Thread by @Ayjchan

On the #OriginsOfCovid I told @denisechow @NBCNews "I know a lot of people want to have a smoking gun. It's more like breadcrumbs everywhere, and they're not always leading in one direction. It's like the whole floor is covered in breadcrumbs."
nbcnews.com/science/scienc…

I've recently been tagged in many threads with people arguing which is more likely: a natural or a lab origin of Covid-19.

This wasn't possible last year.

People (including scientists) arguing that a lab leak could be likely or even more likely were attacked as unscientific.

I think it's not very useful to speculate whether natural or lab origins are more likely. But. I think it's a good sign that the public and scientists are now able to talk about it without fearing excessive censure from their friends and colleagues.

Scientists don't meet up at work and debate about what is more likely and then call it a day.

Even if there's a small chance your hypothesis might be wrong, you still have to test it. As peer reviewer three might say.

Even if there's only a 1% chance that Covid-19 emerged because of a lab leak, we still have to properly investigate it.

That's why I don't understand the scientists saying that investigating a lab leak would be a "distraction" or "waste of time."

Some scientists have said that the uncertainty is killing us (or being commercialized).

You're in the wrong field.

Scientists have to be able to live with uncertainty, communicate uncertainty, receive communications of uncertainty for extended periods of time.

Instead of writing an endless stream of articles arguing about what is more likely, let's please get to an investigation.

There are tons of breadcrumbs & puzzle pieces scattered around the globe right now.

And no real investigation of #OriginsOfCovid 1.5 years post-outbreak.

Do we want to be back here in X years when another outbreak erupts in a city with a laboratory collecting and manipulating the same type of viruses, and despite searching there’s no evidence for natural spillover?

Is “a lab-based pandemic never happened before” the best we got?

To all the people arguing about likelihoods, please accept that the person you’re arguing with won’t change their minds.

Let’s just investigate. Continue to collect information and push for the release of information.