The Chinese state-owned Global Times targeted an Indian science teacher whose investigation corroborated claims of a Wuhan lab leak on Friday (August 26). Known as ‘The Seeker,’ the Indian man from Kolkata sought the origins of Covid 19 that harmed millions. The Communist Party of China (CCP) propaganda arm Global Times attempted to delegitimize the findings of ‘The Seeker’ and his team DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19) after the US Intelligence report on Coronavirus origins remained unclear. According to an article published by Global Times on Friday, ‘The Seeker’ is a ‘rumor-monger’ while DRASTIC is an ‘online conspiracy group’. It also alleged that such groups are supported by ‘anti-China forces’.
CCP mouthpiece slammed the group as ‘anonymous’ and claimed ‘DRASTIC members constantly spread conspiracy theories and false news about Wuhan lab leaks and launch online public opinion attacks against scientists who are impartial in their scientific assessment’. Global Times further condemned DRASTIC for ‘plotting’ and ‘popularizing’ rumors against China in the West. Researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) brought back samples of a novel coronavirus that originates from copper mines in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, and the virus was then released. According to the Washington Post, this information was initially crafted by a member of DRASTIC named ‘The Seeker’.
According to the tabloid newspaper, the former Indian science teacher found a master’s thesis, which described six cases of pneumonia caused by an unknown virus at an abandoned copper mine in Yunnan province in 2012. Upon reading the abstract, ‘The Seeker’ immediately posted a lengthy message to his Twitter account indicating that the novel coronavirus was the WIV, with the tag ‘DRASTIC’ attached, according to CNET. The Global Times noted that the DRASTIC findings did not conform to ‘basic principles of scientific rigor.’
According to the report, since February mainstream media in Western countries have been paying attention to DRASTIC. Sky News, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal, as well as many Indian media outlets, have all reported the group’s views and hyped how it has changed the chapter of the virus origin story. Accusing DRASTIC of publishing ‘alleged reports’ and harassing scientists, it claimed the ‘ultimate goal’ is to somehow tarnish the image of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). This shift in Biden administration attitudes toward tracing coronavirus diseases was mentioned as a reason DRASTIC’s rise was fuelled by the CCP’s mouthpiece.
‘The Seeker’, in his mid-20s, used to be a science teacher. He then studied architecture, painting, and filmmaking. His passion for audiobooks led him to work on a project that he enjoyed. In the beginning, he believed universal media narratives that the wet markets in Wuhan were the source of the infection. But soon, he became skeptical of the conventional narrative and began interacting with individuals who had begun to rip it apart. It sparked ‘The Seeker’s curiosity to learn more about the virus.
Along with his obvious curiosity, he was drawn to this mission by a sense of social responsibility. COVID has claimed the lives of countless people and devastated so many others. However, many clues were left unanswered. ‘The human race deserves answers,’ he had said. The Seeker believed that the mystery of the Wuhan Coronavirus lay in RaTG13. Through his online research skills, The Seeker discovered CNKI, a database of Chinese academic journals and theses. He spent days scrolling through the database, fueled by tea and occasional arcade games. In 2013, The Seeker found a 60-page thesis authored by a student at Kunming Medical University. The paper, titled ‘The Analysis of 6 Patients with Severe Pneumonia Caused by Unknown Viruses,’ found that the miners were killed by SARS-like Coronavirus. On May 19, 2020, he shared it on Twitter.
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Chinese authorities swung into action after it became public and limited access to it so that it would never be found again. The Seeker found that the corporate media ignored the story when the miners died of SARS-like infection in 2012. He worked closely with a data scientist in Madrid named Francisco de Asis de Ribera. Ribera fitted the pieces of the Coronavirus puzzle together as the Seeker found new pieces. It was discovered that Wuhan Institute of Virology has detailed plans to perform cross-species mutations and genetic recombination of SARS-like viruses in lab animals and human cells.
According to him, the Wuhan Institute of Virology did not buy Shi Zhengli’s claim that the three miners died of a fungal infection. Researchers at the institute were concerned about a viral outbreak, so they tested the blood of nearby villagers and obtained genetic sequences of eight other SARS-like viruses from the mine. China had the information with them in advance, but chose to conceal it and let people die instead. He concluded, ‘I no longer consider science to be exclusive. Everyone can make a difference’.
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