Thread by @Ayjchan

Maybe @WHO forgot, but in 2004, the intermediate host of SARS was found within a week of diagnosing an index patient. When you know what to look for, it doesn't necessarily take years.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1324705935420542977

"When possible SARS was diagnosed in the waitress on January 2, 2004, serum, throat and rectal swabs were obtained from all 6 palm civets at the restaurant... Serum samples from employees of the restaurant were obtained on January 4."
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Yes, in the past, tracing some outbreaks could take years because people had no idea what they were looking for - which species could have been the intermediate host or the ultimate virus reservoir (bats). But China already developed extensive know-how from the SARS1 outbreak...

The situation is actually reversed. For SARS1, it took years to confirm bats as the reservoir (intermediate hosts were found within weeks-months). But for SARS2, we already knew from the beginning that bats in Yunnan are the reservoir, but the intermediates are still missing.

"the public may soon learn answers as the World Health Organization embarks on the final stages of a search for the coronavirus’s origins."

Seriously? Final stages? @WHO hasn't even been allowed to talk to the index patients or visit the market or WIV.

nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/1…

"disease detectives who have worked on similar hunts say this is business as usual" as in the reason why @WHO cannot visit ground zero is because of lack of funding and manpower.

So if international volunteers show up, can they access the index patients and lab records?

"Meanwhile, months of genetics research has already concluded that the pandemic started with what’s known as a zoonotic spillover"

When did scientists CONCLUDE that SARS2 began with a zoonotic spillover?

@NatGeo I followed the hyperlink in your statement above, and the NatGeo article it linked to definitely does not conclude based on any scientific evidence that SARS2 began with a zoonotic spillover.

In fact, the linked article was about the dangers of pseudoscientific misinformation. So it's quite ironic that you @NatGeo self-cited it to support a conclusion that was not even established in the article.

@WHO if Dr. Wang and Dr. Lipkin are on your independent investigatory team, how do you intend to account for their conflicts of interest? Namely, a long history of collaborating with the WIV/EcoHealth, titles/awards from China.

It feels like world organizations need a refresher on what conflict of interest means.

Wikipedia: "a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another."

Maybe even scientific journals need a refresher on this. You can't expect people to just confess their conflicts of interest. Not everyone is Ned Stark from @GameOfThrones

Let's consider potential outcomes. @WHO samples bats in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and finds some SARS2-related viruses there. And then what?

You're still not any closer to understanding how SARS2 exploded in Wuhan. A city where 0% of people had SARS antibodies prior to SARS2.

Scientists have already checked Wuhan hospital patient samples collected as far back as Oct, 2019, and found that no patient samples before January, 2020 were SARS2-positive.

*article published by Nature family so read with caution
nature.com/articles/s4156…

So, almost 1 year later, no signs of an intermediate host despite testing 100s of animal samples from the Wuhan market and across Hubei province, and no signs of pre-circulation anywhere in the world (no positive banked samples prior to late 2019, no precursor/sibling viruses).

Experts, with conflicts of interest, are saying the investigation should focus on outside of China.

WHO team cannot perform an independent investigation.

The only team that is going to look at lab records is led by long time collaborator/funder/karaoke friend EcoHealth Daszak.

I feel like an entire Responsible Conduct of Research course could be conducted on what has occurred this year wrt the teams put in charge of "investigating" the origins of SARS2. @WHO @TheLancet #responsibleconductofresearch #scientificintegrity #SARS2origins #conflictofinterest