Today's @ScienceMagazine papers on the #OriginOfCovid are not game-changing - they largely say the same thing as the original preprints in February but in a much more subdued and chastised manner.
@ScienceMagazine I'm going back on break from twitter, but I have a manuscript on the evidence around a market/wildlife trade #OriginOfCovid that is under peer review.
I hope to be able to share a peer-reviewed form of it later this year #NeverGiveUp
@ScienceMagazine For people looking for a summary of the evidence on #OriginOfCovid I've written a medium post with 5-6min read time.
It explains the plausible origin scenarios and why investigators are having a hard time determining how the outbreak in Wuhan started. ayjchan.medium.com/the-evidence-f…
@ScienceMagazine I've updated my critique of Worobey & Pekar papers to
1⃣ explain how ascertainment bias led to cases unlinked to the market clustering in its vicinity
2⃣ address the virus-positive cage sample
3⃣ point out flaws in their "2 strains 2 spillover" hypothesis ayjchan.medium.com/evidence-for-a…
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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.
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.
@BulletinAtomic The point of assembling an international task force of experts with truly different view points on #OriginOfCovid and what qualifies as risky research was so that the consensus recommendations would be robust to attacks from angry people on both sides of this issue.
Leaders of scientific funding agencies said Proximal Origin was a nice job. According to the lead author of Proximal Origin, Farrar, Fauci & Collins had advised and led them as they wrote the letter.
So why won't @NatureMedicine put these leaders in the acknowledgements?
Beyond what @Bryce_Nickels pointed out in his letter to @NatureMedicine & International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Proximal Origin authors failed to point out that their funder(s) had been involved in the work. nature.com/nature-portfol…
After Proximal Origin is published, the first author continues to worry about lab #OriginOfCovid - citing "definitely concerning work" at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
2020: Some 🧑🔬 dismissed lab #OriginOfCovid as implausible/conspiracy theory. Journalists captured. Issue polarized. Mudslinging from both sides.
2021-: FOIA/subpoenas show 🧑🔬 went too far, misled journalists. Lab origin plausible/likely.
2024: Some 🧑🔬, including those who misled journalists on #OriginOfCovid and engaged in their own repeated harassment of scientists asking for fair investigation, complain to employers about harassment by scientists on side of lab leak.
Even scientists who acted completely professionally and civilly have been silenced on lab #OriginOfCovid and advocating for better biosafety to protect millions or billions of lives from lab-based pandemics.