In a significant revelation, a report from the Substack account Kanekoa News reveals the potential connections of Dr. Peter Hotez, a popular vaccine researcher, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), with Chinese military scientists linked to the development of COVID-19.
The piece cites a web of funding, collaboration, and research that ties prominent Chinese military virologists, culminating in the “smoking gun evidence surrounding COVID-19’s notorious furin cleavage site.”
According to the report, Dr. Hotez, a distinguished professor at Baylor College of Medicine, secured a sizeable research grant (R01AI098775) from NIAID.
The project, entitled “RBD Recombinant Protein-Based SARS Vaccine for Biodefense,” was worth over $1 million per year and listed Dr. Shibo Jiang, a professor at Fudan University, as a Principal Investigator.
The report provides extensive background information on Dr. Jiang, detailing his impressive academic career and his various positions at the New York Blood Center’s Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute.
In addition, it highlights his connections with the Chinese military, stating, “During his time in the United States, Dr. Shibo Jiang also acted as a visiting professor at several prestigious People’s Liberation Army (PLA) universities.”
The report alleges that despite his association with the Chinese military, Dr. Jiang “received research grants totaling over $20 million from NIAID under Dr. Fauci’s leadership between 1997 and 2016.”
The report further highlights Dr. Jiang’s collaboration with Dr. Zhou Yusen, a distinguished PLA virologist.
Together, they “co-invented multiple U.S. patents and published numerous scientific papers on SARS and MERS coronaviruses, often with the support of NIAID funds.”
The document focuses on the furin cleavage site of the COVID-19 virus as a subject of significant concern.
It cites Dr. Richard Ebright, a respected molecular biologist, who highlights the unique nature of the furin cleavage in the SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19.
The report quotes Dr. Ebright saying: “SARS-CoV-2 is the only member of the SARS-related betacoronavirus group that contains a furin cleavage site.”
Also, Dr. David Baltimore, a well-known U.S. virologist and Nobel laureate, is quoted in the report as suggesting the furin cleavage indicates a laboratory origin for the virus.
“When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus,” he states.
The news piece draws attention to Dr. Hotez’s subcontracted funding for scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), particularly in the field of artificially inserting furin cleavage sites into coronaviruses.
The report quotes Dr. Hotez from a February 2021 interview, stating, “About ten years ago, we got approached by a group at the New York Blood Center led by Shibo Jiang and Lanying Du that had a pretty good idea for coronavirus vaccines.”
The report ends with a call for a thorough investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 virus, given the “mounting connections between Dr. Hotez, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Jiang, Dr. Du, and Dr. Yusen with Chinese military scientists, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the suspicious furin cleavage site.”
