If the problem with some lab leak proponents is that they’re “just asking questions”, then the problem with some natural spillover proponents is that they “don’t ask questions”.
From day 1, some believed SARS2 must’ve come from a market, everything else could not be questioned.
The amount of misinfo coming from both sides has been comparable, but in-field experts should be held to a higher standard because their word is taken at face value by journalists and the public.
Yet we have seen zero accountability for the misinformation spread by some experts.
Have any of the experts who cast the lab origin hypothesis as a conspiracy theory taken any responsibility for their anti-scientific statements?
Have any of the journalists misled by them gone back to these experts and said wtf?
Probably a good time to start going through the numerous articles in 2020 and even 2021, published by top media outlets quoting Peter Daszak and friends without question, to start adding much needed clarifications on the EcoHealth’s COIs re: the #OriginOfCovid
Many of the COIs we’ve seen are not even slightly nebulous. Many of the #OriginOfCovid advisors and investigators have strong financial, personal, professional, reputational interests in making sure this virus didn’t come from a lab.
Somehow it has recently upgraded to “let’s not investigate the #OriginOfCovid because the world can’t handle knowing that the virus likely came from a lab”
I find this more honest than “lab leak is a conspiracy theory” but still anti-scientific.
Stop reassuring each other that the #OriginOfCovid will never be found.
Some people might already know the origin but need to wait for a safer time to blow the whistle.
Let’s focus on making best efforts to investigate and also make pathogen research safer.
It doesn't help that, in July, 40+ science orgs wrote:
"We urge [Congress] to reject attempts to impose restrictions on federally funded research or the operations of federal science agencies based on premature conclusions about how the pandemic emerged." asm.org/Articles/Polic…
There are some scientists who will refuse to implement new framework+oversight over risky pathogen research until someone shows them an authenticated video from 2019 of a tube labeled SARSrCoV with novel FCS spilling directly into the mouth of a scientist in Wuhan.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.