One of my own Simple Explanation science articles was denounced just this week. Do you really need to be protected from the truth?
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
·
NewsGuard recently announced that my site has been classified as
fake news because we have reported the SARS-CoV-2 virus as potentially having
been leaked from the biosafety level 4 laboratory in Wuhan City, China, the epicenter
of the COVID-19 outbreak
·
According to NewsGuard, “There is no evidence that the Wuhan
Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak, and genomic evidence has
found that the virus is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat
coronavirus”
·
NewsGuard’s position is in direct conflict with published
scientific evidence suggesting this virus was created in a lab and not
zoonotically transmitted
·
SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a bat coronavirus modified to integrate
spike proteins that allows the virus to enter human cells by attaching to ACE-2
receptors, as well as an envelope protein from HIV called GP141, which impairs
immune function
·
Many mainstream media, U.S. and U.K. government officials, and
even Chinese researchers, report that suspicions about SARS-CoV-2 having been
created in and leaked from the BSL4 facility in Wuhan cannot be discounted, and
that directions to censor reports about the virus’ origin is coming from the
Chinese government
NewsGuard
has classified mercola.com as fake news because we have reported the SARS-CoV-2
virus as potentially having been leaked from the biosafety level 4 laboratory
in Wuhan City, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.
NewsGuard’s
intern Nina Zweig (edited by deputy editor John Gregory) referred to my
February 4, 2020, article, “Novel
Coronavirus — The Latest Pandemic Scare,” in which I stated:
"In
January 2018, China’s first maximum security virology laboratory (biosecurity
level 4) designed for the study of the world’s most dangerous pathogens opened
its doors — in Wuhan.1,2 Is
it pure coincidence that Wuhan City is now the epicenter of this novel
coronavirus infection?
The year
before, Tim Trevan, a Maryland biosafety consultant, expressed concern about
viral threats potentially escaping the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory,3 which
happens to be located just 20 miles from the Wuhan market identified as ground
zero for the current NCIP outbreak.4”
According
to NewsGuard,5 “There is no evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology
was the source of the outbreak, and genomic evidence has found that the virus
is ‘96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus.’”
Evidence
Suggests SARS-CoV-2 Is a Modified Bat Coronavirus
Sure, as
detailed in my April 26, 2020, interview with bioweapons expert Francis Boyle,
who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, SARS-CoV-2 started
out with a bat coronavirus, but scientific evidence has revealed much more
about this virus, none of which NewsGuard is bothering to take into account
before classifying and censoring reports as “misinformation.”
Importantly,
there’s compelling scientific evidence published in many prominent scientific
journals showing this virus was indeed created in a lab and not zoonotically
transmitted (transmitted naturally from animal to human).
As
explained by Boyle, SARS-CoV-2 appears to be a bat coronavirus6 that
was modified to integrate spike proteins that allow the virus to enter human
cells by attaching to ACE-2 receptors. It’s also been modified to integrate an
envelope protein from HIV called GP141, which tends to impair the immune
system.
Additionally,
Boyle strongly suspects nanotechnology was used in its creation as well, as its
exceptional ability to stay airborne for long periods of time is a nanotech
hallmark.7
NewsGuard’s
arbitrary dismissal of my February 4 article as fake news is equally
inappropriate even if the virus is “all natural” and zoonotically transmitted.
As reported by The Daily Mail, April 11, 2020:8
“The
laboratory at the center of scrutiny over the pandemic has been carrying out
research on bats from the cave which scientists believe is the original source
of the devastating outbreak.
Documents
obtained by The Mail on Sunday show the Wuhan Institute of Virology undertook
coronavirus experiments on mammals captured more than 1,000 miles away in
Yunnan — funded by a $3.7 million grant from the US government. Sequencing of
the Covid-19 genome has traced it to bats found in Yunnan's caves.”
Governments
Are Not Dismissing Possibility of a Leak
An April
14, 2020, report9,10 by
The Washington Post highlighted the fact that U.S. State Department cables from
two years ago warned there were inadequate safety precautions and procedures in
place at Wuhan’s BSL4 facility, and April 15, 2020, Fox News reported11 that
“State Department leaked cables renew theories on origin of coronavirus.”
Yet
NewsGuard, the thought police advertising front group for industries like Big
Pharma and tobacco, simply dismisses and wants to bury this information. Such
censorship has no room in a democratic and free society. I would argue that
shutting down conversations about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is a direct threat
to democracy and indeed to science itself.
Will
NewsGuard classify The Washington Post’s and Fox News’ articles as
“misinformation” as well? Fox News quotes Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff12
"It
should be no surprise to you that we have taken a keen interest in that and
we've had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that. I would just say at
this point, it's inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to
indicate natural, but we don't know for certain."
As you
may have noticed, in my “flagged” February 4 article I didn’t even make an
assertion, I merely asked the question: “Is it pure coincidence that Wuhan City
is now the epicenter of this novel coronavirus infection?”
February
16, 2020, Chinese scientists even raised the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 is the
result of bioweapons research leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. See
the video below for this report.
Since my
February 4 article, I’ve become increasingly convinced — through reviewing the
scientific literature that NewsGuard ignores or is unaware of — that SARS-CoV-2
may in fact be a synthetic virus, likely created and released (inadvertently or
not) from one or more laboratories that worked on weaponizing SARS and bat
coronaviruses.
According
to an April 5, 2020, article13 in
Daily Mail, British government officials are also considering the possibility
that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the Wuhan facility, stating the possibility of this
“is no longer being discounted.” Will NewsGuard classify Daily Mail as a
misinformant?
Will they
accuse Gen. Milley of spreading fake news? How about Federal Communications
Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who tweeted14 an
April 16 Fox News report15 about SARS-CoV-2
being leaked from the Wuhan lab “as part of China’s efforts to compete with
U.S.”?
Ironically,
Carr even commented, “I’m old enough to remember when posting this would get
you deplatformed.” Apparently, the abusive power of censorship that Twitter and
other tech platforms have has not escaped the FCC.
Is
NewsGuard Protecting Chinese Interests?
Interestingly,
an April 16, 2020, report16 by CNN reveals the
censorship of articles mentioning the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have
leaked from the Wuhan BSL4 facility appears to come from China, which means
NewsGuard is functionally protecting Chinese interests and inhibiting
scientific inquiry. CNN writes:17
“China
has imposed restrictions on the publication of academic research on the origins
of the novel coronavirus, according to a central government directive and
online notices18 published by two Chinese universities,
that have since been removed from the web.
Under the
new policy, all academic papers on Covid-19 will be subject to extra vetting
before being submitted for publication. Studies on the origin of the virus will
receive extra scrutiny and must be approved by central government officials,
according to the now-deleted posts …
The
increased scrutiny appears to be the latest effort by the Chinese government to
control the narrative on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic …
According
to the directive issued by the Ministry of Education's science and technology
department, ‘academic papers about tracing the origin of the virus must be
strictly and tightly managed’ …
A Chinese
researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation said
the move was a worrying development that would likely obstruct important scientific
research.
‘I think
it is a coordinated effort from (the) Chinese government to control (the)
narrative, and paint it as if the outbreak did not originate in China,’ the
researcher told CNN. ‘And I don't think they will really tolerate any objective
study to investigate the origination of this disease.’"
US Funded
Wuhan Laboratory
As I
mention in my interview with Boyle, while the biosafety level 4 (BSL4) lab in
Wuhan may have leaked the virus, the U.S. may have played a role in its
creation. For starters, the chairman of the Harvard department of chemistry,
nanoscience expert, Charles Lieber, Ph.D., was arrested earlier this year by
federal agencies, suspected of illegal dealings with China.19 Lieber
has denied the allegations.
Lieber
allegedly oversaw the Nano Key Laboratory, a joint collaboration by the Wuhan
University of Technology and Harvard, although Harvard officials claim they had
no knowledge of the lab before 2015. In our interview, Boyle dismisses the idea
that Harvard was unaware Lieber was working on nanotechnology for biological
materials with the Chinese as “preposterous.”
NPR,
which summarized the allegations as being centered around a Chinese recruitment
program, added even more serious allegations, saying Lieber:20
“… faces
charges of trading knowledge for money and lying about it. Prosecutors allege he
set up a lab in China in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in
payments from the Chinese government and then denied knowledge of those
payments to U.S. investigators … others watching the case say it raises
important questions about ethics, scientific openness and possible racial
profiling in an era of geopolitical tension.”
Lieber’s
attorney declined to comment on the charges, NPR said. It’s also noteworthy
that both the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research have funded research at the Wuhan BSL4 facility, including
research on bat coronaviruses.21,22
Arizona
senator Martha McSally told Fox news,23 “The
NIH must immediately stop deploying American tax dollars to China for this
dangerous research.” Justin Goodman, vice president for advocacy and public
policy for the White Coat Waste Project added:24
“The U.S.
government’s spending spree that we’ve exposed at the notorious Wuhan Institute
of Virology is outrageous and unacceptable. Taxpayers should never be forced to
bankroll China’s hazardous bio-agent experiments, which put human life around
the world gravely at risk. We’ll continue to work with our advocates and
Congress to put an end to this egregious misuse of Americans' tax
dollars."
April 14,
2020, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz tweeted,25 “At
best, Americans are funding people who are lying to us. At worst, we’re funding
people who we knew had problems handling pathogens, who then birthed a monster
virus onto the world.”
NewsGuard
Also Promotes Censorship via Public Libraries
NewsGuard
has set itself up as the self-appointed global arbiter of what information is
“trustworthy” based on nine “credibility and transparency” factors, not only
for information viewed on private electronic devices, but also for information
accessible in schools and public libraries26 —
more than 700 libraries across the globe so far.27
Librarians
will even provide instructions to patrons on how to install the NewsGuard
extension on their personal computers, tablets and cell phones. Once you’ve
installed the NewsGuard browser plugin on your computer or cellphone, the
NewsGuard icon rating will appear on all Google and Bing searches and on
articles featured in your social media news feeds.
The
NewsGuard ratings are meant to influence the reader, instructing them to
disregard content with cautionary colors and cautions. Fake news is certainly a
problem. But determining who should have the final word on credibility and what
is “truth” is not a simple one. Who is going to verify the credibility and
transparency of the verifiers, i.e., NewsGuard?
NewsGuard
Protects Big Industries
To
understand NewsGuard’s agenda, you need to know something about its creation
and funding. Aside from internet giants Microsoft28 and Google,
NewsGuard is backed by companies that are involved in advertising and marketing
of pharmaceutical products, cigarettes and unhealthy junk food to kids.
NewsGuard's
$6 million startup was funded in part by the Publicis Groupe,29 the
“third largest global communications group” according to the Publicis website.30 Publicis
was founded in 1926 by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, a French entrepreneur, with
the goal of improving the image of advertising and turning it into “a real
profession.” In fact, Publicis Groupe’s name is derived in part from the French
word for advertising.31
The
Publicis Groupe has been manipulating what people think about commercial
products for nearly a century. Over that century, this advertising and
communications firm bought or partnered with targeted advertising avenues,
beginning with newspapers, followed by radio, TV, cinema and the internet.
With
revenue avenues secured, Publicis’ clients and partners built a global presence
that dominated the advertising world. Be it tobacco or sugar, Publicis Groupe
found a way to promote and strengthen big industries. In 1983, Publicis
introduced the concept of global communication driven by marketing.
Within
the Publicis Groupe are four networks serving its clients,32 including
Publicis Health,33 which once boasted on the website that its clients are
"some of the biggest and most exciting names in health and wellness,” but
has now taken that claim down and moved it to job postings.34
Publicis
Scoops Up Top Vaccine Companies
The list
of clients that once appeared on the health site’s wallpaper has also been
taken down, but were proudly listed in an October 2019 Business Wire news
release on Publicis’ third quarter revenue report — which, by the way, was up
an impressive 17.3%.35
The
report shows that Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur and Regeneron, just to
name a few, have come onboard — showing that Publicis is now working for Big
Pharma’s top dogs: vaccine companies.
By
happenstance, Regeneron just announced that it’s working on a coronavirus
vaccine and treatment.36 Regeneron is also
partnering with Sanofi to find a COVID-19 treatment; Sanofi is independently
working on its own COVID-19 vaccine.37
The
Publicis Health board also consists of a power pack of high-profile individuals
with Big Pharma position backgrounds or affiliations.38,39,40,41,42,43 Leo
Burnett, the ad company famous for creating the Marlboro man ad campaigns that
made Marlboro the best-selling cigarette in the world and led to the nicotine
addiction of millions, many of whom died from smoking, is also part of
Publicis.44,45
To put
icing on the cake, Publicis has also added Google and Facebook Messenger to
their repertoire.46 When you consider that Publicis now describes its business
model approach as putting clients and their needs and objectives at the center
of all they do so their clients can “win and grow,” it’s easy to see what’s
driving NewsGuard.
What You
Can Do to STOP This Abuse
Overall,
NewsGuard is just another big business aimed at keeping the chemical, drug and
food industries, as well as mainstream media, intact by discrediting and
eliminating unwanted competitors and analysts who empower you with information
that runs counter to any given industry’s agenda.
You can
learn more about NewsGuard in my previous articles, “Beware: New Plan
to Censor Health Websites” and “Thought Police
NewsGuard Is Owned by Big Pharma.”
If you’re
as disturbed by censorship as I am, be sure to contact your local library today
to find out if they’re one of the more than 700 libraries using NewsGuard. If
they are, then ask them if they’re aware of NewsGuard’s censorship of truthful
news that is now encroaching on scientific freedom and threatening the very
roots of our democracy.
If your
local library is using NewsGuard, it would be helpful to start a campaign to
get it removed. Contact your neighbors and let them know Newsguard is owned by
a pharmaceutical public relations firm that censors information damaging to
their clients' interests.
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