The origins of the global novel coronavirus pandemic remain unknown at this point, and a debate remains about whether it was the result of a lab leak or naturally occurred – although it is accepted that it can be traced back to the city of Wuhan, China.
The Covid-19 virus is known to have 88 percent genome identity to a bat-derived coronavirus, which has led some to speculate it was man-made while others argue that fact suggests it occurred naturally.
There have been reports that Chinese CDC scientists from Wuhan were exploring bat caves in order to identify new viruses prior to the start of the pandemic.
Regardless of the origin, the economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States will reach $14 trillion by the end of 2023.
Clearly, it is something that no one in the country would like to see repeated ever.
Was the U.S. the Origin? New Finger Pointing From Russia
This week, Russia may have begun a new “disinformation” campaign that questions the origins of Covid-19 – while also suggesting that the United States may even be plotting another pandemic.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Protection Troops, told Russian state media that a U.S.-based non-government organization studied 2,500 bats as part of an effort to identify new strains of coronavirus.
“The intermediary organization EcoHealth Alliance has played a key role in implementing projects to study this pathogen. Since 2015, the organization’s researchers have been involved in studying a diverse population of bats, searching for new coronavirus strains and mechanisms for animal-to-human transmission. Over 2,500 bats have been studied,” Kirillov claimed.
The general noted that U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University conducted the Event 201 drills in New York on October 18, 2019, just two months before the first coronavirus cases were officially reported in China. He said the drills were aimed at practicing the steps that would be taken during an epidemic of an unknown coronavirus.
“The fact that the [actual] pandemic unfolded exactly according to this scenario, as well as the implementation of EcoHealth Alliance’s projects, gives rise to questions as to whether COVID-19 was in fact an intentionally man-made disease and whether the US may have had a hand in this incident,” Kirillov added.
Debunking the Claims
This isn’t the first time that Event 201 drills have been linked to the pandemic.
Conspiracy theories swirled in early 2020, but there has been no evidence Event 201 was meant to model or engineer the pandemic. In fact, while the simulation – which imagined how a virus could leap from livestock to farmers in Brazil, then spread to Portugal, the United States, and China – correctly predicted early events, it wildly underestimated other aspects of the pandemic.
Moreover, even in the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was reported that two decades of “pandemic war games” couldn’t account for every detail.
Claims That the U.S. Planning Next Pandemic
Kirillov didn’t just suggest that the United States was responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic but also claimed that the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established in the United States in July 2023, is plotting a new pandemic by implementing virus mutations.
“The United States’ next step, aimed at pushing ahead with its strategic plans for establishing global control over the biological situation, was the creation of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy. This new agency is expected to be responsible for charting a course and coordinating actions to combat known and unknown biological challenges, including pathogens that might trigger another global emergency,” Kirillov added.
The general also said that the United States had thus started preparing for a new pandemic by carrying out a search for virus mutations.
“We do not rule out the United States may use so-called defensive technologies for offensive purposes, as well as for global governance by creating crisis situations of biological nature,” Kirillov continued.
The U.S. Office Does Exist – But Not as Suggested
The Biden Administration announced the formation of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR) last month.
It will “Coordinate the Administration’s domestic response to public health threats that have pandemic potential, or may cause significant disruption, and strengthen domestic pandemic preparedness. This includes ongoing work to address potential public health outbreaks and threats from COVID-19, Mpox, polio, avian and human influenza, and RSV.”
OPPR will also be a permanent office in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) charged with leading, coordinating, and implementing actions related to preparedness for and response to known and unknown biological threats or pathogens that could lead to a pandemic or significant public health-related disruptions in the United States.
However, this is far from a bio-weapons unit.
“I would call this disinformation, but typically the term ‘campaign’ refers to a more multi-pronged effort, often with pieces of the strategy being cloaked in deception,” said Dr. Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.
“The type of disinformation that we see in these posts is more of what I would call ‘disinformation rhetoric. The goal of disinformation is largely to call into question the very idea of truth itself – to muddy the waters to the point where people give up on the idea of truth. It can also be used to provide support to people who use motivated reasoning – i.e. whose assessment of facts is deeply colored by what they want to believe to be true,” Lampe told 19FortyFive. “This is more like a disinformation jab.”
In other words, Krillov seems to be connecting the dots like a conspiracy theorist, but unlike the fringe who must take to online chat groups to make their case, he’s spreading his disinformation campaign with the help of Russian state media.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
This has been updated to include expert quotes and analysis.
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