Daszak helped build viruses in labs that could infect humans and evade treatment

In a stunning admission, Peter Daszak discussed collecting hundreds of dangerous SARS-like viruses from bats in China and manipulating their spike proteins to better infect humans—in the lab. He stated that some of these viruses were resistant to vaccines and treatments, yet his team proceeded to work with Ralph Baric to insert these spike proteins into viral backbones, effectively creating enhanced viruses with pandemic potential.

Daszak also noted human exposure in China and ongoing funding to monitor virus spillovers. He spoke of "getting ahead" of the next pandemic—a phrase that, depending on how you read it, sounds more like preparation for inevitability than prevention.