Share this page!

Alina Chan Profile picture
Twitter logo
2 Jan, 10 tweets, 4 min read
No sleep.

"Lab leak is the 'most credible' source of the coronavirus outbreak.. Wuhan scientist has turned whistleblower" @Abul_Taher
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

"World must investigate all the mounting evidence Covid leaked from a Wuhan lab" @ianbirrell
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
"Matthew Pottinger, who is President Donald Trump's respected Deputy National Security Adviser, told politicians from around the world.. latest intelligence points to the virus leaking from the top-secret Wuhan Institute of Virology"
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory Party leader who attended the meeting: 'I was told the US have an ex-scientist from the laboratory (WIV) in America at the moment,' he said. 'That was what I heard a few weeks ago.
"a World Health Organisation investigation is under way into the origins of the coronavirus, but it is accused of meekly pandering to China's agenda by recruiting patsy scientists and relying on Beijing's dubious data." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
"a prominent vaccine scientist told me: 'This is about as close to a smoking gun as exists.'"
"a disservice if this idea is discarded without being properly disproved and devoid of evidence. We owe this to a world dislocated so terribly by this pandemic." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
WIV has "sampled 100s of bats and people living near bat caves.. Even if the precursor to (Sars2) was not from these miners or the Mojiang mine, did they find other viruses that are very closely related that we do not yet know about?" dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
I better hit this nail on the head again. Some people are asking me if the mail is trustworthy. I’d say follow the journalist. If the journalist proves again and again to be reliable, then it doesn’t matter which platform they publish on. I feel quite confident about this story.
2020 taught me that journalists from impeccable agencies may not be the best bet for groundbreaking stories. People have trust networks - if you’re a reputable journalist, you probably have a network of top scientists to tap into and you don’t need to look for dissonance...
That means the once in a lifetime stories that flip reality on its head will be covered by journalists who don’t rely on these safe networks of experts. This is the way.
Leaving this gif of baby yoda as a reward...

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Alina Chan

Alina Chan Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Ayjchan

Alina Chan Profile picture
4 Jan
Feeling like @nicholsonbaker8’s article started a food fight amongst scientists and science journalists on twitter...
Maybe some readers are confused what the article is about. It is not proof that sars2/covid came from a lab. If @nicholsonbaker8 had proof that the virus was from a lab, he should’ve been on the @WHO and @TheLancet origins investigation teams.
nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Reading many twitter comments in response to the article, it looks like people are outraged by the speculation of what a lab origins scenario could look like, how this could be politicised, and how top virologists are pitted against ‘cranks’ (scientists from adjacent fields).
Read 6 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
4 Jan
People have asked why the virus is still improving since it's (pre)adapted for human transmission. Pathogens vs hosts are in a constant arms race. SARS2 got good at infecting humans, but now it's a different game - getting around immune response, sometimes within a patient.
This is just super disturbing. "with just 3 mutations... escape from neutralisation by that plasma"
What it means is that each country really needs to step up its game of sequencing SARS2 virus isolates in their cities. Scientists then need to take these sequences and test them to see if they can affect efficacy of antibodies, vaccines, diagnostics. covidcg.org/?tab=global_se…
Read 7 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
2 Jan
I feel like suddenly all the major news organizations are interested in the origins of SARS2/covid, or were saving these stories up for the 1-year anniversary of the outbreak. bloomberg.com/news/features/…
It's possibly giving the public whiplash. Up till recently (even today), many people likely still thought the virus had come from a wet market in Wuhan through the illegal wildlife trade.

Suddenly, all these stories of obstruction into the investigation of origins are emerging.
The article provides an interesting window into the new Wuhan 'Battle Against Covid-19 Special Exhibition' and the difficulties reporters faced tracking down and talk to vendors from the Huanan seafood market. But they forgot to clarify that one of their heavily cited experts..
Read 6 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
31 Dec 20
Really good story telling by @whippletom and some honestly funny quotes by experts in this @thetimes article about the search for the origins of covid. @shingheizhan and I are very flattered to have been interviewed for this story. thetimes.co.uk/article/how-di…
I like the article & think it gives lab origins fair evaluation:
“Publicly, many extremely senior scientists have opposed this idea. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories.. wrote one group in the Lancet..
Privately, some told The Times it was not so absurd.”
Although would have been good to also highlight the history of that Lancet letter if there was space in the article for it- in terms of Daszak writing it, who agreed to co-sign vs who didn’t agree to, and its connection to the NASEM letter emails mentioned in @thetimes article.
Read 6 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
31 Dec 20
There is a phenomenal amount of content to unpack in this astounding end-of-2020 @APNews article on the origins of SARS-CoV-2/covid. I spent the day thinking about how to go about a thread about their many findings. apnews.com/article/united…
The single line that stuck with me the most:

“It’s pointless to blame anyone for this disease” - Wuhan Huanan seafood market vendor Jiang

"Jiang avoided telling people he worked at Huanan because of the stigma. He criticized the political tussle between China and the U.S."
I agree on this point. I've spent many months not really wanting to be associated with my own twitter account. Not because there's something unscientific about the things I've tweeted, but because of the stigma associated with going against the consensus on covid origins.
Read 22 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
30 Dec 20
I understand why reputable polls are using "covid was created in a lab" as a conspiracy theory/misinformation test, but at the same time it feels like a throwback to the infamous 2015 poll showing that over 80% of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA"...
These polls can set unintentional traps for people who do not have strong scientific literacy (which does not equate to stupidity). 2015, I was 🤣 hearing that 80% of Americans wanted labels on foods containing DNA, but was rightly chastised by a friend..
washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-co…
These polls should keep average scientific literacy in mind and attach explanations or exclude options that are too challenging or nuanced to clearly explain to participants in a brief survey.

In this poll, why not rephrase as "covid is an intentionally released bioweapon"?
Read 14 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Ayjchan has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Ayjchan!

Read all threads by @Ayjchan