Health & Fitness

Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., is a molecular biologist and a virologist, which is a great skillset to help us understand the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Latham reviews some really intriguing evidence in this interview. He’s also the editor of Independent Science News.

By and large, the mainstream media are still protecting the narrative that SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotically transmitted virus originating in bats. Much of the evidence for this comes from Shi Zhengli, a researcher at the biosafety 4 laboratory in Wuhan, China.

As the leading Chinese bat coronavirus researcher, her career has been focused on studying bat coronaviruses for over a decade. In a recent article,¹ Latham and Allison Wilson, Ph.D., dissect research showing this theory simply doesn’t hold water.

“Our article doesn't dispute that it came from a bat at some point, I think that is the strongest data, but what we do dispute is the mechanism by which it came from the bat,” Latham says.

Lab Origin Theory No. 1

Latham’s article lays out several different lab origin hypotheses. The simplest one is that researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or another virology BSL-2 lab that's even closer to the wet market speculated to be the origin of SARS-CoV-2. In that process, one of them got infected and then passed it on to coworkers or family, either because they didn’t properly quarantine or didn’t realize they were infected.

This is not the most likely of hypotheses for the simple reason that few naturally occurring bat coronaviruses identified have the ability to bind to human ACE2 receptors, which is what allows them to infect human cells in the first place. In order for this theory to work, the virus would have to circulate among many people, evolving slightly with each pass.

Lab Origin Theory No. 2

Another theory is that the researchers were cloning a bat virus similar to SARS-CoV-2 in the lab in an effort to make a more infectious clone. Perhaps they placed the virus in monkey cells, humanized mice cells or human cells with an ACE-2 receptor expressed in them. A researcher may then have been accidentally infected.

“There have been lab escapes of viruses in which people fail to decontaminate samples and then they give the samples to someone else, or they throw them out with the trash, or some mishap arises,” Latham says.

“So, the virus is either identical to the one that was collected from the wild or very little altered by the lab, but then it escapes because there's some failure in the lab. That would be a second possibility.”

Lab Origin Theory No. 3

A third possibility is that they were collecting samples and looking at genetic sequences in order to find a virus they could then alter, giving it more interesting properties. Perhaps they found some with the spike protein that had a greater affinity for the ACE2 receptor. By combining it with another virus, they may have been able to create — through genetic engineering — a more infectious virus.

The reason for mixing and matching viruses in the lab in this way is to identify potential pandemic pathogens (PPP). Meaning, two wild viruses, if they come in contact with another, might mutate into something deadly to humans.

“For example, we will swap spike proteins and see if the viruses that we have circulating in bats, really all they need to do is evolve better spike protein and all of a sudden, they can become pandemic pathogens,” Latham says.

Genetic Engineering Doesn’t Necessarily Leave Marks

Many who defend the all-natural zoonotic origin story justify their stance by saying there are no signs of genetic manipulation. Like several other scientists, Latham points out there are ways you can manipulate a virus without leaving telltale markers. He explains the basics of the genetic engineering process:

“The standard thing, historically, was you find a restriction site in two different viruses, or you may manufacture a restriction site. That gives you a cutting place in the genome … Let's say you start with virus A and you cut a bit out and you put that into virus B. Of course, you've got to remove the bit from virus B that it already has.

So, you're basically swapping things and you're using restriction enzymes, which are basically enzymes that cut DNA in specific places. That's kind of the old-fashioned way.

There are newer methods with PCR and so forth that are slightly more complicated. It means you're not restricted to restriction sites to do that. There are very simple cutting and pasting [methods], but it doesn't necessarily leave a scar or a mark. This is the really important point here.

There are also passaging experiments. Passaging experiments are when you take a virus — say, for example, you take a virus that originally came from a bat and you put that into monkey cells, or human cells … What you normally observe with that virus is that it doesn't work too well in those cells because it's not adapted to them. It's a bat virus, so it doesn't work too well.

But what virologists have learned to do is to, essentially as the viral infection is failing, take a little sample of what is inside the cell and put that into another cell. Then, when that infection builds up … you take another sample.

This is called passaging. It allows the virus to evolve into a more pathogenic form against the cells that you are now putting into. So, you're always putting into the same species of cell. You can also do this with whole organisms.”

The Most Likely Scenario

As noted by Latham, until the passaged virus has been genetically sequenced, there’s no telling exactly what it looks like, or how it might act. It’s fairly random in that sense. Latham explains:

“It may have recombined, it may have mutated; there's been a genetic change, but you don't know what it is until you research it, clone it and make a new infectious clone. And so, you have the possibility that what escaped from the lab is actually not known to the people in the lab. They don't actually know what it was that they evolved.

And, if they were doing those kinds of experiments, putting the live bat viruses into cells of different species — and historically we know that they were doing those kinds of experiments — then they could also develop a new virus.

You can also have a combination of those experiments. So, you can have researchers who passage recombined molecules, they did the cutting and pasting part, and then they put back the cut and pasted virus into novel cells like human cells, and then they passage back, and then you evolve an infectious clone in that way.”

In this way, you can create a virus with high affinity for human cells, even though it wasn’t infectious to humans in the beginning. One of the key features of SARS-CoV-2 is its spike protein has high affinity for the human ACE2 receptor. The question is, how did this affinity arise?

“One of the obvious answers to that question is that it was being passaged inside these human cells or that somebody cut and pasted a spike protein bound to these human receptors that they already knew worked particularly well.

So, my hypothesis is that either they were cutting and pasting, or they were passaging, or they were doing some combination of both, and then that basically led to somebody in the lab becoming infected through some kind of careless event,” Latham says.

Leaks Have Caused Other Global Pandemics

The wild H1N1 virus that caused the 1918 flu pandemic was extinct for decades. However, in 1977, there appears to have been a biosafety lab leak in China or Russia in which that virus escaped, causing a global pandemic.

“Essentially what happened is the virus went extinct and then a new version of the virus appeared in 1977 in China, and it was basically identical to one that had existed 20 years before … No one can explain how a virus could appear — it was basically identical — but had been somehow hidden.

There was a theory that it had been in the permafrost and somebody had dug up a person from the permafrost who had died with H1N1 flu, but that was the best theory people had until they realized that it probably came from a lab that was making a vaccine.”

The H1N1 virus was temperature sensitive, and one of the things you use when you're making vaccine is a temperature-sensitive virus — a partially disabled virus.

“Basically, there is no other explanation than that this came from a lab and that there were labs who had stored stocks of it, but no lab has really come forward and said, ‘It was us.’ So, this has been kind of deduced from sequence information from the location in which it appears and so forth, but it's widely accepted by virologists,” Latham says.

Naturally, the notion that a biosafety lab leak would be responsible for a lethal pandemic is an uncomfortable one, especially for virologists doing that kind of work. An outbreak of equine encephalitis in Venezuela has also been traced back to a laboratory leak. Then there’s the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of 2009. Latham says:

“There's a scientific paper by a friend of mine, Adrian Gibbs ... written with two other virologists. He's a famous virologist and he says, ‘This came from a vaccine. The swine flu is actually not readily accountable by the specific circulating viruses that happened to be in North American and European and South American pigs at that time.’

Basically you can't explain it by that method, but you can explain it perfectly well by the idea that there was a manufacturer who was making bits of H1N1, one from European sequences and North American sequences, and South American sequences, and stuck them all together to make a universal vaccine, and somehow they failed to inactivate it.

So, they gave it to pigs in Mexico and that became the swine flu, the second H1N1 pandemic, and that second pandemic killed probably close to 300,000 people. We have a whole series of examples of lab escapes of viruses, so when people treat the lab escape thesis as being somehow ridiculous or outrageous or improbable, to me it just demonstrates their ignorance of the history of virology.”

Latham also addresses suspicions that HIV AIDS came from a polio vaccine, so for more details, listen to the interview. This was described in the book “The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS,” by Edward Hooper, and reviewed in a British Medical Journal article that you can read for free.²

SIV from infected monkey kidney cells that were used to create polio vaccines and used on hundreds of thousands of Africans are also suspected of being the cause of certain cancers.

Safety Breaches at Wuhan Lab

Many safety breaches have been documented at biosafety labs around the world, including the Wuhan lab. Several were documented by U.S. Embassy officials who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2018.

“I mean I think they're important data points but … we think it's more important that people from within China have raised questions about the bio security of this lab. Firstly, it's newly opened, so that's automatically a bit of a red flag. Secondly, there were violations cited by the internal overseeing agency in China of the kind of standards they would expect from a BSL facility.

They've been trying to set up the certification systems and so forth for their labs because they're trying to set up a whole network — a whole system of animal experiments and collection stations and so forth … So, they're setting up the certification schemes and they've already been cited, according to these reports, as having violations …

In the end, let me add something: One of the basics should be that you don't site these labs in the middle of a big city. So, we already have what I would say a violation to the basics. They should be in a desert or something like that, they should be in Antarctica, in remote areas.”

BSLs Promote High-Tech Solutions Rather Than Hygiene Basics

There can be no doubt that biosafety level 4 labs pose a tremendous threat to public health, seeing how they house the most dangerous pathogens in the world, and leaks are inevitable. The question is, are these risks worth it?

As noted by Latham, the existence of these laboratories drive the vaccine agenda while old-fashioned commonsense hygiene strategies such as hand-washing and protective gear fall by the wayside. The risks posed by these labs also fit right into the surveillance capitalism now getting a hard push through the roll-out of disease tracking and tracing mechanisms.

“An interesting thing happened the other day. Seventy-seven Nobel laureates, most of them molecular biologists, wrote a letter to the president protesting the cutting of the grants to the Wuhan lab that were emanating from the NIH. Well the man leading this effort [is] Richard Roberts. What is his scientific position?

He is on the board of directors of New England Biolabs, one of the biggest suppliers of molecular biology equipment. So, they're corralling together all these Nobel Prize winners to support all this molecular biology research that costs big bucks — hundreds of millions of dollars a year to do this kind of research, money that could be going to PPE and so forth.”

That money could also go to more basic strategies such as vitamin D supplements to build up the population’s immune system.

Cover-Up at Wuhan Institute of Virology Exposed

Latham and Wilson are also planning to write about what they believe is a cover-up at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The nearest living ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 is a viral sequence currently stored in the Wuhan lab. It’s said to have been kept frozen for the past seven years and nothing has been done with it.

This sequence came from bats living in a mine, and people who have worked in the mine have died of viral infections. In other words, they’ve had a strong reason to look into that virus sequence, and that one also happens to be the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2. Shi published one of the first viral sequences of SARS-CoV-2.

“Three papers came out in three days, all saying this is ‘The sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,’” Latham notes. Yet “her paper makes no reference to this longstanding sequence that they'd had in her lab. Zero reference. Instead, they say they've taken a sample from that freezer and they've sequenced it, and this is the nearest living relative.

But this obscures the fact that for seven years they'd had another virus, which basically came from the same tube … But it looks like when you go searching the DNA databases, it makes it look like this virus has just been with us since December.

It really hasn't, it's been sitting in that lab, supposedly unresearched. So, the question is, what were they doing with this viral sequence for seven years that may have killed three miners back in 2013?”

In a nutshell, SARS-CoV-2 is quite possibly not a new virus. A highly conserved close ancestor was already in the database under the name BtCoV/4991. It was already in the published literature. However, when the Wuhan Lab resequenced the mineshaft sample following the COVID-19 outbreak, they simply renamed that old virus that’s been on ice for seven years.

“Giving it a new name basically obscures the old history. They don't even acknowledge that it came from the same tube, which they now have been forced to acknowledge … It’s the same virus. The sequence identity between the two samples is 100%.

So, if there were one base pair different, you could maybe make a scientific argument that we should give them a different name, but there's no difference between them whatsoever. It's the same virus from the same tube, collected from the same place — the mine where the miners died … from a viral infection of pneumonia.”

Shi’s genetic sequencing paper basically pretends the 4991 sequence never existed. “They've forgotten all about it; that would be the interpretation of reading their paper,” Latham says. A second paper released within that three-day span identifies 4991 as the nearest living relative, and states that it comes from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The third sequence paper does a complicated phylogenetic analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, yet it too fails to mention that the nearest living relative is 4991 and held in the Wuhan lab.

“What's really interesting is that everyone who sequence [SARS-CoV-2] — there was a bunch of labs that sequenced the virus around the same time — they all would have searched the database and come up with this 4991 sequence … They all would have done that.

What you have to imagine is that they just get on the phone with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and say, ‘Oh, the virus broke out in your town just down the road from you, walking distance, and you are the keepers of the nearest known viral sequence. Have you had a lab accident?’ You can imagine dozens of labs phoning them up and say, ‘How do you handle a lab accident?’ …

What I'm offering is evidence of a cover-up, but we don't know exactly what they were covering up. They could have been covering up something a little different, but the very obvious thing to be covering up is simply that you are researching a virus that looks uncomfortably like SARS-CoV-2 …

We only have a partial sequence [of 4991]. We don't have the whole genome of this original sample. They only provided a sequence of 370 base pairs, but it is 98.7% identical to SARS-CoV-2 on nucleotides and the 370 base pairs.

This is considered the most conserved part of the genome, so it doesn't necessarily extrapolate to the whole thing. What is quite possible is that, that sample comes from something that is way closer than anything we've been told about.”

Public Health Rethink Is in Order

Even if 4991 isn’t a 100% match to SARS-CoV-2 (which sequencing of the whole genome would reveal), it could be close enough that you wouldn’t even need a whole lot of gain-of-function experiments to end up with a highly transmissible virus. According to Latham, “That's exactly the kind of thing that could have happened.”

In closing, as noted by Latham, the big picture question is, do we really want to be spending taxpayer money on all of these public health models that rely on biosafety/bioweapons research?

The justification for doing this kind of research on viruses is to prepare us for potentially devastating outbreaks, should the viruses evolve and mutate in the wild. Yet, that same research ends up being the source of our most dangerous outbreaks. As noted by Latham:

“These people have not managed to predict anything so far. What they've done is these incredibly dangerous experiments and then find out that the next virus comes from somewhere they didn't anticipate, or certainly didn't warn us about …

This research is not really predictive, but if enough virologists get together and say that this is how we predict the next pandemic, what is the government to do? If they all say, ‘That's how we should do it,’ then who's going to contradict them? …

I mean, you want to continue gainful employment, so why not push an agenda that's going to keep you employed, even though it doesn't serve the public good necessarily …

What [should] we spend our public health money on? Do we target these individual diseases and make New England Biolabs and the Gates Foundations investors rich, or do we invest in public health in a sense that benefits everybody — prevention and nutrition?

Also, the big issue too that we haven't really touched on is, why are we blaming the wildlife trade here? This is a really important question to ask because Peter Daszak, head of the EcoHealth Alliance, has been in all the media; he's been on Democracy Now!, the New York Times, Scientific American, Science Magazine, all these different outlets, basically ubiquitously blaming the wildlife trade, saying categorically it's not a lab escape.

Well, he is an interested party, right? His nonprofit is funding this research. The media cannot go and ask the person who's funding it whether it came from their lab or not. It's ridiculous. But that's what they're doing and they're treating us like idiots.”

As Latham points out, the reason some wild viruses emerge is because we’re destroying rainforest and building roads into remote areas. People end up catching the viruses because animals are fleeing the destruction of the forest.

So, why are we blaming the wildlife trade? If anything, we need to address the destruction of the animals’ native habitats. That, however, would be very bad for Daszak’s business because the EcoHealth Alliance is in partnership with the palm oil industry.

“We find that science — if you understand the science well enough — really helps you understand who's lying,” Latham says. “When you understand that part, you got a really strong anchor to base in analysis of what's really going on in the bigger picture.

If you can see that a very obvious thing — the possibility here is a lab escape —and then you've got one or a few people wandering around the media saying, ‘A lab escape is an impossibility, it never happened, there's no chance of it at all’ — you know that they're not speaking science, that they have some kind of ax to grind. And then you see who else repeats the message, who supports them and who doesn't and so forth.”

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An 18-year study of 2,000 children born in England and Wales found that young adults raised in communities marked by more economic deprivation, physical dilapidation, social disconnection, and danger display differences in the epigenome -- the proteins and chemical compounds that regulate the activity of their genes. The findings suggest that gene regulation may be one biological pathway through which neighborhood disadvantage 'gets under the skin' to engender long-term health disparities.

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Differences in the rate that genetic mutations accumulate in healthy young adults could help predict remaining lifespan in both sexes and the remaining years of fertility in women, according to scientists. Their study, believed to be the first of its kind, found that young adults who acquired fewer mutations over time lived about five years longer than those who acquired them more rapidly.

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Nutrient deficiencies can take a heavy toll on your health, and this includes increasing your risk of severe outcomes in the case of viral infections like COVID-19. Vitamin K, a fat-soluble vitamin most known for its role in blood clotting and found in foods like spinach, eggs and certain cheeses, is among the latest to be called out for its potential protective role against COVID-19, which may cause blood clotting degradation of elastic fibers in your lungs.

Both thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot obstructs a blood vessel, and coagulopathy, which is a condition in which your blood’s ability to form clots is impaired, are prevalent in severe COVID-19 cases and are linked to decreased survival rates from the disease,¹ which otherwise tends to cause mild or no symptoms in the majority of those affected.

“Coagulation is an intricate balance between clot promoting and dissolving processes in which vitamin K plays a well-known role,” Dutch researchers wrote in a Preprints study,² leading them to suggest that vitamin K levels may be low in people with severe COVID-19.

Low Vitamin K Linked to Severe COVID-19 and Poor Outcomes

To test their hypothesis, researchers studied 123 patients admitted to the Canisius Wilhelmina hospital in Nijmegen, a city in The Netherlands, with COVID-19 along with 184 control patients. Both vitamin K levels and elastin degradation were measured, with vitamin K assessed by measuring desphospho-uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (dp-ucMGP), which is inversely related to vitamin K status.

Elastin degradation was measured via desmosine, an amino acid found in tendons and a component of elastin. COVID-19 patients with unfavorable outcomes had significantly higher levels of dp-ucMGP, indicating low vitamin K, compared to those with less severe disease. Dp-ucMGP was also significantly elevated in COVID-19 patients compared to those without the disease, and dp-ucMGP and desmosine levels were significantly associated.³ According to the researchers:⁴

“Vitamin K status was reduced in patients with COVID-19 and related to poor prognosis. Also, low vitamin K status seems to be associated with accelerated elastin degradation. An intervention trial is now needed to assess whether vitamin K administration improves outcome in patients with COVID-19.”

Study author Dr. Rob Janssen was in support of vitamin K levels to boost vitamin K levels, except for people taking anticlotting medications.

Speaking to The Guardian, he noted, “We do have an intervention which does not have any side effects, even less than a placebo. There is one major exception: people on anticlotting medication. It is completely safe in other people. My advice would be to take those vitamin K supplements. Even if it does not help against severe Covid-19, it is good for your blood vessels, bones and probably also for the lungs.”⁵ You can also find vitamin K in a variety of foods.

Two Types of Vitamin K and Where to Find Them

There are two types of vitamin K: phylloquinone, or vitamin K1, and menaquinones, or vitamin K2. Vitamin K1 is derived from green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli and cabbage, and is best known for the role it plays in blood clotting. Without enough vitamin K1, your blood can’t clot properly and you’re at risk of bleeding to death.

However, according to Leon Schurgers, a senior scientist at Maastricht University in The Netherlands who was involved in the featured study, and whom I interviewed in 2015, “… the absorption of vitamin K1 from food is extremely low. Only 10% of the vitamin K, which is found in green leafy vegetables, is absorbed in your body … And there’s no variable or modification of the consumption that will significantly increase the absorption.”

Vitamin K2, on the other hand, is better known for its role in bone and heart health, and is found in grass fed animal products such as meat eggs, liver and dairy, as well as in fermented foods, including sauerkraut, certain cheeses and the fermented soy food natto.

Although the amount of vitamin K2 in certain foods, such as cheese, is lower than the amount of vitamin K1 found leafy, green vegetables, Schurgers noted, “all the vitamin K2 is absorbed by the body … Vitamin K2 in the food item is nearly completely absorbed.” Natto is particularly well known for its high concentration of vitamin K2, specifically the longer-chained vitamin K2 known as menaquinone-7 (MK-7).

One study looking into vitamin K bioavailability even found that circulating concentrations of vitamin K2 were about 10 times higher after the consumption of natto than they were of vitamin K1 after eating spinach.⁶

“I have worked with a Japanese scientist in London,” Janssen told The Guardian, “and she said it was remarkable that in the regions in Japan where they eat a lot of natto, there is not a single person to die of Covid-19; so that is something to dive into, I would say.”⁷

Aside from natto, cheese is the food with the highest menaquinone concentrations, but levels vary depending on the type of cheese. Dutch hard cheeses such as gouda and edam have relatively high concentrations, as do French cheeses such as Munster cheese.⁸ Many factors affect the amount of vitamin K2 in your food however, including how long it’s fermented and whether it’s made with grass fed dairy or raised on pasture.

For example, pasteurized dairy and products from factory farmed animals are not high in MK-4, a short-chain form of vitamin K2. Only grass fed animals (not grain fed) will develop naturally high levels.

Vitamin K Also Reduces COVID-19 Comorbidities

A report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, released in February 2020, found a higher crude fatality ratio (CFR) among people with COVID-19 and additional health conditions. While those who were otherwise healthy had a CFR of 1.4%, those with comorbid conditions had much higher rates, as follows:⁹

• Cardiovascular disease — 13.2%
• Diabetes — 9.2%
• High blood pressure — 8.4%

Another study looking into the impact of co-existing health conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes on COVID-19 outcomes found they’re linked to “poorer clinical outcomes,” such as admission to an intensive care unit, a need for invasive ventilation or death.¹⁰ What this means is that lowering your risk of underlying conditions like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure could improve your outcomes if you have COVID-19.

Vitamin K could play a protective role here, as it’s linked to both diabetes and heart health. Both vitamin K1 and K2 intakes may be associated with a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes.¹¹

Vitamin K may influence insulin sensitivity by carboxylating osteocalcin, which may function as a hormone in regulating insulin sensitivity. It could also play a role in reducing insulin resistance and risk of Type 2 diabetes via effects on calcium metabolism.¹² What’s more, a review published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism noted:¹³

“Increased vitamin K1 intake in a cohort study … was shown to decrease risk of developing diabetes by 51%. A recent review suggests that vitamin K supplementation may be used as a novel adjuvant therapy to improve glycemic control and quality of life.”

Vitamin K Boosts Heart Health, Also Important for COVID-19

As mentioned, people with heart disease have poorer outcomes if they develop COVID-19, and vitamin K’s role in heart health is also well-noted, particularly for vitamin K2. One of the reasons why vitamin K2 is so important for heart health has to do with a complex biochemistry involving the enzymes matrix gla-protein (MGP, found in your vascular system¹⁴), and osteocalcin, found in your bone.

“Gla” stands for glutamic acid, which binds to calcium in the cells of your arterial wall and removes it from the lining of your blood vessels. Once removed from your blood vessel lining, vitamin K2 then facilitates the integration of that calcium into your bone matrix by handing it over to osteocalcin, which in turn helps “cement” the calcium in place inside your bone.

Vitamin K2 activates these two proteins, so without it, this transfer process of calcium from your arteries to your bone cannot occur, which raises your risk of arterial calcification. In fact, in one study, those who had the highest amount of vitamin K2 were 52% less likely to experience severe calcification in their arteries and 57% less likely to die from heart disease over a seven- to 10-year period.¹⁵

Low levels of vitamin D and vitamin K have also been linked to high blood pressure,¹⁶ another condition that increases your risk of poor outcomes from COVID-19. While many people — young and old alike — are facing Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, these conditions can be turned around, and in so doing you’ll significantly reduce your risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. Ensuring you’re getting enough vitamin K is one part of this equation.

Vitamin K Works in Tandem With Vitamin D

Keep in mind that vitamin K2 also works in tandem with vitamin D and magnesium. So, it’s important to remember that vitamin K2 needs to be considered in combination with calcium, vitamin D and magnesium, as these four all have a synergistic relationship that impacts your health.

Vitamin D is also noteworthy in terms of COVID-19, as an analysis of medical records revealed a direct correlation between levels of vitamin D and the severity of illness in people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.¹⁷

To improve your immune function and lower your risk of viral infections, you’ll want to raise your vitamin D to a level between 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) and 80 ng/mL. In Europe, the measurements you’re looking for are 150 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) and 200 nmol/L. This, in addition to addressing your vitamin K intake, is a natural strategy that may significantly lower your risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin K?

It can be difficult to tell if you’re getting enough vitamin K, as there’s no easy way to screen or test for vitamin K2 sufficiency. Vitamin K2 cannot at present be measured directly, so it’s measured through an indirect assessment of undercarboxylated osteocalcin. This test is still not commercially available, however.

As a general rule, if you have osteoporosis, heart disease or diabetes, you're likely deficient in vitamin K2. Further, it’s believed that the vast majority of people are in fact deficient and would benefit from more K2, which you can achieve by eating more of the following foods:

• Certain fermented foods such as natto, or vegetables fermented using a starter culture of vitamin K2-producing bacteria
• Certain cheeses such as Brie, Munster and Gouda, which are particularly high in K2
• Grass fed organic animal products such as egg yolks, liver, butter and dairy

If you’re taking statin drugs, which are known to deplete vitamin K2,¹⁸ you could also be deficient. If you’re interested in supplementation, as a general guideline, I recommend getting around 150 mcg of vitamin K2 per day.

Others recommend slightly higher amounts — upward of 180 to 200 mcg. Fortunately, you don’t need to worry about overdosing on K2, as it appears to be completely nontoxic. If you opt for a vitamin K2 supplement, make sure it’s MK-7. The exception is if you’re on vitamin K antagonists, i.e., drugs that reduce blood clotting by reducing the action of vitamin K. If so, you should avoid MK-7 supplements.

Also be aware that excessive intake of dietary or supplemental vitamin K1 can overcome the anticoagulant effects of blood thinning medications. Further, when taking vitamin K, do so along with a fat. Since vitamin K is fat-soluble, it won’t be properly absorbed otherwise, and be sure to also balance it with calcium, vitamin D and magnesium.

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Bats are sometimes feared and greatly misunderstood. They’ve been particularly vilified in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many are falsely pushing the narrative that bats, and the sale of bats and other animals in wet markets, are to blame for the outbreak. We now have proof that’s simply not true. For more information, be sure to check out tomorrow’s interview with virologist and molecular biologist Jonathan Latham, Ph.D.

In that interview, he presents evidence showing SARS-CoV-2 is highly unlikely to have a natural origin, and stresses that we must not blame the wildlife trade. It’s merely a ruse to cover up compelling evidence showing it’s a lab-created virus that somehow escaped the confines of the laboratory.

So, please, leave bats alone, both figuratively and literally. Avoid them, don’t eat them, don’t hold them — and let scientists know we do not want them to harvest them for culturing and manufacturing new viruses.

What many people don't realize is that bats serve an important purpose, both to humans and the environment. Bats are ecological superheroes that pollinate many of our favorite foods. They also feed on agricultural pests that damage food crops, saving farmers hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars each year.

The featured film, "Growing a Greener World: Bats — Unsung Heroes," explores the benefits bats have on our environment, their role in food production, and what some scientists are doing to protect this important species.

The film starts out in San Antonio, Texas, at Bracken Cave, a major tourist attraction that is home to the world's largest bat colony. The cave provides shelter for about 15 to 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats, according to the film. Each night at sunset during the warmer months, the bats gracefully fly out of the cave in masses to begin their nightly hunt.

Bracken Cave was purchased by Bat Conservation International (BCI) in 1991. It now owns nearly 1,500 acres of former ranchland surrounding the cave, which is in the process of being restored to its natural state.

The land lost some of its original plant and animal diversity when it was being utilized for other purposes such as ranching. But thanks to the conservation work done by BCI, the area is now also home to many bird species, including endangered golden-cheeked warblers.¹

Bats Are the Only True Flying Mammal

In the film, Fran Hutchins, director of Bracken Cave Preserve, reveals that bats are the only true flying mammal. Mexican free-tailed bats weigh just half an ounce, or the equivalent of holding 50 cents in your hand, says Hutchins.

Despite being in the same genetic class as humans, bats are often lumped in with animals like snakes and sharks, some of the creatures we fear the most. But once you start to take a closer look at bats and their unique habits, it's clear there is nothing to fear about these beneficial animals.

There are many fun facts about bats you may not know. For example, despite what you may have heard, bats are not blind. They can see very well. They also have excellent flying abilities and an impressive range of motion.

Bats can fly up to 50 to 60 miles per hour, and travel distances of up to 30 to 50 miles in radius before returning back to their home. Bats are more maneuverable than birds. They use a combination of echolocation and sense receptors that allow them to easily navigate through the night sky.

Their echolocation abilities work by emitting a sound out of their mouth, which bounces off an object. When it returns, it is received and processed by their ears and other facial features. This echolocation technique is what helps bats hunt for food.

Bats emit sounds slowly and repetitively, as they navigate through the environment. However, when bats home in on an insect, the sound increases in frequency right up until they reach their prey. They then use their wings to snatch up the insect before eating it.

Without Bats, We Wouldn't Have Tequila

Bats as a species are incredibly diverse. There are an estimated 1,400 species of bats worldwide. They live on various parts of the planet and range in size. For example, the Kitti's hog-nosed bat, also called the Bumblebee Bat, weighs less than a penny, making it the world's smallest mammal next to the flying fox, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.²

While bats are expert hunters, they are also important pollinators. Just like birds, butterflies and bees, bats pollinate many important food crops, but because they do so at night under the cover of darkness, they don't get as much recognition.

More than 300 species of food-producing plants depend on bats for pollination. Some of these include guavas, bananas, mangos, figs, dates, cashews and peaches. Bats also pollinate other flowering plants including agave, the key ingredient in tequila.

Without bats, we would not have tequila. Bats are the main pollinator of agave, which blooms at night in Desert Southwest, according to the film. Agave plants are a major food source for bats. Unfortunately, in an effort to maximize profits, some big-time tequila producers are cutting down agave stalks before they have a chance to flower.

This is a big problem for bats. Luckily, some producers are being a little more responsible in the way they grow agave and produce tequila. They are allowing some of the agave plants to flower so that bats have a food source along their migratory pathway.

Some sustainable tequila producers have even branded their products "bat-friendly." Bat-friendly tequila can be found at various specialty bars and restaurants around the U.S., including San Antonio's Esquire Tavern, which serves a spicy cocktail called the "Batman of Mexico." It's made with Tequila Ocho, which can be found at some U.S. liquor stores for about $45 a bottle.³

Austin's South Congress Bridge Is Home to 1.5 Million Bats

The next stop in the film is Austin, Texas. The capital city is best known for its laid-back atmosphere, tasty tacos and its "Keep Austin Weird" slogan. It's also known for its bats, which reside under the South Congress Bridge.

The bridge was constructed using cast-in-place concrete to expedite the construction. Little did they know the design would create tiny spaces underneath the bridge that serve as the perfect bat house.

An estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats migrate north to Austin and call the bridge home during the warmer months of March through October.⁴ Like they do at the Bracken Cave, millions of bats descend from under the bridge at sunset, swirling in a mesmerizing tornado-like shape.

Mylea Bayless, senior director of Networks & Partnerships Bat Conservation International, says in the film that the bats stay together like a school of fish in order to avoid predators. They fly downstream along the tree line out to the corn and cotton fields where they primarily feed on agricultural pests. The viewing draws thousands of people who line up along the bridge each night, waiting to watch the bats.

Bats Save Organic Pecan Farm in Texas

While bats get a lot of recognition in some of Texas' largest cities, they are equally as honored in the Texas Hill Country. The featured film visits John Byrd, a pecan orchardist and owner of King's Crossing Farm, an organic farm located in San Saba, Texas.

The 109-acre farm was established by Byrd's grandfather in 1944, who was also one of the founders of the Texas Pecan Growers Association. Texas is one of few states where pecans are indigenous.⁵

Byrd's 1,200 pecan trees are part of the family legacy. But they are also an attraction for pests. In the film, Byrd explains that the biggest pest threat to his pecans is the casebearer moth, which can lay 100 eggs at a time. Each egg makes a little caterpillar that goes into a pecan nut and kills it.

If all 100 eggs are able to successfully make their way into a cluster of pecans, they can kill 100 pecans, says Byrd. That's about 1 pound, which costs about $1.50. So, for every moth, the farm stands to lose $1.50. Byrd uses organic growing methods on his farm,⁶ which means pesticides are not an option for dealing with the moths.

Bats Are Nature's Exterminator

"I have 400-year-old pecan trees that have been doing well without chemicals or people, and they produce pecans," he says. "There is a way to do it without pesticides. I want to promote life, not death, in my orchards."

In an effort to deal with the moths naturally, Byrd started building bat houses in hopes of attracting the animals to his orchard. He started out with a small bat house, which was quickly filled with bats. He then built a bat house three times the size as the first. It too filled almost immediately with bats.

Finally, he built one of the largest bat houses available, which can hold up to 30,000 bats. It took a while longer, but it too, eventually became full. Byrd says the large bat house now holds about 20,000 bats. They're doing their job, too, he says. DNA analysis found the bats were in fact eating the casebearer moths. Byrd now has fewer pests and more pecans.

Bats are one of nature's best exterminators. The bats that live in Bracken Cave outside of San Antonio eat an estimated 147 tons of insects per night, most of which are agricultural pests, according to the film. As a result, bats save farmers in the Texas Hill County about $750,000 a year in crop damage and pesticides. In the U.S, bats are estimated to save farmers anywhere from $3.7 billion to $53 billion per year.⁷

Bats Are Threatened Worldwide

Despite their importance, bats worldwide are at risk for a number of reasons including habitat loss, climate change, disease, deforestation and the bushmeat trade.⁸ Scientists report a loss of 50% of the world's insects since 1970,⁹ a disastrous estimation that's predicted to affect all types of wildlife, including bats.

Another major threat to bats is white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that eats away the tissue of North American bats. The pathogen gets its name from the appearance of a fuzzy white material that grows on the bats' snout, ears, wings or feet.

The pathogen prefers cold temperatures, which means bats are most susceptible when they are hibernating and their body temperature is reduced, explains Chris Cornelison, Ph.D., a research assistant professor at Kennesaw State University.

"From a wildlife disease standpoint, we're experiencing some of the most precipitous, severe-associated declines of wildlife that have ever been recorded," says Cornelison in the film. "In some of the worst cases, we've observed over 99% declines in those populations."

The good news is that scientists are working hard on solutions. One solution involves the use of naturally occurring VOCs that can be used in conjunction with a nebulizer to produce an aerosol volatilized gas to spray on the bats. This represses the growth of the fungus while they hibernate.

This is sometimes challenging, as bats hibernate in caves that are inaccessible to humans. For example, at the Black Diamond Tunnel in North Georgia, scientists had to develop the infrastructure to mount a nebulizer on a boat in order to send it autonomously into the cave to distribute the antifungal gas.

Want to Help Protect Bats? Here Are Some Things You Can Do

As you can see, bats are incredibly important for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. If you want to help protect bats, one thing you can do is to plant an organic, pesticide-free garden with night-scented flowers. If you are able, it's also helpful to leave dead and dying trees, as these spaces create perfect roosting sites for bats.¹⁰

You can also put up a bat house. Click here for information on where to purchase a bat house or build one yourself.

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