Thread by @Ayjchan

Today, a thread debunking (unintentional) misinformation on the origins of covid-19 / SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Starting with the top 10 easily fact-checked ideas or statements that are not true, although a shocking number of scientists still think these are true.

(1) (FALSE) Before COVID, SARS research was done in a BSL4 lab at the WIV.

Actually, SARS research, even the (humanized) animal infection experiments were conducted at BSL2/3.

See @ScienceMagazine interview of the PI at the Wuhan Institute of Virology: sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/t…

(2) (FALSE) There is no precedent of SARS viruses escaping from a laboratory.

Actually, SARS virus escaped from labs at least 4 times in 3 countries within a year. One of the labs was a BSL4 lab. Investigators said that SARS virus could have escaped 4 times from a Beijing lab.

(3) (UNCLEAR) SARS-CoV-2 spilled from animal to human at a Wuhan market.

No animal samples from markets were (+) for SARS2. China-WHO team said they don't know the role of the Huanan market in #originsofCOVID19

Current evidence is consistent with both natural and lab origins.

(4) (FALSE) Wuhan is a place where SARS transmits from animals into humans frequently. That's why the Wuhan Institute of Virology was built there.

Actually, Wuhan is ~1000km away from SARS spillover zones. Its human population was even used as a negative (no SARS) control group.

(5) (FALSE) Bat viruses in Wuhan city & Hubei Province have not been studied over the years. We don't know if there are SARS2-like viruses there.

Actually, 1000s of bats have been sampled by different groups over the years in Hubei. We just don't have access to the full data.

(6) (FALSE) Because the same species of bats live in South China and also Hubei, SARS2-like viruses are also in bats in Hubei.

Actually, the WIV published a paper before COVID-19 saying that it is mainly geographical barriers, not host species, that separate virus lineages.

(7) (FALSE) If SARS-CoV-2 was engineered or manipulated in the lab, scientists can tell.

Actually, scientists can detect only specific ways of modifying pathogens. We cannot rule out whether SARS-CoV-2 has been cultured, passaged or genetically modified.

futurehuman.medium.com/how-do-we-know…

(8) If SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a lab, it would look unnatural.

Actually, many of the viruses that have escaped from labs are viruses collected from animals or humans outside of the lab. Even if slightly modified or manipulated, they look like viruses that can be found in nature.

(9) (FALSE) All of the WIV's virus sequences are publicly available.

Actually, there's a missing WIV database of more than 22,000 pathogen samples that became inaccessible since Sep 2019, weeks before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan.

(10) (FALSE) The WIV has shared all of their sequences (data and sample histories) closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in a timely and accurate manner.

Actually, when they shared the most closely related virus to SARS2, they did not mention its link to severe respiratory cases...

.. they also did not disclose that the virus sample had been genome sequenced in 2018 or that they had at least 8 other SARS2-like virus samples collected between 2012-2015 & sequenced.

Those sequences are still not publicly available more than a year after the pandemic began.

Bonus: If SARS2 came from a lab, someone would've already spilled the beans. This secret is too hot to handle.

Actually, there's no obvious whistleblower channel. There's also no international investigation. How would someone safely communicate evidence on the origins in China?