Thread by @amymaxmen

The WSJ is now feeding the news cycle another article claiming to have "damning" evidence that COVID was created in a lab. It's a scientific claim, so one I can assess. 🧵

I value scientific experience (the kind that brought you the vaccine), so note the authors are (1) a self-proclaimed entrepreneur in breast health & coronavirus, who has received FDA warning letters (2) a Koch-funded climate denying physicist, albeit one who changed his position.

They reference the CGG codon that David Baltimore called a "smoking gun" in Nicholas Wade's piece. Baltimore told me he only meant to point out that we should consider a lab-origin hypothesis (uncontroversial). He told @profvrr that Wade twisted his words.

CGG is rare in coronaviruses but it exists. @K_G_Andersen is no longer on Twitter but he points out that 3% of arginine is CGG in SARS-CoV-2; 5% is CGG in SARS1 etc. See the thread @waybackmachine

Andersen also pointed out that feline coronaviruses have CGG-CGA, meaning it's a single nucleotide difference (ie evolution can make these codons in viruses). An A to G switch happens frequently because it's synonymous, it doesn't change the function of the amino acid.

But in WSJ, our esteemed breast health entrepreneur & climate-denying physicist argue that this mutation couldn't happen RANDOMLY. Reader: Mutations happen randomly. Evolution doesn't have an aim or a direction. It's actually pretty awesome. evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/art…

I talked @AlJazeera about how the media is feeding the media on this runaway story about a lab-leak, with smarter comments from @BeijingPalmer & @GidMK

To be clear, a lab leak is possible because we don't have enough evidence to rule it out. But this uncertainty is being manipulated. I talk about this with @noabaker @NaturePodcast (we discuss the CGG issue, specifically, too) nature.com/articles/d4158…

I wrote this piece about how unsubstantiated allegations of a lab leak & the volatility of the debate may IMPEDE studies on Covid origins & interfere with the ability to end this pandemic & prepare for the next one. That requires collaboration & consensus.
nature.com/articles/d4158…

.@hiltzikm put the lack of evidence for a lab-leak plainly, up top. latimes.com/business/story…

This doesn't stop influential figures from pushing a provocative story about how the scientific establishment/science journalists suppressed a lab-leak hypothesis because they're liberal/cancel culture. Consider we look for the science & it's not good.