Alina Chan Profile picture
Nov 5, 2021 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
If the problem with some lab leak proponents is that they’re “just asking questions”, then the problem with some natural spillover proponents is that they “don’t ask questions”.

From day 1, some believed SARS2 must’ve come from a market, everything else could not be questioned.
The amount of misinfo coming from both sides has been comparable, but in-field experts should be held to a higher standard because their word is taken at face value by journalists and the public.

Yet we have seen zero accountability for the misinformation spread by some experts.
Have any of the experts who cast the lab origin hypothesis as a conspiracy theory taken any responsibility for their anti-scientific statements?

Have any of the journalists misled by them gone back to these experts and said wtf?
Probably a good time to start going through the numerous articles in 2020 and even 2021, published by top media outlets quoting Peter Daszak and friends without question, to start adding much needed clarifications on the EcoHealth’s COIs re: the #OriginOfCovid
Many of the COIs we’ve seen are not even slightly nebulous. Many of the #OriginOfCovid advisors and investigators have strong financial, personal, professional, reputational interests in making sure this virus didn’t come from a lab.
Somehow it has recently upgraded to “let’s not investigate the #OriginOfCovid because the world can’t handle knowing that the virus likely came from a lab”

I find this more honest than “lab leak is a conspiracy theory” but still anti-scientific.
Stop reassuring each other that the #OriginOfCovid will never be found.

Some people might already know the origin but need to wait for a safer time to blow the whistle.

Let’s focus on making best efforts to investigate and also make pathogen research safer.
It doesn't help that, in July, 40+ science orgs wrote:

"We urge [Congress] to reject attempts to impose restrictions on federally funded research or the operations of federal science agencies based on premature conclusions about how the pandemic emerged." asm.org/Articles/Polic…
There are some scientists who will refuse to implement new framework+oversight over risky pathogen research until someone shows them an authenticated video from 2019 of a tube labeled SARSrCoV with novel FCS spilling directly into the mouth of a scientist in Wuhan.

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More from @Ayjchan

Jun 19
I respect Dr Fauci's decades of service in gov. Being in charge during a pandemic is no small challenge & no one can lead for so long without making mistakes. However, it needs to be said that Dr Fauci has not surrounded himself with wise & honest people regarding #OriginOfCovid
These are the virologists & experts he trusted on #OriginOfCovid

In their private messages in early 2020, they mocked other virologists for not being able to predict their own lab leaks & misled a @nytimes journalist asking about a potential lab origin.
These experts published an influential letter 'The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2' that was used widely to shut down questions about a lab leak.

In private, they wrote that evidence against a lab leak was not strong and speculated on genetic engineering.
wsj.com/articles/the-c…
Read 10 tweets
Jun 19
Dr Bob Garry admitted we don't know what viruses were studied in Wuhan labs. The papers he cited in support of natural #OriginOfCovid have been thoroughly refuted (see below).

My response to Garry's testimony was submitted into record. Key points ⬇️
hsgac.senate.gov/hearings/origi…
A research-related #OriginOfCovid is plausible and even considered more likely by some experts and US intelligence agencies.
goodjudgment.com/wp-content/upl…
Available data on early cases & market samples do not distinguish between a superspreader event versus spillover.

Even Dr Ralph Baric who collaborated with Wuhan scientists said the “market was a conduit for expansion of the disease. Is that where it started? I don’t think so.”
Image
Image
Read 12 tweets
May 2
Ralph Baric's interview with @covidselect reveals he was on the Feb 1, 2020 phone call with Farrar, Fauci, Collins and the Proximal Origin authors.

Did he reveal his plans from 2018 with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to put furin cleavage sites into SARS-like viruses?

oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…Image
@COVIDSelect Baric said he forgot about the Defuse proposal & did not mention it at the Feb 1 call.

I believe Baric sharing Defuse would've prevented the publication of Proximal Origin and the use of it to dismiss a lab #OriginOfCovid in US gov and to the public. Image
@COVIDSelect Baric also could've told them at the Feb 1 meeting that novel SARS-like viruses were being used in infection experiments at BSL2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology aka the Wild West according to Jeremy Farrar.
Read 10 tweets
May 1
Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance testified he didn't know Wuhan Institute of Virology bred 🦇, studied pangolin samples, engineered viruses without leaving a trace, and continued to collect viruses after 2015.

So how does he know they didn't cause Covid?
Daszak said he didn't know if WIV had started experiments described in the Defuse proposal and 🚨had not even asked them🚨.

He only had virus sequences from samples collected up to 2015. He believed that the WIV would've shared more sequences from 2016-2019 if they had them.
Reminder: EcoHealth Alliance still has not shared the sequences for the WIV's 220 SARS-CoV-1-like viruses (2022 interview) or 180 unique SARS-like viruses in their prior work not yet characterized for spillover potential (2018 proposal).
Read 5 tweets
Apr 22
Those dismissing a lab #OriginOfCovid have had to make numerous concessions over the past 4 years.

We now know Wuhan scientists conducted risky experiments with novel SARS-like viruses at low biosafety & planned in 2018 to create viruses with the traits of the Covid-19 virus.
We also know the data on early cases & Huanan market shared by Chinese scientists do not shed light on #OriginOfCovid

Proponents of natural origin continue to argue that it is the totality of evidence that supports their hypothesis but this could be said for lab origin as well.
The latest defense for a natural #OriginOfCovid is that, if a lab leak had occurred, the Wuhan scientists would have acted all suspicious and essentially given the game away, thereby putting themselves, their colleagues & their families in immediate and deadly peril.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 18
Freedom of speech is important in academia & science but difficult to navigate when it comes to politicized topics.

With #OriginOfCovid, some scientists, journals & reporters have competing interests & may be blamed if research they conducted, funded or glorified caused Covid.
On Tuesday’s hearing, chief editor of Science said the scientific community contributed to politicization of Covid & it was wrong to paint 'lab leak' as a conspiracy theory.

There was widespread consensus, Democrat or Republican, that #OriginOfCovid remains unresolved.
Several representatives asked for forward-facing solutions but none were presented. Today, the media continues to hang onto mistakes & politics of the past.

When confronted, many scientists or journalists who misled their peers & the public on #OriginOfCovid make no apologies.
Read 10 tweets

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