EDITORIAL | As scientists around the world try to find the origin of the virus, which appeared in Wuhan at the end of 2019, the lack of cooperation from the Chinese authorities is obvious.
"Was this a laboratory accident? Could the current pandemic be linked to the contamination, in 2012, in Mojiang county, of half a dozen people, suffering from severe pneumonia with complications similar to those of Covid-19?"
"At this stage, no one is in a position to favor this or that track, for lack of being able to investigate under scientifically satisfactory conditions."
"More worrying, Beijing insisted on keeping control of this [WHO] mission. The Chinese authorities have co-opted the participants, who will only be allowed to work on Chinese hypotheses already developed and validated by the authorities."
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"The MRP pseudo-sequence supertree analysis firmly disputes bat coronavirus RaTG13 be the last common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which was implied by other phylogenetic tree analysis based on viral genome sequences."
"The actual validity of RaTG13 be the direct ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 is seriously questioned, although they share 96.5% identical genome sequence. Taking RaTG13 as the last common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 would seriously mislead phylogenetic inference of SARS-CoV-2."
China may still be hiding the truth about the origins of Covid-19: One year on, urgent questions remain about how and why this pandemic erupted inews.co.uk/opinion/china-…
"there are fears the World Health Organisation is appeasing China, which desperately wants to blame other nations as the source, while the scientific establishment is closing ranks to protect some key figures."
"Many experts suspect this is a natural zoonotic virus that spilled over from animals... Some credible figures, however, point to circumstantial evidence swirling around a top-security laboratory in Wuhan...
Here's a good case-study on why calling something a 'conspiracy' without analysing the facts or even waiting for the facts to emerge, can be misleading at best and deceitful at worse
Dismissing lab origin as a 'conspiracy' is just an attempt not to respond to facts, or to exclude possible theories without a sufficient basis to do so.
So can we do away with this label until things get settled?
"It is the great riddle of our time: how, when and where did the coronavirus emerge? Even insiders at the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is tasked with finding the answers, are alarmed to discover that China will “call the shots” in providing them."
"The investigation is a collaboration between a WHO team of foreign experts — approved by Beijing from a list submitted by UN member states — and Chinese scientists.
However, there is still no timeline for the international team to enter China..."
"...and no guarantee whom they may interview, what records they will be able to see and whether they will be allowed to visit Wuhan... Instead, the WHO and Beijing have agreed that Chinese researchers will conduct the early stages of the investigation."
Some interesting Wuhan Institute of Virology tenders from 2020:
1. Competitive negotiation on the procurement of biosafety autoclaves and medical double-door autoclaves by Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (May 13, 2020)
2. Announcement on the transaction of the sewage treatment and upgrading project of the comprehensive experimental research base of virology and biosafety (July 14, 2020)
3. Announcement on the Transaction of the Security Service Procurement Project in Zhengdian Research Park of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (September 24, 2020)
Some pretty fascinating Wuhan Institute of Virology tenders from 2019:
1. Announcement of Competitive Consultation on Maintenance Project of P3 Laboratory and Laboratory Animal Center in Zhengdian Park, WIV, CAS (March 01, 2019)
2. Announcement of the transaction for the renovation project of the hazardous waste treatment system in Zhengdian Park, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (July 31, 2019)
3. Announcement of winning the bid for the procurement project of the environmental air disinfection system and the scalable automated sample storage management system of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (August 14, 2019)