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Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
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27 May, 5 tweets, 3 min read
"More studies needed" is a constant refrain in science. But this debate over a lab-leak has become toxic and risky.

“We need to look at the big picture and focus on incentives that get us where we want to go," says @glassmanamanda

By me @Nature
nature.com/articles/d4158…
Allegations aren't a great way to encourage collaboration on an origin study. And beyond origin studies, countries must work together to curb this crisis and prepare for the next one.
The toxicity of the debate is also fueling shameful online harassment, and @angie_rasmussen can tell you that's not fun.
And although an origin investigation is very important, we are at a critical moment when big decisions in biosecurity need to be made ---*by consensus*--- because that's how this works.

SARS-CoV-2 is still out there, evolving.
And since I know loads of you don't wanna read the story, there's more in my twitter thread 🔽

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More from @amymaxmen

Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
25 May
Dear @washingtonpost "Fact Checker," who checked your fact that the natural origin investigations have failed?

Please name emerging infectious diseases whose sources were nailed down in <5 years. I'll wait.
For fun, posting a photo I took in northern Liberia in 2019, of researchers searching for bats carrying Ebola in an abandoned mine where bats roost. We STILL don’t know the origin of the 2014 outbreak.
Relevant note from the trip: Some Liberians I met near this mine blamed the Ebola outbreak on the US. US scientists were there studying viruses, then US troops came to “help” with the outbreak. They seemed to be making 💰 from it. Fishy.

+ Another 🦇 study photo from the trip
Read 4 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
23 May
🌎Here is the most important #lableak question:

Where will mounting US demands for an investigation of Chinese labs lead?

Foreign policy experts see few potential gains, and HUGE losses.
In a letter to Science, @DavidRelman & other earnest scientists request all primary data from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Eg. the specs of the antibody tests used to test all staff at the lab, number of tests & proof of the result.

science.sciencemag.org/content/372/65…
The letter lends credence to demands from Congress, Fox News, Pompeo. Will the demands convince China to fork over its lab notebooks, re-test Wuhan scientists, etc?

Why? Even US & EU threats of sanctions haven’t curbed China’s abuse of Uighurs. China sanctioned back.
Read 10 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
28 Apr
I spent 8 months investigating how exploitation, poverty & discrimination drove COVID—and why scientists haven’t really addressed these issues, despite studying them for 150 years.

“Where is the urgency?” asks @Arrianna_Planey.

My latest #longform + 🧵 nature.com/immersive/d415…
In October, I went to Cali's San Joaquin Valley as it surged with COVID.

Many people impacted by the virus were immigrants who worked at farms & in meat plants. They felt their work was of value to society but not their lives. Low wages, no protection & blatant discrimination.
What I heard from agriculture workers reminded me of an investigation by Rudolf Virchow, 1848:

“The plutocracy…did not recognize Upper Silesians as human beings, but only as tools.” His radical solution was that “the worker must have part in the yield of the whole.”
Read 19 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
6 Apr
Media: Stop freaking people out with scary variant headlines! They're frazzled & we want the public to know when a variant *ACTUALLY* escapes vaccines regularly.

Questions to ask when you see a press release 🧵:
-Why do scientists think it's deadlier, etc?
("Double mutant"👇🏼🙄)
-If scientists think a variant is contagious because cases are up, ask about the correlation. At UC Berkeley, @staciakwyman found that outbreaks on campus were from parties, not B117.

-Behavioral reasons for surges are less newsy than Scary Mutant, but people can change behavior
-If scientists think variants evade an immune response because of studies in petri dishes or in mice, put that in the headline. eg biorxiv.org/content/10.110… This isn't the same as finding that vaccinated people get COVID.
Read 5 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
30 Mar
I read this 320-page investigation into COVID origins so you don't have to!

The undercurrent here is that the market-origin hypothesis is back.

The flashpoint is that even @DrTedros isn't happy that his team didn't have more access to the Wuhan lab.
nature.com/articles/d4158…
The team dug deep into data to figure out when the outbreak started spreading in earnest: Conclusion is December 2019.

They spent a lot of time on data from the Huanan market, finding that people w/Covid had visited the same stalls where positive samples were found.
They also went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology & asked a ton of questions. The list of rumors they confronted there are listed in the Appendix. eg
Read 7 tweets
Amy Maxmen, PhD Profile picture
10 Feb
So many stories on reaching vaccine herd immunity! But there's a massive dilemma. Here's a 🧵on what I mean...

About 50 countries have fewer than one nurse per 1000 people. Israel has 6x that rate. UK has 10x. US has 15x. Belgium has 20x. Guess which countries want it all?
Have you seen what 1 nurse/1000 looks like?

Picture people hurt in car accidents who die by the road when wounds could have been stemmed; women dying in childbirth; untreated diabetes; children dying from infected wounds, burns, stomachs. A lack of healthcare is palpable.
What do most countries few nurses have in common?

Many are former colonies, where colonizers subsidized just enough medical care to ensure that people were healthy enough for labor, but they didn't invest in national health systems. Slave traders did less.
Read 8 tweets

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