After Ian Lipkin sent this email to a co-author on Proximal Origin, their manuscript was posted on Virological 5 days later - arguing against an adaptation through culture #OriginOfCovid scenario.
Archived Proximal Origin here: archive.ph/cZwkG
Archived Proximal Origin here: archive.ph/cZwkG
https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl/status/1513621112743243782
The Proximal Origin arguments have not aged well.
We now know the Wuhan Institute of Virology had access to SARS2-like viruses (+ we don't know what 180 unique SARS-like viruses they had found by 2018). They also had the intent to engineer novel cleavage sites into SARSrCoVs.
We now know the Wuhan Institute of Virology had access to SARS2-like viruses (+ we don't know what 180 unique SARS-like viruses they had found by 2018). They also had the intent to engineer novel cleavage sites into SARSrCoVs.
The Proximal Origin authors wrote: "Identifying the immediate non-human animal source and obtaining virus sequences from it would be the most definitive way of revealing virus origins."
Well, it's now 2 years later and no original animal source or SARS2 variant has been found.
Well, it's now 2 years later and no original animal source or SARS2 variant has been found.
Looks like they gave up and settled for "many of the early cases were at the market!" and "I took a photo of a raccoon dog at that market several years ago!"
I'm glad to see all these top virologists privately freaking out about a lab escape #OriginOfCovid while I was criticized (including by several of these experts) as an epistemic trespasser and conspiracy theorist for saying the same thing but publicly.
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
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