I am generally a fan of @profvrr, but his recent TWiV episode discussing @Ayjchan's excellent NYT editorial re #COVID19 origins is not science but scientific propaganda. More in the thread below. Here is a link to TWiV episode 1121 on #COVID19 origins. Someday it will be shared with students as an example of how not to do scientific public engagement.

Because I am mentioned six times in the first few pages of the Morens email dump, I wanted to provide some personal history re the #COVID19 origins issue in the thread below. 🧵 Here is the full PDF of the just-released Morens communications. In his exchange with Peter Daszak on April 21, 2021, Morens and Daszak lament the “hellhounds” raising questions about a possible #COVID19 research related origin, referencing @R_H_Ebright @DavidRelman @mlipsitch and me. oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…

The #COVID19 market origin hypothesis has been fully debunked. This thread shows why all of the arguments in favor of the market origins hypothesis have no evidentiary basis. The main arguments made by the market origin advocates focus on spatial analysis of early cases, allegations of two lineages emerging from the Huanan seafood market, and the presence of susceptible animals. These allegations were made in a series of science articles. The preprints of the Worobey et al Science article asserting “dispositive evidence” of a market origin was stripped of these false assertions in peer review. This did not prevent the authors from engaging in a media misinformation campaign, leading to erroneous and misleading articles like this one. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

There can be no doubt the Proximal Origin authors consciously and inappropriately downplayed the #COVID19 research-related origin hypothesis and coordinated efforts manipulating media coverage. They also interacted like noxious frat boys.

No longer private Slack excerpts below.

Breaking: Important @WashPost story on the lab safety crisis in China. Anyone saying they know #COVID19 is not the result of a research-related accident is knowingly engaging in fraud. More in the thread blow. washingtonpost.com/investigations… “Chinese officials have rejected the lab-leak hypothesis while also stymying independent investigations into the pandemic’s origins.” More on this here. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…

There's a consistent error in the @nytimes and other media re the deeply flawed, and later abolished, China/Int'l joint study group on #COVID19 origins. This was NOT a @WHO report. Exact words of @DrTedros linked here and reproduce in the thread below. who.int/publications/m… @DrTedros: "these are independent experts... and we don't tell them what to do. They will present their own independent report and that's what I think will of course make this study dependent on independent experts' opinion...

The just released @NYTimes piece on the politics of the #COVID19 origins debate is a good start, but there's a much deeper history the Times did not have the space to cover. Follow this thread for more background on bipartisan efforts re the origins issue. nytimes.com/2023/03/19/us/… In April 2020, Trump Deputy NSA Matt Pottinger and I, a lifelong Democrat whose served under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Joe Biden, spoke re the origins issue. Matt began sharing my site with people inside the USG and foreign counterparts. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…

Excellent new @VanityFair @propublica piece strengthens the case for a #COVID19 lab origin. Just like with the CRISPR babies scandal, the intersection of toxic internal Chinese politics and revolutionary biotechnologies puts the world at great risk. 1/ propublica.org/article/senate… @KatherineEban & @jeffykao outline how CCP went into crisis response mode in fall 2019: internal reference to WIV security breach, emergency visit from top Beijing official, taking down of the WIV virus database & scrubbing of the WIV website. WIV had massive biosafety issues. 2/

I just finished @DavidQuammen new book, Breathless. David does a great job making the case for a zoonotic origin of #COVID19 but a poor job presenting the alternate hypothesis of a potential lab accident origin. My further thoughts in the thread below. 1/ simonandschuster.com/books/Breathle… David has been transparent in stating he does not feel the lab origin hypothesis deserves full attention. In his TWIV podcast, he suggests it merits about 10% attention, vs 90% for zoonosis. 2/ microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-948/

I was so incredibly impressed by the work of these Chinese agronomists I sent them a note expressing how grateful I was for the contribution to humanity. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35862527/ In my email, I said: "Although relations between our countries (I am an American) are deteriorating rapidly, the possibility of working collaboratively to solve some of our world's greatest challenges must still give us hope and offer a better path forward."

Congrats to authors of the research article published today in @ScienceMagazine proving what we already knew: the Huanan seafood market was a #COVID19 superspreader location. Unfortunately, media & Twitter comments by some of the authors borders fraud. 1/ science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… On Feb 26, 2022, the Worobey et al preprints were released with associated language asserting they provided “dispositive evidence” of a market origin. 2/ zenodo.org/record/6299116…

Critically important new PNAS opinion piece by @JeffDSachs & Neil Harrison calls “on US government scientific agencies, most notably the @NIH, to support a full, independent, and transparent investigation of the origins of #SARSCoV2.” 1/13 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… Although no new evidence presented, Sachs and Harrison state what should now be obvious to all: 1) we still don’t know #COVID19 origin, 2) we must if we are to build a safer future, 3) China blocking & 4) we must do our best to investigate regardless. 2/13

We all remain at unnecessary risk until we determine how the #COVID19 pandemic began and address our greatest vulnerabilities. Any serious investigation of this issue must address the following 23 questions. 1: Why did the Chinese government either not carry out a full contact tracing to find the #COVID19 index case or do so and not share the results?

The @nytimes reported, inaccurately in my view, that two recent preprints establish the Huanan market as the location of the first #SARSCoV2 human infection. I invite @MichaelWorobey & the other authors to answer the following questions re their claims. nytimes.com/interactive/20… Question 1: What is the relationship between people working in and living near the Huanan market and how do you distinguish between them in your analysis? Presumably, some people work in the market but live far away.

The late Phillip Russell, former president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, was a big deal. That's why I encourage everyone to read carefully the email he sent in April 2020. 1/11 usrtk.org/biohazards/bio… "The flimsiness of the epidemiology pointing to the wet market, the absence of bats in the market, the failure to identify an intermediate animal host, the extraordinary measures taken by the Chinese gov't, including persecution & probable killing of two brave physicians... 2/11

Last August, I called for the establishment of a bipartisan US national #COVID19 commission in my @thehill editorial. Delighted that @SenFeinstein @RogerMarshallMD @SenGillibrand & @SenJoniErnst today introduced a draft Senate bill mandating just that. thehill.com/opinion/white-… Understanding what went wrong and addressing the many shortcomings on many levels in the US and globally is key to building a safer future for all. Establishing a bipartisan US national #COVID19 commission has an important role to play in that process. feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.c…

It seems highly questionable that the sequences found by @jbloom_lab, which would likely have suggested the wet market origin story was wrong, were deleted just when the Chinese gov’t was actively peddling an outbreak story they very likely knew was false. nytimes.com/2021/06/23/sci… It’s equally outrageous that int'l experts can’t even speak w/ the scientists who did this work & that journalists from countries where so many have died from this totally avoidable catastrophe can’t ask Chinese scientists the most basic questions about their work & actions.

Although I welcome the @G7 statement yesterday calling for a "timely, transparent, expert-led, & science-based @WHO-convened Phase 2 #COVID19 Origins study including… in China,” this will only be meaningful if it leads to a comprehensive investigation into what went wrong. Fully investigating & understanding pandemic origins isn’t about politics, it’s about identifying our biggest failures so we can fix them. Unfortunately, #China has been engaged in a massive coverup since the very beginning. You can learn more here. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…

1/ The @MaEllenSirleaf @HelenClarkNZ @TheIndPanel #pandemic preparedness & response report makes essential recommendations that must be realized but is also dangerously incomplete. Supporting what's great in the report requires highlighting what is wrong. theindependentpanel.org 2/ Calling #COVID19 “the 21st century’s Chernobyl moment” w/o referencing #China’s role in starting the pandemic is like not mentioning USSR dysfunction & bad reactor design in a #Chernobyl after-action analysis.

1/ Many people have asked about the politics of the #COVID19 origins debate after I was featured on @60Minutes. It’s tragic that politics is preventing the full investigation that’s required, but the story is a bit complicated. Follow this thread for more. cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-… 2/ Can understand why Chinese gov’t promoting zoonotic jump & cold chain #COVID19 origin hypotheses & squash consideration of lab leak. There’s a big difference btw getting cancer from sun exposure than from #Chernobyl. It's harder to understand why some int’l experts play along.

1/ Having read the int’l cttee/Chinese gov’t #COVID19 origins report & watched the @WHO presser, it’s clear 1) the report is fatally flawed, 2) there’s currently no credible int’l investigation into pandemic origins, & 3) we desperately need one. Follow this thread for more. 2/ The core problem is clearly structural. The int’l team saw its task as finding a zoonotic source of animal transition in the wild, not seeking the actual source of the pandemic. There’s a big difference. They set out to prove one hypothesis, not fairly examine all of them.