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16 Jan, 11 tweets, 5 min read
"The starting point is the question of which animals were on that market in Wuhan, and where they came from."

Checking where the drainage & sewage systems ran, and where it came from, is a way better starting point IMO. 🧵
By now we all know this:

“Early investigations sampled frozen animal carcasses at the market, but none found evidence of SARS-CoV-2...However, environmental samples, taken mostly from drains and sewage, did test positive for the virus.”

nature.com/articles/d4158…
"Gao said he had gone to Wuhan to collect samples for COVID-19 researchers in early January, but no viruses were detected in the animal samples. Viruses were only found in environmental samples, including sewage."

globaltimes.cn/content/118950…
Shi Zhengli would agree.
science.sciencemag.org/content/369/65…

So the idea that the virus originated from some animal in the Huanan wet market seems bogus to me.
Perhaps WHO should spend time examining the merits of Botao Xiao's paper.

web.archive.org/web/2020021414…
In the latter half of 2019, there were large-scale sewage and drainage projects throughout Wuhan. Projects included inspection, diversion, and rectification of incorrect pipelines and treatment facilities.

archive.is/fW7IY
archive.is/ufEOk
archive.is/apj73
Around the same time, WIV's sewage treatment facility was undergoing renovation, while tenders were awarded by WCDC for bio-waste disposal.

web.archive.org/web/2020051018…



So it is plausible that lab waste went into Wuhan's sewers without proper disinfection.
After the outbreak, WIV awarded tenders for disinfection equipments, autoclaves and upgradation of sewage treatment, among other things.



I mean, there could be a causal relationship here.
Shi Zhengli herself suspected "mishandling of experimental materials, especially during disposal.”

scientificamerican.com/article/how-ch…
In summary, contaminated sewage could have served as a vector for the spread of coronavirus during the initial outbreak in Wuhan, perhaps as a result of sewer outflow, or some worker getting infected while cleaning the sewage and drainage pipelines.
So the examination of the sewage network and samples from the period before December 2019 should be of particular interest.

However it remains to be seen if they are given the access to conduct a proper probe, or are shepherded to agree with China’s narrative. /End

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More from @TheSeeker268

The Seeker Profile picture
17 Jan
"Scientists – like journalists – should follow evidence until it is disproved, even when it leads into uncomfortable terrain. Anything else is a betrayal of their creed." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9… via @MailOnline
"Why didn’t [Shi Zhengli] mention the ‘furin cleavage site’ when publishing the genetic sequence for Sars-Cov-2, despite analysing its other novel features?"
"Why did she claim three miners died of a fungal infection in 2012 although it later emerged they died from a mysterious respiratory disease caught while clearing bat droppings in one of those caves?"
Read 6 tweets
The Seeker Profile picture
15 Jan
"In the future, people will probably remember a time before the pandemic - and a time after it. Against this background, the investigation from the WHO in China is probably no less than the question of the decade, perhaps even the question of the century." t-online.de/nachrichten/au…
"WHO experts have traveled to China to investigate the truth. Whether the world will ever know is not entirely up to them."

"The Chinese side was given the right to bless every single member of the ten-person team."
"In December, a team from the BBC traveled to Yunnan. The southern Chinese province is home to bats that carry a variety of coronaviruses. Chinese scientists, including researchers from WIV, have taken large amounts of samples from these bats in order to examine the viruses."
Read 4 tweets
The Seeker Profile picture
4 Jan
Thread: On @USAID PREDICT, Global Virome Project (GVP) and China Virome Project (CVP); some problematic issues with these projects, it's link to #originsofSARS2; and illuminating re: reason there's a lack of data transparency. ImageImage
First, a disclaimer: this thread queries the evidence (quotes, statements, and snippets from media reports and official documents in public domain) and contains neither assumption nor accusation of intent.
Ok, so now a bit about PREDICT's journey: PREDICT was initiated in 2009, as part of USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT), to detect viruses with pandemic potential.

It was planned as a 5-year run. EPT-1 ended in 2014, and EPT-2 followed for another 5-year run. Image
Read 34 tweets
The Seeker Profile picture
2 Jan
The WHO investigation team will go to Wuhan. Will 2021 be the year to reveal the truth about the source of the new coronavirus?

"Compared with laboratory accidents, more attention is paid to the investigation of the 'animal' source of the virus."

rfi.my/6zZX.T
"Even if it is not a priority, perhaps a simple forensic investigation should be carried out as soon as possible in the laboratory closest to the market where the virus was originally discovered, so that it may be possible to avoid years of research on another clue."
Richard Ebright, a microbiologist and biosafety expert at Rutgers University in the US, believes that “reliable forensic investigations should be requested to visit Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan CDC. The archives, samples, staff and buildings of the center." @R_H_Ebright
Read 11 tweets
The Seeker Profile picture
22 Dec 20
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.

lemonde.fr/idees/article/…
"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."
Read 4 tweets
The Seeker Profile picture
22 Dec 20
Phylogenetic supertree reveals detailed evolution of SARS-CoV-2

nature.com/articles/s4159…
"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."
Read 4 tweets

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