1) Pandemic caused by bat SARS-like coronavirus emerged in Wuhan--city 1,000 km from nearest wild bats with SARS-CoV-2-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.
All statements in all posts are demonstrable facts.
"The…Proximal Origins paper that dismissed the plausibility that COVID…resulted from a research-related incident sits among the most consequential failures of scientific integrity…I have seen in…30 years working on science and technology policy."
"The production, publication, and post-publication treatment of…'Proximal Origins'…represents a major failure of scientific integrity by its authors, its unacknowledged ghost contributors (including U.S. government officials), and the academic journal that published it."
"In their roles contributing to the coordination of Proximal Origins, US government officials, specifically Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins,[ likely violated the Scientific Integrity Policies of the Department of Health and Human Services."
"During his closed-door transcribed interview with the Committees on November 14, 2023, Dr. Daszak made multiple statements inconsistent with documents and evidence reviewed by the Committees."
"On November 14, 2023, you testified at a transcribed interview before the Committees…At the interview, committee counsel advised that…if you knowingly made false statements, you could be subject to criminal prosecution."
"Every year…3 million Americans develop drug-resistant infections, leading to…50,000 deaths. After heart disease and cancer, AMR is the leading cause of death from disease in the US…[I]t’s estimated that by 2050, superbugs will kill 10 million people per year worldwide."
"That’s the medical side of the problem. We also have an economic and political problem."
Retrospective of Allison Young's reports on the shocking frequency of US biosafety and biosecurity incidents and the shocking inadequacy of US-government oversight of biosafety and biosecurity
"The mouse infected with a lab-created…SARS coronavirus was…dangling by its tail as a scientist carried it…in 2016. But the…task turned dangerous in seconds inside the North Carolina lab…, which has drawn scrutiny for its partnership…with…Wuhan Institute of Virology."
"As she carried the mouse, it climbed up its tail and bit her hard, breaking through the gloves and plunging its teeth — and potentially the virus — into her ring finger."
"A former New York Times journalist…attacked…scientists for…misleading him over the Covid lab-leak theory in…early days of the pandemic. Donald McNeil…said their efforts to throw him 'off track'…contributed to the topic being 'dropped' for a year."
"Donald McNeil Jr…said he became sceptical of the hypothesis the virus was engineered in a Wuhan lab after…virologists [falsely] insisted it wasn’t possible."
"In his book The Wisdom of Plagues, which looks back at 25 years covering pandemics, Mr McNeil Jr said the scientists 'clearly misled me early on' and he was a 'victim of deception'"
"The number of labs studying the deadliest…pathogens has increased dramatically since SARS-CoV-2…was first identified in 2019. There were 51 Level 4 labs in 27 countries as of last year, roughly double the number 10 years ago"
"Another 18 [BSL-4 labs], including Saskatchewan's, are planned or under construction."
"The biggest growth areas are in Asia and Africa, said Filippa Lentzos, a biosecurity expert who leads the Global BioLabs mapping project at King's College London, which will publish its next report in 2025."