On Friday (August 26), Chinese State-owned media Global Times focused a former science trainer from India, whose investigation gave credence to the Wuhan lab leak concept. Identified as ‘The Seeker’, the Indian man from Kolkata felt a way of social duty to find out the origins of Covid-19, which took numerous lives.
Global Times, the propaganda arm of the Communist Party of China (CCP), sought to delegitimise the findings of ‘The Seeker’ and his staff DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19) after the US Intelligence report on ‘Coronavirus origins’ remained ‘inconclusive.’ In an article authored by Bai Yunyi revealed on Friday, Global Times dubbed ‘The Seeker’ as a ‘rumourmonger’ whereas it dismissed DRASTIC as an ‘online conspiracy group.’ It additional claimed that such teams are backed by ‘anti-China forces’.
While slamming the group for being ‘anonymous, the CCP mouthpiece alleged,”…DRASTIC members are constantly spreading conspiracy theories and false news about the “Wuhan lab-leak” theory and launching online public opinion attacks against scientists who hold impartial scientific positions. DRASTIC’s clumsy manipulation of this conspiracy concept has been extensively questioned.”
Screengrab of the Global Times report
Global Times additional accused the DRASTIC of ‘plotting’ and ‘popularising’ rumours towards China within the West. It claimed, “For example, there was the rumour that the novel coronavirus originated in a copper mine in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, when scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) brought back samples and the virus was leaked. This information, published by the Washington Post, was originally concocted by a core member of DRASTIC named The Seeker”.
The tabloid newspaper accused the previous Indian science trainer of discovering a grasp’s thesis, which outlined 6 circumstances of pneumonia brought on by an unknown virus in 2012 at an deserted copper mine in Yunnan province, by mistake. “After taking only a few minutes to read the abstract, “The Seeker” instantly posted a prolonged message on his Twitter account pointing that the supply of the novel coronavirus illness was the WIV, with the tag “DRASTIC” hooked up, CNET reported,” it wrote. Global Times remarked that the findings of the DRASTIC fail to evolve with the ‘basic tenets of scientific rigor.’
It added, “The Global Times noticed that DRASTIC has been getting the attention of mainstream Western media since February. Sky News, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal, as well as many Indian media outlets, have all cited the group’s views and hyped about how the group has changed the chapter of the virus origin.” Accusing DRASTIC of publishing ‘alleged reports’ and harassing scientists, it claimed the ‘ultimate goal’ is to one way or the other tarnish the picture of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The CCP mouthpiece concluded that DRASTIC’s emergence to the limelight was the results of ‘change in the Biden administration’s angle towards the traceability of the coronavirus illness.’
Findings of ‘The Seeker’ and the DRASTIC staff into the origins of the Wuhan Coronavirus
‘The Seeker’, in his mid-20s, was a science trainer. From there, he studied structure, portray and filmmaking. He informed OpIndia that he had then moved on to a challenge that allowed him to observe his ardour – engaged on audiobooks. Initially, he had purchased into the mainstream media narrative that the virus had contaminated people from animals on the notorious moist markets in Wuhan. But quickly, he grew to become skeptical of the traditional narrative and started interacting with people who had begun to tear it aside. This made ‘The Seeker’ curious concerning the virus and its origins.
It was a way of social duty, apart from the plain curiosity, that led him to this mission. “COVID has taken the lives of countless people and devastated so many others. But it has also left so many clues that haven’t been followed up. Humanity deserves answers,” he had emphasised. The Seeker was satisfied that the thriller behind the Wuhan Coronavirus lay within the RaTG13 virus.
Using his on-line analysis abilities, The Seeker discovered CNKI, which is a large database of Chinese educational journals and theses. Fueled by tea and occasional arcade video games, he scrolled via the database for days till he struck gold. The Seeker discovered a 60-page thesis authored by a scholar at Kunming Medical University in 2013. Titled, “The Analysis of 6 Patients with Severe Pneumonia Caused by Unknown Viruses,” the paper discovered that the miners had died of SARS-like Coronavirus. He shared it on Twitter on May 19, 2020.
After it had change into public, the Chinese authorities swung into motion and restricted the entry management to make sure that it was by no means discovered once more. Interestingly, The Seeker additionally discovered that the company media ignored the story when the miners had died of SARS-like an infection in 2012. He labored in shut affiliation a Madrid primarily based knowledge scientist named Francisco de Asis de Ribera. The Seeker discovered new items of the Coronavirus puzzle whereas Ribera fitted the items collectively. He found detailed plans of Wuhan Institute of Virology to check the infectivity of SARA-like viruses in lab animals and human cells, bear cross-species mutation and genetic recombination of the viruses.
He discovered that the Wuhan Institute of Virology by no means purchased the argument that the three miners had died of a fungal an infection, as espoused by Shi Zhengli. The researchers, working on the institute, have been involved a few viral outbreak and thus examined the blood of neighbouring villagers and obtained genetic sequences of 8 different SARS-like viruses from the mine. DRASTIC discovered that China had the data with them upfront however as a substitute selected to hide it and let individuals die. The Seeker concluded, “I no longer see science as an exclusive domain. Everyone can make a difference.”