Alina Chan Profile picture
Sep 20, 2020 8 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The ripple effect of the Yan report that as I said before has done more to discredit the lab origins hypothesis than all of the peer-reviewed natural origins papers combined. What is new from this article is the interview of Dr Fauci, who seems to think lab origins are possible..
.. but he asks does it matter whether it’s from a lab if the virus was not deliberately mutated, ie was taken from nature?

I think it does matter, if lab activities have a high risk of resulting in outbreaks, and would have implications for future pathogen sampling expeditions.
Let’s say a future expedition to Myanmar, Laos or Vietnam finds a virus that is even more closely related to SARS2 than RaTG13. It still doesn’t answer the question: how did that virus break out in Wuhan city, 1000s of miles away. Was it wildlife trade, travel, or lab activities?
By producing such a fantastical lab origins scenario, Yan has (unintentionally) provided a straw man for natural origins proponents to tell the media that lab origins are conspiracies theories - without qualifying that they are unable to rule out lab escape of a natural virus.
For example, in this case of an outbreak stemming from a vaccine factory leak, it is irrelevant whether the pathogen had been deliberately mutated. What matters is finding and correcting the leak to stop more people from being infected. cnn.com/2020/09/17/asi…
The media/scientists have to balance not panicking the public with being honest about what you know or don’t know. I’m worried that this could signal to rogue actors that as long as they use unpublished viruses in GOF work, no one can/will call them out. onezero.medium.com/how-do-we-know…
It could incentivize research groups around the world to become even less transparent and accountable for the pathogens they’re sampling. So that, in the case of lab escape, you couldn’t be held responsible as people don’t know about your private collection of natural viruses.
Just noticed that the exclusive Dr. Fauci interview featured in the September @NatGeo article is actually from May of this year. Recommend that the video caption at least state the date of the interview. COVID expert opinions can change a lot in 4 months.

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More from @Ayjchan

Sep 15
Accidentally swore and got bleeped on my live interview with On Point @MeghnaWBUR while discussing why lab #OriginOfCovid must be investigated and why scientists must not lie or obfuscate the truth for political reasons.
wbur.org/onpoint/2024/0…
@MeghnaWBUR Meghna did an excellent job putting the arguments of natural #OriginOfCovid proponents to me so I could refute them directly in the interview.

The scientific evidence does not support a double spillover of the virus at the Wuhan market.
@MeghnaWBUR Those who condemn platforming the lab #OriginOfCovid hypothesis refuse to participate in a joint interview with me.

They say it's because they do not want to legitimize a lab origin but I believe it's because their arguments cannot withstand informed scrutiny.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 19
I respect Dr Fauci's decades of service in gov. Being in charge during a pandemic is no small challenge & no one can lead for so long without making mistakes. However, it needs to be said that Dr Fauci has not surrounded himself with wise & honest people regarding #OriginOfCovid
These are the virologists & experts he trusted on #OriginOfCovid

In their private messages in early 2020, they mocked other virologists for not being able to predict their own lab leaks & misled a @nytimes journalist asking about a potential lab origin.
These experts published an influential letter 'The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2' that was used widely to shut down questions about a lab leak.

In private, they wrote that evidence against a lab leak was not strong and speculated on genetic engineering.
wsj.com/articles/the-c…
Read 10 tweets
Jun 19
Dr Bob Garry admitted we don't know what viruses were studied in Wuhan labs. The papers he cited in support of natural #OriginOfCovid have been thoroughly refuted (see below).

My response to Garry's testimony was submitted into record. Key points ⬇️
hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/origi…
A research-related #OriginOfCovid is plausible and even considered more likely by some experts and US intelligence agencies.
goodjudgment.com/wp-content/upl…
Available data on early cases & market samples do not distinguish between a superspreader event versus spillover.

Even Dr Ralph Baric who collaborated with Wuhan scientists said the “market was a conduit for expansion of the disease. Is that where it started? I don’t think so.”
Image
Image
Read 12 tweets
May 2
Ralph Baric's interview with @covidselect reveals he was on the Feb 1, 2020 phone call with Farrar, Fauci, Collins and the Proximal Origin authors.

Did he reveal his plans from 2018 with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to put furin cleavage sites into SARS-like viruses?

oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…Image
@COVIDSelect Baric said he forgot about the Defuse proposal & did not mention it at the Feb 1 call.

I believe Baric sharing Defuse would've prevented the publication of Proximal Origin and the use of it to dismiss a lab #OriginOfCovid in US gov and to the public. Image
@COVIDSelect Baric also could've told them at the Feb 1 meeting that novel SARS-like viruses were being used in infection experiments at BSL2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology aka the Wild West according to Jeremy Farrar.
Read 10 tweets
May 1
Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance testified he didn't know Wuhan Institute of Virology bred 🦇, studied pangolin samples, engineered viruses without leaving a trace, and continued to collect viruses after 2015.

So how does he know they didn't cause Covid?
Daszak said he didn't know if WIV had started experiments described in the Defuse proposal and 🚨had not even asked them🚨.

He only had virus sequences from samples collected up to 2015. He believed that the WIV would've shared more sequences from 2016-2019 if they had them.
Reminder: EcoHealth Alliance still has not shared the sequences for the WIV's 220 SARS-CoV-1-like viruses (2022 interview) or 180 unique SARS-like viruses in their prior work not yet characterized for spillover potential (2018 proposal).
Read 5 tweets
Apr 22
Those dismissing a lab #OriginOfCovid have had to make numerous concessions over the past 4 years.

We now know Wuhan scientists conducted risky experiments with novel SARS-like viruses at low biosafety & planned in 2018 to create viruses with the traits of the Covid-19 virus.
We also know the data on early cases & Huanan market shared by Chinese scientists do not shed light on #OriginOfCovid

Proponents of natural origin continue to argue that it is the totality of evidence that supports their hypothesis but this could be said for lab origin as well.
The latest defense for a natural #OriginOfCovid is that, if a lab leak had occurred, the Wuhan scientists would have acted all suspicious and essentially given the game away, thereby putting themselves, their colleagues & their families in immediate and deadly peril.
Read 8 tweets

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