Thread by @MichaelChongMP

1/ Where Did the Coronavirus Come From? What We Already Know Is Troubling.

Zeynep Tufekci, The New York Times

#cdnpoli

nytimes.com/2021/06/25/opi…

2/ “Nearly every SARS case since the original epidemic has been due to lab leaks — six incidents in three countries, including twice in a single month from a lab in Beijing. In one instance, the mother of a lab worker died.”

3/ “In 2007, foot-and-mouth disease, which can devastate livestock and caused a massive crisis in Britain in 2001, escaped from a drainage pipe leak at an English lab with the highest biosafety rating, BSL-4.”

4/ “Even the last known person who died of smallpox was someone infected because of a lab incident in Britain in 1978.”

5/ “... the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012 reported 11 laboratory-acquired infections across six years, often in BSL-3 labs — the category of safety reserved for pathogens like tuberculosis.”

6/ “In each instance, the exposure was not realized or reported until lab workers became infected.

In January 2014, the C.D.C. contaminated a benign flu virus sample with deadly A(H5N1) but didn’t discover the danger until months later.”

7/ “And in June 2014, it mistakenly sent improperly deactivated anthrax bacteria to labs, potentially exposing at least 62 C.D.C. employees who worked with the samples without protective gear.”

8/ “One month later, vials of live smallpox virus were found in a storage room at the National Institutes of Health.”

9/ “... government officials and scientists need to look at the big picture: Seek comity and truth instead of just avoiding embarrassment.”