Atomsk's Sanakan Profile picture
Jun 8, 2021 14 tweets 12 min read Read on X
1/Z

An annoying thing about many SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists is they don't learn a da*n thing, no matter how much it's explained to them.

Example from WSJ, Steven Quay, + Richard Muller:

"The science suggests a Wuhan lab leak"
wsj.com/articles/the-s…
archive.is/MfmLd Image
2/Z

Quay + Muller's 'codon usage' point is not new.

Ex: Bret Weinstein was making the point months ago, and Nicholas Wade did more recently.

It's a favorite talking among the conspiracy theorists.



https://t.co/jGJkNUBui0

thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-or… Image
4/Z

Another crucial concept is out-of-frame insertion / frame-shift:

practical-haemostasis.com/Genetics/genet…
genome.gov/genetics-gloss…

It's basic biology, and I learned it as a high school freshman. It's telling how many SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists screw up introductory genetics. 🙄 Image
5/Z

So an out-of-frame mutation resulting from copy-choice error, easily explains how one ends up with 2 CGG codons without a lab.

That's been known since at least May *2020.*
Hence why I said the conspiracists learn nothing. 🤦‍♂️



virological.org/t/tackling-rum… Image
6/Z

It's also silly when Quay + Muller say "CGG" is a hallmark of genetic manipulation.

As an immunologist I know it's actually a fairly common sequence often recognized by the immune system and used to clear pathogens.



archive.is/ZFIHa Image
7/Z

Quay + Muller suggest that "the double CGG is suppressed naturally":
archive.is/MfmLd#selectio…

Actually, SARS-CoV-2 kept it in nature. That's not surprising, since it can evade (and likely often disrupt) the immune system.



archive.is/ZFIHa#selectio… Image
8/Z

Out-of-frame introduction of two CGG codons is 1 of many ways in which SARS-CoV-2 looks like a virus that evolved haphazardly in the natural world, as opposed to being intelligently designed by humans

microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-762/



virological.org/t/tackling-rum… Image
9/Z

This is why copy-choice error (along with codon usage and SARS-CoV-2's furin cleavage site) is 1 of my litmus tests for SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists:

If they still screw up on it after May 2020, then they're not credible. 🤷‍♂️



Image
10/Z

Besides:
- Nicholas Wade
- Steven Quay
- Richard Muller
- Bret Weinstein
- Heather Heying
etc., Richard Ebright also peddled the debunked codon talking point.

Yet even Alina Chan knew better.





archive.is/ZFIHa#selectio… Image
11/Z

Evidence won't persuade most SARS-CoV-2 lab conspiracists, anymore than evidence would persuade most HIV conspiracists that HIV evolved naturally from SIV and spread outside of a lab, as opposed to having escaped from scientists' research.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… Image
12/Z

For non-expert conspiracists, it's not about evidence, but instead ideology, etc.



"Pew Research Center survey conducted in March 2020 found that 29% of Americans believed that SARS-CoV-2 was developed intentionally in a lab"
link.springer.com/content/pdf/10… Image
13/Z

Even the scientist Nicholas Wade cited to justify his conspiracism on the furin cleavage site / codon usage, walked his statements back.

Do better next time, David Baltimore.
Don't be another Kary Mullis with Nobel disease.



theguardian.com/world/2021/jun… Image
14/Z

Re: "So an out-of-frame mutation resulting from copy-choice error, easily explains how one ends up with 2 CGG codons without a lab.
That's been known since at least May *2020.*
Hence why I said the conspiracists learn nothing"

Context from @gorskon:
respectfulinsolence.com/2021/06/11/cgg…

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More from @AtomsksSanakan

Dec 9, 2024
@luckytran Bhattacharya' NIH nomination for 2025 is reminiscent of Scott Pruitt's EPA nomination for 2017:

Position a contrarian ideologue whose views contradict published evidence + expert assessments.

x.com/_johnbye/statu…
x.com/pjavidan/statu…

cnbc.com/2017/03/09/sco… Image
@luckytran In which Bhattacharya does the intellectual equivalent of claiming vaccine denialists are being unfairly persecuted because Andrew Wakefield's blog told him so

🤢

x.com/AlastairMcA30/…

x.com/AliNeitzelMD/s…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
@luckytran x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…

Bhattacharya, November 2020:

"What they're doing is focused protection, and you can see the result. The infection rates are going up in Sweden, but the death rates are not."
edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/vi…

ourworldindata.org/explorers/covi… Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18, 2024
@luckytran No, 'focused protection' did not lead to herd immunity within 6 months in Florida.

"Florida, which adopted a focused-protection approach"
spiked-online.com/2021/08/02/the…

x.com/GidMK/status/1…

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…

gbdeclaration.org/frequently-ask… Image
@luckytran When your main non-lockdown example... has a lockdown.

"announced a ban on public events of more than eight people"
web.archive.org/web/2020120111…

"upper secondary schools are again closing"
thelocal.se/20201203/swede…

x.com/DrKatrin_Rabie…

Bhattacharya:
gbdeclaration.org/frequently-ask… Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 17, 2024
@luckytran Re: "Bhattacharya has spread disinformation on COVID"

You may want to support this claim, if you haven't already.

There are plenty of examples of him spreading misinformation.

For instance: on masking

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/RobertoCast212…

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap… Image
@luckytran Promoting obvious disinformation about China's COVID-19 policy.

x.com/ResidingCynic/…
x.com/doritmi/status…

web.archive.org/web/2022010218… Image
@luckytran Saying a majority of Indians had "natural immunity" when the real number was ~25%, weeks before India suffered a large COVID-19 wave

x.com/GYamey/status/…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
Read 28 tweets
Feb 23, 2024
71/J

I recently got a copy of Dr. Judith Curry's book without buying it myself.

Looking over it confirmed to me that it's largely misinformation.

I'll illustrate that by assessing its claims on COVID-19.

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…

"11.3.1 COVID-19"
amazon.com/Climate-Uncert… Image
72/J

To reiterate: Curry draws parallels between COVID-19 + climate change.

But some of the sources she cites suggest an ideologically convenient narrative misinformed her.

That becomes clearer when assessing her claims.

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
73/J

No mention of the misinformation she + other contrarians promoted, and which conflicted with knowledge advances by experts.

(8/J - 12/J, 32J - 36/J, 44/J, 45/J, 63/J, etc.)

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
Read 47 tweets
Feb 17, 2024
1/J

Dr. Judith Curry recommends people read at least the 45-page preview of her new book.

I did.

It's bad enough I wouldn't recommend buying the book.
It's largely contrarian conspiracist misinformation.




amazon.com/Climate-Uncert…
Image
Read 72 tweets
Aug 30, 2023
PapersOfTheDay

"Executive Summary to the Royal Society report “COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions”"


"Effectiveness of face masks for reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2: [...]"
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…
Jefferson + Heneghan don't like the papers.

Makes sense they wouldn't given their track record, especially Jefferson on the Cochrane mask review he led.







brownstone.org/articles/royal…



cochrane.org/news/statement…
Image
Read 5 tweets

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