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Alina Chan Profile picture
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Jan 28 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The latest #OriginOfCovid misinformation I've seen from a credible reporter is that almost every major city in China had a lab working with novel SARS-like viruses in 2019.

If true, we have a lot to be worried about. Fortunately, we know that the lab in Wuhan was very unique...
There are simply not 10,000s of scientists synthesizing novel coronaviruses and growing these in labs. That is paranoia.

As far as we can tell there was only 1 lab in China that had the idea to put furin cleavage sites into SARS-like viruses before covid.
For almost 2 years after the pandemic began, the Wuhan scientists and their collaborators said nothing of their plans to conduct these risky, unique experiments in SARS-like viruses until a whistleblower in the US leaked their 2018 research proposal.
AFAWK in 2018-2019, there was 1 lab in the world with access to novel SARS-like viruses closely resembling the pandemic virus & the idea to put furin cleavage sites in SARS-like viruses.

The Covid SARS-like virus with a unique furin cleavage site was 1st detected in their city.
The misinformation in 2020 was that the Wuhan lab was built in Wuhan because of the SARS-like viruses there. Easily proven false by their own publications.

Can't believe the misinformation today is that labs like the one in Wuhan are everywhere in China.
Both of these misinformation attempt to downplay the extraordinary coincidence that a SARS-like virus with a unique gain-of-function feature showed up in the city housing the 1 lab collecting SARS-like viruses and proposing to insert exactly that type of gain-of-function feature.

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More from @Ayjchan

Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 30
I am not sorry for being one of the scientists & sleuths who pointed out data issues in the studies in 2020 that reported novel coronaviruses similar to the pandemic virus.

Especially because the resulting corrections and addendums confirmed these data issues.
A whole group of sleuths and scientists discovered that the Wuhan Institute of Virology actually had the 9 closest relatives to the pandemic virus under study in their lab when the outbreak was detected in 2019.
nature.com/articles/s4158…
And that the closest match, RaTG13, had been full genome sequenced in 2018 as a high priority sample.

All 9 had come from a mine where 6 people had sickened with a mysterious pneumonia (3 died), and top labs had searched that mine for years for bat viruses.
Read 16 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 26
In early 2020, why didn't US funders call up EcoHealth Alliance for their 2018-2019 research progress reports when they suspected the novel coronavirus might've come from the subcontracted Wuhan lab?

theintercept.com/2021/10/01/nih…
If one was worried they might've accidentally funded the research that caused the pandemic, wouldn't they call up the middleman (EcoHealth) to find out more?

What's the point of convening virologists & gain-of-function advocates who don't know what's happening in the Wuhan lab?
Granted the president of EcoHealth has a tough time keeping their stories straight but they would still have documents & emails telling them some of what was done in the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab they were funding & collaborating with.
Read 5 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 25
It's stressful to watch @TheLastofUsHBO after spending the last 3 years trying to understand the #OriginOfCovid

I don't think the world has gotten better at detecting and responding to novel outbreaks. The pandemic has heralded an era of increased virus hunting and manipulation.
@TheLastofUsHBO We're stuck contemplating whether the next pandemic will come from the supposed millions of spillovers of viruses from animals to people vs growing numbers of scientists engaging in pathogen research with unpredictable outcomes in not necessarily the appropriate biosafety level.
@TheLastofUsHBO Most of us are still recovering from this pandemic. I'm not sure what normal people are supposed to do if a similar or worse pathogen emerges in the next 10 years - whether due to increased risky pathogen research or invasion of natural habitats.
Read 7 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 22
The lab #OriginOfCovid hypothesis does not require that no natural spillovers of SARS-like viruses occur or that 0 SARS-like viruses have furin cleavage sites in nature.

It asks why a rare SARS-like virus + FCS emerged where scientists proposed putting FCSs in SARS-like viruses.
These scientists wrote in early 2018 that they were systematically looking for rare SARS-like viruses with FCSs, and they would optimize/insert these FCSs into "low risk" SARS-like viruses to see how this could impact the virus' ability to infect and grow in human cells.
One interpretation is that, at that time in early 2018, they had already found such rare SARS-like viruses and determined that they bore cleavage sites or features approaching functional cleavage sites that could be optimized and inserted into SARS-like viruses in the lab.
Read 8 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 21
I can empathize with those who say "don't talk about a lab #OriginOfCovid" because your safety + job prospects will be in danger, it might stir up geopolitical conflict, it could embolden extremists.

But it is untrue that there is not enough evidence to ask for an investigation.
As early as February 2020, scientists, both in and outside of China, were publicly and privately worrying about a lab leak origin of the pandemic.

3 years later, the WHO, the Lancet Commission, US intelligence and government all agree a lab #OriginOfCovid must be investigated.
There is no evidence in the past 3 years that would make a lab #OriginOfCovid implausible.

Would WHO, US IC+gov, Lancet Commission, and numerous reputable virologists all be asking whether this virus came from a lab if there wasn't sufficient evidence?
Read 6 tweets
Alina Chan Profile picture
Jan 19
Forms of intimidation a scientist can expect to face if they publicly ask for an investigation of a lab #OriginOfCovid

1. Accused of encouraging racist right-wing conspiracy theorists

2. Accused of being an unqualified grifter

3. Retaliation in academia

4. Threats+harassment
And most ridiculously:

5. Accused of spreading #OriginOfCovid misinformation because they don't talk enough about natural recombination in viruses.

When there is literally a 2018 research plan by Wuhan-US scientists that could have led to the creation of the pandemic virus.
When my colleagues and I said in 2020 that both natural and lab #OriginOfCovid hypotheses were viable, we had no idea the kind of s***storm we were going to get sucked into. We had no idea that this was ongoing in the background:
theintercept.com/2023/01/19/cov…
Read 6 tweets

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