Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola
January 17, 2022
Story at-a-glance
- SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated, photographed, genetically sequenced, and exists as a pathogenic entity
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grows the virus in cell culture to ensure widespread availability for researchers who want to study it
- At least part of the confusion appears to be rooted in how the term “isolated” is defined. Some insist a virus is not isolated unless it’s also purified, while others say a virus doesn’t have to be purified in order to be “isolated”
- Another sticking point for some is whether or not SARS-CoV-2 has ever been isolated from a human subject without passing it through animal cells, as such media could be contaminated and therefore the source of the virus
- Researchers have verified that the genetic sequence of the virus obtained from the American Type Culture Collection, a global resource center for reference microorganisms, is an exact match to the virus found in people with symptomatic COVID-19
While some still claim SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t actually exist, this seems to fly in the face of several well-established facts. The virus has actually been photomicrographed,1,2 whole-genome sequences of the various strains are available,3,4 and with the appropriate credentials anyone can obtain the live virus to conduct research.
While I am absolutely no fan of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they do grow the virus in cell culture to ensure widespread availability for researchers who want to study it.5 Examples of research where you need the actual virus include antiviral research, vaccine development, virus stability research and pathogenesis research.6
What’s the Confusion?
At least part of the confusion appears to be rooted in how the term “isolated” is defined. Some insist a virus is not isolated unless it’s also purified, while others say a virus doesn’t have to be purified in order to be “isolated.”
Steve Kirsch claims to have asked several experts about this, noting that all, including Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Li-Meng Yan, say that the virus has indeed been “isolated.” “So, it has been ‘isolated’ according to their belief in what the term means,” Kirsch writes, adding:7
“Others interpret the term differently and would claim the virus hasn’t been isolated. In fact, according to their definition, no virus in history has ever been isolated. That’s important to know. They use that as justification for their belief that there is no virus here since viruses don’t exist at all.”
When Kirsch asked his readers for input, one pointed out:8
“The real question is … has it been isolated from a HUMAN subject w/o passing it through (say) Monkey Kidney Cells? Because there is plenty of evidence out there that says it hasn’t been isolated directly (no intermediaries) from a HUMAN subject.”
According to Kirsch, the scientists he spoke with did not agree that this was a concern, and “Sabine Hazan verified that the sequence of the virus obtained from ATCC [the American Type Culture Collection, a global resource center for reference microorganisms] matched exactly what she found in people who have the virus.”9
As noted in Hazan’s paper, “Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Patient Fecal Samples by Whole Genome Sequencing”:10
“Study participants underwent testing for SARS-CoV-2 from fecal samples by whole genome enrichment NGS [next-generation sequencing] (n = 14), and RT-PCR nasopharyngeal swab analysis (n = 12).
The concordance of SARS-CoV-2 detection by enrichment NGS from stools with RT-PCR nasopharyngeal analysis was 100%. Unique variants were identified in four patients, with a total of 33 different mutations among those in which SARS-CoV-2 was detected by whole genome enrichment NGS.”
Germ Theory and Terrain Theory Both Have Merit
As noted by independent journalist and political analyst Jeremy Hammond in a March 2021 interview,11 the claim that SARS-CoV-2 has never been isolated and actually doesn’t exist at all is perhaps one of the most counterproductive arguments of the health freedom movement.
By insisting that there is no virus, and that COVID-19 is caused by things like 5G radiation alone, allows the mainstream media to dismiss entirely legitimate concerns about electromagnetic field exposure (EMF) and 5G — including the possibility that it might make some people more vulnerable to infections.
Like Hammond, I believe the pathogenesis of COVID-19 involves both germ theory and terrain theory, not just one or the other. “SARS-CoV-2 infection is an insufficient but necessary factor in the pathogenesis of COVID-19,” Hammond says, adding that “the virus is constantly being isolated and whole genome sequenced by scientists all over the world.”12
COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call to the human population, and especially the populations of developed countries, about the need to focus on natural means of maintaining good health and living in greater harmony with our natural environment. ~ Jeremy Hammond
That said, environmental factors can clearly play a role, in that they can make you more or less predisposed to severe infection when you encounter this virus. This includes EMFs, toxins like glyphosate, previous vaccine injuries and much more.
Hammond argues that the “COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call to the human population, and especially the populations of developed countries, about the need to focus on natural means of maintaining good health and living in greater harmony with our natural environment.”
Indeed. And, as Hammond points out, pathogenic challenge is absolutely necessary for general good health and strong immunity. When we shield ourselves too much from everyday pathogens, we make ourselves vulnerable to chronic diseases instead.
SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing From Italy
As for whether SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated and exists as a viral entity, the answer appears to be yes. For example, an Italian paper13 published in the Journal of Virology, dated May 18, 2020, detailed the isolation and full-length genome of the virus taken from COVID-19 patients in Italy:
“At the beginning of March 2020, the first nasopharyngeal swabs positive for SARS-CoV-2 started to be detected in the Northern Eastern Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia … Swab contents were seeded on Vero E6 cells and monitored for cytopathic effect and by an RT-PCR protocol using primers for the N region.
Cell culture supernatants from passage 1 (P1) of four isolates were collected, and RNA was extracted with QIAamp viral RNA minikit (Qiagen) and quantified with an in vitro-transcribed RNA standard … The quantity and quality of the RNA were assessed … For each sample, 100 ng of total RNA was processed using Zymo-Seq RiboFree ribosomal depletion library preparation kit (Zymo Research).
All the obtained libraries passed quality check and were quantified before being pooled at equimolar concentration and sequenced … Sequenced reads that passed the quality check (Phred score ≥30) were adaptor and quality trimmed, and the remaining reads were assembled de novo using Megahit (v.1.2.9) with default parameter settings.
Megahit generated in all cases 7 contigs with more than 1,000 bp and 100× coverage; all of these assembled contigs were compared (using BLASTn) against the entire nonredundant (nr) nucleotide and protein databases.
In all cases the longest and more covered contigs were identified as MT019532.1,14 ‘Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 isolate BetaCoV/Wuhan/IPBCAMS-WH-04/2019, complete genome,’ with 99% identity and 0 gaps.
The longer sequences were named hCoV-19/Italy/FVG/ICGEB_S1, _S5, _S8, and _S9 and were deposited in GISAID … Sequence analysis showed an uneven coverage along the SARS-CoV-2 genome, with an average range from 126 to 7,576 reads and a mean coverage per sample of 1,169× … Phylogenetic trees were inferred using the maximum likelihood method …
The first sequences deposited in GISAID (EPI_ISL_410545 and EPI_ISL_410546) were collected in Rome from a Chinese tourist from Hubei province who got infected before visiting Italy, and another one (EPI_ISL_412974) was from a test-positive Italian citizen returning from China.
Only two sequences were reported from the Lombardy cluster (EPI_ISL_412973 and EPI_ISL_413489). In this report four additional sequences from cases epidemiologically linked to northern Italy have been examined … Sequence analysis showed a good coverage along the SARS-CoV-2 genome for all four isolates.
Based on the marker variant S D614G, all four sequences grouped in the Bavarian rooted subclade G, which is dominant in Europe, including the sequence from Lombardy, but distinct from the three sequences mentioned above originating directly from China.
Intriguingly, the new isolates were more closely related to EPI_ISL_412973, while EPI_ISL_413489 was more distant. No evidence could be found for the putative 382-nucleotide (nt) deletion in ORF8 detected in Singapore, which has been proposed to indicate an attenuated phenotype.”
SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing From Germany
Similarly, the complete genome sequence of the virus taken from a German woman has been published, this one in the journal Microbiology Resource Announcements, in June 2020.
Here, an oropharyngeal swab sample from a female patient who tested positive but had no symptoms at the time of the test was used to isolate the strain.15 Table 1 in the paper compares the nucleotide variants found in the sampled virus and those of a reference strain already logged in the gene bank.
Another paper16 in Annals of Internal Medicine, published in August 2020, isolated the virus from ocular (eye) secretions of an Italian COVID patient:17
“The patient, a 65-year-old woman, travelled from Wuhan, China, to Italy on 23 January 2020 and was admitted on 29 January 2020, 1 day after symptom onset. At admission to the high isolation unit … she presented with nonproductive cough, sore throat, coryza, and bilateral conjunctivitis. She had no fever until day 4, when fever (38 °C), nausea, and vomiting began.
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed by performing real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay on sputum samples (cycle threshold value [Ct], 16.1) on the admission day, followed by viral M gene sequencing (GenBank accession number MT008022), and virus isolation on Vero E6 cell line (2019-nCoV/Italy-INMI1).
The full genome sequence was obtained from either clinical sample or culture isolate (GISAID accession numbers EPI_ISL_410545 and EPI_ISL_410546).”
Genome Sequencing From India and Colombia
SARS-CoV-2 has also been isolated from the urine of a COVID-19 patient.18 A November 2020 paper19 sought to determine “whether various clinical specimens obtained from COVID-19 patients contain the infectious virus,” and found SARS-CoV-2 RNA “in all naso/oropharyngeal swabs and saliva, urine and stool samples collected between Days 8 and 30 of the clinical course.”
Viable SARS-CoV-2 was also found in the nasal washes of ferrets that had been inoculated with urine or stool from a COVID-19 patient. The virus has also been isolated by researchers in the U.S.,20 China,21 India,22 Canada,23 Australia,24 Korea25 and Colombia.26 The Colombian paper reads in part:27
“Objective: To describe the isolation and characterization of an early SARS-CoV-2 isolate from the epidemic in Colombia. Materials and methods: A nasopharyngeal specimen from a COVID-19 positive patient was inoculated on different cell lines.
To confirm the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on cultures we used qRT-PCR, indirect immunofluorescence assay, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and next-generation sequencing.
Results: We determined the isolation of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero-E6 cells by the appearance of the cytopathic effect three days post-infection and confirmed it by the positive results in the qRT-PCR and the immunofluorescence with convalescent serum.
Transmission and scanning electron microscopy images obtained from infected cells showed the presence of structures compatible with SARS-CoV-2. Finally, a complete genome sequence obtained by next-generation sequencing allowed classifying the isolate as B.1.5 lineage.
The evidence presented in this article confirms the first isolation of SARSCoV-2 in Colombia. In addition, it shows that this strain behaves in cell culture in a similar way to that reported in the literature for other isolates and that its genetic composition is consistent with the predominant variant in the world.”
If Virus Exists, Why Aren’t Certain Studies Done?
As mentioned earlier, the actual virus is needed in order to conduct certain studies. Now, since the virus does exist, we also ought to be able to conduct studies to assess whether the COVID shots cause antibody dependent enhancement (ADE).
As suggested by Kirsch,28 “Give the vaccine to the animals, wait, then expose them to the virus” and see what happens. Does it prevent infection and transmission, or does it make the animals more prone to infection? If the animals got sicker, that would be evidence of ADE, a problem that has plagued coronavirus vaccine research for decades.
It’s why we don’t have a vaccine against the common cold, caused by coronaviruses. Remarkably, this animal research has never been done for the COVID shots. The question is why? Kirsch believes the answer is because “nobody wants to know the answer … The top management of the FDA knows it would kill the vaccine program if they did this.”
On the other hand, the vaccinated, just like the unvaccinated, tend to experience only mild symptoms with Omicron. So, perhaps the shots aren’t causing ADE (which could turn even a milder variant into something deadly).
However, ADE is far from the only concern. Clearly, these shots are associated with a dramatically increased risk of cardiovascular, cardiac and neurological problems. These too could be confirmed through animal studies — rather than testing on our children — and we wouldn’t even need the virus for those.
Either way, I believe it’s scientifically accurate to claim that SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated, genetically sequenced, and that it exists as a pathogenic entity. Getting too far into the weeds of theories that refute the existence of viruses altogether will only slow down and hamper the truth movement rather than aid it along, and I would strongly discourage anyone from engaging in this highly unproductive narrative.
– Sources and References
- 1, 7, 8, 28 Steve Kirsch Substack January 9, 2022
- 2 NPR January 24, 2020
- 3 Gen Bank SARS-CoV-2 isolate, complete genome
- 4 ATCC Coronavirus
- 5, 6 CDC Viral Culturing
- 9, 10 Gut Pathogens 2021; 13(7)
- 11, 12 Jeremy Hammond March 9, 2021
- 13 Journal of Virology May 18, 2020 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00543-20
- 14 MT019532.1
- 15 Microbiology Resource Announcements June 2020; 9(23): e00520-20
- 16, 17 Annals of Internal Medicine August 4, 2020 DOI: 10.7326/M20-1176
- 18 Emerging Microbes & Infections December 2020; 9(1):991-993
- 19 Clinical Microbiology & Infections November 2020;26(11):1520-1524
- 20 BioRxiv March 7, 2020 DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.02.972935
- 21 CCDC Weekly February 15, 2020 DOI: 10.46234/ccdcw2020.033
- 22 Indian Journal of Medical Research February & March 2020; 151(2 & 3):244-250
- 23 Emerging Infectious Diseases September 2020; 26(9): 2054–2063
- 24 The Medical Journal of Australia July 28, 2021
- 25 Osong Public Health Research Perspectives February 2020; 11(1): 3-7
- 26, 27 Biomedica October 30, 2020; 40(Supl. 2):148-158
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Good to hear from Mercola. I have heard very convincing arguments pro and con virus theory, but lack the basic knowledge required to evaluate them. I DO have the basic knowledge required to understand that we are being attacked by nefarious groups inside our own government who have blocked the use of effective treatments in order to promote very dangerous vaccines. These policies have already resulted in one death and several serious injuries within my own sphere of friends. The death from all available evidence was caused by Cooley Dickinson’s use of Fauci’s deadly protocol: only use virus blocking treatments as last resort (hydroxychloroquine) after the infection has spread and it’s too late. Don’t use ivermectin. Put the patient on a ventilator (Caching! 38 k from the Feds). Keep patient prone and sedated to compromise lung function; ventilate till dead. (Cahing! Extra bonus!) This death was early on in the “pandemic” about the same time Matt Hancock in the UK was orchestrating the deaths of care home patients with overdoses of midazolam in order to ramp up the fear factor. My friend’s widow, due to her husband’s infection, was one of the first to get a vaccine. Shortly thereafter she almost died from sudden heart issues. I forget the exact diagnosis, but she seemed fine before and was only in her fifties. I think we have a big problem even resisters are not thinking about. The people who orchestrated the pandemic are not going to back down and wait to be carted off to jail, and at some point, public outrage, particularly from those whose families have suffered a death or catastrophic injury are likely to demand action. At that point, the perpetrators will double down, possibly with another biological attack, false flag, or tipping point disaster calculated to force the population into being preoccupied with personal survival . Unfortunately for us, Massachusetts is one of the most hypnotized and compromised states in the nation, possibly the leader in irrational policymaking, probably the result of all the politically correct authoritarianism that has been infecting our universities. Thus, as the death toll from vaccines mounts and approaches 400k by Steve Kirsch’s data analysis, we see vaccine passports in Boston.
Thank you John. It is always good to hear from you. This is what my friend Kathy wrote me about the above article and why it is important:
Yes. There are some people within our resistance who are more interested in forming a circular firing squad and act just like our opponents – i.e., they want to force everyone to only espouse their own uninformed opinions that viruses do not exist. There is one bully in the group who I meet with every Wednesday who always interrupts and tries to prevent me from speaking insisting that no one should be allowed to speak unless they claim the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not exist. So I was very glad to see that article.
I just added Jeremy’s article to my web site.
http://www.kathydopp.info/COVIDinfo/Vaccines
The following is from a Jeremy Hammond newsletter about the above article analysis.
Advocates of authoritarian measures like lockdowns and coerced vaccination frequently accuse health freedom advocates of spreading “misinformation”, which is typically a euphemism meaning any information, not matter how factual, that does not align with the adopted political agenda.
One of the worst things we can do as a movement is to legitimize that accusation by spreading what truly is misinformation.
Unfortunately, there are certain individuals who align themselves with the health freedom movement who have from the start being spreading counterproductive misinformation that undermines our efforts to combat the authoritarianism.
Among the more harmful claims is the one spread by Andrew Kaufman, Tom Cowan, Jon Rappaport, and others that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has never been proven to exist. It has never been properly isolated, they insist.
I’ve been disappointed not only that so many people within the movement have participated in spreading this misinformation but also that so few of those who know better have declined to speak up out against their peers who are damaging the movement’s credibility.
There is too much clubbiness within the movement for my taste. I get the feeling many are reluctant to criticize others out of the belief that we must stand strong as a movement and not be divided amongst ourselves. I don’t share that view because we cannot stand strong together when divisions that do exist are not addressed and when this failure to be self-critical results in harm to the credibility of the entire movement.
Dr. Meryl Nass is about the only other person who comes immediately to mind who has criticized those spreading this false claim (see here, for example).
I published an article back in December 2020 debunking the false claim that the CDC “admits” that SARS-CoV-2 has never been isolated and explaining that it has been isolated and whole genome sequenced many times by scientists all over the world. I’ve also covered this topic numerous times in various newsletters and several interviews.
Well, this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the “top story” in Dr. Joseph Mercola’s newsletter was headlined “Yes, SARS-CoV-2 Is a Real Virus”.
Hooray! I was so glad to see Dr. Mercola directly addressing the misinformation. After clicking the link to read the article, I was also pleasantly surprised to see him citing some of my own comments about how this claim causes harm to the health freedom movement. Here’s an excerpt from Mercola’s article:
As noted by independent journalist and political analyst Jeremy Hammond in a March 2021 interview, the claim that SARS-CoV-2 has never been isolated and actually doesn’t exist at all is perhaps one of the most counterproductive arguments of the health freedom movement.
By insisting that there is no virus, and that COVID-19 is caused by things like 5G radiation alone, allows the mainstream media to dismiss entirely legitimate concerns about electromagnetic field exposure (EMF) and 5G — including the possibility that it might make some people more vulnerable to infections.
Like Hammond, I believe the pathogenesis of COVID-19 involves both germ theory and terrain theory, not just one or the other. “SARS-CoV-2 infection is an insufficient but necessary factor in the pathogenesis of COVID-19,” Hammond says, adding that “the virus is constantly being isolated and whole genome sequenced by scientists all over the world.”
I’ve noticed that the claim that the virus has never been isolated does not seem to be as popular now as it was last year. I am not confronted with it nearly as frequently as I used to be. I hope the fact that a heavy hitter like Mercola is directly weighing in on this issue indicates that the tide has truly turned and that this claim will soon die out completely. Those who insist on continuing to spread it, I’m sorry to say, are ensuring their own irrelevance.
Mercola is specifically citing an interview I did with Bretigne Shaffer back in March 2021, in which we discussed this and other false claims being propagated by certain prominent individuals who align themselves with the health freedom movement.
In that discussion, I also explained why “germ” and “terrain” theories are not mutually exclusive, why the evidence favors the lab origin hypothesis of SARS-CoV-2, why government central planning doesn’t work any better in the area of public health than with the economy as a whole, and more.
[To receive free email newsletters from Jeremy and to see his articles and links, go to his website:] https://www.jeremyrhammond.com/
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To FlybyNews: Before you automatically accept Dr. Joe Mercola’s and Jeremy Hammond’s “reasoning” about why they think covid is a “real virus”, you need to first listen to Dr. Andrew Kaufman’s rebuttal to Dr. Joe Mercola and Jeremy Hammond beliefs. Dr. Kaufman refutes Jeremy Hammond’s recent interview opining that SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to exist. Point by point, Kaufman debunks Hammond’s explanation of how a virus is discovered.
The definitions and technology behind isolation, the methodology being used by scientists, and the agenda by governmental agencies are examined with the appropriate corrections.
Hammond’s argument is the same old one trick pony being trotted out with pomp, circumstance, and pedigree.
Here is the video of Dr. Kaufman’s excellent rebuttal: https://www.bitchute.com/video/UnpfmjmXNH0O/
I did not automatically accept Dr. Mercola and Hammond’s “reasoning” on covid being a real virus. Dr. Francis Boyle identified the gain-of-function research of coronaviruses years before. It also came from my own experiences of feeling sick as a kid picking up viruses from others. This does not mean terrain impact within my body does not matter, nor about the role of exosomes. I also learned much from Dr. Judy Mikovits who wrote Plague of Corruption and from her experience in growing viruses in animal tissues and organs for vaccinations having an impact of spreading retroviruses and impacting natural autoimmune systems. Those who want to discount that viruses exist with infections have a limited theory and belief system in my opinion. It argues for a theory without the extraordinary evidence to make it a fact. But I will look at the video you propose and will consider it, but the fact that the Wuhan virus came from a bioweapon lab is quite significant, and is more substantial than a theory that viruses have never really been identified, or exists in its impact in and outside our bodies.
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate that you are going to at least look at the video. That’s all I ask — to look at it with an open mind and without any preconceived biases.
Finally I finished watching the video you recommended. Dr. Kaufman comes across intelligently in reviewing Jeremy Hammond’s thoughts on there being a Covid-19 virus. Yet it also appears to me that Dr. Kaufman is proposing a theory of there being no viruses. A theory that is not yet proven. He does not prove any falsehood for those identifying a virus like XMRV retrovirus, which was discovered by Dr. Judy Mikovits in the blood of those with chronic fatigue syndrome. This was shown in a paper published in a peer reviewed science journal until authorities realized the impact of her work showing how vaccinations have inoculated people with such a virus grown in animal organs and tissues for placing in people’s bloodstreams as a so-called vaccination.
I realize what I don’t know is much much greater in content than what I do know. So, I remain open minded and will keep listening to those I trust and what is presented as evidence. At this point I am more apt to believe in Dr. Mikovits who worked in the field of virology, who has grown viruses and says that they have been isolated, rather than another theory claiming that it doesn’t even exist . I assume we will learn more once we identify the real deceptions perpetrated by WHO and others that have an agenda for using experimental and ineffective gene therapy mRNA components that do much more harm than good.