Thread by @Ayjchan

@razibkhan interviewed me over 🎄 for his new Unsupervised Learning series - got a little emotional at the end revisiting my experience of raising the possibility of covid lab origins which had been and continues to be cast as conspiracy theory. But the search for covid origins..

https://twitter.com/razibkhan/status/1352482556852240387

.. isn’t even close to peaking yet. We haven’t even established a credible independent investigation into the matter. Once that actually happens, we will certainly find out a lot more about where this virus came from.

I am optimistic about this.

I didn’t (and won’t) mention names of absolutely talented, courageous & wise people who supported me during this time. But I’m grateful for the people who know that we need to find the origins of covid and, in the big picture, have a renewed conversation about pathogen research.

I also want to elaborate on one point @razibkhan raised: I’ve received a lot of attention (➕&➖) during this period.

I’m very grateful to the journalists investigating origins themselves, and who’ve considered me worthy to interview (& not for flash-in-the-🍳 sensationalism)...

Over the last month, as covid lab origins have received more media coverage, that attention has only intensified, both the good and horrific.

Some who raised lab origins early have started to demand that kind of attention, and, unfortunately, blame me for hogging that attention.

I want to be clear that when journalists come asking about findings that internet sleuths or other scientists have discovered, I tell them to go talk to the authors of those works as well as the experts who disagree with the findings.

Good reporting is when you cover both sides.

I don’t know what I should be doing- when some experts say I’m spreading misinformation & seeking attention, while on the other side some internet sleuths say I’m not sharing the spotlight. The negative attention on one side can lead to loss of employment, and the other-violence.

And on top of that I have to watch out for the people who don’t want the origins of the virus to ever be found. You could not pick a more fearsome enemy that can disappear whole networks of people or destroy their lives in other terrible ways.

This question keeps coming up: Why am I not endorsing all peer-reviewed papers (and persons) that propose lab origins?

My answer: Do you think that someone who picks a side and indiscriminately endorses narratives supporting their side would do what I've been doing?

Don't you want your scientists and journalists (people who investigate the truth) to have the distinct quality of judging any evidence/source with objectivity - regardless of relationship or incentives, regardless of whether something has been peer-reviewed or part of consensus?

Even if you pick a side, you should hold your own side to the same standards (if not higher) than the opposing side.

If you set the bar real low for your own team, the result will be annihilation by the other team who has stronger players, stronger evidence (less speculation).

Scientists in academia and even in some industry/companies have this routine practice called Journal Club. Where you pick a typically peer-reviewed paper relevant to your work and you completely break it down to look for weaknesses or things you could try to use in your own work.

I have to say that a considerable portion of these Journal Clubs do not discuss papers that you would heartily endorse or share publicly.

Sometimes, you're straight up looking for major errors or limitations of the work so you don't waste time reproducing their research.

I also have a problem with people who tear down any preprint or paper for the fun of it or for clicks.

When I engage in such criticism it is because the paper has misled a significant number of people to the point where it could be considered bystander-ing to not weigh in on it.

In instances where I've torn down a paper or FOIA emails on twitter - even when I think it's important for the public to see it - it always leaves me feeling bad. I lose a lot of sleep feeling guilty about what I've done. And when I see that it's caused harassment, I delete it.

In this context, I feel a type of wtf?! at the people who ask to be criticized by me on twitter.

I feel like this is a 21st century phenomenon where bad press is still very good press as long as someone with followers is criticizing and drawing attention to you.