Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was today seen attending a public event that too without wearing a mask. The containment norms dictates that any suspected case should be going to self-quarantine for 14 days, this is day after Pakistan PM met a well-known philanthropist who has been detected positive for the COVID-19 infection.

Pakistan PM chooses to attend public event instead of self-quarantine

Hydroxychloroquine is proving to be a dangerous medicine for treating the new coronavirus patients. Study showed that there were more deaths in those who were given hydroxychloroquine. Watch this video to know more.

Study: Hydroxychloroquine might have damaged other organs of patients

Oxford University is developing a vaccine for the treatment for COVID-19, human trials for vaccine will begin from April 23. Watch this video to know more.

UK to start human trials of potential COVID-19 vaccine

The state of Missouri in the United States sued the Chinese government over the novel coronavirus outbreak, citing it as "an appalling campaign of deceit". The civil lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in a federal court by GOP state Attorney General Eric Schmitt.

US state sues China over alleged COVID-19 coverup

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan have tested negative for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, days after meeting a well-known philanthropist who has been detected positive for the COVID-19 infection.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan tests negative of COVID-19

Singapore is now witnessing resurgence of the coronavirus, in the form of a second wave. Watch this video to know more.

Singapore braces for second wave of COVID-19

Pakistan has lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the coronavirus in the country, a statement said on Saturday.

Pakistan lifts restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques

University of Texas study shows that the COVID-19 death toll is likely to peak in the United States by the end of April. Watch this video to know more.

Study predicts delay in peaking of COVID-19 cases in the US

U.S. President Donald Trump warned China on Saturday that it should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic, as he ratcheted up criticism of Beijing over its handling of the outbreak.

Donald Trump: China could face consequences over COVID-19 pandemic

Children are at a higher risk of not only being infected with coronavirus but also being victim of online crime. Watch this video to know more.

UNICEF's note to keep children safe from cyber crime

In this segment of WION, we tell you about the 5 recent studies on the COVID-19.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Know 5 recent studies on the COVID-19

COVID-19 cases are on rise in Afghanistan. There is lack of infrastructure and isolation centres in Afghanistan. The government has now converted Darul Aman Palace into a medical facility.

Afghanistan: Darul Aman Palace to be used as medical facility | Ground Report

President Donald Trump on Friday announced a $19 billion relief program to help U.S. farmers cope with the impact of the coronavirus, including $16 billion in direct payments to producers and mass purchases of meat, dairy, vegetables and other products.

US: Donald Trump announces $19 billion relief package for US farmers

Walmart Inc said on Friday it would hire 50,000 more workers at its stores, clubs and distribution centers to meet a surge in demand for groceries and household essentials from consumers stockpiling during the coronavirus outbreak.

Walmart to hire 50,000 more workers in coronavirus-driven hiring spree

Pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) may arrives late in Africa, but now slowly taking hold with over 20,000 cases. Watch this complete video to get more details.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Africa to be the next COVID-19 hotspot?

China's Wuhan has revised its death toll by 50%. The officials say 1,290 more people have died due to the coronavirus. WION's Executive Editor Palki Sharma Upadhyay tells you why China is being accused of under-reporting its coronavirus figures.

Gravitas: Wuhan raises its death toll by 50% | Coronavirus Outbreak

The government confirmed that the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan was also revised upwards - by 325 to 50,333.

China makes changes in COVID-19 data: Death toll up by 50% in Wuhan

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Wuhan was also revised upwards - by 325 to 50,333, the government said.

COVID-19 death toll up by 50% in Wuhan

The border city of Suifenhe is being called a new epicentre in China. A third of China's new cases have come from this city. Could Suifenhe be the next Wuhan? WION's Palki Sharma tells you more.

Gravitas: China's new Wuhan? | Suifenhe

China has the knowledge and the techniques to manufacture new viruses and animal models to test the ability of those new viruses to infect humans.

The question remains – is the Chinese virus, COVID-19, the cause of the global pandemic, a naturally-occurring coronavirus that 'jumped' from bats to humans within the Wuhan Seafood Market as China claims or did it 'leak' from a Chinese laboratory either as a yet unknown bat viral isolate stored there or as a man-made virus?

A second, but additionally important question – has China been using politically 'tainted' scientific articles as part of an information campaign to absolve itself of responsibility for the Chinese coronavirus pandemic?

That is, to leverage the widely-accepted credibility of science as one element of a propaganda strategy orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party.

Beginning already in January 2020, articles written by Chinese scientists started appearing in the international scientific literature that either <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054935/">rejected </a>outright the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory or were <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001017">peppered</a> with statements reinforcing the Chinese government argues that it originated in the Wuhan Seafood Market, such as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7">one </a>written by a lead scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Zheng-Li Shi.

Many of those articles were published by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054935/">Chinese-controlled scientific journals</a>, had<a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.02.974139v3.article-info"> not undergone the normal peer review</a> process or were written by Chinese scientists with no apparent research background in coronaviruses.

Yet, occasionally, the likely truth slipped through the cracks.

Contrary to the official Chinese government narrative of a late December 2019 onset originating in the Wuhan Seafood Market, a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext">Chinese-authored article</a> published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, states that the first documented case of COVID-19 was at least as early as December 1, 2019, being a hospitalised patient who had not visited the Wuhan Seafood Market.

On December 10, 2019, two out of the three coronavirus patients admitted to the hospital had not been in the Wuhan Seafood Market. It was only after December 15, 2019, that a larger percentage of COVID-19 patients were identified as visitors to the Wuhan Seafood Market.

A Chinese-authored scientific article written during the first week of February 2020 also directly <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7079563/">contradicts</a> the Chinese government narrative that COVID-19 'jumped' from bats to humans within the Wuhan Seafood Market:

“The epidemiological investigation of early cases of 2019-nCoV pneumonia showed that many cases had been exposed to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. In addition, 33 of the 585 environmental samples from Huanan Seafood Market were positive for 2019-nCoV; however, that market was trading a variety of live animals, such as hedgehog, badger, snake, and bird (turtledoves), probably pangolin, but not bats. Thus, bats are less likely to have direct contact with humans, and direct transmission of the virus from bat to human is unlikely.”

An alternative explanation for the origin of the Chinese COVID-19 pandemic is that it resulted from a 'leak' out of a Chinese laboratory.

Just such a leak out of a Chinese laboratory occurred in <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-beijing-lab-twice-50137">two separate incidents </a>in April 2004 involving researchers infected with the deadly coronavirus SARS-CoV, responsible for the 2002-2003 pandemic.

In such a scenario, COVID-19, representing one of the hundreds of coronaviruses isolated by the Chinese from various animals, could have similarly leaked out of a Wuhan laboratory either carried by an infected employee who later visited the Wuhan Seafood Market or by an infected experimental laboratory animal that was sold to the market.

An especially dangerous possibility is that COVID-19 is man-made. That would involve a bioengineering capability to construct novel viruses by combining parts of two or more viruses (chimera). The infectivity of the novel viruses would then be tested in cell cultures and animal models.

China possesses all those capabilities.

In 2015, Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina and Zheng-Li Shi from the Wuhan Institute of Virology jointly published a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985">scientific article </a>describing the combination of the receptor-binding spike protein from a newly isolated coronavirus (SHC014) and the “backbone” from SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the 2002-2003 pandemic. It produced a novel virus (chimera SHC014-MA15), which showed “robust viral replication both in vitro [cell cultures] and in vivo [animals],” using models adapted to test human infectivity.

Many of the techniques involved in creating coronavirus chimeras are described in detail in a publicly-available 2018 patent (US9884895B2) submitted by Dr. Baric.

In addition to possessing the techniques for creating new viruses, China has <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aalas/cm/2007/00000057/00000005/art00003">developed</a> a genetically-engineered mouse model, not only to test the human infectivity of coronaviruses but, through multiple passages, potentially increase its human receptor selectivity.

It was recently<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211291/U-S-government-gave-3-7million-grant-Wuhan-lab-experimented-coronavirus-source-bats.html"> reported </a>that the Wuhan Institute of Virology received a $3.7 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to study coronaviruses.

Given the well-known propensity for coronaviruses to mutate, both in animals and humans, the introduction of man-made coronaviruses into nature could have catastrophic consequences for human health and the ecosystem.

From the perspective of biological warfare, China could develop new viruses for which there are no known treatments or viruses deliberately designed to circumvent them, risks already <a href="https://casw.org/sites/default/files/Baric_NewHorizons-slideset_2012.pdf">identified</a> by Dr Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina in 2012.

It is now urgent to confront China in order to determine the true origin of COVID-19. 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

China has the knowledge and the techniques to manufacture new viruses and animal models to test the ability of those new viruses to infect humans. The question remains – is the Chinese virus, COVID-19, the cause of the global pandemic, a naturally-occurring coronavirus that 'jumped' from bats to humans within the Wuhan Seafood Market as China claims or did it 'leak' from a Chinese laboratory either as a yet unknown bat viral isolate stored there or as a man-made virus?

China has the knowledge and the techniques to manufacture new viruses and animal models to test the ability of those new viruses to infect humans. The question remains – is the Chinese virus, COVID-19, the cause of the global pandemic, a naturally-occurring coronavirus that 'jumped' from bats to humans within the Wuhan Seafood Market as China claims or did it 'leak' from a Chinese laboratory either as a yet unknown bat viral isolate stored there or as a man-made virus? A second, but additionally important question – has China been using politically 'tainted' scientific articles as part of an information campaign to absolve itself of responsibility for the Chinese coronavirus pandemic? That is, to leverage the widely-accepted credibility of science as one element of a propaganda strategy orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party. Beginning already in January 2020, articles written by Chinese scientists started appearing in the international scientific literature that either rejected outright the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory or were peppered with statements reinforcing the Chinese government argues that it originated in the Wuhan Seafood Market, such as one written by a lead scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Zheng-Li Shi. Many of those articles were published by Chinese-controlled scientific journals, had not undergone the normal peer review process or were written by Chinese scientists with no apparent research background in coronaviruses. Yet, occasionally, the likely truth slipped through the cracks. Contrary to the official Chinese government narrative of a late December 2019 onset originating in the Wuhan Seafood Market, a Chinese-authored article published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, states that the first documented case of COVID-19 was at least as early as December 1, 2019, being a hospitalised patient who had not visited the Wuhan Seafood Market. On December 10, 2019, two out of the three coronavirus patients admitted to the hospital had not been in the Wuhan Seafood Market. It was only after December 15, 2019, that a larger percentage of COVID-19 patients were identified as visitors to the Wuhan Seafood Market. A Chinese-authored scientific article written during the first week of February 2020 also directly contradicts the Chinese government narrative that COVID-19 'jumped' from bats to humans within the Wuhan Seafood Market: “The epidemiological investigation of early cases of 2019-nCoV pneumonia showed that many cases had been exposed to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. In addition, 33 of the 585 environmental samples from Huanan Seafood Market were positive for 2019-nCoV; however, that market was trading a variety of live animals, such as hedgehog, badger, snake, and bird (turtledoves), probably pangolin, but not bats. Thus, bats are less likely to have direct contact with humans, and direct transmission of the virus from bat to human is unlikely.” An alternative explanation for the origin of the Chinese COVID-19 pandemic is that it resulted from a 'leak' out of a Chinese laboratory. Just such a leak out of a Chinese laboratory occurred in two separate incidents in April 2004 involving researchers infected with the deadly coronavirus SARS-CoV, responsible for the 2002-2003 pandemic. In such a scenario, COVID-19, representing one of the hundreds of coronaviruses isolated by the Chinese from various animals, could have similarly leaked out of a Wuhan laboratory either carried by an infected employee who later visited the Wuhan Seafood Market or by an infected experimental laboratory animal that was sold to the market. An especially dangerous possibility is that COVID-19 is man-made. That would involve a bioengineering capability to construct novel viruses by combining parts of two or more viruses (chimera). The infectivity of the novel viruses would then be tested in cell cultures and animal models. China possesses all those capabilities. In 2015, Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina and Zheng-Li Shi from the Wuhan Institute of Virology jointly published a scientific article describing the combination of the receptor-binding spike protein from a newly isolated coronavirus (SHC014) and the “backbone” from SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the 2002-2003 pandemic. It produced a novel virus (chimera SHC014-MA15), which showed “robust viral replication both in vitro [cell cultures] and in vivo [animals],” using models adapted to test human infectivity. Many of the techniques involved in creating coronavirus chimeras are described in detail in a publicly-available 2018 patent (US9884895B2) submitted by Dr. Baric. In addition to possessing the techniques for creating new viruses, China has developed a genetically-engineered mouse model, not only to test the human infectivity of coronaviruses but, through multiple passages, potentially increase its human receptor selectivity. It was recently reported that the Wuhan Institute of Virology received a $3.7 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to study coronaviruses. Given the well-known propensity for coronaviruses to mutate, both in animals and humans, the introduction of man-made coronaviruses into nature could have catastrophic consequences for human health and the ecosystem. From the perspective of biological warfare, China could develop new viruses for which there are no known treatments or viruses deliberately designed to circumvent them, risks already identified by Dr Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina in 2012. It is now urgent to confront China in order to determine the true origin of COVID-19. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

China, coronavirus and the weaponisation of medical science

China is now trying to shift blame for the coronavirus outbreak. But fresh reports have emerged, that expose how China destroyed the evidence to cover-up the outbreak. WION's Palki Sharma tells you more.

Gravitas: How China destroyed evidence of the outbreak, Wuhan Coronavirus

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has confirmed that 70 people including 60 homeless and two staff members were tested positive for COVID-19 in a homeless shelter. All the patients are under isolation.

US: COVID-19 spreads in San Francisco homeless shelters

Britain has not yet reached the COVID-19 peak which would allow for an easing of tight restrictions of movement, health minister Matt Hancock said on Saturday. Britain said on Sunday it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.

UK: Country hasn't hit its COVID-19 peak yet

Lockdown has triggered food crisis in United Kingdom. There is 300% rise in footfall in food banks. Britain's Queen Elizabeth said on Saturday that coronavirus "would not overcome us" as she delivered her second rallying message to the nation in a week.

UK: Food banks struggle to keep up with surging demand

The United States is now worst-hit country with coronavirus in the world. The US has now surpassed Italy's death toll. The coronavirus cases topped 500,000 on Friday in US, the death toll is more than 20,500.

Coronavirus Outbreak: United States surpasses Italy's death toll

Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google said on Friday that they will work together to create contact tracing technology that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus by allowing users to opt into logging other phones they have been near.

Apple, Google join hands to tackle COVID-19

The Chinese government has issued a new draft list of livestock that can be farmed for meat in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

China issues draft list of livestock that can be farmed for meat

Activists in Latin America are scrambling to house and feed animals abandoned by owners who misguidedly fear their pets will infect them with the coronavirus or who are unable to feed animals amid lockdowns that have caused increased unemployment.

Coronavirus Outbreak: People abandoning pets due to fake news and misinformation

In this segment of WION Good News First, we get you to the story of a couple who got married in the times of lockdown.

WION Good News First: Love in the times of lockdown!

Globally, there is a ray of hope that with the arrival of summers, the intensity of novel coronavirus would likely to fall. However, US's top researchers at the National Academy of Sciences have warned otherwise. A report released by the National Academy of Sciences has said that the hot weather in the summers would not help to contain the spread of COVID-19. The findings remain inconclusive, but, the report says so far, there is no evidence, that suggests the link of spread with higher temperatures.

Study: Higher temperature would not help to contain the spread of COVID-19

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday left intensive care, where he had spent the three previous days for treatment against coronavirus, his Downing Street office said. This is not the first time when a British leader is out of action during a time of crisis. Watch our report to know more.

Boris Johnson not the 1st UK PM to be incapacitated | WION Ground Report

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