As Twitter has morphed into X, xenophobia, hate speech, and conspiracy theories are being amplified more than ever.

I can't contribute to such a platform, but before I leave, I wanted to reflect on the work my lab has done during the pandemic.

Why? More about that at the end 🧵 The photo above is from a recent lab retreat in Joshua tree - a few people are missing in the photo, but you can learn more about the lab here: .

Below, I will outline some of the work this incredibly talented and hardworking group of people have done.andersen-lab.com

Since this is making the rounds again, just a reminder that the conspiracy theory that an unfunded grant application represents a blueprint for SARS-CoV-2 was defused by the writing of DEFUSE itself.

Why? Let's start with the sub-heading itself 👇.

S2' != S1-S2.

Short 🧵. 1️⃣ The section talks about "proteolytic cleavage" in the S2' region, not the S1/S2 region where SARS-CoV-2 has a unique insert. This, alone, kills the whole assertion of DEFUSE being a blueprint - details matter.

Deeply misleading article @TheAtlantic representing scientists as being insincere.

While science is not perfect, the key issue is literacy and a generally poor public understanding of science.

Ironically, Mazer deeply misrepresent facts and does a real disservice to science.

https://twitter.com/BenMazer/status/1707021448471019900

@TheAtlantic For example, @BenMazer states that I "admitted" that we changed our conclusions and this was because we needed to “make some of the language punchier.”

This is a deep misrepresentation of what the peer-review process is and what I actually said.

Compare:

Very interesting data from @yunlong_cao’s group, supporting a hypothesis we have been discussing internally for the last few weeks - that BA.2.86 may have a significant antigenic advantage, but intrinsically is less transmissible.

A bit of pondering on that 👇🧵

https://twitter.com/yunlong_cao/status/1697318194976010446

In such a scenario? The idea is that BA.2.86 has essentially found an antigenic (immunological) niche, where it faces little competition because it’s so distinct from previously dominant lineages.

If you're into Lab Leak Lore, I'm sure you have heard of a guy named @WashburneAlex.

Here's what he likes to say in public.

But for full transparency, let me share some of the emails he's been sending me.

I won't editorialize - you be the judge. 🧵👇





2022.10.27.

We didn't love the paper FWIW 🥹.

From UFOs over sick lab workers starting pandemics, to quote mining private conversations among scientists. None of this is surprising - the surprising part is that 'journalists' and others keep falling for the same bullshit.

So a little context to Slack message 👇.

Short 🧵 First up, the message shows an *exact* example of what conspiracy theorists accuse us of not being willing to do - questioning our own research.

Second, context is extremely important here.

There has been an immense amount of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories around our "Proximal Origin" paper.

Let's dive into the full evolution of a scientific idea from early hypothesis to later published conclusion. 🧵👇

Paper: nature.com/articles/s4159… ⏰ Jan 31 - Email.

1⃣ "potentially engineered"
2⃣ "inconsistent with expectations"
3⃣ "we have to look at this much more closely and there are still further analyses to be done, so those opinions could still change"

👇 is exactly right.

The idea that there was a 'preferred narrative' is false. Read the emails. And papers. In full.

The idea that there was a 'bribe' to change a narrative is beyond ludicrous.

The idea that this was _anything_ other than scientific inquiry is absurd.

End of.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1633950335759785986

I have said it before and I'll say it again. Fauci played no role in drafting the Proximal Origin paper, nor did he "edit" it or "approve" it.

He suggested (i.e., "prompted") that we consider writing a paper, whatever we found. There was _no_ preference for one hypothesis.

At sige det her er skræmmende læsning er en underdrivelse.

Meget af det @TyraGroveKrause @SSI_dk @SSTSundhed siger er simpelthen forkert, så lad os tage en kigger på det der bliver sagt og hvordan Danmark, igen, har givet op mht. coronaen.

🧵👇

https://twitter.com/igumrasmussen/status/1601497812059160576?s=61&t=bD1CQaMJmzSJKBHvLdE_8w

Lad os starte med titlen på artiklen - det er typisk @IgumRasmussen, som jo også har haft artikler med titler som "skidt pyt" og en helt masse anti-vaccine sludder.

Det er skuffende. Og problemet er jo at når "flere smittes" så dør der også flere.

Men vær ligeglad, ikke?