Slack / Private Message Drop — page 681

but likely Covid. Daszak mentioned this place in a couple interviews, but apparently they weren't told the name...*So please keep this to yourself for now.* He is/was a major, major gambler. I've got court documents from a case in Australia where he tried to sue a casino there since he lost so much several years back. My big question now is whether he has ties to some of these Laos/Myanmar/Cambodia border zones where there's so much gambling and other illicit activity, including heavy wildlife trafficking. Know anyone expert in the activities in those zones? If it was pangolins infected by bats, there are lots of these little "holding pens" on the pangolin underground railroad in China, often mixed in with other wildlife breeding. Was at one in Guangdong a couple years back where they had some, but apparently had just moved them a week or so before we got there. Everyone around that we spoke with knew they kept pangolins there. [2021-04-06 03:07:23] [Robert Garry] This is *huge*. 10s of millions of animals - legal traffic/illegal traffick. Daszak said a $70B industry. So many opportunities for CoV transfer*. As stated, "The whole WIV thing is a distraction from the real story."* More of a distraction is the notion that a few grad students/postdocs trapping bats is somehow equal in scope to this massive enterprise. It would also shock me to find that they actually shut down all the "farms." Maybe a few for "show." It would literally be the same $$$ as shutting down all the cattle farms and ranches in the US. [2021-04-06 03:09:57] [Robert Garry] "I'm also confused by the WHO report from November which said their were live wild mammals present at the market prior to Dec. 31, 2019 and the latest study team report which takes the market authority and one Huanan manager's word for it that there were no live wild mammals at the market at that time." not confusing at all - they scrubbed it. [2021-04-06 03:33:35] [Andrew Rambaut] This is what the 'internet detectives' should be investigating! [2021-04-06 04:08:36] [Eddie Holmes] I need to keep this guy on the case. [2021-04-06 04:08:50] [Robert Garry] Same exact reasoning that PETA focuses on scientists instead of the food industry. Much easier to target ppl like Shi and Eddie than some faceless "cowboys." [2021-04-06 04:09:08] [Andrew Rambaut] Also you are less likely to be knocked-off [2021-04-06 04:09:18] [Andrew Rambaut] I mean, 'fall out a window' [2021-04-06 04:09:23] [Robert Garry] yes - put some faces on the wildlife traffickers! [2021-04-06 04:10:48] [Robert Garry] Yeah criminal enterprise - you bet the political types are connected and don't want to "fall out of windows" either.