Bird Flu Should Be the Subject of a Criminal Investigation

Current discussion about the reality of H5N1 - i.e., whether it's fact or fiction - ignores that the matter should be the subject of a criminal investigation, not merely scientific debate.

When Dr. Peter McCullough, Nicholas Hulscher, and I investigated reports of what is being represented to the public as a new clade of H5N1 bird flu, it became apparent to me that life sciences professionals—at least those outside the clique that is performing Gain-of-Function research on H5N1—are lacking sufficient information to ascertain the reality of this phenomenon.

This is why, in our discussions about our paper—Proximal Origin of Epidemic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b and Spread by Migratory Waterfowl—I emphasized the urgent need for further investigation of this phenomenon. As we wrote in our Conclusion:

The proximal origins of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b may be the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia and the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Genetic evidence and historical context suggest that laboratory activities, including serial passage and GOF research, could have contributed to the emergence of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b. However, causation has not been established, and further investigation is urgently needed to confirm these findings and to identify all H5N1 laboratory leaks that may have occurred with a focus on mallard ducks and other migratory waterfowl, which have the potential to infect a large number of poultry and livestock facilities around the world. A moratorium on GOF research including serial passage of H5N1 is indicated to prevent a man-made influenza pandemic affecting animals and humans.

A few notable life science professionals who publish on Substack have apparently drawn the conclusion that concerns about Gain-of-Function work on H5N1 are either overblown or completely unfounded. Based on my careful reading of the literature on H5N1, I am not so sure.

The public is being told that there is an influenza virus circulating that primarily affects birds, but that has also expanded its host range to infect mammals—most notably domesticated cattle and marine mammals. I suspect that some elements of this representation are based in factual reality, while others may be exaggerated or fabricated.

The proper why to get to the bottom of this story is to launch a criminal investigation, the rationale for which is the massive destruction of property that has already occurred—namely, the culling of millions of chickens and the purported deaths of hundreds of thousands of cattle in California.

Cattle in California allegedly killed by latest clade of H5N1 bird flu.

If these animals were killed by masked brigands, an investigation would be performed to detect the perpetrators and to prosecute them for wanton destruction of livestock. It is only because the deaths of these animals are allegedly the result of a natural phenomenon—and not human agency—that no criminal investigation has been launched.

Here it should be noted that the USDA is aware of a 2021 paper titled ‘H5Nx Viruses emerged during the suppression of H5N1 virus populations in poultry’ by a research team of the University of Georgia:

We show that H5Nx viruses emerged during the successful suppression of H5N1 virus populations in poultry [in China], providing an opportunity for antigenically distinct H5Nx viruses to propagate. Avian influenza vaccination programs would benefit from universal vaccines targeting a wider diversity of influenza viruses to prevent the emergence of novel subtypes [6].

The findings of these researchers present an illustrative case of Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche’s thesis that mass vaccination with nonsterilizing vaccines can result in the emergence of a new, more virulent viral strain [7]. As the University of Georgia team note, “In particular, we show that the widespread use of H5N1 vaccines likely conferred a fitness advantage to H5Nx viruses due to the antigenic mismatch of the neuraminidase genes” [6].

Likewise, conventional wisdom has it that H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b was first detected in October 2020 in the Netherlands, and that this clade purportedly evolved from H5Nx viruses and possesses even greater pathogenic functions [8].

An especially striking feature of the newly emerged H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b is how rapidly it spread from birds in Europe to birds in North America. This rapid spread contrasts with the previously slow intercontinental spread of the goose/ Guangdong-lineage of H5N1. After emerging in China in 1996, it was first detected in Europe in 2005, and then in the United States in 2014 [9].

While it apparently took nine years for earlier variants to spread from Europe to the United States, H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b was first detected in the Netherlands in October 2020 and then in the United States in late 2021 [8,9]. What could account for the new variant’s extraordinarily rapid intercontinental spread?

In a July 11, 2022 paper in Nature titled ‘Transatlantic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wild birds from Europe to North America in 2021,’ a large international team offered the hypothesis that birds migrating from Europe to Iceland and other North Atlantic islands, and from there to North America in 2021, must have carried the virus across the Atlantic [10]. As they noted in their conclusion:

The HPAI H5N1 viruses that were detected in Newfoundland in November and December 2021 originated from Northwest Europe and belonged to HPAI clade 2.3.4.4b. Most likely, these viruses emerged in Northwest Europe in winter 2020/2021, dispersed from Europe in late winter or early spring 2021, and arrived in Newfoundland in autumn 2021. The viruses may have been carried across the Atlantic by migratory birds using different routes, including Icelandic, Greenland/Arctic, or pelagic routes. The unusually high presence of the viruses in European wild bird populations in late winter and spring 2021, as well as the greater involvement of barnacle and greylag geese in the epidemiology of HPAI in Europe since October 2020, may explain why spread to Newfoundland happened this winter (2021/2022), and not in the previous winters” [10].

This conclusion contains an implausible element and a notable omission. First, the hypothetical spread of a new avian influenza variant by migratory birds from Europe to North America by crossing the North Atlantic has never been documented before and therefore appears to be unprecedented. Second, the paper’s conclusion omits the fact that at the same time (December 2021) the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b was purportedly detected in birds in Newfoundland, it was also detected in ducks in South Carolina, just two hundred miles east of the USDA’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL), which began performing serial passage experiments with H5Nx viruses on mallard ducks in the spring of 2021 [11-13]. H5Nx viruses share the H5 hemagglutinin (HA) protein but have different Neuraminidase (NA) proteins, ranging from H5N1 to H5N9.

It seems to me that simply dismissing the entire literature on H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b as mere fiction—fabricated for the purpose of manipulating the public—is not a sensible approach to this phenomenon. There is indeed abundant evidence that the true objective of Gain-of-Function research is to create new pathogens in order to justify the world’s government spending billions on new vaccines, thereby enriching people in the vaccine business.

However, this does NOT warrant simply dismissing the proposition that GoF-manipulated H5N1 viruses pose a clear and present danger to human health. Dismissing this proposition ignores mankind’s recent catastrophic experience with SARS-CoV-2 and the mountain of evidence that it originated in a lab.

Whether or not the public can be manipulated into accepting yet another dubious mass vaccination campaign will likely depend on whether or not an alarming number of people fall gravely ill. Theoretical models of disease spread and news media reporting probably won’t suffice. Reasonable adults will only become afraid if they have the experience of friends and family members falling gravely ill.

However, it seems to me that the phenomenon that is being called H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b should not only be a matter of debate among life science professionals, but should be the subject of a rigorous criminal investigation.

There is plenty of evidence that this virus is being manipulated in university and USDA laboratories. What exactly these bio-technicians have done and continue to do should be ascertained by law enforcement agencies with the power to subpoena documents and witnesses.