1/Z
An annoying thing about many SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists is they don't learn a da*n thing, no matter how much it's explained to them.
Example from WSJ, Steven Quay, + Richard Muller:
"The science suggests a Wuhan lab leak"
wsj.com/articles/the-s…
archive.is/MfmLd
2/Z
Quay + Muller's 'codon usage' point is not new.
Ex: Bret Weinstein was making the point months ago, and Nicholas Wade did more recently.
It's a favorite talking among the conspiracy theorists.
https://t.co/jGJkNUBui0
thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-or…
3/Z
A crucial concept to understand here is copy-choice error.
See below:
virological.org/t/tackling-rum…
virological.org/t/the-sarbecov…
virological.org/t/tackling-rum…
link.springer.com/article/10.100…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
4/Z
Another crucial concept is out-of-frame insertion / frame-shift:
practical-haemostasis.com/Genetics/genet…
genome.gov/genetics-gloss…
It's basic biology, and I learned it as a high school freshman. It's telling how many SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists screw up introductory genetics. 🙄
5/Z
So an out-of-frame mutation resulting from copy-choice error, easily explains how one ends up with 2 CGG codons without a lab.
That's been known since at least May *2020.*
Hence why I said the conspiracists learn nothing. 🤦♂️
virological.org/t/tackling-rum…
6/Z
It's also silly when Quay + Muller say "CGG" is a hallmark of genetic manipulation.
As an immunologist I know it's actually a fairly common sequence often recognized by the immune system and used to clear pathogens.
archive.is/ZFIHa
7/Z
Quay + Muller suggest that "the double CGG is suppressed naturally":
archive.is/MfmLd#selectio…
Actually, SARS-CoV-2 kept it in nature. That's not surprising, since it can evade (and likely often disrupt) the immune system.
archive.is/ZFIHa#selectio…
8/Z
Out-of-frame introduction of two CGG codons is 1 of many ways in which SARS-CoV-2 looks like a virus that evolved haphazardly in the natural world, as opposed to being intelligently designed by humans
microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-762/
virological.org/t/tackling-rum…
9/Z
This is why copy-choice error (along with codon usage and SARS-CoV-2's furin cleavage site) is 1 of my litmus tests for SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists:
If they still screw up on it after May 2020, then they're not credible. 🤷♂️
10/Z
Besides:
- Nicholas Wade
- Steven Quay
- Richard Muller
- Bret Weinstein
- Heather Heying
etc., Richard Ebright also peddled the debunked codon talking point.
Yet even Alina Chan knew better.
archive.is/ZFIHa#selectio…
11/Z
Evidence won't persuade most SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists, anymore than evidence would persuade most HIV conspiracists that HIV evolved naturally from SIV and spread outside of a lab, as opposed to having escaped from scientists' research.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
12/Z
For non-expert conspiracists, it's not about evidence, but instead ideology, etc.
"Pew Research Center survey conducted in March 2020 found that 29% of Americans believed that SARS-CoV-2 was developed intentionally in a lab"
link.springer.com/content/pdf/10…
13/Z
Even the scientist Nicholas Wade cited to justify his conspiracism on the furin cleavage site / codon usage, walked his statements back.
Do better next time, David Baltimore.
Don't be another Kary Mullis with Nobel disease.
theguardian.com/world/2021/jun…
14/Z
Re: "So an out-of-frame mutation resulting from copy-choice error, easily explains how one ends up with 2 CGG codons without a lab.
That's been known since at least May *2020.*
Hence why I said the conspiracists learn nothing"
Context from @gorskon:
respectfulinsolence.com/2021/06/11/cgg…
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