Thread by @michaelzlin

Thank you @nbcnews for clearly stating that you can have a lab leak of a non-engineered virus.

Now if we can get certain scientists to also say this, it would improve our ability to figure things out, instead of just yelling at each other.

Excerpts below
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/f…

"Andersen, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute, tweeted this week that "we seriously considered a lab leak a possibility," but reconsidered upon further review of the evidence..."

"Andersen’s use of the term “lab leak” could be confusing, however, because he was talking in the emails about the question of whether the virus had been modified or engineered."

"Another theory, experts say, is that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying samples of the virus taken from bats, and a mishap allowed it to escape without it ever having been modified. That could mean it arose in nature, but leaked from the lab."

"Most scientists who have examined the virus don’t see any evidence that it was genetically modified. Scientists who argue against the lab leak theory have often conflated the two distinct scenarios."

"In fact, no examination of the virus’s genetic footprint can reveal whether the virus, taken from its natural state, was being studied in a lab. Nor can the virus’s genetic makeup speak to whether it spread to humans in Wuhan as a result of a lab accident."

👏Absolutely correct

Yet it seems certain scientists, through sloppy terminology, selective answering of questions, or answering a different question than what was asked, are content to perpetuate the confusion that "no engineering" = "no lab leak"