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Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
@ban_epp_gofroc
Nov 29, 2024 • 11 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Just in time for Thanksgiving, Anthony Fauci and @greg_folkers are out with a new paper on the HIV and COVID pandemics—they claim that SARS-CoV-2 is very likely to have a natural origin, citing the deeply flawed work of the Proximal Origins and Friends author group. 🧵 Image
Fauci neglects to mention that Worobey et al 2022 (citation 35) has two published rebuttals in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A that detail its use of flawed statistical methods and data suffering from ascertainment bias. 2/
The flaws in the Worobey paper are glaring. 3/
Pekar et al 2022 (citation 36) had a copy/paste coding error: correcting it dropped their Bayes factor in favor of 2 spillovers dropped from 60 to 4. But they had a further error that if corrected totally demolishes their claim for 2 spillovers. 4/
Pekar 2022’s claim of 2 spillovers is based on nonsense. And so is their suggestion that lineage B probably spilled over before lineage A. 5/
Fauci also neglected to mention that George Gao (whose team took environmental samples of Huanan market and published the results in Nature) does not believe there was a zoonosis (or two) at Huanan market. 6/
Even after the Slack and email messages of the Proximal Origins authors revealed their undisclosed discussions with Fauci and their private doubts about dismissing a lab origin, Fauci continues to cite them as if they are providing independent corroboration of his conclusions. 7/
Any self respecting journal editor would not have let Folkers cite papers by Kristian Andersen after revelations that Folkers was referring to him as “Anders$n”—likely a crude attempt to evade FOIA. 8/
And to complete the circle, now Eddie Holmes is promoting Fauci and Folkers’ paper on Blue Cry. 9/ Image
Read the full paper here. 10/ academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar…
The “Critical Review” paper (citation 37) is also a dumpster fire of nonsense. In particular, the claim that mouse passage can be ruled out for SARS2 due to the lack of N501Y—citing a paper that found N501Y arises after passage in BALB/c mice. 11/

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More from @ban_epp_gofroc

Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Apr 28
In the New York Times, Ben Mueller tries to downplay the David Morens indictment, associating it with the Trump administration, claiming it’s unrelated to the origins of COVID, and presenting the discredited papers of the Proximal Origins charlatans as evidence of zoonosis. 🧵 Image
The COVID pandemic affected the entire world, but scicomm hack Mueller pretends that holding accountable those who are accused of breaking federal law to conceal its origins is a matter of domestic U.S. partisan politics. 2/
NYT readers are supposed to see the link to Trump and immediately assume the indictment is illegitimate. Then Mueller denies the indictment concerns activity that resulted in the creation of SARS-CoV-2, a misdirection designed to deflect attention away from the origins coverup 3/
Read 7 tweets
Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Apr 16
Both the identification procedure for searching for early COVID cases as well as the empirical distribution of patient home addresses in the 2021 WHO Report show undeniable evidence of ascertainment bias. Biased data cannot possibly settle the origins question. 🧵 Image
How were early cases identified? A citywide search of hospitals for patients with pneumonia of unknown origin who had visited Huanan market. And then a search for similarly symptomatic patients in hospitals “close to Huanan market.” A street lamp problem. 2/ Image
A citywide search found patients linked to the market had widely dispersed home addresses not centered on the market (left). A search of hospitals near the market found patients not linked to the market had home addresses centered on the market and less dispersed (right). 3/ Image
Read 12 tweets
Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Mar 12
Andersen & cronies claim SARS1 circulated for months or years in an intermediate host, during which time it moved 1,000 km from Yunnan to Guangdong. They now claim SARS2 circulated for much less time in an intermediate host and also moved 1,000 km from Yunnan to Wuhan. How? 🧵
Many of the authors on the 2026 Cell paper were authors on another paper claiming to have strong evidence that raccoon dogs sold at Huanan market started the COVID pandemic. Raccoon dogs at Huanan market were wild caught from Hubei (Wuhan’s province). 2/
How would raccoon dogs in Hubei Province get infected with a bat virus that circulates in bats 1,000 km south, in Yunnan Province and Laos? How could a virus travel so quickly across such a large distance, without leaving a trace? 3/
Read 10 tweets
Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Dec 6, 2025
Every time, there is a disease outbreak of unknown origin, authorities quickly and without evidence assume a natural origin, even if it requires a convoluted story. A truck driver with a contaminated sandwich, eaten by a pig. 🤡 At least they’re now investigating the labs. 🧵 Image
Did anyone report seeing a truck driver? Did anyone report seeing a sandwich? When it’s zoonosis, authorities will often just throw out an outlandish scenario and assume it to be true. This is not the first time this has happened. 2/ reuters.com/business/healt…
Cholera in Haiti? Not from UN peacekeepers, said The Science. Instead, maybe it was the rain. 🤡 3/
Read 8 tweets
Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Oct 1, 2025
On Blue Cry, Kristian Andersen harshly criticized a comment in Nature discussing lab biosafety, posted by Greg Folkers. Even though the comment mentioned Andersen’s discredited papers on COVID origins, serious mention of a lab origin of COVID must have enraged him. 🧵 Image
The authors copy a favored tactic of NY Times, which is to associate a lab origin of COVID with Donald Trump, as if that makes the idea disreputable. They also fail to mention there was never a transparent lab audit of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 2/ Image
Even though the comment authors cite the International Raccoon Dog Team’s papers favorably, the fact that they don’t describe their claims as definitive probably made Andersen furious. No longer are their claims called “dispositive” or “the best evidence yet.” 3/ Image
Read 6 tweets
Libertarian_Virologist Profile picture
Sep 21, 2025
A favored rhetorical tactic of Peter Hotez is the strawman. He will go out and find the most ridiculous & marginal ideas and then pretend his critics all hold similarly absurd views. He then will claim that a plausible idea, like a lab origin of COVID, is just as ridiculous. 🧵 Image
Hotez pretends that a lab origin of COVID is a hoax that is as discredited as the Piltdown Man fraud. 2/
Here is Hotez again claiming that a lab origin of COVID is a conspiracy theory. 3/
Read 8 tweets

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