This article sums up my thinking far better than I ever could.

I personally think it's already launched @Sanguine the CHICOMS have been wargaming biowarfare for many years now and Trump has pushed them into using it.

Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #3

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Opinion: China is Preparing to Start a Military War with America

We need to be ready for anything

Written by Missy Crane · 3 days ago

It sounds like the plot of a crazy Hollywood movie, yet here we all are…As I write this now I am under quarantine – only allowed to leave my house to go to the doctor or the grocery store. My daughter, who is an “essential worker” has to carry a letter in the car in case she’s pulled over to prove she’s allowed to be on the road.

How did we end up here so fast? It almost feels like a bad dream-- excerpt, rest at link above --

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We shall see what China does after this pandemic.

This was a PR blunder for them. Despite their attempts to blame others.

My prediction: I suspect we could see a lot of companies leave China and go elsewhere.

Newt Gingrich, who is a real follower of history, has made several podcasts on China's ambitions for worldwide dominance.

I recently heard this one which is sobering.

China - How We Got It Wrong
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1069-newt...ow-we-42915717/

Quote

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[Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein. On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations./b]

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https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985

Published: [b]09 November 2015

Gun looks like it's smoking to me!

Quote: Tinker wrote in post #9

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Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein. On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.

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