Crime Scene: Genetic Fingerprint of the Wuhan Virus

Larry A. Law

The laboratory origin of the Wuhan virus has been in the news this past week. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have both acknowledged that COVID-19 most likely originated from the Chinese Wuhan laboratory and not from natural, animal sources. What was once condemned as conspiracy theory is now a conspiracy fact. In addition to these belated admissions (some say cover-ups), new research has revealed the chance of the Wuhan virus having a natural origin is less than 1 in 100 million. The lab-released virus has the telltale signature of genetic engineering from the work of Ralph Baric, Ph.D. Baric's published research described how to hide the unique signs of genetic engineering through a technique called seamless ligation which he invented in 2002 and taught to Chinese scientists in Wuhan in 2016. Baric's nickname for this method was called "no-see'm method" but it has its own giveaway signature which uniquely identifies this illegal gain-of-function experiment secretly funded by Dr. Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Ralph Baric's Legacy

Baric works at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Funding flows to UNC from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Baric's technique has long been controversial. ​Referring to Baric’s seamless ligation methodology, evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein observed: ​“It’s the exact opposite of what you would do if your interest was public health. Public health scientists would be marking their enhancements with red flags—not devising ways to hide them. The only reason you would want a concealer is to advance a sinister purpose—such as illegal bioweapons development—some mischief that the scientist didn’t want traceable back to his lab.”

Chinese Expertise in Gain-of-Function

Baric taught his “no-see’m” method to the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) “Bat Lady” Shi Zhengli in 2016. In return, Baric received Chinese coronaviruses collected by Shi from bats in Yunnan province. Scientists have linked the COVID-19 genome’s pedigree to bats. Shi and her colleagues at the Wuhan Institute subsequently demonstrated their mastery of Baric’s high-risk technique in a series of published—and highly controversial--gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan lab. It has been even more puzzling to his critics that Baric, again with NIAID funding, chose to share this dangerous technique for weaponizing pathogens with Chinese scientists who have clear links to the Chinese military. Experts say that the implications of this new study could be far-reaching. By identifying the possible fingerprint of Baric’s methodology, the study raises the possibility of potentially devastating liability for NIAID, UNC and other parties.

Inconsistent with Natural Evolution

Scientists, including those close to Dr. Anthony Fauci, have repeatedly pointed out that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has genomic sequences that appear inconsistent with natural evolution: the COVID-19 virus is no longer infectious in bats, and its spiked protein feature—which is unknown in this family of coronavirus—includes numerous mutations that make it ideally infectious in humans. The closest known coronavirus relative—a coronavirus from the Wuhan lab—is 96.2% identical to SARS-CoV-2. The peculiar spike represents almost the entire 3.8% difference. Oddly, there are multiple novel mutations in the spike and almost none in the rest of the genome.

Genetically Engineered

Natural evolution would be expected to leave mutations distributed evenly across the genome. The fact that virtually all the mutations occur on the spike has led these scientists to suspect that that particular Wuhan lab coronavirus collected by Shi Zhengli is the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 and that its new spike was implanted through genetic engineering. However, the unmistakable fingerprints of lab engineering were absent. This left many experts wondering whether Baric’s technique was used to assemble a novel coronavirus with the engineered spike while removing the evidence ("no-see'm" method) of lab generation.

Baric's DNA at the Crime Scene

This new study connects the biological breadcrumbs that link federally funded research to a global pandemic. That trail leads directly to the methodology created by Baric at UNC and funded by NIAID. The authors of the study—a team of researchers from Duke University, University Clinics of Würzburg and an industry group—identified a characteristic signature in the amino acid code. That indelible artifact could only have emerged from Baric’s “no-see’m” methodology. In an intervies in summer 2021, Baric himself confessed that at the time the pandemic began, only two or three labs in the world were using his protocol—including his UNC lab and the Wuhan lab (WIV). The study’s authors’ conclusions rest on the presence of unique sites in the COVID-19 virus. These sites allow special enzymes called restriction enzymes to cut the DNA into building blocks of unique size that then can be “stitched together in the correct order of the viral genome,” according to the study’s authors.

Proof in the Spelling Differences

Essentially, Baric’s technique leaves behind unique spellings in the “genetic vocabulary.” The new words include “odd spelling choices” subtly distinguishing them from typical viral vocabulary. The magic of Baric’s “no-see’m” technique is to invisibly weave these telltale “spelling” changes into the viral sequence between relevant genes without altering the viral protein. This is like changing the “spelling” of the word without changing its meaning; the casual listener will never notice the difference. The research team used forensic tools to drill down on minute “spelling differences” in the SARS-CoV-2 genome that betray laboratory tampering using the “no-see’m” technique. Consider how a Brit would spell “colour,” “manoeuvre” or “paediatric.” The choice to spell a word in a certain way can reveal your nation of origin. Similarly, these nearly imperceptible changes in the viral sequence gave away the laboratory origins of this virus.​

Bottom Line

In sharing his seamless ligation technique with Shi Zhengli, Baric assured that the WIV possessed all the required elements of the assembly process. EcoHealth Alliance’s infamous DEFUSE proposal describes the same techniques in detail and was submitted to The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2018. ​The world now has undisputable proof that SARS-CoV-2 was an engineered laboratory creation generated with technology developed by Ralph Baric with U.S. government funding. For an excellent synopsis, watch Tucker Carlson's coverage of the Wuhan coverup. ​