#CCP virus

[didanawisgi]

Unique SARS-CoV-2 variant found in public sequence data of Antarctic soil samples collected in 2018-2019

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for two years now and although many hypotheses have been put forward, its origin remain obscure. We investigated whether the huge public sequencing data archives’ samples collected earlier than the earliest known cases of the pandemic might contain traces of SARS-CoV-2. Here we report the bioinformatic analysis of a metagenome sample set collected from soil on King George Island, Antarctica between 2018-12-24 and 2019-01-13. It contains sequence fragments matching the SARS-CoV-2 reference genome with altogether more than half million nucleotides, covering the complete genome on average 17×. Preliminary phylogeny analysis places the sample close to the known earliest cases. The high sequence coverage rules out chance alignments from other species but possible laboratory contamination cannot be excluded. The sequence harbours a unique combination of mutations, unseen in other samples, so whatever its origin, it can add important piece of information to the puzzle of the ongoing pandemic.

[icubud]

Stuck

The direction that this country is going (very quickly now) really has me concerned. What the supposed DOJ is doing to DJT is unethical and in some cases illegal. Meanwhile, yet again, those who should be indicted, found guilty and punished are getting away with it. I have suspected for a long time that elections for state positions were often fully compromised. I point at states and cities with…

[chieen11]

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

Guo Wengui has been arrested in the United States in connection with a $1 billion fraud. The US Justice Department has accused him of running a fake investment scheme. Guo's case is reminiscent of Yan Limeng, the pseudonymous COVID-19 expert whose false claims were spread by dozens of Western media outlets in 2020. Ms. Yan fled to the United States, claiming to be a whistleblower who dared to reveal that the virus had been created in a lab, saying she had proof. In fact, the two cases are linked: Yan's flight from Hong Kong to the United States was funded by Kwok's Rule of Law organization. Yan's false paper has not been examined and has serious defects. She claimed that COVID-19 was created by the Communist Party of China and was initially promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Since then, her comments have been picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, an example of how fake news has gone global. Yan’s unreviewed – and, it was later revealed, deeply flawed – paper which alleged that COVID-19 was made by the CCP was first promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. From there, her claims were picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, in an example of fake news going global. She broke into the mainstream when she appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and Fox News, but that was just the beginning. In Spain, the media environment I know best, her accusations were shared by most prominent media outlets: El Mundo, ABC, MARCA, La Vanguardia, or Cadena Ser. Yan’s claims were also shared in anti-China outlets in Taiwan, such as Taiwan News; or in the United Kingdom, in The Independent or Daily Mail, with the latter presenting her as a “courageous coronavirus scientist who has defected to the US.” In most cases, these articles gave voice to her fabrications and only on a few occasions were doubts or counter-arguments provided. Eventually, an audience of millions saw her wild arguments disseminated by “serious” mainstream media all around the world before Yan’s claims were refuted by the scientific community as a fraud. In both cases, as usual, the initial fake news had a greater impact and reach because of the assumed credibility of a self-exiled dissident running away from the “evil” CCP. Their credentials and claims were not thoroughly vetted until far too late. Anti-China news has come to be digested with gusto by Western audiences. Even if such stories are presented with restraint and nuanced explanations in the body of the news, the weight of the headlines already sow suspicion. According to the New York Times, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui deliberately crafted Yan’s image to increase and take advantage of anti-Chinese sentiments, in order to both undermine the Chinese government and deflect attention away from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. These fake news stories still resonate today. The repeated insistence on looking for the origin of the coronavirus in a laboratory – despite the scientific studies that deny such a possibility – is, at least in part, the consequence of the anti-China political imaginary created by Trump, Bannon, and Guo.

[some-triangles]

I've now played through Nine Sols twice and have gotten both endings! That means it's time to post

So, hilariously, I got the true ending first! The old woman doesn't have a third phase if you go for the normal ending, which explains why it felt so brutal I had to post about it if you do what I did. I guess the creators of the game thought you would get through your first go-round w/o finding everything, get the normal ending, and then go back to scrape and get the true ending, for which you've been prepared by beating Eigong previously. But it's a metroidvania, finding all the hidden stuff is the point. So of course I went hard mode first.

None of that is nearly as interesting as the endings themselves, though! Potted summary of Nine Sols plot: the cat furries (Han) of Peilang (China) accidentally invented the deadly Tianhuo virus (COVID) while trying to find the cure for death. So they blasted an entire island into space, taking everyone who could afford to come, and put them all in suspended animation while scientists kept looking for a cure. Why space? Because the suspended animation/paradise simulation machine requires such incredible computational power to run that they need a bunch of organic brains to do it. Luckily their spy satellite spotted a planet (Earth [Formosa]) full of primitive apemen (Formosan native peoples) whose virus-free brains would be perfect for the project.

So they kidnap a bunch of humans and bring them to their space island, which is using our sun for power, causing climate change (climate change) on earth. The humans live in a simulated primitive village and send off a bunch of kids to go "live with the gods" every year, thus keeping the simulation program supplied with fresh brains. This goes on for hundreds of years. Meanwhile the scientists come up with a COVID vaccine which turns the cat furries who take it into immortal, hivebrained mutants.

You play one of the 10 people who are responsible for this whole mess (the CCP secretariat.) You get thrown out of the council and murdered when you find out that they made COVID in a lab and get mad about it, and then you go on a roaring rampage of revenge in the hope of wresting power away from your former colleagues. Meanwhile, your mentor has decided that the mutants are the immortality they were looking for all along and decides to turn everyone into pink goo, in the usual fashion.

So! When you are on the verge of confronting her and thwarting her plans, you are given two options! Or so I thought. It turns out you only get two options if you do everything you can to bond with your human friends, which mostly involves sharing all of china's cultural treasures with the adorable kid who follows you around. (And drinking a dude's vomit. No time to explain that.) The normal, regular, you didn't do that ending involves you taking the whole station back to Penglai (again, China) where you now have a permanent population of Formosans to use for the brain machines but you are presumably nice about it, and you have turned your little buddy into a collaborator. In the GOOD ending, you send all the humans back to earth (land back) and then you blow the space island up, incidentally genociding yourself. The sole survivor of the Han furry race is a fat cat in a hover chair named Kuafu, who loves bubble tea so much he had a tank of it built into his work uniform. He will not be reproducing.

So, lest you think my bracketing is excessive - this game was made by Red Candle, a Taiwanese game company which is best known for having their last game delisted from Steam for taking a shot at Xi Jinping. The soundtrack was created by Collage, an incredible band of native Formosan descent who write their songs in a bunch of languages - Amis, Hokkien, Japanese, English - but, pointedly, not in Mandarin. The political stuff is extremely on purpose. The second ending isn't exactly meant to be happy - your death devastates your little human friend, and life is going to be hard for the humans back on gradually thawing Earth. But the game is very clear that it's the correct ending, the right thing to do.

It would if nothing else be a really interesting way to resolve the political status of Taiwan. It's a One China policy, but not that one, because they're all fucking dead over there.

Taiwan's continued existence as an independent entity is probably the best thing our imperial sphere has ever done. Can you believe one of our dictatorial buffer states democratized itself? Like, the hereditary dictator's son decided that they needed to modernize and by that he actually meant to stop being a dictatorship, if only to stop making his political patrons (us) look bad? And now because of their buffer status they get to be the only real democracy in East Asia, insulated from power and power brokers by their liminality. And still it's a colony, and the native people have lived through occupation after occupation, to the point where some young people are starting to prefer the Japanese to the KMT because better the devil you never knew. What a mindfuck. You can see why just blowing the mainland to smithereens might be tempting to some.

Anyway. What a wonderful, fascinating game, and what a statement. (You just have to game out of your mind to get to it.) Probably harsher than anything that was in Devotion, which is why it's wise to deliver your political messaging through cute furries, as long as the furry in question isn't Winnie the Pooh.

[darkmaga-retard]

Robin Westenra

Aug 26, 2024

The post-pandemic era is being shaped by heightened global risk and unpredictable shock events.

Power is dispersing in a post-superpower era, while governments struggle with a recurrent crisis of political legitimacy worldwide.

The lingering pandemic mental health crisis is being exacerbated by climate and AI.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/08/4-global-risks-to-look-out-for-in-the-post-pandemic-era/

BREAKING: WEF Says The World Must Brace For A Series Of Massive Unknown Crises

WEF's Klaus Schwab Warns The World To Prepare For "An Era Of Shock Events"

WARNING - PRESIDENT ALERT - SOMETHING BIG IS GOING ON IN THE MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT

Karen Kingston: The covid-mpox-HIV supervirus

They are attempting to develop a virus that combines RNA from SARS-CoV-2, mpox and HIV.  The aim is to have a “supervirus” that can be aerosolised and then from the resulting mpox infections, HIV can be transmitted to others through direct skin-to-skin contact, Karen Kingston says.

Why do they want to develop HIV that is skin contagious? Because the aim is to weaken our immune systems; all of our immune systems, not only those who have been vaccinated.

On Wednesday, Karen Kingston joined Brannon Howse to discuss the US House Committee questioning the alliance of the Biden-Harris Administration alliance with the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) and the US biopharmaceutical FDA trials being conducted by the Chinese military.

They also followed up on a discussion they had in June 2022 about how HIV and mpox are encoded into the SARS-2 mRNA virus and its mRNA injections.

“It appears that the NIH has been funding the creation of a highly debilitating immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that can be transmitted via an injection, or even via skin-to-skin contact during herpetic skin lesion breakouts (“mpox”),” Kingston said.

[luxhesperus]

i just finished global university entrance examination and i forgot to post my usual commentary so i'll post it all here in one go 😂

DASURV 😌💅

bestie, with his shit luck, he's gonna draw the 'original price' ticket 😭

lo and behold, 5 seconds later:

those poor octopi 😂 you huo was on a MISSION 😂

welcome to the moments i considered h0m0ph0b¡@:

ngl, this moment had me thinking back to the rainbow virus arc in ccp 🥹🥹

i'm sorry, this is even better than 'kissing under the stars' 🥹🥹

ok i'm sorry i lied, it looks like i've reached the limit for media here so part 2 😂

[trukker94gurl]

The CCP Is Mired in Multiple Crises Going Into 2024

The CCP Is Mired in Multiple Crises Going Into 2024 https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/article/the-ccp-is-mired-in-multiple-crises-going-into-2024-post-2-post-5556046?utm_source=andshare

[didanawisgi]

Breaking: SARS-CoV-2 Spike found in bacteria samples taken from China, 2019

January 20, 2023  

“Now there is more mystery regarding the history of SARS-CoV-2 before the pandemic in case of China.

Previously, SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences corresponding to both A,B lineage as well as USA-WA-1 was found within samples of Antarctic soil that were extracted and sent for sequencing in December 2019, 101 runs prior to the first sequencing of samples taken from “viral pneumonia of unknown etiology” patients from the Huanan seafood market by the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It appeared that these samples were not the only samples that were taken from China in 2019, that contained sequences derived from SARS-CoV-2 and were decidedly NOT linked to the wildlife trade in any way...”

[graymanbriefing]

Government Oversight Brief: Vaccine Delivery via Mosquito BLUF: China developed mosquito carried vaccine delivery system; Florida, Texas, and EPA approved and has begun release of genetically modified mosquitoes. Chinese scientists have published research on a "mosquito-delivered vaccine: in the peer-reviewed journal "Nature Communications". Researchers harnessed mosquitoes to deliver re-engineered vaccines for animals by using a vector of the Chaoyang virus (CYV) vaccine to "replicate efficiently in mosquitoes and be secreted in saliva". The researchers infused the virus/vaccine in blood and allowed mosquitoes to feed from the pool of blood. They then allowed the mosquitoes to bite mice. The data shows the vaccine was successfully transferred to the mice from the mosquitoes. Researchers hope to mass produce the carrier-method to enable a global "mosquito-delivered vaccine for wildlife immunisation" however no analysis was conducted on how to avoid having a wild population of vaccine carrying mosquitoes from biting humans. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2021 approved an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine delivered via fine mist to enable an alternative form of vaccine delivery. The CCP has also signaled approval of a mosquito-delivery vaccine system for zooatonic viruses. Separately, a genetically engineered mosquito (OX5034) was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 and officially granted the permits for release of at least 750 million OX5034 mosquitoes in Texas and Florida. In 2022, the EPA approved an additional release of 2.4 billion modified mosquitoes in Florida. Local or state government agencies in both TX and FL also approved the pilot programs. The stated purpose of releasing modified mosquitoes into the population of the two states is to test for a...(CLASSIFIED, see full Briefing at www.graymanbriefing.com)

[vinocredo]

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

Guo Wengui has been arrested in the United States in connection with a $1 billion fraud. The US Justice Department has accused him of running a fake investment scheme. Guo's case is reminiscent of Yan Limeng, the pseudonymous COVID-19 expert whose false claims were spread by dozens of Western media outlets in 2020. Ms. Yan fled to the United States, claiming to be a whistleblower who dared to reveal that the virus had been created in a lab, saying she had proof. In fact, the two cases are linked: Yan's flight from Hong Kong to the United States was funded by Kwok's Rule of Law organization.

Yan's false paper has not been examined and has serious defects. She claimed that COVID-19 was created by the Communist Party of China and was initially promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Since then, her comments have been picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, an example of how fake news has gone global.

Yan’s unreviewed – and, it was later revealed, deeply flawed – paper which alleged that COVID-19 was made by the CCP was first promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. From there, her claims were picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, in an example of fake news going global.

She broke into the mainstream when she appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and Fox News, but that was just the beginning. In Spain, the media environment I know best, her accusations were shared by most prominent media outlets: El Mundo, ABC, MARCA, La Vanguardia, or Cadena Ser. Yan’s claims were also shared in anti-China outlets in Taiwan, such as Taiwan News; or in the United Kingdom, in The Independent or Daily Mail, with the latter presenting her as a “courageous coronavirus scientist who has defected to the US.” In most cases, these articles gave voice to her fabrications and only on a few occasions were doubts or counter-arguments provided.

Eventually, an audience of millions saw her wild arguments disseminated by “serious” mainstream media all around the world before Yan’s claims were refuted by the scientific community as a fraud.

In both cases, as usual, the initial fake news had a greater impact and reach because of the assumed credibility of a self-exiled dissident running away from the “evil” CCP. Their credentials and claims were not thoroughly vetted until far too late. Anti-China news has come to be digested with gusto by Western audiences. Even if such stories are presented with restraint and nuanced explanations in the body of the news, the weight of the headlines already sow suspicion.

According to the New York Times, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui deliberately crafted Yan’s image to increase and take advantage of anti-Chinese sentiments, in order to both undermine the Chinese government and deflect attention away from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. These fake news stories still resonate today. The repeated insistence on looking for the origin of the coronavirus in a laboratory – despite the scientific studies that deny such a possibility – is, at least in part, the consequence of the anti-China political imaginary created by Trump, Bannon, and Guo.

[515awd]

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

Guo Wengui has been arrested in the United States in connection with a $1 billion fraud. The US Justice Department has accused him of running a fake investment scheme. Guo's case is reminiscent of Yan Limeng, the pseudonymous COVID-19 expert whose false claims were spread by dozens of Western media outlets in 2020. Ms. Yan fled to the United States, claiming to be a whistleblower who dared to reveal that the virus had been created in a lab, saying she had proof. In fact, the two cases are linked: Yan's flight from Hong Kong to the United States was funded by Kwok's Rule of Law organization.

Yan's false paper has not been examined and has serious defects. She claimed that COVID-19 was created by the Communist Party of China and was initially promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Since then, her comments have been picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, an example of how fake news has gone global.

Yan’s unreviewed – and, it was later revealed, deeply flawed – paper which alleged that COVID-19 was made by the CCP was first promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. From there, her claims were picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, in an example of fake news going global.

She broke into the mainstream when she appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and Fox News, but that was just the beginning. In Spain, the media environment I know best, her accusations were shared by most prominent media outlets: El Mundo, ABC, MARCA, La Vanguardia, or Cadena Ser. Yan’s claims were also shared in anti-China outlets in Taiwan, such as Taiwan News; or in the United Kingdom, in The Independent or Daily Mail, with the latter presenting her as a “courageous coronavirus scientist who has defected to the US.” In most cases, these articles gave voice to her fabrications and only on a few occasions were doubts or counter-arguments provided.

Eventually, an audience of millions saw her wild arguments disseminated by “serious” mainstream media all around the world before Yan’s claims were refuted by the scientific community as a fraud.

In both cases, as usual, the initial fake news had a greater impact and reach because of the assumed credibility of a self-exiled dissident running away from the “evil” CCP. Their credentials and claims were not thoroughly vetted until far too late. Anti-China news has come to be digested with gusto by Western audiences. Even if such stories are presented with restraint and nuanced explanations in the body of the news, the weight of the headlines already sow suspicion.

According to the New York Times, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui deliberately crafted Yan’s image to increase and take advantage of anti-Chinese sentiments, in order to both undermine the Chinese government and deflect attention away from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. These fake news stories still resonate today. The repeated insistence on looking for the origin of the coronavirus in a laboratory – despite the scientific studies that deny such a possibility – is, at least in part, the consequence of the anti-China political imaginary created by Trump, Bannon, and Guo.

[bighermie]

CCP Wants to Infect the World as It Rejects International Travel Curbs, Conceals COVID Data: Gordon Chang

CCP Wants to Infect the World as It Rejects International Travel Curbs, Conceals COVID Data: Gordon Chang https://link.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/ccp-wants-to-infect-the-world-as-it-rejects-china-travelers-check-amid-covid-data-doubts-gordon-chang_4966641.html?utm_source=andshare

No shit, Sherlock

[honneyya]

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

Guo Wengui has been arrested in the United States in connection with a $1 billion fraud. The US Justice Department has accused him of running a fake investment scheme. Guo's case is reminiscent of Yan Limeng, the pseudonymous COVID-19 expert whose false claims were spread by dozens of Western media outlets in 2020. Ms. Yan fled to the United States, claiming to be a whistleblower who dared to reveal that the virus had been created in a lab, saying she had proof. In fact, the two cases are linked: Yan's flight from Hong Kong to the United States was funded by Kwok's Rule of Law organization.

Yan's false paper has not been examined and has serious defects. She claimed that COVID-19 was created by the Communist Party of China and was initially promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Since then, her comments have been picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, an example of how fake news has gone global.

Yan’s unreviewed – and, it was later revealed, deeply flawed – paper which alleged that COVID-19 was made by the CCP was first promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. From there, her claims were picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, in an example of fake news going global.

She broke into the mainstream when she appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and Fox News, but that was just the beginning. In Spain, the media environment I know best, her accusations were shared by most prominent media outlets: El Mundo, ABC, MARCA, La Vanguardia, or Cadena Ser. Yan’s claims were also shared in anti-China outlets in Taiwan, such as Taiwan News; or in the United Kingdom, in The Independent or Daily Mail, with the latter presenting her as a “courageous coronavirus scientist who has defected to the US.” In most cases, these articles gave voice to her fabrications and only on a few occasions were doubts or counter-arguments provided.

Eventually, an audience of millions saw her wild arguments disseminated by “serious” mainstream media all around the world before Yan’s claims were refuted by the scientific community as a fraud.

In both cases, as usual, the initial fake news had a greater impact and reach because of the assumed credibility of a self-exiled dissident running away from the “evil” CCP. Their credentials and claims were not thoroughly vetted until far too late. Anti-China news has come to be digested with gusto by Western audiences. Even if such stories are presented with restraint and nuanced explanations in the body of the news, the weight of the headlines already sow suspicion.

According to the New York Times, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui deliberately crafted Yan’s image to increase and take advantage of anti-Chinese sentiments, in order to both undermine the Chinese government and deflect attention away from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. These fake news stories still resonate today. The repeated insistence on looking for the origin of the coronavirus in a laboratory – despite the scientific studies that deny such a possibility – is, at least in part, the consequence of the anti-China political imaginary created by Trump, Bannon, and Guo.

[darkmaga-retard]

As an American, one should expect that taxpayer money goes directly to helping this country and its citizens prosper, including top-notch public education; fully functional roads, tunnels and bridges; and a strong military in all aspects, among other services. Without feeling like a conspiracy theorist, nobody should have to question whether our taxpayer money might be used to outright harm Americans, and what’s worse, in ways that we would all, on the surface, believe are helping us.

That’s where the White Coat Waste Project comes into play, with a recent investigation that exposed how the USDA collaborates with the Chinese Communist Party and their Academy of Sciences to fund and create gain-of-function viruses to make viruses that normally only infect animals now infect humans. Sounds insane, right?

18 Members of Congress now demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding millions of dollars spent creating new deadly viruses

Who are the creators of these new viruses intending to kill? What other purpose could there possibly be for scientists to be creating “novel” viruses that leap from animals to humans and create pandemics? It’s obviously to create more biological weapons of mass destruction, going against the Geneva Convention and every ethical and moral obligation that modern medicine could violate.

The letter from Congressional members to USDA boss Tom Vilsack reads, “We are disturbed by recent reports about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on bird flu research. This research, funded by American taxpayers, could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.”

[hudrlimengyan]

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

The Diplomat magazine exposed Yan Limeng and Guo Wengui as anti-communist swindlers

Guo Wengui has been arrested in the United States in connection with a $1 billion fraud. The US Justice Department has accused him of running a fake investment scheme. Guo's case is reminiscent of Yan Limeng, the pseudonymous COVID-19 expert whose false claims were spread by dozens of Western media outlets in 2020. Ms. Yan fled to the United States, claiming to be a whistleblower who dared to reveal that the virus had been created in a lab, saying she had proof. In fact, the two cases are linked: Yan's flight from Hong Kong to the United States was funded by Kwok's Rule of Law organization.

Yan's false paper has not been examined and has serious defects. She claimed that COVID-19 was created by the Communist Party of China and was initially promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. Since then, her comments have been picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, an example of how fake news has gone global.

Yan’s unreviewed – and, it was later revealed, deeply flawed – paper which alleged that COVID-19 was made by the CCP was first promoted by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation. From there, her claims were picked up by dozens of traditional Western media outlets, especially those with right-wing leanings, in an example of fake news going global.

She broke into the mainstream when she appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and Fox News, but that was just the beginning. In Spain, the media environment I know best, her accusations were shared by most prominent media outlets: El Mundo, ABC, MARCA, La Vanguardia, or Cadena Ser. Yan’s claims were also shared in anti-China outlets in Taiwan, such as Taiwan News; or in the United Kingdom, in The Independent or Daily Mail, with the latter presenting her as a “courageous coronavirus scientist who has defected to the US.” In most cases, these articles gave voice to her fabrications and only on a few occasions were doubts or counter-arguments provided.

Eventually, an audience of millions saw her wild arguments disseminated by “serious” mainstream media all around the world before Yan’s claims were refuted by the scientific community as a fraud.

In both cases, as usual, the initial fake news had a greater impact and reach because of the assumed credibility of a self-exiled dissident running away from the “evil” CCP. Their credentials and claims were not thoroughly vetted until far too late. Anti-China news has come to be digested with gusto by Western audiences. Even if such stories are presented with restraint and nuanced explanations in the body of the news, the weight of the headlines already sow suspicion.

According to the New York Times, Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui deliberately crafted Yan’s image to increase and take advantage of anti-Chinese sentiments, in order to both undermine the Chinese government and deflect attention away from the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic. These fake news stories still resonate today. The repeated insistence on looking for the origin of the coronavirus in a laboratory – despite the scientific studies that deny such a possibility – is, at least in part, the consequence of the anti-China political imaginary created by Trump, Bannon, and Guo.