Secret suspected Chinese biolab was allegedly used as Airbnb, linked to 'deathly' sicknesses



Police raided a house in northeast Las Vegas on Saturday managed by Ori Solomon, an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa, and owned by Jia Bei Zhu, the criminally charged Chinese national linked to a secret biolab discovered in Reedley, California, in late 2022.

Inside Zhu's Vegas property on Sugar Springs Drive, law enforcement agents found a "possible biological laboratory" complete with a "bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids," according to Christopher Delzotto, FBI special agent in charge at the bureau's Las Vegas office.

'Not like a clean hospital but more of a foul, stale, stagnant air smell.'

The site of the illegal biolab in Vegas was allegedly also used as an Airbnb, where several people became deathly ill, according to documents obtained by KLAS-TV.

Blaze News has reached out to Airbnb for comment.

The documents reportedly indicate that the FBI received a tip last month about lab equipment and medical waste at Zhu's Vegas property, which police previously indicated was home to three renters at the time of the raid. All of the renters were safely removed and are not presently entangled in the lab investigation.

Solomon was arrested over the weekend on a charge of disposing and discharging hazardous waste. The Israeli national — whom Zhu contacted 467 times last month while in federal custody — was subsequently slapped with a federal weapons charge for allegedly possessing multiple firearms, which he is precluded from doing as a foreigner with a non-immigrant visa.

Solomon, who has been accused of being a primary "agent and conspirator" with Zhu, has allegedly been managing 37 Airbnb properties.

RELATED: Another secret Chinese biolab found on US soil?

Las Vegas Metro Police Department

A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest report reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal indicated that a house cleaner claiming to work for Solomon and Zhu as well as for Zhu's business partner and apparent lover, Zhaoyan Wang, contacted officials last month about a possible biolab at the home, which is a short-term rental.

The cleaner reportedly told police that there were three refrigerators in the garage along with beakers containing "reddish liquid." She reportedly also complained that the garage smelled like a hospital, but "not like a clean hospital but more of a foul, stale, stagnant air smell."

According to the police report, the cleaner and another individual became "deathly ill" after entering the garage — so sick with breathing issues, fatigue, and other symptoms that they "could not get out of bed" days later.

The report noted further that the tipster, referred to as "Kelly," said that "a lot of people who have lived inside the house have gotten sick" and that "one female ended up in the hospital with severe respiratory issues."

These reported health issues are especially troubling given the possibility that Zhu's Vegas property may have had similar contents to the lab in Reedley.

According to a report published by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Zhu's property in Reedley, California, was not only home to thousands of mutated mice but at least 20 potentially infectious agents including HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and the deadliest known form of malaria. There was also a freezer labeled "ebola" found on-site.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Caregiving decisions begin in the bathroom



The holidays have a way of forcing conversations many families would rather postpone.

Every year, as adult children come home and aging parents gather around the table, familiar signs emerge. Someone struggles with stairs. Someone tires more easily. Someone forgets what was once routine. And with those observations come discussions caregivers know well.

The promise.

“I’ll never put Mom or Dad in a nursing home.”

It is often spoken years earlier, in healthier days, and always with sincerity. At the time, it feels like a declaration of love and loyalty. Assisted living seems distant, unnecessary, and meant for other families, not ours.

The problem is not the promise. The problem is that life keeps changing.

Circumstances change. Strength ebbs. What once worked may no longer work safely or wisely.

Over time, what began as devotion can quietly become more than one person can manage alone. Needs grow. Safety becomes a concern. Medical issues multiply. Caregivers often find themselves trying to do, by themselves, what normally requires trained professionals, proper equipment, and constant oversight.

At that point, the issue is no longer love or loyalty. It’s capacity.

That reality came into focus during a recent conversation with a friend. He had offered a small cottage on his property to help a friend relocate aging parents closer to family. The mother now uses a walker. The father has been her caregiver for years, but serious heart problems have begun to limit what he can safely do.

Still the conversation kept circling back to the same refrain: Neither would ever go into assisted living or a nursing home.

Their adult son is caught in the middle, trying desperately to make everyone happy. That is a fool’s task. In my work with fellow caregivers, I call this the caregiver FOG — fear, obligation, and guilt — because it blurs perspective, narrows options, and makes even familiar paths hard to see. No one wins.

It is like driving into actual fog. Visibility drops. Muscles tense. Judgment narrows. We try to peer miles ahead when we can barely see the hood of the car.

Every highway safety officer gives the same advice: Slow down, turn on the low beams, and stop trying to see five miles down the road.

Caregiving requires the same discipline.

My friend asked what I thought.

I suggested we lower the emotional temperature and start with one concrete issue.

Not the promise. Not the arguments. Not the guilt.

Start with the toilet.

Laugh if you like. It sounds abrupt. But it has a way of clarifying reality quickly.

RELATED: When the soul flatlines, call a ‘Code Grace’

PeopleImages via iStock/Getty Images

The bathroom is often ground zero for caregiving challenges. If the toilet is not safe and accessible, the demands on the caregiver escalate immediately. Transfers become harder. Fatigue compounds. Falls become more likely.

Once the toilet is addressed, you move outward.

The shower. The bedroom. Doorways, lighting, entrances.

Sometimes modest changes are enough — grab bars, a raised toilet seat, a walk-in shower. None of these are exotic ideas. But determining needs honestly requires facing the limits of strength, balance, and endurance as they exist today, not as we wish they were.

While politicians and toilets often deal with similar subject matter, toilets remain refreshingly honest. They simply reveal what actually works.

When families do this, reality follows. Cost. Time. Budgets weighed against needs. Timelines measured against declining strength. What once felt like a moral standoff becomes a practical evaluation.

Fear, obligation, and guilt begin to loosen their grip. In their place come planning, stewardship, and direction.

This matters because emotional decisions often rush families into choices that create larger — and sometimes far more expensive — problems later. We see this dynamic everywhere, including politics. While politicians and toilets often deal with similar subject matter, toilets remain refreshingly honest. They do not respond to intentions, promises, or speeches. They simply reveal what actually works.

Families do not choose assisted living or nursing homes in the abstract. Toilets always have a seat at the decision table.

RELATED: Christian, what do you believe when faith stops being theoretical?

fotojog via iStock/Getty Images

Surveys consistently show that most older Americans want to remain in their own homes as they age. That desire is sincere and understandable. But staying home without meaningful accommodations transfers an enormous burden onto the caregiver. The home may remain familiar, but the cost — physical, emotional, and relational — often rises exponentially.

Most promises are made sincerely. They are also made without a full understanding of how disease progresses, how bodies change, or how deeply caregiving reshapes everyone involved. Honoring a promise does not mean freezing it in time. It means continually asking how we can care well, given today’s realities.

Assisted living is not a surrender of care. In many cases, it is an extension of it. It allows families to return to being sons, daughters, and spouses, rather than exhausted amateur medical staff running on guilt and fumes.

We are not obligated to preserve every arrangement exactly as it once was. We are called to steward what has been entrusted to us — finances, time, energy, relationships, and the caregiver as well.

Circumstances change. Strength ebbs. What once worked may no longer work safely or wisely.

Important decisions are best made with clear heads, honest assessments, and wise counsel — not under the duress and resentment that so often accompany them. The days after the holidays are not a verdict. They are an invitation to slow down, think clearly, seek experienced guidance, and choose what is best not just for one individual but for the whole family.

The path forward is rarely determined by emotion, decades-old promises, or guilt.

More often, it is clarified by something far more unassuming — and far more truthful.

The appliance in the nearest bathroom.

Husband of woman failed by Canadian health care system thanks Glenn Beck for intervening: 'You've opened up a lot of doors'



Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and his team, now working in conjunction with elements of the Trump administration, are in the process of rescuing a Canadian woman failed by her country's socialist health care system and led into thinking the only remedy for her painful living-nightmare might be state-facilitated suicide.

The day after Canadian state media did its apparent best to frame the American intervention as "political posturing" and a "distraction from the real issues," the Saskatchewan woman's husband expressed his profound gratitude to Beck for his efforts to help Jolene Van Alstine.

'If it was me, I think I would have had a gun to my head long ago.'

Miles Sundeen, speaking on Thursday to Beck in what became a tear-filled episode of "The Glenn Beck Program," said at the outset, "First of all, I just wanted to say thank you so much. Apparently you're a very popular guy. You've opened up a lot of doors."

"It's been a long and very arduous journey. It's been over eight years now that Jolene has been very ill. We've gone through very tough times trying to get help through our health care system; long, long wait times both to see specialists, to get a diagnosis initially, and then, of course, to wait times for surgeries as well," said Sundeen. "The problem is, of course, as this disease continues to devastate her body, it becomes worse and worse as time goes on."

Van Alstine has a rare parathyroid disease called normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism, which causes nausea and vomiting and draws calcium from the bones into the blood, resulting in extreme bone pain, weakened bone density, and fractures. According to Sundeen, Van Alstine's immobilization by the disease has also resulted in other conditions, namely diverticulitis and osteoporosis, not to mention "mental damage."

While she has undergone multiple surgeries in hopes of addressing the disease, she still requires a specialized procedure to remove her overactive parathyroid gland.

The trouble is that there is presently no surgeon in her province able to perform the operation. While she could potentially receive the surgery elsewhere in Canada, Van Alstine has indicated that she must first obtain a referral but cannot secure one as none of the endocrinologists in her region are accepting new patients.

RELATED: Glenn Beck works to save pain-racked Canadian woman left at euthanasia dead end by broken socialist health care system

L: Alla Gnidenko/Getty Images; R: Blaze Media

Sundeen suggested that the endocrinologists and specialists aren't necessarily to blame, noting that the Canadian health care system is "just absolutely overwhelmed."

While Sundeen suggested that mismanagement is the system's top problem, he noted that the system has also been "completely devastated" by underfunding and the huge influx of immigrants into the country.

According to the 2021 census, 23% of people living in Canada were foreign-born and 2.5% — over 924,000 — were nonpermanent residents. A government report released on Nov. 26 indicated that the 2021 census actually missed 38% of nonpermanent residents in that count. The top three national origins of the immigrants flooding into Canada under the Trudeau Liberal regime were India, Philippines, and China. Pakistan and Iran also made the top-10 list of national origins.

The sudden surge in demand on citizen resources helped strain a system that was already set for a reckoning with a graying population.

The apparent failure of the health care system is especially frustrating for Sundeen, who told Beck that "with this surgery, the parathyroid symptoms will disappear."

"She can get back to an almost-normal life as far as the parathyroid hormone goes," added Sundeen.

'We'll get it done.'

After years of pain and little evidence that her nation's strained health care system will get around to helping her, Van Alstine started the process of joining the tens of thousands of other Canadians who'll be killed under the government's Medical Assistance in Dying euthanasia program, which has in recent years become one of the top five causes of death in Canada.

George Carson, a MAID approval doctor, confirmed this week that he assessed Van Alstine and provided her with his approval.

Sundeen stressed to Beck, however, that "she wants to live."

"But when your life is absolutely stolen from you — stolen from you for eight years, and you suffer so much pain, depression, and anxiety — I love her with all my heart," said Sundeen.

"She's a strong girl. If it was me, I think I would have had a gun to my head long ago."

— (@)

Beck emphasized to Sundeen that neither he nor his wife was alone.

"We'll find a way to make this happen if it is at all possible. We pray for you. There are millions of people who are praying for you now, and we'll do everything we can," added Beck.

Beck indicated that he has been in contact with elements of the Trump administration, and there appears to be some movement on getting Van Alstine help in America.

He noted that a "very high-level administrative official just called and said, 'Let's save her life. We'll get it done.'"

Beck has personally volunteered to fly her down, put her up, and set her up to meet some doctors.

Visibly moved by his conversation with Sundeen and fighting back tears, Beck noted that he hopes to be able to call him back with some "good news."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Glenn Beck works to save pain-racked Canadian woman left at euthanasia dead end by broken socialist health care system



Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and his team are desperately trying to save a woman in the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan who has been failed by her country's socialist health care system.

Jolene Van Alstine of Regina has for eight years suffered from a rare parathyroid disease called normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism, which causes nausea and vomiting and draws calcium from the bones into the blood, resulting in extreme bone pain, weakened bone density, and fractures.

'I've been alone lying on the couch for eight years, sick and curled up in a ball, pushing for the day to end.'

Van Alstine has undergone three surgeries but still requires a specialized procedure to remove her overactive parathyroid gland.

The problem, according to Canadian state media, is that there is presently no surgeon in the province able to perform the operation. While there are apparently capable and available surgeons elsewhere in Canada, Van Alstine has indicated that she must first obtain a referral — and cannot secure one, as none of the endocrinologists in her region are accepting new patients.

Until this week, Van Alstine was running short on hope.

"My friends have stopped visiting me. I'm isolated. I've been alone lying on the couch for eight years, sick and curled up in a ball, pushing for the day to end," she told state media.

Glenn Beck noted Wednesday on his show, "She's riddled with pain. Yesterday, we found out that she was in the ER because she's having all kinds of complications because of this. And she can't take it any more."

"This one is so grotesque," continued Beck, "because the state would rather have her die."

'We expect to see more than 16,500 "medical assistance in dying" or euthanasia deaths.'

The prospect that her treatable disease might go untreated prompted Van Alstine to contemplate state-facilitated suicide, which is euphemistically referred to in Canada as Medial Assistance in Dying.

RELATED: 'Pro-death legislators' want euthanasia in Illinois — Canada reveals why that's a terrible idea

Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU/AFP via Getty Images

"I understand how long and how much she's suffered, and it’s horrific, the physical suffering, but it's also the mental anguish," Miles Sundeen, Van Alstine's partner, said late last month. "No hope — no hope for the future, no hope for any relief. I don't want her to do it, but I understand where she's at."

George Carson, a MAID approval doctor, indicated this week that he assessed Van Alstine and provided her with his approval. Since she has apparently also received approval from a nurse practitioner, she now requires only one more approval in order to secure a spot among the tens of thousands of Canadians who will be snuffed out in the new year by their socialist health care system, which was originally founded by the eugenicist Tommy Douglas.

MAID is among the top five leading causes of death in Canada and accounted for 4.7% of all deaths in the country in 2023.

Rebecca Vachon, health program director at the Canadian think tank Cardus, recently told Blaze News that "based on current reporting from the most populous provinces, we expect to see more than 16,500 'medical assistance in dying' or euthanasia deaths in 2024, which is an increase from the 15,343 deaths reported in 2023. This will likely result in MAID deaths constituting 5% of total deaths in Canada that year."

MAID — which Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer boasted in October 2020 would, with expanded access, "result in a net reduction in health care costs for the provincial governments" — appears to be fast becoming a relief valve for a health care system that has come under great strain in part because of an aging population but largely because of the immigration-driven population gains overseen by the Trudeau Liberals.

'Imagine saving a woman's life for Christmas.'

Average annual immigration from 2000 to 2015 was 617,800. Under the Trudeau Liberals, average annual immigration was 1.4 million from 2016 to 2024.

As of April 1, 2025, Canada had an estimated population of just over 41.5 million people. According to the 2021 census, over 8.3 million people — 23% of the total population — "were, or had ever been, a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada." This, however, appears to be a gross undercount.

A new government report revealed that 38% of non-permanent residents — roughly another 576,000 — were potentially "missed" by the 2021 census.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, there were 2.41 physicians per 1,000 people. The United States, by comparison, reportedly has at least 3.6 doctors per 1,000. An estimated 5.9 million Canadians — around 14% — don't have regular access to a primary care provider.

"This is your socialized health care, gang," Beck said on Wednesday of Van Alstine's case.

"This is the reality of compassionate, progressive health care. Canada has to end this insanity. And Americans must never let it spread here."

After Van Alstine's last-ditch plea for help to Canadian lawmakers and officials failed to immediately produce the desired results, an American got involved.

"If there is any surgeon in America who can do this, I'll pay for this patient to come down here for treatment," Beck wrote Tuesday on X.

RELATED: JD Vance to Canada: Stop blaming Trump for your decline

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Beck revealed in a series of announcements first, that multiple surgeons reached out with an interest in helping; second, that his team made contact with Van Alstine and Sundeen; and third, that his team had connected with the U.S. State Department after discovering that Van Alstine lacked a passport to gain legal entry into the United States.

"I'll fly her down. I'll put her up. I'll get her the doctors," Beck said on his show. "We need to get her the surgery."

"Imagine saving a woman's life for Christmas," added Beck.

"Is there anything better that we could do?"

Sundeen told Canadian state media after Beck's team spoke with him, "For us to have it done in the States would be financially impossible otherwise."

An Ipsos poll conducted last year for Global News found that 42% of Canadians would travel to the U.S. and personally pay for more routine health care if needed — up 10 percentage points over the previous year — and 38% would travel to the U.S. and pay out of pocket for emergency care — up 9 points over the previous year.

Sean Simpson, vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs, noted, "I think the increase is happening because of the increasing level of frustration that Canadians have in the health care system."

"It's not the quality of care that people are upset about; it is the timely access to care, meaning wait times in emergency rooms, wait times to see specialists, to get appointments, for screening," continued Simpson. "As a result, we have a significant chunk of the population say if they can get that service elsewhere, such as the United States, they may consider doing so."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Poisoned patriots: The Camp Lejeune tragedy the government ignored



Camp Lejeune was a Marine Corps base in North Carolina where Virginia Robinson dedicated 25 years of her life to working and raising her family — unaware that they were drinking, bathing, and living with poisoned water the entire time.

But the government knew, and despite the sickness that plagued the inhabitants, they never told them.

“I had three cancers I was fighting at one time,” Robinson tells BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan on “Back to the People.”

Robinson not only had three cancers at the same time, but she also survived leukemia, colon cancer while pregnant, and two separate diagnoses of breast cancer. And she wasn’t the only one in her family affected.


Her husband passed away in 2014, her daughter followed shortly after, and her father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Another daughter of hers was born with a spinal tumor and died young from bladder cancer.

All of them were exposed to Camp Lejeune’s water.

“What kind of levels of toxicity were in the water? Was it trace amounts or were there periods where there were large dumps and increases of contamination?” Shanahan asks.

“There was dumping involved, because there’s some videos. I don’t know where they’re at. My brother told me about them because he’s been doing a lot of research about this, and he said there was sites where there was trucks going on base and dumping from the laundromat,” Robinson explains.

“We’re talking about levels, Nicole, that are 10 times, 30 times, 50 times, 150 times EPA limits. We’re not talking about trace amounts of these chemicals. We’re talking about, as you would expect, the kind of amounts that are causing way elevated risks of a whole host of conditions,” she continues.

And unfortunately, when Robinson has gone to the government for help, it has turned her away.

“I have no doubt that they caused your cancer, your pain and suffering, the deaths, just horrific lives, right? Because they’ve done it to millions of Americans through faulty vaccines,” Shanahan says, adding, “I don’t know if there is justice in this country or we have a real justice system.”

Want more from Nicole Shanahan?

To enjoy more of Nicole's compelling blend of empathy, curiosity, and enlightenment, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

RFK Jr. torches vaccine panel to make consequences count again



Consequences. The word means little when applied to the failures of America’s so-called expert class. COVID-19 exposed the rot. Officials failed again and again at precisely what they were paid to understand — and escaped unscathed. Lockdowns failed. Masks failed. The mRNA shots failed. Yet, Anthony Fauci walked off the stage wealthier than ever. That’s the problem.

But nearly halfway into year one of Trump 2.0, America finally seems hungry to Make Consequences Great Again.

Choosing a freer, healthier, more dignified path is not just possible — it’s the rightful consequence of reclaiming citizenship in a nation built on liberty and courage.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled the COVID-19 jab recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women. The move strips the shot of its legal basis for mandates now or in the future. Then, in a sweeping housecleaning, Kennedy announced he would “retire” all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee.

Of those members, 13 were appointed by Joe Biden as recently as 2024. I wonder who was running the autopen to make that happen. Since most of those members have direct ties to pharmaceutical companies, I’ll let your imagination fill in the details.

Children’s Health Defense cites a 2000 U.S. House investigation that found conflict-of-interest rules for the CDC’s vaccine committee went largely unenforced. A 2009 report by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General reached the same conclusion. Follow-up investigations in 2021 and 2024 showed no improvement, even as the path was cleared for mRNA shots to be hailed as the next biomedical miracle.

How deeply do the vaccine high priests on this committee worship their pharma gods? When RFK Jr. began removing them like Elijah at Mount Carmel, he noted that the committee had never recommended against adopting a vaccine. Not once.

That’s not science. That’s idolatry. That’s how children went from receiving fewer than 20 shots in my generation to more than 70 on today’s schedule. At this point, after so many miraculous infusions of “health care,” shouldn't we all be glowing, levitating, and reading each other’s minds?

Instead, as RFK Jr. keeps pointing out, Americans today suffer from staggering rates of chronic illness, obesity, and mental distress. That’s what happens when the expert class convinces new parents their babies are born defective — ticking time bombs of disease in constant need of pharmaceutical salvation. Go for a run? Nah. Take a pill instead. Live prayerfully? Try pharmaceutically.

This is what you get when a culture forgets it was made in the image and likeness of God.

We may be the most formally educated society in human history, but we’ve been conditioned — psychologically and emotionally — like lab rats. Decades of programming have trained us to fear life itself and trust the experts to manage it. That’s why RFK Jr.’s purge of the vaccine committee goes far beyond health care. It strikes at the heart of the worldview — because worldview shapes everything.

My partner in crime, Todd Erzen, has long said that most young Christian parents would probably vaccinate their children before baptizing them. He’s not wrong. Fear — not faith — drives too many of our most important decisions. And without realizing it, no matter how many comforts we enjoy, we’ve traded a life of color for one in black and white.

RELATED: CDC knew the COVID jab was dangerous — and pushed it anyway

Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The vaccine committee had to go. It had morphed into a cult of flat-earthers — deniers of reality in service of profit and power. For too long, Americans wore their chains, obedient to the credentialed class that promised safety while delivering sickness and dependency.

But we don’t have to live that way.

Choosing a freer, healthier, more dignified path is not just possible — it’s the rightful consequence of reclaiming citizenship in a nation built on liberty and courage. That’s the good, the true, and the beautiful.

And for once, we have unlikely allies to thank: Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both have reminded Americans that the door out of this madness isn’t locked. We just needed the will to kick it open.

Chinese scientist with reported ties to USAID finds new bat coronavirus that could infect humans like COVID



Chinese scientists have said that they discovered a new bat coronavirus that could infect humans in the same manner as the virus that causes COVID-19. The lead scientist in the new study has reported links to USAID.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, the researchers are from the Guangzhou Laboratory, the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, and the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The lead scientist in the new bat coronavirus study reportedly had prior financial ties to the embattled United States Agency for International Development.

The new infectious disease is called HKU5-CoV-2. The new coronavirus was first identified in the Japanese pipistrelle bat in Hong Kong.

HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that is part of the merbecovirus subgenus, which also includes the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Researchers claim that HKU5-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 receptor to infect organisms. The ACE2 receptor is the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells.

"We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilize not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs," the study said.

The researchers wrote, "Authentic HKU5-CoV-2 infected human ACE2-expressing cell lines and human respiratory and enteric organoids. This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human ACE2 and underscores their potential zoonotic risk."

"Bat merbecoviruses, which are phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts," the scientists stated.

The researchers from China added, "The potential human spillover risk of animal merbecoviruses remains to be investigated."

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Tuesday.

The study was led by Shi Zhengli — a leading virologist who had been the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Zhengli is often dubbed the "bat woman" by her colleagues because of her extensive research on bat coronaviruses since 2004, including virus-hunting expeditions in bat caves.

The World Society for Virology said of Zhengli, "Her group has discovered diverse novel viruses/virus antibodies in bats, including SARS-like coronaviruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, circoviruses, paramyxoviruses and filoviruses in China."

The lead scientist in the new bat coronavirus study reportedly had prior financial ties to the embattled United States Agency for International Development.

A 2021 article in Vanity Fair noted: "Shi Zhengli herself listed U.S. government grant support of more than $1.2 million on her curriculum vitae: $665,000 from the NIH between 2014 and 2019; and $559,500 over the same period from USAID. At least some of those funds were routed through EcoHealth Alliance."

According to 990 tax exemption forms it filed in 2018 with the New York state attorney general’s Charities Bureau, EcoHealth Alliance received as much as $15 million a year in grant money from federal agencies, including the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and USAID.

The article spotlighted emails obtained by a Freedom of Information request, including one sent by Peter Daszak, a zoologist and former president of EcoHealth Alliance. The email showed that Zhengli allegedly carried out potentially dangerous gain-of-function experiments.

Under the subject line, “No need for you to sign the 'Statement' Ralph!!,” he wrote to two scientists, including UNC’s Dr. Ralph Baric, who had collaborated with Shi Zhengli on the gain-of-function study that created a coronavirus capable of infecting human cells: “you, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.” Daszak added, “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.”

During a House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing in March 2023, former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said he believes American tax dollars funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) asked Redfield, "Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?”

Redfield replied, "I think it did, not only from NIH, but from the State Department, USAID, and DOD."

Zhengli has gone on record to say that she does not believe in the lab-leak theory that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology — a biosafety level-4 lab, which requires the highest level of safety protocols and equipment because of the study of high-consequence biological agents.

Blaze News reported in July 2021 that Zhengli purportedly had "collaborated with two military scientists on coronavirus work, one of whom is now deceased under unknown circumstances."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Trump establishes Make America Healthy Again Commission. Here's what it will do.



Within hours of the Senate confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday to head the Department of Health and Human Services, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission.

The new commission, which Kennedy will chair, will initially focus on helping Trump determine how best to exercise his authority to tackle the childhood chronic disease crisis.

Trump appears particularly interested in getting to the bottom of the high childhood rates of asthma, autism, fatty liver disease, and obesity, as well as the potential over-medication of children for attention deficit disorder and other apparently overdiagnosed conditions.

Revisiting a concern he raised in a December interview, Trump noted that the number of children affected by autism skyrocketed from a rate of 1-4 out of every 10,000 in the 1980s to 1 in 36 children as of 2024. He also pointed out that 30% of adolescents are prediabetic and more than 40% of adolescents are overweight or obese.

"These trends harm us, our economy, and our security," said Trump.

'I've gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I could end the childhood chronic disease epidemic.'

By May 24, 2025, at the very latest, the commission must submit a report to the president:

  • identifying how childhood chronic disease in the U.S. compares with that suffered in other countries;
  • assessing "the threat that potential over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals, and certain other exposures pose to children with respect to chronic inflammation or other established mechanisms of disease";
  • assessing the prevalence and impact of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers, and other pharmaceuticals;
  • identifying best practices for preventing childhood health issues and optimizing opportunities for educational programs pertaining to child nutrition, physical activity, and mental health; and
  • raising instances of "undue industry influence" where the relevant science is concerned.

By mid-August, the Kennedy-led commission must provide Trump with a federal health strategy based on its findings.

In addition to furnishing Trump with an assessment of the most pressing childhood health issues facing the country and a strategy on how to correct them, the commission is tasked with restoring "trust in medical and scientific institutions" and holding hearings and other events to get insights from public health experts.

Trump's identification of numerous issues affecting the broader public and allusion to the potential for a mission update down the road together indicate that the commission may later widen the scope of its investigations, possibly to include what's ailing the adult population as well.

In his order, Trump also indicated that moving forward, all federally funded health research should seek to avoid or eliminate conflicts of interest that "skew outcome and perpetuate distrust"; federal agencies will ensure the availability of expanded treatment options; and federally funded health research should prioritize flushing out the "root causes of why Americans are getting sick."

After he was sworn in to office, Kennedy said, "For 20 years, I've gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I could end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country. On Aug. 23 of last year, God sent me President Trump."

"I'm so grateful to you, Mr. President," added Kennedy.

In addition to his work with the commission, Kennedy will have an opportunity as secretary of the HHS — which has a nearly $2 trillion budget — to improve the health of Americans.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Reining In Federal Spending Must Start With The Executive Branch

For years going on decades, presidents of both parties have used executive action to spend money Congress never fully authorized.

Trump's pro-life pick to run CDC is bad news for status quo, Big Pharma — good news for vax oversight



President-elect Donald Trump selected former Florida congressman Dr. Dave Weldon (R) on Friday as his nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a pick celebrated by his proposed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As with most of Trump's other nominations, Dr. Weldon, 71, has all the makings of a disruptor, prompting establishmentarians to take notice and clutch pearls. After all, Dr. Weldon has long criticized the agency he is poised to run, has raised concerns about vaccine safety, and has been consistently pro-life even when politically inexpedient.

"In addition to being a Medical Doctor for 40 years, and an Army Veteran, Dave has been a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues, and served on the Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, working for Accountability on HHS and CDC Policy and Budgeting," Trump noted in his announcement. "Dave also served in a leading role in Government Oversight and Reform Committee Hearings, addressing issues within HHS and CDC. Dave has successfully worked with the CDC to enact a ban on patents for human embryos."

Dr. Weldon sponsored the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006, which effectively prohibits the solicitation or acquisition of tissue from human babies gestated for research purposes.

Trump stressed that Americans have "lost trust" in the federal health establishment, including the CDC, and indicated that Dr. Weldon will help restore that faith and "ensure Americans have the tools and resources they need to understand the underlying causes of disease, and the solutions to cure these diseases."

A survey examining Americans' trust in public health agencies published last year in the journal Health Affairs revealed that 16% of respondents said they don't have "very much" trust in the CDC's recommendations and 10% indicated they do not trust the agency "at all." Of those surveyed, 37% said they had a "great deal" of trust in the CDC's recommendations, and another 37% said they "somewhat" trust the agency.

Another survey published earlier this year in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Health Forum indicated that 24% of respondents had little or no trust in the CDC.

'Dave will proudly restore the CDC to its true purpose.'

The CDC, home to over 12,000 employees and operating with a discretionary budget of over $9 billion this year, did a great deal during the pandemic to undermine its credibility.

For instance, former Biden CDC director Rochelle Walensky pushed novel vaccines on the American public, including resilient children, some of which were later found to be unsafe; discounted warnings from an agency advisory panel about booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine and recommended them anyway; claimed in 2021 that "vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick"; repeatedly extended the moratorium on rental evictions, citing the need to stop the spread of COVID-19; and colluded with the American Federation of Teachers and its boss Randi Weingarten at the expense of American children.

The agency also initially cast doubt on whether the experimental COVID-19 vaccines were causing myocarditis in young Americans; recommended that everyone in K-12 schools wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, which studies have indicated did far more harm than good; and coordinated with social media companies to censor vaccine criticism online.

The CDC's role in the Biden administration's censorship efforts has not only hurt its reputation but made it a target for numerous lawsuits.

Several vaccine-injured Americans recently filed a lawsuit against the CDC and other elements of the Biden administration for allegedly working to "coerce, induce, and collude with social media platforms to censor, suppress, and label as 'misinformation' speech expressed by those who have suffered vaccine-related injuries."

"As a father of two and a husband of 45 years, Dave understands American Family Values, and views Health as one of utmost importance," continued Trump. "Dave will prioritize Transparency, Competence, and High Standards at CDC. Dave will proudly restore the CDC to its true purpose, and will work to end the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and Make America Healthy Again!"

'We must eliminate all real and perceived conflicts of interest.'

Kennedy, who previously highlighted Dr. Weldon's work exposing the CDC's problems, congratulated him over the weekend, stating, "Dave's leadership at CDC will bring the truth and transparency needed to restore the public's confidence in this institution."

Weldon, like Kennedy, has refused to blindly trust in federal health agencies, particularly when it comes to their vaccine oversight.

In 2007, Dr. Weldon introduced legislation aimed at moving vaccine safety oversight from the CDC — an agency whose dual objectives of high immunization rates and vaccine safety may oftentimes conflict — to an independent agency that would report directly to the HHS secretary.

He noted in a statement at the time, "Federal agencies charged with overseeing vaccine safety research have failed. They have failed to provide sufficient resources for vaccine safety research. They have failed to adequately fund extramural research. And, they have failed to free themselves from conflicts of interest that serve to undermine public confidence in the safety of vaccines."

"If government-funded vaccine safety research is to be broadly accepted, we must eliminate all real and perceived conflicts of interest," continued Dr. Weldon. "Otherwise, we will fail to achieve the level of acceptance that is necessary to restore, build, and secure public confidence over the long-run. A vaccine safety program housed anywhere within the CDC fails to achieve this independence."

'He is a dangerous pick to lead CDC.'

Trump's nominee has not only ruffled feathers by expecting both quality and quantity when it comes to immunizations but by expressing concern about the link between mercury — thimerosal — in vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders.

While various Republicans have celebrated the pick, Democratic lawmakers and elements of the American health establishment have concern-mongered about the possibility of Dr. Weldon as CDC director.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who has received millions of dollars from Big Pharma and the health industry, said in a statement, "Dr. Dave Weldon is an extremist with zero public health experience who has spent years promoting anti-vaccine conspiracy thinking and junk health plans."

"He is a dangerous pick to lead CDC," added Murray.

Murray suggested further that Dr. Weldon's pro-life views were especially distressing, stating that "there is no reason to entrust the work of tackling our nation's maternal mortality crisis and collecting data essential to understanding the deadly outcome of abortion bans to the man responsible for the Weldon Amendment that allows health care providers to deny women essential abortion care."

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy researcher at the University of California Law-San Francisco, told NBC News, "Anti-vaccine people are celebrating this because they firmly see Weldon as an ally."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!