Tuesday, July 13, 2021

From China With Love a Novel – Guest Post by Dr. Stanley J. Alexander

Frederick R Smith has moved to Frederick R. Smith Speaks (substack.com)

Introduction

Frederick R. Smith Speaks readers may recall the good Doctor Stanly J. Alexander from his guest appearance on June 5, 2021, in Why Do They Act That Way? This just in: Dr. Alexander submitted his new novel “From China With Love” in an exclusive to Frederick R. Smith readers. The multi-part series Madness Made to Order will resume with part three with the next “Speaks” post. It is a great honor to be the recipient of the Doctor’s fine work!  Without further ado…

From China With Love

The blockbuster movie From Russia with Love was the second James Bond movie and the first one starring Sean Connery. The author, Ian Fleming, thought this would be the last episode. Boy was he wrong. The plot takes place during the Cold War and profiles the West vs the East. Here the Russian intelligence agency (East) is pitted against Agent 007, the protagonist, who is part of Brittan’s MI-6 (West). Bond has been assigned to demolish a secret crime organization or it’s even more secret “machinery-of-destruction.”

In our new classic-to-be, From China with Love, we likely have a similar blockbuster, only the ‘East’ on this occasion is China, and the West is the USA. The epicenter of intrigue this time is China’s Wuhan Virus Institute (W.V.I.). This blockbuster is more a mystery with content of intrigue and titillation, rather than its predecessor, From Russia With Love – that one being an over-the-top, riveting, thrill-filled adventure-flick; but From China also portends a possible upcoming scenario of worldwide mass deaths. Throughout the plot evolution, we-the-people are found receiving increasingly more frequent, but conflicted messaging, including short and cleverly filtered tutorials, and are given reason to feel that influence makers are serving us morsels with content more like unvetted sausage. So, it becomes perhaps more a test of our own powers of observation, intuition, and perseverance, which could allow us to see ‘behind the (red) curtain.’ Basically, it’s a challenge for crime-solving, after which we, the audience, become the judge and jury.

We also infer, by tuning-in to hushed discussions on Channel TV, that a US agency, as yet to be designated, will be charged with the need to foil the perpetrators here (the East), who may be harboring an as yet unclarified biologic weapon, which we eventually learn is a humanized, deadly virus. But perhaps to keep us in suspense or for someone’s protection, we are never told many details or even which US agency is leading the charge: On the good side, our agents remain cloaked in secrecy. No James Bond here or SWAT team or Delta Force. As the plot thickens, we gradually learn more and more about this present-day “machinery-of-destruction,” the above noted, potentially virulent virus and its origin, which might bring death to millions. As noted, the clues seem to be in a mixed code - a cover-up? Slowed down by these muted clues, like tiles in a bag of scrabble, time becomes of the essence, especially when it appears very possibly that a local (Wuhan Province) Phase-2, human observational trial is about to be undertaken.  Human guinea pigs?

Apparently the ‘powers that be’ are not sure if this potential biologic weapon has been engendered by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), or was simply an innocent act of nature gone terribly wrong? But the Wuhan Virus Institute, headed by Chief Virologist, Dr. Shu Zheng-Li, the “Bat Lady,” suspiciously tries to slam the door on the US, kind of like the actions of Saddam Hussein in IRAQ. Is she really a perpetrator? Or is she being held captive and manipulated by the CCP? Does she innately have good moral character – can she be turned? If so, can we get to her before she ‘goes missing’ or is irreparably brain washed?

Flashback: Regarding the microbe weaponization scenario, intrigue is built up by having divergent talking heads, shouting emotionally on TV and provoking the various scientific experts, who are therein being cajoled into offering more divergent projections. This happens at a time when the Conservative President, Donald J Thump, has proceeded to defund the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) – the rationale for that being its apparent (possibly inadvertent?) incompetence; its lack of inclusion of close-by countries like Taiwan; and its close ties to China’s CCP. But we wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s toes there, would we – other than perhaps Taiwan?

As noted, early on we have been craftily lead along a proverbial rosy path and thereupon forced to accept that this potentially deadly virus was simply an act of nature; and anyway, is not of great consequence. We may not even need to use a face mask as there is “little likelihood of spread from person to person” and masks are not that helpful, or so we are told, causing us further confusion. Our CDC endorsed just such a view along with the W.H.O.  Why? Not clear, but then we are still left to our own devices to ultimately choose between the various theoretical options, in spite of not being given any clear or penetrating insight or evidence. Or have we overlooked a really obvious clue?

Our heads are left spinning, making calculations and insights ever so more difficult when we find that some of the sources that we thought offered reliable clues were perhaps really not: it turns out that some of these ‘good guys’ are not so good. Who can we rely on now? The authors of the ‘from-nature’ narrative give us confusing profiles through the World Health Organization (W.H.O.); this also occurs through prestigious, peer-reviewed, scientific medical journals, such as one from the British Medical Society, the LANCET, which now seems at times to be not so scientific. And even branches of our own government, more specifically our NIH, have become muddled and conflicted, including the pontifications from some of our top infectious disease experts, such as the revered Dr. Anthony Fauci. Whose side is he on? Is this purposely being espoused to make their narrative more intriguing – or clouded? Is there a cover-up imbedded behind the red curtain? Science evolves as scientists learn, but - turn on a camera and…off go the white coats and on go the masks? Can we still keep our eyes focused on the ball, like a Detective Adrien Monk?

Flashback: Farther dampening our perseverance are other medical experts, like one of note from the Kaiser Family Foundation, who pontificated that we may never know the answer: that particular healthcare expert discouraged any further pursuit of this mission, by noting that without having an eye witness or a confession, we cannot easily (convict) someone anyway. But we are thinking that even there, some confessions are false; and we know that many eye-witnesses are not too reliable. So, should our hero(s) just give up? Should we quit our detecting? Is this blockbuster a bust? Perhaps we will need fingerprints or DNA substantiation [Of course, James Bond didn’t need such trivialities].

Flashback: And, what did it tell us when we found that one of the workers in the W.V.I. was thrown into prison, then later died of COVID-19 and another female worker just disappeared herself? Further, we find that there was an epidemic of “severe acute respiratory syndrome” [SARS] back in the Fall of 2019 – in the Wuhan area, at the doorstep of the W.V.I.? And the relevant medical reports, including virology studies, were placed ‘off-limits’ by local ‘authorities.’ And no alternative virus was proffered as the cause of this outbreak. None? Suspicious? Very! As Ronald Reagan liked to say, “Here we go again.”

So, we are thinking that our present, as-yet undefined James Bond will have to furtively scale the walls of the WVI, get microphotographs or actual copies of the very secure records stored there, unseen while wearing his hazmat suit? Or better, snatch the Bat Lady from her lair and ferret her out of the country?

But now again we are being cleverly lead away from the pathway of either ‘performance inefficiency’ [Author’s Note: poor grades are unacceptable for this special, revered Wuhan lab by the CCP and consequences of human error might be severe!] or the other, even more unacceptable option: that of Chinese Government malice (a tacit declaration of war?). And once again we are subtly swayed by “facilitators” – both overseas and in the Americas – some of whom had signed that letter for Lancet stating that the Virus surely came from an animal: they virtually swear that the coronavirus had made some ‘zoonotic jumps’ from bat to animal to human. We are then shown how this previously happened via the camel causing MERS; and via the civet cat causing SARS-1. These two epidemics had come from strains of the beta-coronavirus found in those selfsame, damnable horseshoe bats. We are then told that the intermediate host animal for the new pandemic, SARS-2, was likely an animal brought into the ‘wet-market’ in Wuhan, where various exotic meats are sold to appreciative consumers.

Now, in a quick change of scenery, we see our, as yet unidentified protagonist (Hero), combing the caves in Hunan Province, where horseshoe bats are indigenous, 500 klicks away from Wuhan. Has he been taken off the primary focus? And will he make it out of the caves alive and uninfected?

Interlude 


Later: Our protagonist clearly had made it out of the caves, and is now back in the States. His attempt to scale the dark grey walls of the W.V.I. in his bright white hazmat suit was not too successful, as evidenced by a number of large bullet holes:  proof of an attempt gone wrong.

After a debriefing in Washington, DC, our protagonist heads home to do some ‘catch-up’ work, such as repairing the holes in his PPE, but after watching various ‘Talking Heads’ on TV, frustrated, he feels he needs to ‘talk to the (real) people’ and heads off to a familiar watering hole, and away from the Washington élite. We still can’t tell who he/she is due to the required three face masks, plus a face shield and a rebellious MAGA cap.

Bellying up to the bar, he perceives that he is being scrutinized by an older gentleman there, who sympathetically looks and asks him what’s “bugging him” He responds defensively that he can’t disclose his mission. The older gent nods his head and says, It’s the virus, isn’t it?

Why do you say that?

I’ve narrowed it down: first of all, you look like a James Bond, who has been defeated; then you keep mumbling about f-ing Wuhan, plus you have bat-guano on your climbing boots.

So where are you going with this?

He nods some, smiles, then simply states… well, I can answer all your questions.

Oh yeah! Okay, so where did the fricking virus come from? And how come you’re an expert.

Okay, well first of all, I’ve been married to an old bat, so I know a thing or two. And with the MAGA hat I knew that you were on the right side to share my expertise with.

Go ahead.

While the natural emergence theory of SARS-2 virus cannot be completely eliminated, all the available evidence points strongly toward one direction: the proponents of lab leak can explain all the available facts much more credibly.

What about it being brought back from the Hunan caves by workers sent to obtain specimens.

Well, that’s clear: the RaTD13 variant, known better as SARS-2, is not really infective to bats! Or, at least, it seems to have a very low affinity to bat cells, so one can be pretty sure that that particular virus never saw the inside of a bat – and it also doesn’t explain why the furin cleavage site is determined by human preferred arginine codons instead of the bat preferred array of amino acids.

Woah! Furin cleavage what?

You know what a furin is don’t you”

Isn’t it an animal from the wet market?

Very funny. I see you are not a zoologist like me, so let me explain. Lets’ start with the corona.

That I know: the corona is made of spike proteins arrayed on the surface. Kind of like in Corona Beer. But that corona design comes from observations of the effect of the sun as it hits the Shrine of Guadalupe in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. At certain times the angle of the sun creates a halo or crown effect there.

This induces a smile from the ‘older gent,’ whom the bartender goes on to refer to as ‘Nick.’ So, Nick the gent proceeds, stating that the spikes on the surface of the virus is a protein that has to be split for the virus to become activated. The upper half (S1) allows the virus to attach to a host cell through a receptor called ACE-2.

That’s angiotensin converting enzyme, adds our ‘Hero,’ and its receptors are found on respiratory cells and blood vessels.

Good. And the other half of the spike (S2) helps the virus merge with the host cells surface membrane; from there it can spew its message inside. Thus, the virus can take over the cell’s reproductive equipment, that’s what viruses do: propagate. And here they use their messenger RNA or DNA to send their construction messages, their blue print plans, if you will, into the host cell.

(Nick continues) Now the cleavage site requires cooperation from the host cell, which can be pretty picky.  Dogs, as an example, don’t allow coronavirus any assistance here, so they seem to be immune

(Nick, going on) At the Wuhan Virus Institute, they were doing “Gain-of-Function” [GOF] work to find cleavage site constructs that were friendly to human cells, working either directly with human cells or via ‘humanized mice.’ Very dangerous work, but apparently necessary to find a humanized variety that they could do experiments with, possibly to try and tame it or make a vaccine.

Kind of like making a Frankenstein?

For sure. Now this is exactly the kind of experiment from which a SARS2-like virus could have emerged. The researches were not vaccinated against the virus under study. How could they be? and they were working in minimal basic safety level conditions, or a BSL-2 that is the equivalent of an American Dentist’s office. So, the escape of a virus would not be at all surprising. And remember, of all the places in the vastness of China, it broke out on the doorstep of the Wuhan Virus Institute. And this virus was already well adopted to humans as you would expect for a virus grown in humanized mice. It possessed an unusual enhancement at its furin cleavage site, which is not present in any other SARS related beta-coronavirus. What more evidence could you want?

You were going to explain the furin site.

Oh yeah. Furin is an enzyme on the host cell that can split the spike protein. Being economical the virus relies on the host cell here. And furin takes aim at an array of amino acids, four in a row in the mid-spike region. The host cell cooperates and causes the cleavage, but there are certain arrays of amino acids that the human cell prefers: that furin prefers. And with the total number of amino acids available and variable arrangement in multiples of four, that brings us many, multiple possibilities. But SARS-2 has a special amino acid array - proline/arginine/arginine/alanine [PRRA] – not seen in other coronaviruses. And to get that particular 4-animo acid sequence requisite, well, in nature that would have additionally required 3 codons for each, and each of those codons, in turn, require specific nucleotide arrays. So again, this requires a variety of combinations, but those are not the sequences seen in the horseshoe bat. It’s very suspicious for having been “man-made”— or, more specifically, retro-engineered!

Point made. So, the likelihood of this occurring by chance is extremely low, but the probability that it could be designed in a ‘veery’ specialized lab is quite high.

Yes, and Dr. Shi, the Bat Lady, was trained in France, then in North Carolina, to do just that sort of thing.

Further, a branch of the NIH, the NIAID, gave her funding for just such a project. Couldn’t that be why people are trying to cover this up?

Kind of like if you give your teen a high-performance, souped-up car to drive and think s/he is a responsible driver, but then you don’t want to accept any responsibility if things go bad?

Not sure about that; we are not talking about teens here. These are very highly trained specialists.

So, someone now has received the baton in this ‘virus race’ and now they have responsibility for the anchor leg: at some point they are on their own, correct? But has s/he ever assumed responsibility? One thinks that perhaps the Bat Lady should!

Unless, as we inferred, someone has been holding a meat cleaver over ‘one’s head.’

Now what government would do that?

 Ha! But it could still be a natural jump in nature, right?

Glad you asked. So, let’s look at SARS-1 as an example of a “zoonotic jump.” Here we find that there were initially 4 mutations in the horseshoe bat to accommodate it to the civet cat; then in the civet there were 14 more mutations to make it human adaptable; and once it got to be a humanized type (human friendly) virus, there were then 6 more mutations to make it more virulent. This was via a prolonged endogenous, natural evolution. All 26 of those variants [mutations] have been found and identified. In the case of SARS-2, there are no intermediary mutations ever found, not a single one -- in spite of likely frantic searching by the CCP and W.V.I. to support proof of that potential theorem. I wouldn’t place my chips on that number!

With that Dr. Nick gets up and shuffles out.

Our hero mentions to the bartender, who had been tuned in most of the time, “Its kind of compelling, but I guess we still don’t have an iron-clad case.

The bartender says, “Preponderance of evidence.” It’s there! Odds are 97%

What are you a mathematician?

No, I do sports book.

Would that be enough?

Don’t you ever watch Law and Order?

Pretty exciting stuff.

Yeah. Bet you could make a blockbuster movie out of it!  You could painfully bring the audience along, suffering through all types of disinformation along the way, until at the bitter end it becomes evident how the W.V.I. is responsible and the fickle finger points at them for over 4 million deaths. Then on to the World Court…

With that our hero leaves the watering hole, deep in thought, but with a smile on her face while stripping off her triple face masks, but all the while giving the finger salute of a “V for victory.”

Whereupon the barista gets out a boom and cleaner, attempting to rid the premises of any left-over traces of guano transferred there from the bat caves of Hunan……

THE END

Stan J Alexander, M.D., MS, FACP, FACR
Clinical Professor of Medicine/Rheumatology (Ret)

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