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Alina Chan Profile picture
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May 1 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Many virologists, even natural #OriginOfCovid proponents, agree it is unsafe to study new SARS-like viruses at BL2 - which was the case in Wuhan for several years.

Has new policy been put in place to restrict work on novel airborne mammal pathogens to higher biosafety levels?
The level of biosafety and containment of viruses was a key concern (privately) expressed by top experts on biosafety/virology. See email from James Le Duc, director of the Galveston National Laboratory, which collaborated with and trained WIV staff.
usrtk.org/wp-content/upl…
“That’s screwed up... It shouldn’t have happened. People should not be looking at bat viruses in BSL-2 labs. My view has changed.”
- Ian Lipkin, Columbia Professor, expertise in diagnostics, microbial discovery and outbreak response.
donaldgmcneiljr1954.medium.com/how-i-learned-…
Contrary to how TV depicts lab accidents, exposure to airborne viruses in the lab (especially BL2) does not require any explosions or fires, bites/cuts/stabs/injection wounds, massive spills or other dramatic events.
Early in the pandemic, a Chinese scientist working with the virus got infected in a top lab in Beijing.

An expert with experience in biosafety and virology said "I actually am very concerned for the possibility of SARS-2 infection by lab people."
usrtk.org/biohazards/sen…
The virus even infected a fully vaccinated young worker in a BL3 (higher biosafety) lab.

"in countries that have lots of SARS-CoV-2 circulation, such cases [of lab-acquired Covid-19] could easily fly under the radar" - @FilippaLentzos biosecurity expert
science.org/content/articl…

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More from @Ayjchan

Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 22
"the deputy consular chief in the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, wrote that by mid-October, the consulate team “knew that the city had been struck by what was thought to be an unusually vicious flu season. The disease worsened in November.”"
washingtonpost.com/opinions/inter…
Yet, some of the most outspoken virologists on #OriginOfCovid would have us believe that the Wuhan outbreak only started in late Nov/Dec 2019 in order to support a (multiple animal-to-human spillover) Huanan market origin hypothesis.
Actually, depending on whether the journalists carefully read the preprints they depicted as front-page breaking news, the @nytimes now also endorses the late Nov/Dec 2019 start date of the Covid-19 outbreak.
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Read 9 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 21
Point taken that many virologists do not like the BL2-to-dentist's office comparison.

But does this mean they still think working with 100s of new airborne viruses in BL2 is wise?

This research is still ongoing with SARS, MERS, ebola, nipah-like viruses.
For years, some scientists studied pathogens that they described as poised to cause a pandemic at low biosafety BL2.

My guess is that they didn't believe their own hype and assumed that novel viruses found in nature were not actually pandemic-level.
But post-pandemic, many scientists, especially those who think a natural #OriginOfCovid near certain, now say that these novel viruses found in nature are primed to cause human outbreaks.

So how can it be rational to be studying all these pandemic pathogens at BL2?
Read 4 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 19
One thing that continues to surprise people I talk to today is that the live SARS-like virus research in Wuhan had been conducted at BL2 & 3, and not at their BL4 highest biosafety lab (which is oddly what the WHO team were given a tour of during the 2021 joint study with China).
Top coronavirus expert Ralph Baric told @techreview these SARS-like viruses should be studied at higher biosafety than BL2.

“If you study a hundred different bat viruses, your luck may run out.”

technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/102…
@techreview I think most scientists who work/worked at BL2 should now be properly terrified of handling novel pathogens with pandemic potential at BL2.

Can you imagine working with SARS2 at BL2 before the pandemic and how likely it would've been for an outbreak to start from your lab?
Read 9 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 17
Circumstantial evidence #OriginOfCovid

Lab: Outbreak started next to low biosafety lab studying & engineering diverse SARS-like viruses from caves & markets across China & SE Asia.

Market: Early Covid-19 cluster was at market that sold animals that can carry SARS-like viruses.
Circ. evidence that moved the 🪡 for me was 2021 revelation that the Wuhan-US scientists had a 2018 roadmap for inserting novel cleavage sites in unspecified SARS-like viruses👩‍🔬

SARS2 is the only known SARS-like virus with such a cleavage site insertion. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39…
For me, it would be a colossal coincidence (but not implausible) for a virus like SARS2 to naturally emerge in the only city in the world where scientists had years of access to SARS2-like viruses and the plans+ability to insert novel cleavage sites (a feature unique to SARS2).
Read 4 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 15
If I'm looking at this EcoHealth Alliance graphic correctly, in 2017, Wuhan city was predicted to have less pandemic-potential viruses than West Coast cities of the US.
science.org/content/articl… Image
"Supaporn counters that the goal of wildlife surveillance isn’t to characterize every potential viral threat, but rather to learn how viruses evolve."
Can we all cut to the chase here?

If we learn how to accurately predict pandemic pathogens, that means we will also have mastered how to create pandemic pathogens.
Read 4 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Apr 15
Scientists can't tell us what the #OriginOfCovid is. Neither can intelligence agencies in the US and other countries.

I don't understand why people are rushing to bet their party or "science" on a particular origin.
open.spotify.com/episode/2e4Jen…
I'm curious what the plan is for those scientists (& non-scientists) who are telling everyone that the science points solidly at a natural #OriginOfCovid

It's not going to be easy to recover trust in science (or you) if evidence for a lab origin surfaces in the years to come.
We know that a lot of key evidence and info is being suppressed. We just don't know what that evidence points to - a natural or lab #OriginOfCovid

If you put truth 1st (and not "winning" for your tribe), then the only rational position is science/intelligence doesn't know yet.
Read 5 tweets

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