There are so many news distractions from the Biden administration’s challenges and outright failures that it’s hard to know what new, sexy story is the thing to give your attention. That being said, it’s a fair bet that anything that appears to finally be touching on how the world was introduced to COVID-19 is worth the time. That holds especially true if it involves one Dr. Anthony Fauci, patron saint of prolonging the pandemic, and anything related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

I give you this recent piece from The Telegraph, summed up nicely in a Twitter thread that begins here:

"Wuhan scientists were planning to release enhanced airborne coronaviruses into Chinese bat populations to inoculate them against diseases that could jump to humans, leaked grant proposals dating from 2018 show."https://t.co/nXuNKU9aHt

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) September 21, 2021

It details attempts by WIV scientists to genetically engineer coronaviruses and infect bats in an attempt to, so says The New York Post, assess their risks and prevent infection. Famous last words.

Chinese scientists wanted to genetically engineer coronaviruses that were more infectious to humans and then conduct experiments on live bats about 18 months before the first COVID-19 cases emerged — but a US Department of Defence agency rejected the funding proposal, leaked documents reveal.

Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were planning to genetically enhance airborne coronaviruses and release aerosols containing “novel chimeric spike proteins” among cave bats in Yunnan, China, according to the 2018 proposal submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

They also planned to alter coronaviruses to infect humans more easily by introducing “human-specific cleavage sites” to bat coronaviruses.

The big reveal, however, is that some of the request to fund the research came from one Peter Daszak of the New York City-based EcoHealth Alliance — famously linked to the WIV and to Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) via a past $3.4 million grant, $600,000 of which went to the WIV. Furthermore, Daszak was turned down by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the $14 million grant for bat research “over fears it could result in gain-of-function research, which could make a virus more transmissible and pathogenic.”

So while you’re reading about mystery whips and banned horses on the Texas border, remember there are real stories made of facts that you would do well to be paying attention to.

I try, on today’s show, to give you a few to consider through the noise. I also review the wonderful “The Courier” (trailer below), and discuss the not-so-mandated vaccine mandate in the entertainment industry.

Just push play.

The show lives on Spotify and you can also find me at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, FCB Radio’s Spreaker, and Deezer.