A very good article by Simon Wain-Hobson in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a newspaper of reference in Germany:

faz.net/aktuell/wissen…
"Nothing goes right all the time. So it is in research labs. Despite sophisticated safety installations and strict rules in virology labs accidents and leaks happen. Indeed, they are underreported."
"The virologists doing this work said it would help them predict the next pandemic virus. Armed with this insight, they claimed it would be possible to develop preventive vaccines and drugs that could be frozen and stored."

"Sadly, it’s a pipedream."
"It’s a very attractive story that convinced some leading agencies that fund biomedical research."

"As if this wasn’t enough, our track record in pandemic prediction is zero."
About DEFUSE:

"What we do not know - and badly need to know - is whether this proposal was submitted elsewhere, financed and performed. Knowing how researchers think and plan ahead, it is possible some of this disturbing work has already been performed."
German version: "Außer Kontrolle"
(nice play: 'running out of control' but also 'not subject to control')

faz.net/aktuell/wissen…

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More from @gdemaneuf

23 Oct
"African diplomats are becoming exasperated by China's demands for diplomatic support on every issue from Covid-19's origins to the human rights of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province,.."
"..whether it's in the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, diplomatic sources told Africa Confidential."

"Chinese diplomats email, text and call their African counterparts directly to get them to sign joint letters, support motions and other measures.."
Read 7 tweets
23 Oct
Angela Rasmussen:

“Withholding data from the government agency that funds your work with taxpayer dollars does not engender trust. Federal research grants are not an entitlement."
plus.cq.com/shareExternal/…
"Failing to comply with oversight measures put into place largely for safety reasons is inexcusable. I’m not going to sit idly by while [EHA] inaction allows unqualified grifters and opportunists free reign to disparage my entire profession, ultimately making everyone less safe"
Jaime Yassif (@JaimeYassif), senior fellow for global biological policy and programs:

"I would have flagged this project.
Looking at the experiment of concern that's highlighted in the letter, it appears to me as gain-of-function research, even before the 'one log' requirement."
Read 5 tweets
22 Oct
Please send your feedback to SAGO@who.int before the 27th Oct.

When it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck - it must be a duck.
So personally I will be asking for some ducks to be removed and replaced with independent experts in biosafety and biosecurity.
In my judgement:

Duck #1: Marion Koopmans

"Lab in Wuhan is a ‘Debunked Theory’ just like meteorites or snakes"

21 Feb 20, KNAW-symposium, ‘From spillover to global threat: science in action’, moderator Ron Fouchier.

knaw.nl/nl/actueel/nie…
‘Not a grain of evidence’:

Read 20 tweets
22 Oct
Nothing surprising here.

EcoHealth Alliance conducted risky experiments on MERS virus in China interc.pt/2Z8hmmL by @fastlerner, @maiahibbett
If you check the research directions over the last few years, in Wuhan (WIV, WIBP), Beijing and in collaboration with the US (inc. Baric's lab), vaccines and antiviral therapies (such as mABs) against MERS and SARS-type viruses were all the rage.

See:
bit.ly/3nz0vCb
From there, being surprised that Chinese scientists could have changed the receptor binding site on MERS is just like being surprised that trucks are travelling down a motorway that has just been built.

All the research leads to that.
Read 4 tweets
21 Oct
The whole CTR (Cooperative Threat Reduction) philosophy of Callahan was to use cooperation at the scientists level, where cooperation at government level was elusive.

Callahan started the Prophecy program at DARPA (he was their portfolio manager from 2002 to 2012).
The CTR strategy (renamed BEP) was rolled out to DURC research in Asia.

For instance he picked up Supaporn and funded most of her research with EcoHealth Alliance in Thailand (BAA grants).
Funds went to Laos too via the Naval Medical Research Centre Asia.
bepstate.net/about-us/
The same strategy was effectively applied to China, especially after they started working on their P4 with France (against better advice from the US).

In China the NIH stepped in with its R01 grants to EHA.

Here is Callahan on the CTR approach to China.
politico.com/news/magazine/…
Read 6 tweets
19 Oct
Oh Marion, what would we do without you?

You had a good time calling the research-related hypothesis 'Debunked' at the KNAW-symposium in Dec 20.

Alongside meteorite (!), snakes and some other flotsam.
You had been working for a while with your the Chinese side of the WHO-Team (remote work started around Oct-Nov 20) and you were already pretty clear on your convictions.

You made the same claims in June 21, adding that there was no point going further:
You were also very dismissive of any criticism, and fully in line on this with a now very compromised Peter Daszak, who at the time was hiding DEFUSE:
Read 10 tweets

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