1/H
One of the leading SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracy theorists from DRASTIC, @TheSeeker268, has a new article. I want to focus on its discussion of miners since it shows how ridiculous conspiracists can be.
theweek.in/theweek/cover/…
2/H
Like many other aspects of lab leak conspiracy theories, the miners point was debunked for a year or more. But conspiracists peddle it anyway, hoping people are uninformed, or paranoid, or... enough to fall for it.
The point:
3/H
An obvious problem:
SARS-CoV-2 almost certainly did not come from RaTG13 (a.k.a. BtCov/4991), the mentioned coronavirus from the mine.
This has been known for at least a year.
4/H
The viruses are related cousins, not one descended from the other.
"the difference at neutral sites was 17%, suggesting the divergence between the two viruses [RatG13 and SARS-CoV-2] is much larger than previously estimated."
academic.oup.com/nsr/article/7/…
europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/…
5/H
This creates a problem for conspiracists:
How can they use RaTG13 + the miners to prop up paranoia, if it's clear a lab didn't make SARS-CoV-2 from RatG13?
@edwardcholmes:
"SARS-CoV-2 was not derived from RaTG13."
sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/n…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bi…
6/H
One tactic conspiracists settled on is to *lie.* They pretend they didn't insinuate SARS-CoV-2 came from RaTG13.
Problem with that is we know they said it, including saying it to me a year ago. We have the receipts. 🙂
7/H
Below DRASTIC member Rossana Segreto (@Rossana38510044) makes the insinuation to me, along with a link to an article where DRASTIC member Yuri Deigin (@ydeigin) makes the insinuation was well:
archive.is/cujN1#selectio…
8/Y
Alexander Panchin (@Scinquisitor) + Alexander Tyshkovskiy rebutted Segreto + Deigin's insinuation:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bi…
Segreto + Deigin's responded by feigning shock that anyone would suggest they made that claim. 🙄
web.archive.org/web/2021063010…
9/Y
There's a laundry list of other problems with the "RaTG13 / Mojiang mine" narrative. I + others have pointed them out for over a year.
Credit to @viralphenomics in particular for his work on this.
drive.google.com/file/d/1kAHSEx…
10/Y
Particularly interesting is how conspiracists emphasize researchers looking at coronaviruses in the mine:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Yet the conspiracists don't emphasize researchers looking at other pathogens in the mine.
I wonder why...🤔
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
11/Y
So the next time you hear SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists act like they have some brilliant new insight the mainstream just won't address:
They're probably pretending + their point was likely already addressed multiple times.
researchgate.net/profile/G_Mich…
12/Y
Lab conspiracists really are like other science denialists.
And I forgot to mention another tactic:
Pretend there were papers saying SARS-CoV-2 descended from RaTG13.
Debunked in parts 3/H, 4/H, and 5/H. Hence why @TheSeeker268 can't support it.
13/Y
A 3rd tactic is to make the baseless claim that RaTG13 is fake.
This is a common trope among conspiracy theorists, and helps them evade falsification of their claims.
@johnfocook + @STWorg, page 7:
web.archive.org/web/2020082102…
14/Y
Re: "3rd tactic is to make the baseless claim that RaTG13 is fake.
This is a common trope among conspiracy theorists, and helps them evade falsification of their claims"
Can be done by JAQing off:
rationalwiki.org/wiki/Just_aski…
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