Richard H. Ebright Profile picture
Sep 5, 2022 11 tweets 2 min read Read on X
COVID: summary of lab-origin hypothesis:

1) Pandemic caused by a bat SARS-like coronavirus emerged in Wuhan--a city 1,000 miles from nearest wild bats with SARS-like coronaviruses, but that contains labs conducting world's largest research program on bat SARS-like coronaviruses.
2) In 2015-2017, scientists and science-policy specialists expressed concern that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was conducting and contemplating research that posed an unacceptable risk of lab accident and pandemic (nature.com/articles/natur…;
nature.com/articles/natur…),
3) In 2017-2018, WIV constructed a novel chimeric SARS-like coronavirus that was able to infect and replicate in human airway cells and that had 10,000x enhanced viral growth and 4x enhanced lethality in mice engineered to display human receptors on cells.
4) In 2018, in an NIH grant proposal, WIV and collaborators proposed to construct more novel chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses, targeting chimeras that replace natural spike gene with novel spike genes encoding spikes that have higher binding affinities to human cells.
5) Also in 2018, in a DARPA grant proposal, WIV and collaborators proposed to construct novel "consensus" bat SARS-like coronaviruses, and to insert furin cleavage site (FCS) sequences at the spike gene S1-S2 border of bat SARS-like coronaviruses,
6) In 2017-2019, WIV constructed and characterized novel SARS-like coronaviruses at biosafety level 2, a biosafety level patently inadequate for work with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens and patently inadequate to contain a virus having transmission properties of SARS-CoV-2
7) In 2019 a novel SARS-like coronavirus having a spike with high binding affinity for human cells, and having an FCS at the spike S1-S2 border--a virus having the properties set forth in the 2018 WIV NIH and DARPA grant proposals--emerges on the doorstep of WIV.
8) SARS-CoV-2 is the only one of more than 100 known SARS-like coronaviruses that contains an FCS. This is a feature that does not rule out a natural origin, but that is more easily explained by a lab origin. Especially since insertion of FCS had been explicitly proposed in 2018.
9) The FCS of SARS-CoV-2 has codon usage unusual for bat SARS-related coronaviruses and has an 8-of-8 amino-acid-sequence identity to the FCS of human ENaCa. These are features that do not rule out a natural origin, but that are more--much more--easily explained by a lab origin.
10) In 2020-present, WIV and its funders/collaborators at EcoHealth Alliance have withheld information, misrepresented facts, and obstructed investigation...even though, if not connected to origin, they most easily could clear their name though cooperation with investigation.
*1,000 km

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More from @R_H_Ebright

Jan 13
"DEFUSE [i]s the Rosetta Stone for understanding the origin of SARS-CoV-2…[T]he entire genome of SARS-CoV-2 aligns with…DEFUSE. Almost every feature…, from the spike protein to the FCS and the…restriction sites, matches…what was outlined in…DEFUSE."

firstpost.com/world/millions…
"Imagine a plane crash with…20 million…on board. After...years of searching for the black box..., you find out that someone has it but refuses to share it. Even worse, they insist...the cause is already settled...That’s...what we’re dealing with regarding...origins of Covid"
"When it comes to accountability, WIV clearly ignored biosafety protocols and put global security at risk. Meanwhile, EcoHealth Alliance violated the terms of their National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, and US authorities failed to oversee the risky research they funded."
Read 19 tweets
Jan 9
"Dismissal of…lab leak…was always a curious stance…There were more than 300 known laboratory-acquired infections…this century. The same year...Covid erupted in Wuhan, 10,000…fell ill following leakage from a…research centre in another Chinese city."

unherd.com/2025/01/chinas…
"Wuhan was home to one of China’s two maximum bio-security labs — and hundreds of miles from the nearest colonies of wild bats with most similar coronaviruses."
"Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) contained the world’s biggest repository of bat coronaviruses, had known safety concerns and conducted high-risk 'gain of function' research to boost the infectivity of mutant bat viruses."
Read 7 tweets
Jan 6
COVID: updated summary of lab-origin hypothesis:

1) Pandemic caused by bat SARS-like coronavirus emerged in Wuhan--city 1000 km from wild bats with SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses, but that contains labs conducting world's largest research program on bat SARS-like coronaviruses. Image
2) In 2015-2017, scientists and science-policy specialists expressed concern that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was conducting and contemplating research that posed an unacceptable risk of lab accident and pandemic (nature.com/articles/natur……; nature.com/articles/natur……).
3) In 2017-2018, with NIH funding, WIV constructed a novel genetically modified SARS-like coronavirus that was able to infect human cells and that had 10,000x enhanced viral growth in lungs, 1,000,000x enhanced viral growth in brains, and 3x enhanced lethality.
Read 23 tweets
Dec 23, 2024
"Potential pandemic pathogen...research conducted at an inappropriate biosafety level should be considered an abnormally dangerous activity subject to strict liability."

LASST (Legal Advocates for Safe Science and Technology) Amicus Brief Project
lasst.org/2024/12/23/las…
"Applying a strict liability standard to an activity means that the person or entity conducting the activity will be held liable for any harm the activity caused, even if they were not negligent in conducting the activity."
"We believe a body of law that applies a strict liability standard when irresponsibly unsafe research causes harm could serve an important role in disincentivizing unreasonably dangerous research in the future."
Read 5 tweets
Dec 9, 2024
"Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a lab…in Australia, sparking an investigation…323 samples of live viruses—including Hendra virus, Lyssavirus and Hantavirus—went missing…in a 'serious breach of biosecurity protocols.'"

newsweek.com/deadly-virus-m…
"The breach was discovered in August 2023, with nearly 100 of the missing vials containing Hendra virus, which is deadly. Two of the vials contained hantavirus, while 223 vials contained samples of lyssavirus."
"Hendra virus has a 57 percent fatality rate in humans"
Read 5 tweets
Oct 28, 2024
"While we may not be aware of all the instances in which Fauci funded gain-of-function experiments despite the ban, we do know of at least one hugely significant case, as it ultimately led to the creation of Covid."

truthovernews.org/p/obama-fauci-…
"In 2016, Eric Stemmy, a program officer in Fauci’s NIAID found out that the experiments funded by Fauci at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, through a shady organization called EcoHealth Alliance, were creating viruses that were significantly more dangerous than…natural viruses"
"Upon identifying this violation of federal regulations, specifically the gain-of-function ban, Stemmy halted the funding to EcoHealth."
Read 13 tweets

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