PM: Wuhan Biolab experts worked in USA (Uni North Carolina) & Canada
Wuhan Biolab experts worked in USA (Uni North Carolina) & Canada
(Winnipeg) and brought that research home to Wuhan
(1) If deliberate, why Italy?
(2) Articles in Nature journal (2015): Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research
(3) Wuhan Biolab experts worked in USA (Uni North Carolina) & Canada
(Winnipeg) and brought that research home to Wuhan
(4) Wuhan Lab ( Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge ) did the genetic engineering for Ralph Baric at UNC
(5) Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge from WIV, in cooperation with University of North Carolina
(6) The spike glycoprotein of 2019-nCoV contains a cleavage absent in CoV - showing that it was engineered rather than evolved
(7) Asians show a similar ACE2 expression to other races; => Virus will affect all races
(8) Wuhan Institute of Virology reports 'Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses' (Nov 2017)
(9) Professor Shi Zhengli is Director of the P4 lab at Wuhan Institute of Virology
(1) If deliberate, why Italy?
From: Ellen Brown <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
> I think the hit on China, Iran, and Italy > shows who had the motive.
> I don't think there was anything
> accidental about this bio weapon.
I agree, but why Italy?
Comment (Peter M.): Your point is that it is not race-specific, thus demolishing the case that it was a deliberate attack by the US. If the virus spreads worldwide, it will kill people of all races, and wreck the world economy. I just bought some masks (with washable filters) on eBay.
They are one of the first items to run out. Better stock up and prepare.
(2) Articles in Nature journal (2015): Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research
From: israel shamir <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Yes, I linked to that article a couple of days ago.
See my item 'Nature journal (2015): Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research; Lab-made coronavirus related to SARS can infect human cells'
Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research
Lab-made coronavirus related to SARS can infect human cells.
Declan Butler
12 November 2015 ==
The bottom of that item contains a link to the Nature journal you cited.
Also see item 4 below, which says that Wuhan Lab ( Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge ) did the genetic engineering for Ralph Baric at UNC.
(3) Wuhan Biolab experts worked in USA (Uni North Carolina) & Canada
(Winnipeg) and brought that research home to Wuhan
- by Peter Myers, Feb 26, 2020
The MSM has set its 'factcheckers' to refute 'conspiracy theories'
about the Covid-19 virus. They are suppressing evidence of Chinese espionage at Western universities.
However, espionage at Harvard University (Charles Lieber and two Chinese
nationals) and Winnipeg NML lab (Xiangguo Qiu) is well attested.
In both cases, there was a connection to Wuhan. Iin Lieber's case, Wuhan University of Technology; and in Qiu's case, Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Zheng-Li Shi and Xing-Yi Ge, leading virologists at Wuhan Institute of Virology, also worked in the US at the University of North Carolina, and obtained US Research Grants.
Zheng-Li Shi (also written Zhengli Shi, Shi Zhengli, and Shi Zheng-Li) is a Professor, and director of WIV's P4 lab. (item 9)
She and Xingyi Ge did the genetic engineering for Ralph Baric at UNC, to develop a Coronavirus that could infect humans directly without animal mediation. (items 4 and 5)
The spike glycoprotein of 2019-nCoV contains a cleavage absent in CoV - showing that it was engineered rather than evolved. (item 6)
Asians show a similar ACE2 expression to other races; this means that 2019-nCoV will affect all races (item 7). Deliberate release is therefore unlikely, because it will spread worldwide.
In Nov 2017, Wuhan Institute of Virology reported 'Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses'. Zheng-Li Shi is listed in that article as having the role of "Project administration, Supervision". (item 8)
Zheng-Li Shi (Shi Zhengli) is a Professor, and Director of the P4 lab at Wuhan Institute of Virology. (item 9)
Scientists from other countries were also involved in the research at Uni North Carolina, and the same would apply to Harvard and Winnipeg.
But only Chinese have been implicated in smuggling genetic material to China (in the Harvard & Winnipeg cases).
Only Chinese have obtained Resaearch Grants in the USA, and used that money to promote research in China.
This is a big issue for our Universities, which are hotbeds of Multiculturalism. They have welcomed these Chinese scientists as migrants, and given them full rights, only to have China claim them back via its Thousand Talents Program. China regards all Chinese overeas as Chinese citizens.
Now the Universities are endangering public safety by pressing governments to allow fee-paying students from China to return, despite the risk to the local population.
(4) Wuhan Lab ( Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge ) did the genetic engineering for Ralph Baric at UNC
Wuhan Lab did the genetic engineering for Baric (publicplace)
by Ugly Bag of Mostly Water,
Sunday, January 26, 2020, 13:36 (30 days ago)
Actual website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (the bioweapons lab) confirming two of their scientists are the ones that did the genetic engineering for Ralph Baric of the SARS virus to make it hyper dangerous to humans (engineered a bioweapon)
Recently, Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge from WIV, in cooperation with researchers from University of North Carolina, Harvard Medical School, Bellinzona Institute of Microbiology and etc, examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, the scientists generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein.
On the basis of these findings, they synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. The work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.
SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronavirus pose threat for human emergence
Vinet D. Menachery,1 Boyd L. Yount, Jr,1 Kari Debbink,1,2 Sudhakar
Agnihothram,3 Lisa E. Gralinski,1 Jessica A. Plante,1 Rachel L. Graham,1 Trevor Scobey,1 Xing-Yi Ge,8 Eric F. Donaldson,1 Scott H. Randell,4,5 Antonio Lanzavecchia,6 Wayne A. Marasco,7 Zhengli-Li Shi,8 and Ralph S.
Baric1,2
8 Zhengli-Li Shi - Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
8 Xing-Yi Ge - Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
This PROVES - with highly credible references - that the Wuhan lab has actively and successfully genetically engineered and tested SARS contagions specifically designed to create global pandemics capable of wiping out much of the human species.
Comment (Peter M.): I disavow that last sentence, where intent is expressed. I doubt that these scientists had any harmful intent. But they knew that they were playing with fire. Other virologists had sounded the alarm over what they were doing.
The Nature article referenced in item 2 above, 'Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research', referring to engineering in which Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge were involved, reports:
'Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that "grows remarkably well" in human cells. "If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory," he says.'
(5) Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge from WIV, in cooperation with University of North Carolina
whiov = Wuhan Institute of Virology; CAS = Chinese Academy of Sciences
Research Progress
Will SAR come back?
Date 04-12-2015
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
(SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans.
Recently, Prof. Zhengli Shi and Xingyi Ge from WIV, in cooperation with researchers from University of North Carolina, Harvard Medical School, Bellinzona Institute of Microbiology and etc, examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, the scientists generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein.
On the basis of these findings, they synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. The work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.
Nat Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 Jun 1. Published in final edited form as: Nat Med. 2015 Dec; 21(12): 1508–1513.
Published online 2015 Nov 9. doi: 10.1038/nm.3985 PMCID: PMC4797993
NIHMSID: NIHMS766724 PMID: 26552008
SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronavirus pose threat for human emergence Vineet D. Menachery, 1 Boyd L. Yount, Jr,1 Kari Debbink, 1,2 Sudhakar Agnihothram, 3 Lisa E. Gralinski, 1 Jessica A. Plante, 1 Rachel L. Graham, 1 Trevor Scobey, 1 Xing-Yi Ge, 8 Eric F. Donaldson, 1 Scott H. Randell, 4,5 Antonio Lanzavecchia, 6 Wayne A. Marasco, 7 Zhengli-Li Shi, 8 and Ralph S. Baric 1,2
(6) The spike glycoprotein of 2019-nCoV contains a cleavage absent in CoV - showing that it was engineered rather than evolved
Asians and other races express similar levels of and share the same genetic polymorphisms of the SARS-CoV-2 cell-entry receptor
Ying Chen1,2, Kejia Shan1,2,3, and Wenfeng Qian1,2,,3*
1 State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2 Key Laboratory of Genetic Network Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Correspondence to:
Wenfeng Qian
Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100101, China
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ABSTRACT
The recurrent coronavirus outbreaks in China (SARS-CoV and its relative,
SARS-CoV-2) raise the possibility that Asians are more susceptible to coronavirus. Here, we test this possibility with the lung expression of ACE2, which encodes the cell-entry receptor of both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. We show that ACE2 expression is not affected during tumorigenesis, suggesting that the transcriptome data from the more than
1000 lung cancer samples in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) can be used to study ACE2 expression among people without cancer. The expression of
ACE2 increases with age, but is not associated with sex. Asians show a similar ACE2 expression to other races. Furthermore, the frequencies of
ACE2 alleles in Asians are not significantly deviated from those in other races. These observations indicate that individuals of all races need the same level of personal protection against SARS-CoV-2.
(8) Wuhan Institute of Virology reports 'Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses' (Nov 2017)
Nearly all of these authors are from Wuhan Institute of Virology (=WIV).
CAS = Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zheng-Li Shi is listed as having the role of "Project administration, Supervision".
Peter Daszak, an American, is listed as having the roles of "Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing".
Ben Hu Contributed equally to this work with: Ben Hu, Lei-Ping Zeng, Xing-Lou Yang
ROLES Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Lei-Ping Zeng Contributed equally to this work with: Ben Hu, Lei-Ping Zeng, Xing-Lou Yang
ROLES Investigation, Methodology
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Xing-Lou Yang Contributed equally to this work with: Ben Hu, Lei-Ping Zeng, Xing-Lou Yang
ROLES Investigation, Resources
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Xing-Yi Ge
ROLES Formal analysis, Resources
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Wei Zhang
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Bei Li
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Jia-Zheng Xie
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Xu-Rui Shen
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Yun-Zhi Zhang
ROLES Resources
AFFILIATIONS Yunnan Institute of Endemic Diseases Control and Prevention, Dali, China, Dali University, Dali, China
Ning Wang
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Dong-Sheng Luo
ROLES Investigation, Resources
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Xiao-Shuang Zheng
ROLES Investigation
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Mei-Niang Wang
ROLES Resources
AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Peter Daszak
ROLES Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing AFFILIATION EcoHealth Alliance, New York, New York, United States of America
Lin-Fa Wang
ROLES Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing AFFILIATION Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
* E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (JC); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Z-LS) AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
* E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (JC); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Z-LS) AFFILIATION CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Competing Interests The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(9) Professor Shi Zhengli is Director of the P4 lab at Wuhan Institute of Virology
Prof. SHI Zhengli elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
Date 08-03-2019
{see her photo}
On Jan 28, the American Academy of Microbiology elected 109 new Fellows in 2019. The "Class of 2019" represents fellows from China, the U.S., France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Israel, Korea, and etc. Prof. SHI Zhengli from Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Prof. SHI is the Director of the Center of Emerging Infectious Diseases at WIV, Director of the Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety of CAS, and the Editor-in-Chief of Virologica Sinica. She received her Ph.D from Montpellier University II, France, in 2000.
Her researches focus on molecular epidemiology and interspecies infection mechanism of emerging viruses of zoonotic origin especially those from bats. She has made distinguished and pioneering achievement in discovery and characterization of important bat-borne viruses. She identified the bat origin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and has made crucial contributions to prevention and control of zoonotic emerging infectious disease in China. She had got over 120 publications including research articles on high-impact journals Science, Nature, Cell Host & Microbe, PLoS Pathogens, etc. She won the first prize of Natural Science Award of Hubei Province in 2017 and the second prize of National Natural Science Award in 2018.
How Many Cases Of Covid-19 Will It Take For You To Decide Not To Frequent Public Places?
Tue, 02/25/2020 - 20:05
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
As empty streets and shelves attest, people taking charge of risk has dire economic consequences.
How many cases of Covid-19 in your community will it take for you to decide not to frequent public places such as cafes, restaurants, theaters, concerts, etc? How many cases in your community will it take for you to decide not to take public transit, Uber/Lyft rides, etc.? How many cases in your community will it take for you to limit going to supermarkets and ask your boss to work at home?
One of the most unexamined aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic is the human psychology of risk assessment and fear. The default human response to novel threats such as the Covid-19 virus is denial and abstraction: it can't happen here, it won't happen to me, it's no big deal, etc.
This careless denial of danger and urgency characterized the official response in China before the epidemic exploded and it characterizes the lackadaisical sloppiness of official response in the U.S.: few facilities have test kits, thousands of people who arrived on U.S. soil on direct flights from Wuhan have not been tested, confirmed carriers have been placed on flights with uninfected people, and the city of Costa Mesa, CA had to file a lawsuit to stop federal agencies from transferring confirmed carriers to dilapidated facilities that are incompatible with thorough quarantine protocols.
This lackadaisical sloppiness didn't hinder the spread of the virus in China and it won't hinder it in the U.S. That means each of us will eventually have to make our own risk assessments and decide to modify our routines and behaviors or not. [...]
Once a consequential number of people decide to avoid public places and gatherings, streets become empty and all the businesses that depend on optional public mixing--cafes, bistros, restaurants, theaters, music venues, stadiums, etc. etc. etc.-- dry up and blow away, even if officials maintain their careless denial of danger and urgency.
All the jobs in this vast service sector will suddenly be at risk, along with the survival of thousands of small businesses, many of which do not have the resources to survive weeks, much less months, of a sharp decline in business.
All the official reassurances won't be worth a bucket of warm spit.
After being assured the risk of the virus spreading in North America was "low," the arrival of the virus will destroy trust in official assurances. People will awaken to the need to control their own risk factors themselves. And as empty streets and shelves attest, people taking charge of risk has dire economic consequences.
(7) Most countries don't have the resources and health care systems to fight a global pandemic
The Grim Reality About Pandemics They Don't Want You To Know: "No Country Is Prepared"
Tue, 02/25/2020 - 19:35
Authored by Sara Tipton via ReadyNutrition.com,
It’s been 100 years since the Spanish Flu caused a global pandemic.
While the WHO would like you to rest easy right now given their belief that Covid-19 is not currently a global pandemic threat, it is just a matter of time before they admit it's true. And when that day does arrive, "scientists say an outbreak of a flu-like illness could sweep across the planet in 36 hours and kill tens of millions due to our constantly-traveling population." ...
Out of the entire world, a mere 13 countries had resources and health care systems to put up a fight against a global pandemic. Among the countries ranked in the top tier were Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, and Holland. ...
Preparations start at home
So just how do we prepare for a possible pandemic? A big concern with pandemics is that supplies would be quickly exhausted leaving many unprepared to handle the ordeal. This will only fuel a more chaotic situation. These concerns are not new to most governments and steps have been taken to ensure communities are prepared and are able to contain most epidemics.
Whih such a large-scale emergency, it is difficult to know where to start and the best answer this author can give you is to start at home.
We can’t control if or when governments decide to prepare, but we can control when and what we, as individuals need to protect our families.
This a suggested list of supplies to help you combat a pandemic based on the best-selling book, The Prepper’s Blueprint. The preparedness manual offers real-world advice for preppers of all levels and stages to help gear up for a pandemic.
The following is a list of pandemic supplies for your home:
One month supply of emergency foods that require no refrigeration.
Store 1 gallon of water per person per day, in clean plastic containers. Avoid using containers that will decompose or break, such as milk cartons or glass bottles.
Plastic sheeting
2-3 small wastebasket or a bucket lined with a plastic garbage bag (to dispose of clothing, soiled supplies, etc.)
Gallon-sized zip-loc bags
Portable toilet with disposable liners
Supply of nonprescription drugs and pain relievers
Cold medicines and decongestants
Stomach remedies
Duct tape
Anti-diarrheal medication
Essential oils
Vitamins that have immune-boosting enhancers
Fluids with electrolytes
Bleach or disinfectant
Soap
Tissues
Garbage bags to collect soiled clothing and bedding before they are washed.
A thermometer
Protective eye gear and/or face shield
nitrile gloves
Tyvek protective suit and shoe covers
Disposable cleaning gloves (in quantity)
Hand wipes
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers or homemade hand sanitizer supplies
Protective clothing
Disposable aprons or smocks (at least 2 cases)
Duct tape for sealing off doorways and vents
Disposable nitrile gloves (2-3 boxes)
Garbage bags
N95 masks or N100 respirator masks for use when the sick person is coughing or sneezing (can be purchased at hardware stores and some
drugstores)
425 Billion Reasons why WHO refuses to call the Covid-19 outbreak a "Pandemic"
Here Are The 425 Billion Reasons Why WHO Refuses To Call The Covid-19 Outbreak A "Pandemic"
by Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/25/2020 - 15:30
The World Bank launched a $425 million 2017 catastrophe bond issue supporting its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF). There are two tranches of PEF bonds outstanding, expected to mature in July, and this means investors of the bonds will collect massive profits if the bonds aren't triggered or will lose everything if the Covid-19 outbreak continues to escalate.
It's becoming increasingly apparent why the World Health Organization
(WHO) has had a difficult time calling Covid-19 outbreak a "pandemic,"
this is because it would cause both bonds to trigger, effectively wiping out bondholders.
The World Bank issued two tranches of PEF bonds worth $425 million in 2017. Bondholders have seen two years of above-average returns with no concern of virus outbreaks around the world that would trigger even the slightest hint both bonds would go into default, until now.
The Covid-19 outbreak in China, spreading across 38 countries and infecting more than 80,000 people, resulting in 2,700 deaths, could leave investors of the bonds with absolutely nothing.
Class A bonds were issued in the amount of $225 million, with a payout of 6.9% annually. The bonds default if a pandemic is identified, and deaths reach over 2,500 in one particular country with an additional 20 deaths in another, the prospectus states.
Class B bonds were issued in the amount of $95 million, with a payout of 11.5% annually but had a much lower trigger level of deaths, versus Class A, hence the high yield
Bloomberg spoke with several investors who own the bonds. The unidentified people said the bonds aren't quoted on public exchanges
If the bonds are triggered, it would be determined by Boston-based private company AIR Worldwide Corporation
The investors said Class B bonds are trading at 60 cents and 70 cents on the dollar, mostly because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The investor stressed the quoting of the bond isn't public information and wanted to remain anonymous, adding that the large tranche, Class A is trading a little under face value.
The bonds were issued to support the World Bank's PEF, and would only be triggered if certain criteria of a pandemic were met. If triggered, the bondholders would lose their money, the funds would be transferred to developing countries to fight the virus. To date, the bonds have yet to be triggered, as it's increasingly becoming obvious that the WHO may stall calling Covid-19 outbreak a "pandemic" until after the bonds mature in July.
