Thread by @Ayjchan

I, for one, am not surprised or particularly disappointed there will not be a phase II of WHO's "collaborative process of discovery" in China searching for #OriginOfCovid

Consider that Phase I brought us the hypothesis that Covid originated from frozen foods #PopsicleOrigins

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1361359524796522502

In Phase I, the scientists on their collaborative process of discovery were given tours in the top biosafety labs instead of the low biosafety labs where risky virus work had been done for years.

In Phase I, the scientists didn't ask for the Wuhan virus database to be shared.

In Phase I, the collaborative process of discovery produced conclusions that were based, not on science, but on trying to respect the findings of Chinese scientists.

Thank goodness the Chinese scientists didn't also try to pitch space origins.

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1360397010336182276

In Phase I, the collaborative process of discovery relied on scientists voting in a room in the presence of government handlers.

https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1359892457597652994

In my view, the most productive thing Phase II can do is gather/verify evidence of the first cases of covid outside of China to establish a clearer timeline of when the outbreak had to have started. For this, they don't need to go to China and the work could have started in 2020.

Daszak: There were Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff in the room throughout our stay. Absolutely. They were there to make sure everything went smoothly from the China side.
cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-…

It's not a huge loss that there won't be a phase II of the WHO's collaborative process of discovery in China.

It means countries like the US now have to conduct their own #OriginOfCovid investigations instead of delegating it to WHO.