Robert Malone on biosafety: what the evidence says · JRE #2454
SUBJECT: BIOSAFETY
The short answer
Malone claims a Spanish research lab collaborating with the USDA on African swine fever research caused a lab leak that killed wild hogs and triggered China's ban on Spanish pork. In late November 2025, Spain reported its first African swine fever (ASF) cases in three decades in wild boar near Barcelona, and China subsequently restricted imports of Spanish pork from the affected region.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
African swine fever virus kills pigs like crazy. And already China has locked down and will not accept Spanish pork. And it is It was a lab leak. And there was a bunch of dead hogs last November around this facility.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
In late November 2025, Spain reported its first African swine fever (ASF) cases in three decades in wild boar near Barcelona, and China subsequently restricted imports of Spanish pork from the affected region. A Spanish facility, IRTA-CReSA, did run a documented cooperative research agreement with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (2017-2022) to develop improved African and classical swine fever vaccines using recombinant-virus techniques, so a real USDA-linked laboratory studying African swine fever does operate in the area. A peer-reviewed genomic analysis of the outbreak, published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2026, found the wild-boar virus forms a genetically distinct new group, defined by a roughly 9.8-kb deletion, that does not match any previously known circulating European strain. That study did not identify or confirm a laboratory source for the outbreak; instead, the authors pointed to long-distance, human-mediated introduction, such as contaminated pork products, as the likely pathway given the outbreak's isolated, periurban location with high human connectivity and lack of epidemiologic continuity with other affected regions. The specific claim that the outbreak was confirmed to be a lab leak from the nearby facility is unsupported by the published evidence, even though the underlying facts about the outbreak, the export restrictions, and the existence of a real USDA-linked research lab nearby are accurate.