90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

US Army Colonel: Coronavirus Was Leaked From A Chinese Lab

“Time and additional evidence will show that coronavirus ‘leaked’ from a Chinese laboratory.”

A retired US Army Colonel is among a growing list of prominent figures to lend weight to the theory that the Coronavirus now ravaging the globe leaked from a Chinese bio-lab in Wuhan in late November.

Lawrence Sellin Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the U.S. Army Reserve, who previously worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

In a recent op ed, he writes that while “there appears to be a politically-motivated campaign to demonstrate that CoVid-19 occurred naturally as a species ‘jump’ from animals to humans originating in the Wuhan wet market…there is still little evidence that directly supports that contention.”

Instead, Sellin posits that the origin of the virus is more likely to be a lab leak, arguing that “the technology to create a coronavirus chimera has been demonstrated,” and “deadly viruses have previously ‘leaked’ out of Chinese virology labs in two separate incidents.”

“Given the illness, death and economic destruction caused by CoVid-19, it is the responsibility of the Chinese government to fully open its research files and databases to international inspection, including information about the hundreds of coronavirus isolates, in order to ascertain the true origin of the Chinese CoVid-19 coronavirus.” Sellin urges.

Sellin, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, and a regular contributor to the Military Times, has been vocal on social media regarding the lab leak theory, pointing to others, including government officials, who are not dismissing the notion:

Sellin, author of Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution, has also demanded China be held accountable for its lies regarding the severity and spread of...

The federal government has stockpiled 29 million pills of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as the best known way to treat active cases of COVID-19, and thousands of patients in New York will take it.

But using the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to treat COVID-19 has sparked an intense political controversy.

President Donald Trump, who has publicly touted hydroxychloroquine since March 19, said of the drug Sunday: “If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early. I’ve seen things I sort of like; so what do I know, I’m not a doctor.”

Axios first reported on an internal dispute between White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who is bullish on the drug, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, who is concerned that only “anecdotal evidence” suggests the drug is effective against COVID-19.

Ohio state Rep. Tavia Galonski, a Democrat who represents parts of Akron, said she would make a complaint to The Hague that Trump is guilty of crimes against humanity for promoting a drug before all the facts are known.

“I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been to The Hague. I’m making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow,” Galonski tweeted Sunday. “Today’s press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one.”

The Ohio Democrat’s tweet was in response to one from Go-Blue-44, who has fewer than 600 followers, saying: “And an invitation to The Hague for crimes against humanity for pushing a drug that hasn’t been tested for coronavirus patients.”

The Food and Drug Administration has expedited use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients; most other countries also allow the drug to be used to treat the new disease.

Aside from political musings, here are some facts to know about hydroxychloroquine.

1. What Do Studies Say?

Studies so far have shown varying degrees of promise in using hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus, said Dr. Kevin Pham, a medical doctor and contributor to The Daily Signal.

Pham told The Daily Signal that existing studies are “small or poorly controlled.”

“The results are promising, but leave lots of questions,” he said.

One French study found that COVID-19 patients treated with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin recovered more quickly than others.

However, that study involved only 36 patients, and just 20 took the medicine, considered a small sample.

The French study also didn’t look at patients in intensive care units. Most patients who took the drug improved. However, one patient from the group tested positive after taking the medicine.

A more recent study out of China used a larger but still fairly limited sample of 62 people. Half took the anti-malaria drug, the other half did not.

The 62 patients were treated for five days, their fevers and cough monitored. The study found 25 of the 31 patients who were given the drug improved, versus 17 patients in the control group of 31.

The study’s authors determined that additional research should be done.

Another study out of France, with a larger sample of 80 coronavirus patients, found improvements in all but one patient who used the drug.

2. When Will We Know More?

New York, the hardest hit state in the country, will provide hydroxychloroquine to 4,000 COVID-19 patients. The University of Albany School of Public Health is observing the patients who take the drug.

New York University, meanwhile, is setting up clinical trials, enrolling 2,000 adults at six sites, The New York Post reported.

“Thousands are taking it in New York, and we should know if hydroxychloroquine is effective within about two weeks,” Dr. Lee Gross, a family doctor in Florida, told The Daily Signal. “It doesn’t mean we throw caution to the wind. But we should have a relatively good idea based on New York.”

Gross noted that so far the “data is very limited.”

“In a perfect world, we would do more controlled studies, but you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want,” Gross said. “We are facing a pandemic now. To have all the information we want could take six to eight weeks.”

3. How Do You Take the Drug?