Thread by @Ayjchan

Public service: This is now the link to the archived Fact Sheet released by the previous State Department concerning activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that could point to possible #laborigins of the covid-19 virus.
2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-act…

@washingtonpost says "If the U.S. government possesses information to corroborate that statement, it should release it, including declassifying any intelligence." washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

The situation right now, I presume, is that the intelligence cannot be declassified because of endangering the source(s).

In that case, please create a curated list of non-gov people who can see this intelligence. There is a lot at stake.

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1350261332277424132

OR if this press release from the previous administration was unscientific/in major error, don't just archive it - release an updated press statement carefully saying which parts were incorrect and which parts were correct.

I keep saying this, but the most important point in this press release isn't that WIV was doing secret military research or that its employees had covid-like symptoms in late 2019 - it's whether the pangolin research was occurring pre-covid:

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1350262160107204608

We know that the story we've been told is inaccurate. The WIV filed a patent in 2018 for bat cages but EcoHealth President Daszak said all the bats are released back to their cave site and not killed.

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1351519374742614037

If you can at least tell us if smuggled pangolins in China were being sequenced for SARS-CoVs, and if these sequences were shared with labs in other parts of China, such as the WIV, to study novel SARS-CoVs pre-COVID - that would help scientists a lot.

We know that as far back as 2017 there were smuggled pangolins in China that had SARS viruses (not close to SARS2). We don't know if these were detected at the time or only analyzed post-covid. If there was a national program to culture/sequence viruses from pangolins...

... that changes the story entirely.

We already know some labs were switching in SARS spike RBDs into in-house backbones that aren't always published in a timely manner.

I know that many many people find it incredibly difficult to imagine how a lab leak of a virus could occur. So let's get into the SARS virus leaks in Singapore, Taiwan, and China.

2003, Singapore, SARS leaked from a lab:
cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

"The patient was conducting research on the West Nile virus in a laboratory that was also conducting research using active SARS coronavirus.. cross-contamination of West Nile virus samples with the SARS virus in the laboratory was the source of infection."
who.int/csr/don/2003_0…

"Although no SARS work was being done that day, live SARS was definitely in the laboratory 2 days earlier. Stool and sputum samples tested for SARS coronavirus using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction were positive."
thelancet.com/journals/lanin…

I just want the public (and scientists) to understand that this work DID NOT require any cell or animal infection experiments.

Somehow, just having another person studying patient samples for SARS a couple of days earlier - resulted in this separate researcher getting SARS!

Scientists have a lot of training, but scientists are also human beings.

We f*** up from time to time. Even machines f*** up, maybe even more regularly than humans.

On to Taiwan: "Chan was most likely to have come into contact with the virus on December 6 while cleaning waste liquid that had spilled in a chamber in his biosafety level 4 laboratory"

I'm not that Chan obviously. thelancet.com/journals/lanin…

Important to note that this lab leak occurred in a BL4 lab. "patient most likely was infected by some spilled liquid he saw on the surface of a test tube. Omi said the man was working without protective gear, such as a gown and gloves" cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspecti…

Keep in mind the SARS work, even in humanized mice and civets, at the WIV were being performed outside of BL4 sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/t…

I am not saying this to slam scientists, but I've seen a lot of improper PPE/safety practices, ESPECIALLY in top labs where the PIs are so busy with top s*** that they have no time to check that their trainees are complying with safety protocols.

Thankfully, my current work does not involve any pathogens that can make more copies of themselves. But it happens - you have trainees or technicians who touch pathogen samples and touch their faces or phones or earbuds with the same gloves.

On to Beijing SARS virus lab leaks (two of them):

1. researcher infected her mother (died) and a nurse in a hospital where she was treated. The nurse infected her mother, father, aunt, and a fellow patient.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

2. another researcher at the same lab was infected - SEPARATELY.

"Almost 1000 people are in quarantine or under close medical supervision."
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

"WHO Beijing is relatively sanguine.. despite the fact that the 26-year-old infected had taken a long journey on the country's rail network. The index cases are known, and contacts had been traced.. no significant public health threat" genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

"Preliminary findings in the investigation have yet to identify a single infectious source or single procedural error at the Institute.. may never be determined."

Even after a WHO investigation, they don't know how 2 scientists got infected separately.
who.int/csr/don/2004_0…

"“We are lucky that she travelled on a train and not on an international flight. Had she landed in another country I am not sure her occupation and the fact that her mother was also sick would have been noted or rung any alarm bells."
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

A lot of scientists think that a lab leak is near impossible, and barely deserving of a proper investigation, but I think you might need to read up on lab safety accidents in labs studying pathogens. How frequently breaches happen. How often sick employees aren't followed up on.

SARS-CoV-2 is exactly the type of virus that would leak and transmit out of a lab, escaping early detection.

A considerable portion of patients are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (lab workers tend to be young 20s-30s); no fever.

Long incubation time of up to 14 days.

If we were talking about some other CoV like SARS1 or MERS that manifests rapidly so you can detect infected individuals reliably and quickly, it would be a different story.

Maybe unsurprisingly, it is these 3 countries that have the strongest anti-covid response in the world. Singapore, Taiwan, and China enacted unambiguous, immediate anti-SARS policies. They're among the top countries in the world in terms of shutting out covid-19.

"Taiwan has so few cases the government holds news conferences to announce details of each new one."
reuters.com/article/us-hea…

Singapore: "The sole community case is a 43-year-old Singaporean man who works at Changi Airport"

THE SOLE COMMUNITY CASE IS AN AIRPORT WORKER.
straitstimes.com/singapore/24-n…

Meanwhile out here in the USA... nytimes.com/interactive/20…