So much energy spent on the lab-leak hypothesis, following illogical lines of argument, poorly understood science, to support pre-conceived ideas. Here's a story on the pathway that the @WHO origins mission found "likely to very likely" for COVID origins: telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
So, in just 1 day of Twitter responses, an @NIH statement that they did NOT fund GoF studies at WIV & the Furin cleavage site is NOT a 'smoking gun'. I guess Wade got paid & the conspiracists got their chance to point fingers. Meanwhile, somewhere in a wildlife farm in SE Asia...
.@NIH response to another reporter today confirming they did NOT fund gain-of-function work via @EcoHealthNYC's grant at WIV. This is the correct protocol - NIH decides if a grant contains GoF work. Ours did NOT. Wade article remains fundamentally flawed. wsj.com/articles/biden…
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"The NIH has not ever, & does not now, fund 'gain of function research' in the Wuhan Institute." Dr. Fauci of @NIAIDNews testifying today. thehill.com/policy/healthc…
Re. funding @EcoHealthNYC to study bat-CoVs: "Let me explain to you why that was done, the SARS COV-1 originated in bats in China. It would have been irresponsible of us if we did not investigate the bat viruses & the serology to see who might have been infected," Fauci said.
Exciting to see this! This antibody treatment was tested against the bat-CoVs discovered by @EcoHealthNYC & our collaborators at WIV, China. It showed that it is broad-acting, able to neutralize COVID variants and other potential future pandemic viruses. clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/adagio-tr…
A big congratulations to @AdagioTx for their strategic vision with ADG20. We're going to need these broad-acting therapeutics to fight upcoming variants, and future pandemics.
Good review of @WHO origins report w/ comments from @edwardcholmes "The most likely has always been, & still remains, an animal to human jump, with bats the most likely point of origin but probably through another animal." smh.com.au/national/austr…
“The pathway forward appears to be twofold: 1) try to find more cases of people who had respiratory diseases prior to the 1st case reported in Dec 2019, & are there samples available? That’s really important. It could be Wuhan, Hubei Province or another part of China."
“2nd, the famous Wuhan market came back into focus, not as the place where it emerged, because that’s still not clear, but I think the report is saying – almost between the lines – that animal wildlife farming is most likely responsible."
Important work here from @edwardcholmes & colleagues providing more evidence that insertions in spike proteins of bat & pangolin SARSr-CoVs show similarities across diff CoVs & therefore arise naturally. virological.org/t/spike-protei…
“..there have been suggestions that scientists should stop investigating the diversity of coronaviruses in bats & other animals (Baker, 2021). We contend that the world should do the opposite if we are to be better prepared to prevent the next pandemic of an emergent coronavirus”
“[these new bat-CoVs] possess different combinations of spike motifs in ..RBD & S1/S2 junction that were 1st described in SARS-CoV-2. These observations are consistent with the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 & strongly inconsistent with a laboratory origin.”
.@WHO Press conference begins in Wuhan. The whole expert group is in a room just 100 yds away, watching on the big screen & live tweeting. @MarionKoopmans represents the expert group on the call. @Peterfoodsafety Team lead for WHO side & Dr. Liang Wannian, taking the lead here.
We're watching live on @cgtn - available in most countries if you want to listen in, or you can try to log on to the zoom.
Join the WHO press conference:
Zoom link: who-e.zoom.us/j/97848217705
Password: WHO+OMS+
Phone
Webinar ID: 978 4821 7705
Numeric Passcode for telephone: 67652470
International numbers available: who-e.zoom.us/u/abkVw3i1u
3:31 PM
Worth watching if the timezones work for you. Summary report will be released & evidence, results of joint work discussed. news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-0…
Prob delay to around 4.45 or 5pm local time.
The two team leads will talk with the press - the China team lead Dr. Liang Wannian & the @WHO team lead Dr. Peter Ben Embarek. We'll be watching from a room round the corner - looking forward to watching!