WIV could be much more transparent, but given the conspiracy theories circulating, I don’t know what WIV could say or release to demonstrate that they didn’t have anything close to SARS-CoV-2 on file. People would just call it a coverup.
https://twitter.com/stuartjdneil/status/1405300500480901125
What’s already public is exculpatory. They did what antibody testing they could early in the outbreak and found nothing, and say that RaTG13 is the closest match in their records (and it’s not very close). They also say (IIRC) that they haven’t got any close spike match.
But people don’t take it as exculpatory because they think there’s more. And it isn’t clear that the demands of the conspiracists could ever be satisfied.
We should not expect full access to unpublished data and unredacted medical records of staff (as I’ve seen some people prominently requesting in media pieces). I’m sure Francis Collins and WHO have more realistic lists.
We also need serious expeditions to sample wildlife and farms that supply Wuhan, and I wonder if international investigators might not be able to more easily have off the record conversations with dealers in illegal wildlife.
All of which will take time and maybe not give definitive answers. And certainly, will not satisfy the most ardent conspiracists. So don’t bother trying to satisfy them.
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