Share this page!

Alina Chan Profile picture
Twitter logo
Jan 19 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Proximal Origin failed to acknowledge experts who convened its authors, made natural #OriginOfCovid arguments on Feb 1 call, and/or provided input on the work.

@Akselfrids asked @NatureMedicine if they were considering an addendum to Proximal Origin...
minervanett.no/politikk-begra…
"We do not at this time intend to come up with an addendum to the article... The journal is still open to assess a diversity of views on any issue... the publication of new solid research which, according to expert assessment, can help us understand the origin of the virus."
How many manuscripts arguing that a lab #OriginOfCovid is plausible has @NatureMedicine received and sent for peer review? May we at least have numbers of submissions, peer reviews, and rejections if the peer reviews themselves cannot be made public?
@NatureMedicine Puzzled that the journal thinks it's unimportant to identify all contributors to the manuscript and clarify the eyebrow-raising circumstances surrounding one of its most highly cited papers.
@NatureMedicine The lead author of Proximal Origin literally thanks experts not acknowledged in the published manuscript for their "advice and leadership" as they have been working on the paper.
One of the Feb 1 call participants said that their conversation produced the Proximal Origin work.
Other participants on the call were seen likely providing input on the manuscript. Difficult to confirm because of all the redactions.
"The major feedback we got from the Feb 1 teleconference was: 1. Don’t try to write a paper at all — it’s unnecessary or 2. If you do write it don’t mention a lab origin as that will just add fuel to the conspiracists"
theintercept.com/2022/01/12/cov…
Bob Garry, one of the Proximal Origin authors clarified that “these were comments from others in emails after the call” not from Collins or Fauci.

Well, if you would release the unredacted emails, we could all see exactly who said what and clear up this whole misunderstanding.
I believe this statement from Garry because later emails showed that Collins had hoped Proximal Origins would put down the lab #OriginOfCovid hypothesis - even an accidental, non-bioweapons related hypothesis was considered a "very destructive conspiracy".

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Alina Chan

Alina Chan Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Ayjchan

Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 19
"The entire clause that suggested that the WHO should have speedy access to disease outbreak sites has been removed – at the insistence of China"

In other words, let's repeat the devastating mistakes made this time round when the next pandemic occurs.
healthpolicy-watch.news/report-on-pand…
Countries that refuse to admit independent international investigators when an outbreak has been detected are putting the entire world at risk for another pandemic.

This is dangerously irresponsible, anti-scientific, and not a sign of technological or moral leadership.
We should not have a repeat of this:
Read 5 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 18
What are the chances of someone catching COVID from international mail?

I'd say it's near impossible unless they were aerosolizing + inhaling their letters.

"contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection"
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…
If scientists are too fixated on mythical SARS-CoV-2 transmission via international mail, they might miss the actual community transmission of the virus.

This is unless there is somehow a new trend where people are mailing sputum to each other internationally.
There's also no study outside of China, afaik, that cites any evidence of cold chain transmission of Covid #PopsicleOrigins

The one non-China preprint was conveniently withdrawn in March 2021 right after being cited by the China-WHO joint study. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
Read 16 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 16
It appears that the people who convened the Proximal Origin authors who staunchly dismissed a lab #OriginOfCovid may have also shaped the membership of the @WHO team that went to China and ruled a lab origin as extremely unlikely. h/t @CDommasch
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
@WHO @CDommasch On Feb 5, 2020, Farrar writes to NIH/NIAID leaders, asking for "names to be put forward into the [WHO #OriginOfCovid] Group from us and pressure on this group from your and our teams next week."

One of the Feb 1 call participants ended up on the WHO team.
@WHO @CDommasch It looks like they might've put forward the names of more participants on the Feb 1 call, but no others were selected.
Read 17 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 13
One of the Proximal Origin authors told @theintercept that their letter has "held up extremely well".

Really? Aside from the messy reveal of the origin of Proximal Origin, has the scientific content held up at all?
theintercept.com/2022/01/12/cov…
We know Wuhan scientists were serial passaging novel viruses in a range of cell lines.

We know they were part of a collaboration with a roadmap for inserting novel cleavage sites into novel SARS-like viruses.

We know they had direct & exclusive access to SARS2-like viruses.
We know that we have barely any insight into the viruses discovered by the Wuhan Institute of Virology after 2016.

We know that they were culturing, genetically engineering SARS-like viruses, and performing infection experiments in cells and animals at low safety BSL2 or 3.
Read 5 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 12
The questions in this letter are not specific or productive if directed at the leaders of NIH/NIAID.

The priority should be to secure a commitment from NIH/NIAID to publicly release the Feb 4, 2020 draft of Proximal Origin and the fully unredacted emails.
republicans-oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…
None of the 7 questions ask specifically what the perceived competing interests in the Feb 1 group are, ie, what the impact of a lab #OriginOfCovid would be on the participants' careers and reputations; why several contributors went completely unacknowledged in Proximal Origin.
None of the 7 questions ask specifically what corrective actions should be taken while this issue is being resolved, eg, editor's note on Proximal Origin, recusal of Feb 1 participants from all academic/advisory activities relating to #OriginOfCovid
Read 15 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 12
I'm all ears to hear about the precise scientific process that occurred between Feb 2 and Feb 4, 2020 where top experts in virology and evolutionary biology completely changed their minds about the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 emerging from a lab.
In Jeremy Farrar's book, he noted that Marion Koopmans had said furin cleavage site insertions happen in viruses all the time naturally.

Kristian Andersen, lead author of Proximal Origin, said just because it happened in nature did not rule out unnatural origins.
By the time Proximal Origin was published (i.e., the final paper), Koopmans argument had been absorbed into the manuscript without acknowledgement.

"insertions.. can occur.. the polybasic cleavage site can arise by a natural evolutionary process."
nature.com/articles/s4159…
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Ayjchan has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Ayjchan!

Read all threads by @Ayjchan

:(