Mark Bailey is a medical doctor and co-author of the Settling The Virus Debate challenge.
The challenge – signed by 19 scientists – questions the established understanding of viruses and their role in disease causation, implying that the common belief that viruses are independent, exogenous, pathogenic entities might be based on fundamental misconceptions.
They argue that what are commonly referred to as “viruses” might actually be the ordinary and inevitable breakdown particles of stressed and/or dead and dying tissues, and therefore not harmful to other living beings.
No published scientific paper has ever shown that particles fulfilling the definition of viruses have been directly isolated and purified from any tissues or bodily fluids of any sick human or animal.
To be clear, the official definition of a virus is:
a small parasite consisting of nucleic acid (RNA or DNA) enclosed in a protein coat that can replicate only in a susceptible host cell.
Moreover, the challenge notes that particles that have been successfully isolated through purification have not been shown to be replication-competent, infectious, and disease-causing, hence they cannot be said to be viruses.
- The microorganism must be found in abundance in all organisms suffering from the disease, but should not be found in healthy organisms.
- The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture.
- The cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism.
- The microorganism must be reisolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent.
The challenge proposes a series of experiments to test the viral theory, including the purification and biochemical characterisation of a unique particle from the tissues or fluids of a sick living being; proving that the proteins are coded for by these same genetic sequences; showing that the purified viral particles alone can cause identical sickness in test subjects; and re-isolating the particles from the test subject.
They also propose a two-step experiment involving five virology labs, worldwide, to determine whether such an entity as a pathogenic human virus exists. The labs would attempt to “isolate” the viruses from samples or conclude that no pathogenic virus is present. The samples would then be sent for genomic sequencing..
