Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired US Army Colonel, who previously worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and conducted basic and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry. He is a veteran of Afghanistan, Iraq and West Africa and trained in Arabic & Kurdish. In this interview with News Intervention and Sangar Media Group Lawrence Sellin demystified the origins of Coronavirus and also explained the geostrategic undercurrents in South Asia.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: You have been quite vocal in saying that novel Coronavirus is man-made and it has been made in the labs of China. What makes you so sure about the origins of Coronavirus?
Lawrence Sellin: The narrative that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of a naturally-occurring disease outbreak was never a scientifically viable conclusion.
The argument was that a precursor of SAR-CoV-2, the Coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, while circulating in a bat population, mutated, acquiring the ability to infect humans. It was then transmitted to people either visiting or working in the Wuhan Seafood Market, perhaps through an intermediate animal host, like pangolins, the scaly anteater.
It was, however, already known by the end of January 2020, that the initial patients hospitalized between December 1st to December 10th, 2019 had not visited the market and bats were not sold there. It has also been found that pangolins were not the intermediate host animals.
The theory that the Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was the first source for animal–human viral transmission is now totally discredited, even by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Furthermore, the structure of SAR-CoV-2 is different in some very significant ways from any of the close Coronavirus relatives so far identified.
Much of the scientific inquiry related to the origin of SAR-CoV-2 has centered on a particular component of Coronavirus structure called the spike glycoprotein, which carries the ability for the virus to bind itself to a human cell and gain entry.
Although the scientific consensus says that SARS-CoV-2 came from bats, the binding component appears more closely related to pangolins, which likely explains the initial claim that pangolins acted as an intermediate host. There exists another structure in SARS-CoV-2 called a furin polybasic cleavage site that is not found in any of the closely related bat Coronaviruses.
The probability of those two structural components evolving together in nature is very low. In contrast, experiments artificially inserting such components into Coronaviruses have long been done by Chinese scientists.
Given the significant differences between the structure of SAR-CoV-2 and naturally-evolving bat Coronaviruses, the burden of proof is now on China to prove it was a natural outbreak.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: Experts cite various research papers published in reputed journals such as ‘Nature’ to buttress their claim that Coronavirus was not synthesized by humans in any Chinese laboratory. Your comments.
Lawrence Sellin: If you exclude the massive amounts of Chinese propaganda, the argument that SAR-CoV-2 is naturally-occurring is based largely on a single, but widely-cited, Nature Medicine article entitled “The Proximal Origin of SAR-CoV-2,” supported by a few Western scientists with possible vested interests in the outcome and linked to a nearly endless regurgitation of the same argument by the mainstream media.
Although it is simply stated as a conclusion, no one has provided any credible evidence that SARS-CoV-2 evolved naturally.
It appears to be same formula that has been used for creating the politically-motivated “wide scientific consensus” of climate science or the now discredited COVID-19 epidemiological models, all efforts meant to stifle debate by labeling any contrary views as conspiracy theories.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: Anyone who synthesizes a bio-weapon prepares the antidote first. So if COVID-19 is all man-made then why haven’t we seen its vaccine yet?
Lawrence Sellin: I have never said that SARS-CoV-2 is a bio-weapon. No doubt the Chinese military is interested in such work, but I think SARS-CoV-2 was more likely the product of risky experimentation that accidentally leaked out of the laboratory.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: How will the crisis in Hong Kong, China’s tensions with Taiwan and its strained relations with the US affect geo-political scenario in South Asia?
Lawrence Sellin: There will be global diplomatic and economic retribution against China. China is intentionally raising the tension in areas where it already has significant leverage like in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They will be used as bargaining chips to reduce the effectiveness of any coming retribution.
The US trade relationship with China will change significantly, which will create opportunities for new trading partners or an increase in trade with traditional partners, like India. China’s position is South Asia is primarily affected by progress of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and China’s relationship with India, both of which are in bad shape.
It is likely that an unofficial anti-China block will emerge in the Asia-Pacific region focused more strongly on countering Chinese economic and military hegemony.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: Why is China taking up aggressive postures around its neighborhood? Is China’s transgression into Ladakh a strategic move by Beijing to shift world’s attention from Wuhan’s virus labs?
Lawrence Sellin: Chinese aggression in Ladakh is one element in the strategy I described, to raise the stakes in nearby regions where it has greater influence and reduce the number of concessions it will be required to make, obliging the global community to settle for less retribution.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: Baloch revolutionaries have ensured that China’s dream project CPEC remains practically defunct. What impact will this have on Balochistan’s freedom struggle?
Lawrence Sellin: The coming backlash against China for which there will be a trickle-down effect on Pakistan, creates a window of opportunity for the international community to increase its support for Balochistan independence, which would be a regional strategic game-changer. An independent, secular and democratic Balochistan would reduce Islamic extremism, constrain drug trafficking and provide a friendly neighbor for Afghanistan with access to the sea.
Vivek Sinha / Dosten Baloch: Do you think the coalition government in Afghanistan will be able to bring peace in the war-torn country? How much (and in what form) will the Pashtun unrest in Waziristan affect the internal politics of Afghanistan?
Lawrence Sellin: I do not think the Taliban will settle for anything less than total control of Afghanistan, making civil war likely even in the absence of the US and NATO forces. Pakistan will maintain its support of the Taliban in order to make Afghanistan a Pakistani-client state. Pakistan will also continue to promote extremism and use terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy, which will only increase regional instability. So, Pakistan will continue on the road to destabilizing itself. Pashtun unrest will remain a factor in the internal politics of Afghanistan and may be a center for Taliban resistance and an anti-Pakistan insurgency, especially if those elements link up with the Balochistan independence fighters. Pakistan’s international position will be significantly weakened having tied its future so closely to China.
Vivek Sinha/ Dosten Baloch: What are the possible factors behind Pakistan’s recent military escalation across Balochistan?
Lawrence Sellin: The COVID-19 pandemic has diverted the world’s attention away from the human right abuses Pakistan is committing in Balochistan. Islamabad has used the distraction to increase its subjugation of the Baloch and crush their aspirations for independence. No doubt Pakistan is trying to consolidate its stranglehold on Balochistan in preparation for a possible collapse of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and to seal off Afghanistan as the withdrawal of US and NATO forces approaches.
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[…] To these serried walls of silence must be added that of the mainstream media. To my knowledge, no major newspaper or television network has yet provided readers with an in-depth news story of the lab escape scenario, such as the one you have just read, although some have run brief editorials or opinion pieces. One might think that any plausible origin of a virus that has killed three million people would merit a serious investigation. Or that the wisdom of continuing gain-of-function research, regardless of the virus’s origin, would be worth some probing. Or that the funding of gain-of-function research by the NIH and NIAID during a moratorium on such funding would bear investigation. What accounts for the media’s apparent lack of curiosity? […]