Thread by @R_H_Ebright

Excerpts from oral statement:

"I assess that a large preponderance of evidence indicates SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, entered humans through a research incident."

"First: COVID emerged in Wuhan, a city that is 800 miles from the closest bats harboring SARS‑CoV-2-like viruses that could have served as progenitors of SARS‑CoV-2, but that contains labs that, prior to the outbreak, were conducting the world's largest research program on bat SARS viruses, possessed the world's largest collection of bat SARS viruses, and possessed the virus most closely similar to SARS‑CoV‑2."

"Second: In the four years preceding the outbreak, Wuhan labs performed research that placed them on a trajectory to obtain SARS viruses having high pandemic potential, and, in 2018, one year before the outbreak, Wuhan labs proposed research to obtain SARS viruses having even higher pandemic potential and features that match, in detail, features of SARS‑CoV-2."

"Third: Wuhan labs performed research on bat SARS viruses using an inadequate biosafety standard--just biosafety level 2--and inadequate personal protective equipment--just gloves and a lab coat."

"Fourth: In 2019, a novel SARS virus having a spike with extremely high binding affinity for human SARS receptors, a furin cleavage site inserted at the spike S1-S2 border, and a genome sequence with features enabling assembly from six synthetic nucleic-acid building blocks using the reagent BsmBI--a virus having the exact features proposed in the 2018 NIH and DARPA proposals--emerged on the doorstep of the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

"In summary, multiple lines of secure evidence point to a research origin."

"By contrast, as I hope I will have the opportunity to review in responses to questions, no‑‑zero--secure evidence points to a natural origin."