VIDO-InterVac, the new employer of Angela Rasmussen, enforcer of the anti-lab-leak narrative, lists not one but 5 obviously China-linked organizations as funding contributors for 2019-20, their lastest report. Amounts not disclosed. Has this conflict of interest been declared?
Interestingly, they make it hard to get clarity. Their about>partners page is supremely uninformative but points to the annual reports. The last annual report simply has this alphabetic list on its last page, with no further info or amounts contributed. vido.org/assets/upload/…
As a reminder, Dr Rasmussen was previously at the Center of Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, the center run by another China-linked researcher and anti-lab-leak combatant, W. Ian Lipkin.
It appears that at least in January 2021, Dr Rasmussen did realize that being associated with Chinese funding sources would compromise her standing. She was no longer part of Columbia University, but not yet at InterVac at the time. (h/t @Byron_Wan)
It is not clear, and I have not been able to find, why Angela Rasmussen stopped being associated with Lipkin's CII at Columbia University in November 2020. She did not join VIDO-InterVac for another 6 months, so it does not look like a planned transition. Was it voluntary?
Additionally, in April Dr Rasmussen stated that she had no ongoing collaboration with WIV or EcoHealth, but this was while she was between positions, so it's unclear what value the statement had other than to misdirect.
While she does pose as a warrior against hate, in the 7 years she worked under the now-disgraced Michael Katze she seemed to have no issue attacking various women online, including what appears to be a 16 year old girl she accused of "famewhoring"...
If it's unclear why I'm motivated to gather context here about a specific person, it's because of her continuing attacks on anyone who dares question the origins of the virus, not hesitating to accuse them of causing harm and eliciting racist violence.
And again today attacking @jbloom_lab after the spectacular work of uncovering deleted sequences, changing our understanding of the beginning of the pandemic. The reward for this?
Science must be allowed to investigate and understand what happened, how this virus came to be, and the constant sneering and smearing by Dr Rasmussen, her PhD advisor Vincent Racaniello, and insiders of the virology community can only be understood as intimidation and must end.
I actually refuse to believe Dr Rasmussen misunderstands the situation as deeply as she appears to. As such, I seek to understand what is the underlying dynamic, and I believe some of the puzzle pieces in this thread are a good start. If anyone has additional pointers, DMs open.
OK wait. She has a.. publicist?
Allright, coming back to this thread, let's see what happened over the last day. Well, for one, she seems to have deleted the tweet mentioned here, making Twitter a better place.
Oh, and, I'm... blocked. No big surprise I suppose, and given the fact she also deleted her "structural racism" tweet... worth it!
A minor thing I ran into today. I realize most here don't know @robinhanson but he's a hero of mine, and to see Dr. Rasmussen go after him in the most base of terms... is not such a surprise, really. More gatekeeping towards one of our best minds. A regular Tuesday for Angela.
@robinhanson Another day, another find. And this one matters.
In a blogpost on her move from the imploding Katze Lab in the University of Seattle to the Center for Infection and Immunity under W. Ian Lipkin, she describes the process as something that was her doing: medium.com/@angierasmusse…
However, the buzzfeed article that describes Katze's downfall, has a passage that rhymes...
Michael Katze, Angela's disgraced boss, attempted to move to Lipkin's CII as a consultant, salvaging a DoD "non-HHS" $8.6m project.
Between Jun and Dec 2016, 3 new researchers were added to the CII's roster [1]:
-Juliet Morrison
-Atsu Okumura
-Angela Rasmussen
In February 2016, the three of them were together in Katze's defunct lab. [2]
[1]web.archive.org/web/2016122101…
[2]web.archive.org/web/2016031409…
It's also important to note that Angela Rasmussen was one of only two other people in Katze's lab with a "Professor" title. This would make her one of the three highest-ranking people there, and this photograph from their lab's homepage carries the same message:
The picture is clear. Katze attempted to escape his fate in Columbia with a small group of researchers, and a project lucrative enough to make CII interested. In the end, Katze was found out, but the three researchers stayed on. Rasmussen was not "recruited", she was transferred.
It's also relevant to note that in this transfer, Angela accepted a demotion from Research Assistant Professor to Associate Research Scientist. This isn't typical for people who are recruited to join another organization.
Correction: it's University of Washington, not University of Seattle.
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