33 Ancient Viruses From 13,000 BC Surface During Chinese Outbreak

Hazard suits hang at the National Bio-safety Laboratory, Wuhan, acclaimed in 2017 as being the first lab in China certified, approved, and now equipped for the highest level of biocontainment.

Is an epidemic that has now reached the United States and has 11 million people in China quarantined linked to glacial ice containing an ancient virus and a maximum-security biolab located at the epicenter of the outbreak?

As the World Health Organization considers if the newly discovered coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan that has killed at least 17 is an outbreak of international concern, ironically scientists in the area are studying 33 unknown 15,000-year-old viruses, 28 of which are from never-before-seen virus groups, that had previously been locked in a nearby glacier on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau.

“We are very far from sampling the entire diversity of viruses on Earth. In a worst-case scenario, this ice melt could release pathogens into the environment,” says Chantal Abergel of the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Wuhan, ground zero of the epidemic, is also the home to the National Bio-safety Laboratory of the Communist People’s Republic of China, the first  biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) lab to open on the Chinese mainland. The outbreak began shortly after the conclusion of the 2019 Military World Games, the first international military sports event ever to be held in China, with 236,000 volunteers and 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. Millions watched the games that began with opening ceremonies in a stadium seating 60,000 spectators in the Sports Center of Wuhan.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences approved the construction of Wuhan’s  300 million yuan (US$44 million) BSL-4 laboratory in 2003 during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic. France was integral in the designed and constructed of the lab as part of a 2004 cooperative agreement between the two governments on the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases.

Bruno Lina, director of the VirPath virology lab in Lyon, France, says “The world is facing more new emerging viruses, and we need more contribution from China, In particular, the emergence of zoonotic viruses — those that jump to humans from animals, such as SARS or Ebola — is a concern.” The new outbreak in Wuhan is confirmed to have been a zoonotic virus that started in an animal and spread to humans but scientists do not yet know what animal may have caused outbreak in Wuhan that began in December. Human-to-human transmission of the virus happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s cough, sneeze or handshake.

Theories Surround Airliner That Mysteriously Crashed In Iran

35 years ago an airliner carrying 248 soldiers of the U.S.Army 101st Airborne on their way home from a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East crashed shortly after take off. Despite immediate claims of responsibility by the Iranian backed terrorist organization Islamic Jihad, the crash was blamed on ice build-up on the plane’s wings.

Shortly after Iran took the unprecedented action of launching ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq, a Ukraine International Airlines flight with 176 victims on board crashed after takeoff from Tehran with no survivors.

According to a tweet from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko on Wednesday the victims hailed from various nations around the world including 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghans, 3 Germans and 3 British citizens, no Americans were said to have been on the aircraft.

Iranian state run news immediately reported the plane, a Boeing 737-800, crashed because of an engine fire due to a technical malfunction. The Iranians have found the black box but are refusing to give share it with crash investigators from Boeing or nations that had citizens on board. While Boeing has been under increased scrutiny since two 737-MAX planes were involved in fatal crashes, the 737 that crashed in Iran was an older model with a strong safety record.

Following the crash, several major airlines including Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, Malaysian Airlines, China Airways, Air Canada and Singapore airways announced they would avoid Iranian airspace and ordered their flights to take alternate routes to avoid flying over Iran and Iraq.  The United States Federal Aviation Authority as well as the Russian national aviation authority have prohibited airlines from flying over Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

According to the Ukraine International Airlines, this is the first fatal crash since its founding in 1992. Airlines’ executives said the plane was built in 2016, its most recent scheduled service was 2 days ago, and it had been one of the best in their fleet. In addition the crew was said to be highly experienced, the captain having 11,600 flying hours, with his two co-pilots also having several thousand hours flying similar 737’s, adding “Given the crew’s experience, error probability is minimal. We do not even consider such a chance.”

Several news agencies have speculated that the plane “could have been shot down by mistake by jittery Iranian air defenses.” Officials from Ukraine’s embassy in Tehran initially blamed the crash on engine failure but later removed that statement as well as an initial report excluding a terrorist attack or missile strike, saying it could not officially comment on the cause until after an investigation had been conducted.

Westerners on board, including those from English speaking US allies like Canada and Britain, may have been mistaken for Americans by Iranian terrorists. With the large number of Canadian passengers, 63 were on the flight manifest, Iranians may have suspected an Argo-style escape of Americans disguised as Canadians and decided to target the airliner. During the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis the CIA rescued 6 U.S. diplomats from Tehran under the guise that they were Canadians scouting locations for the filming of a science fiction movie titled “Argo”.

Relations between Canada and Iran were severed after the Argo incident and the Canadian Embassy in Tehran was closed until 1988 when the two countries agreed to restore relations. Relations between Canada and Iran drastically deteriorated again in June 2003 when a photographer from Montreal was arrested in Tehran and killed in custody three weeks later. In 2006 the Iranian Foreign Minister accused Canada of “hiding some spies at their embassy in Tehran and allowing them to escape”. Canada imposed economic sanctions on Iran in 2010 and severed diplomatic ties with the closure of its embassy in 2012.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article and other news sources had initially reported 180 victims including 68 Canadians.