Dr. Peter Hotez's Funding Linked To Controversial Chinese Military Scientists At Wuhan Lab

A groundbreaking revelation has emerged, shedding light on Dr. Peter Hotez, a renowned vaccine researcher, and his involvement with Chinese military scientists who may have played a role in the development of COVID-19. This intricate narrative connects various key Chinese military virologists, ultimately pointing to compelling evidence related to COVID-19's furin cleavage site.

The central figure in this story is Dr. Hotez, a respected professor at Baylor College of Medicine, who received a substantial research grant (R01AI098775) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) led by Dr. Anthony Fauci. This grant, amounting to over $1 million per year, supports Dr. Hotez's project titled "RBD Recombinant Protein-Based SARS Vaccine for Biodefense," with Dr. Shibo Jiang listed as a Principal Investigator.

Dr. Shibo Jiang, a professor at Fudan University, has an impressive academic background. He completed his Master's degree from the People’s Liberation Army's Guangzhou First Military Medical University and his Medical Doctor degree from Xi'an Fourth Military Medical University. He later pursued postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University in New York from 1987 to 1990.

Following his time in the United States, Dr. Jiang held various positions at the New York Blood Center's Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute until 2010, where he served as the Head of the Viral Immunology Laboratory. Since then, he has been a professor at Fudan University's Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology in Shanghai, China.

While in the United States, Dr. Jiang also served as a visiting professor at several prestigious People's Liberation Army (PLA) universities, including the First and Fourth Military Medical University, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), and Southern Medical University (formerly known as the First Military Medical University). Despite his collaboration with the Chinese military, he received research grants totaling over $20 million from NIAID under Dr. Fauci's leadership between 1997 and 2016.

Professor Jiang, as a member of China's Thousand Talents Plan, actively collaborated with PLA scientists on numerous scientific papers supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the First Military Medical University, and the AMMS. However, concerns have been raised regarding the nature of these collaborations, as a 2020 FBI report suggests that such talent recruitment plans often involve illegal transfers of information and intellectual property harmful to U.S. institutions.

Working alongside Dr. Zhou Yusen, a distinguished PLA virologist and fellow AMMS alumnus, Professor Jiang co-invented multiple U.S. patents and published numerous scientific papers on SARS and MERS coronaviruses, often with the support of NIAID funds. Dr. Yusen, the former director of the PLA's AMMS Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity at the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, filed the world's first patent application for a COVID-19 vaccine in China on February 24, 2020, just a month after the country acknowledged human-to-human transmission.

The discovery raises suspicions that the Chinese military may have been involved in vaccine development prior to officially notifying the World Health Organization about the outbreak.

Notably, concerns surrounding the origins of the COVID-19 virus grow when examining the furin cleavage site. Dr. Richard Ebright, a respected molecular biologist, and laboratory director, highlights the uniqueness of the furin cleavage site, stating that SARS-CoV-2 is the only member of the SARS-related betacoronavirus group that contains such a site. He further points out the unusual codon usage and the strategic position of the furin cleavage site, suggesting that it may have been engineered to enhance infectivity. Dr. David Baltimore, a renowned US virologist, and co-discoverer of reverse transcriptase, shares a similar view, considering the furin cleavage site a "smoking gun" indicating a laboratory origin for the virus.

Given Dr. Baltimore's distinguished career and expertise, his observations carry significant weight. Another concerning factor is Professor Jiang's expertise in inserting furin cleavage sites into coronaviruses.

Furthermore, Professor Jiang and Dr. Lanying Du, another prominent Chinese virologist funded by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Hotez's grant, have collaborated on scientific papers with the PLA’s AMMS and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The untimely death of Dr. Yusen, who fell from the roof of the Wuhan Institute of Virology within three months of filing the patent, adds to the suspicions surrounding the origins of COVID-19.

Dr. Du, the widow of Dr. Yusen, published research at the PLA’s AMMS before moving to the United States, where she joined Professor Jiang at the New York Blood Center’s Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute. Intriguingly, a U.S. Senate report reveals that the data referenced in Dr. Yusen's patent could not have been generated as quickly as claimed, raising the possibility that he and his team started developing a COVID-19 vaccine as early as November 2019.

Moreover, at least five publications funded by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Hotez's grant list Dr. Zhou Yusen, a central figure in the COVID-19 origin controversy at the Wuhan lab, as a co-author. These findings raise concerns about the connections between Dr. Fauci, Dr. Hotez, Dr. Jiang, Dr. Du, Dr. Yusen, and the Chinese military scientists potentially involved in the origin of COVID-19.

Additionally, both Professor Jiang and Dr. Du have published scientific research for the AMMS, an entity that was added to the U.S. government’s Foreign Entity Blacklist in 2021 due to its utilization of biotechnology processes to support Chinese military purposes. Dr. Hotez's involvement in this complex situation becomes evident when examining his subcontracted funding for scientists connected to the People's Liberation Army and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, particularly in the field of artificially inserting furin cleavage sites into coronaviruses.

In a February 2021 interview, Dr. Hotez acknowledged their collaboration, revealing that about ten years ago, they were approached by a group at the New York Blood Center led by Shibo Jiang and Lanying Du, who had an idea for coronavirus vaccines.

Significantly, in 2013, Professor Jiang and Dr. Du, alongside their Chinese military colleagues, demonstrated the artificial insertion of a furin cleavage site similar to the one found in the COVID-19 virus. This study received funding from the Chinese government and a private Chinese biotech company, as well as support from Dr. Fauci and Dr. Hotez.

A study published by Dr. Shibo Jiang, Dr. Lanying Du, Dr. Shi Zhengli, and Dr. Ralph Baric, an American scientist known for his work on gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, showcased the introduction of a human protease cleavage site into the spike protein of coronaviruses, enabling cross-species transmission to humans. Notably, this aligns precisely with the furin cleavage site found in the S1/S2 junction of SARS-CoV-2.

Despite Dr. Hotez criticizing congressional hearings on the origins of COVID-19, considering them an invitation to promote conspiracy theories, it is crucial to thoroughly examine the mounting connections between Dr. Hotez, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Jiang, Dr. Du, Dr. Yusen, and Chinese military scientists, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the suspicious furin cleavage site. The evidence uncovered thus far warrants a comprehensive investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 virus, as it carries profound implications for people worldwide.