The nine facts about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 that everyone needs to know are as follows:
1) SARS-CoV-2 is related to bat SARS-like coronaviruses from southern China and northern Laos.
2) SARS-CoV-2 entered humans in or near Wuhan in August-November 2019.
3) SARS-CoV-2 entered humans either through a natural accident (just as in the first entry of the original SARS coronavirus into humans, which occurred through natural spillover in rural Guangdong province in 2002)....
...or through a research accident (just as in the second third, fourth, and fifth entries of the original SARS coronavirus into humans, which occurred through a lab accident in Singapore in 2003, a lab accident in Taipei in 2003, and two separate lab accidents in Beijing in 2004)
4) Wuhan is located 1,000 km from the nearest wild bats with SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses.
5) Wuhan has labs that, at the start of the pandemic, conducted the world's largest research program on bat SARS-like coronaviruses, possessed the world's largest collection of bat SARS-like coronaviruses, and possessed the world's only sample of a SARS-CoV-2-like coronavirus.
6) In 2016-2018, the Wuhan Institute of Virology constructed a series of novel chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses that combined the spike gene of one bat SARS-like coronavirus with the rest of the genetic information of another bat SARS-like coronavirus....
...and identified viruses that were able to infect and replicate efficiently 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....
...In other words, in the years before the start of the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had taken most of the steps needed to convert a natural bat SARS-like coronavirus to a novel human pandemic pathogen having the properties of SARS-CoV-2.
7) In 2018, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its collaborators proposed to construct an expanded series of novel chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses, this time using newly identified spike genes having affinities for human receptors that ranged from very low to very high; and....
...proposed to insert furin cleavage sites--a feature that is present in SARS-CoV-2 but not in any of the hundreds of other known SARS-like coronaviruses and that is crucial for the high transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2--into SARS-like coronaviruses....
...In other words, just a year before the start of the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its collaborators proposed to take the remaining steps needed to convert a natural bat SARS-like coronavirus to a novel human pandemic pathogen having the properties of SARS-CoV-2
8) In 2016-2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology constructed and characterized SARS-like coronaviruses at biosafety level 2, a level inadequate for work with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens and inadequate to contain a virus having the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2.
9) From the start of the pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its collaborators have withheld information, misrepresented facts, and obstructed investigation...even though, if not connected to origin, they most easily could have cleared their names though cooperation.
10) A preponderance of evidence, including both the scientific evidence (facts 1-3) and the documentary evidence (facts 4-9), indicates that SARS-CoV-2 likely entered humans through a laboratory accident.
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."