bars to sing classic Chinese ballads, says Peter Daszak, a researcher at the EcoHealth Alliance, a New York City nonprofit, and a longtime collaborator with Wang and Shi.
*
Pete:* Linfa is an excellent singer and to see him and Shi Zhengli do a duet is very special.*
I’m sure it is! I’m wondering if we haven’t just seen a masterful performance.
# Wang's WIV World
Photo credit: [The Australian](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/science/batman-linfa-wang-to-the-rescue-with-covid-immunity-breakthrough/news-story/4993ce3d40904cca87c0370337b805a4) (puff-piece Sep 2022)
We've already seen Linfa's (CSIRO's) connection to WIV through *dozens of papers* with Shi-WIV/(+Daszak-EcoHealth) - but does it go deeper? Is that even possible?
Normally it would take weeks of painstaking research to untangle a subject's network of influence but luckily we can simply refer to[ Linfa's CV](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf) for the definitive answer.
(2005-):* Honorary Professor, ****Wuhan Institute of Virology****, Chinese Academy of Sciences*
Oh. So apart from the collabs, Linfa is an honorary WIV professor. Not even Daszak, Lipkin, or [*Honorary Eddie* Holmes](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2036) had *that *honour. *Rarefied-air* alert.
Keep scrolling though, to *Invited Positions*, you find this one:
***(2007-present*** *-according to [Duke](https://globalhealth.duke.edu/sites/default/files/cv/cv-linfa_wang-jan2017.pdf)):* *Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, ****Wuhan Institute of Virology****, Chinese Academy of Sciences*
Whoa! **Chair** of the Advisory Board **for WIV**! From 2007 to the time of the outbreak. Still doing it.
How the heck was that sitting there in his online CV - but neither I (well i have now) nor anyone else has done a drill-down on this dude? That's one helluva powerful position in a country of 1.3 billion.
The goal of these investigations is to *swim up stream -* put names/faces to the *them*. In Linfa Wang, we've got a live one - operating at the interface of Sino/West bio-alliance. Linfa *is* the interface.
We've established that *THE Science =* Hunter Biden: entitled, addicted to hard drugs, off-the-rails, financially mixed up with the CCP
The question is: We know Hunter's Daddy, but who is THE Science's Daddy?
Hello Linfa Wang. It's a modern family situation - with several Daddies - but he's one of em. Simultaneously Head Scientist at Aus's premier bio-security org and Chairman of the WIV Advisory Board. Who can boast that level of sino-western interfacery? George Gao, Ian Lipkin maybe - but not many. The fact that China, with it's disturbing [bio-state surveillance](https://dulandrift.formosahut.com/books/the-covid-atrocity/page/oxfordxinjiang-the-belt-road-initiative) has been operating hand-in-hand with Australia on bio-security measures for over a decade is testimony to how perverted globalized science culture has become.
We can safely assume that it was in Linfa's capacity as *Chairman* that he visited WIV from [Jan 11 - 14. ](https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/medicus/2021-issue2/covid19-pandemic-puzzle) Lot of important stuff to advise about in those pivotal days. He writes in a Jan 4 email: *as you may be aware the "Wuhan pneumonia" investigation is ongoing and [highly "explosive"](https://twitter.com/gdemaneuf/status/1522032984681226240/photo/1).* We will explore the details/directives from this historic meeting in the following chapters ...