In 2020 we published a peer-reviewed paper w/ >700 novel bat CoVs from China. Months later we found a small fraction of sequences analyzed (41/1246) originated just over the border in Laos. At authors request we retracted & simultaneously republished in same journal ecohealthalliance.org/2024/12/ecohea… Given that our analyses were conducted by zoogeographical regions & bats on both sides of the border are from the same species and communities, we didn’t expect this to make a substantial difference to the paper’s conclusions. As expected, the results did not change substantially.

Reminding lab leakers that there's a wealth of information for you to generate new conspiratorial garbage from in our journal's Cover Art and Essays - at least 20 years of hard work connecting art & science for youse guys to tinker nefariously with...

Here's one that talks about China so that should put the cat amongst the pigeons...

I think I've cracked the "293 code" that Drosstic can't break:

293 minus the 12 common CoVs = 281.
281 minus the 41 Laos sequences from WIV = 240.
240, re-shuffled = 420.

420 is the secret code for cannabis, which is definitely what these folks are smokin! The same folks delving deep into the "293 Code" conspiracy, are busy right now on an anti-vaxx crusade w/ none other than that Shaman bloke who dresses up with cow horns & invaded the Capitol!

Ironic that these Drosstic folks are cited by Congress & the Senate in their reports!

My favorite flavor is dulce de leche... what's yours? I always say "Oui" to Haagen Dazs!

Exciting news from @EcoHealthNYC: @NIH has reissued our @NIAIDNews grant R01AI110964 “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” 3 yrs & 2 days after it was terminated! The statement below links to the full project details: ecohealthalliance.org/2023/05/collab… This effectively lifts the suspension on our grant that involved collaboration in China w/ Wuhan Institute of Virology, & was terminated on April 2020 ‘for convenience’. 2/
politico.com/news/2020/04/2…

Full details of our new @NIH @NIAIDNews-funded R01 are being released today by @EcoHealthNYC. This includes the full proposal, all communications with NIAID & the Notice of Award. 🧵
ecohealthalliance.org/analyzing-the-…

https://twitter.com/EcoHealthNYC/status/1641387338017169409?s=20

The title of this piece belies the fact that new rules on wildlife trade in China will allow breeding of animals for fur & lucrative global fashion industry...animals including...er.. mink...& ..er.. raccoon dogs! science.org/content/articl… Don't forget also that the wildlife trade in mammals for food is alive & well across rest of the SE Asian emerging disease hotspot region..& we're not off-the-hook either - the USA is the biggest importer of wildlife - for the pet trade. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

What an honor! About 2x per week, the Daily Mail writes a story about COVID origins & is kind enough to refer to our work, even if it's nothing to do w/ the story they're writing. One today about Dr. Fauci grinning, & one yesterday about raccoon dogs. Here are some samples.. There are many more, each one generously pointing out how we're 'fauci-backed' or 'disgraced' or otherwise awful. Importantly, each article contains falsehoods, innacuracies, innuendo, hearsay & myth.

Preprint of scientific analysis of CoV-susceptible wildlife sequences from Huanan Seafood Market now out. Well done on rapid submission Flo et al.!

https://twitter.com/flodebarre/status/1637960294205931521

Importantly, it contains preamble explaining the rationale for this unusual strategy of analyzing sequences from other groups before peer-reviewed paper published.

Just updating this list of scientific, verifiable evidence for “natural” origin of covid. 12+ peer-reviewed papers. Not the innuendo, hearsay, out-of-context email quotes, or hidden classified info that lab leak “theory” relies on.

https://twitter.com/peterdaszak/status/1471645982131634181

New paper last week from @SmileyTierra et al showing widespread exposure to SARSr-CoVs in Myanmar prior to outbreak. Includes CoVs close to SC2. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

We refute spurious claims by @vdmerwex amplified by @sarahknapton @Telegraph from his letter to @FinancialTimes: 1) There's no evidence any lab was manipulating viruses close to SC2. 2) SARSr-CoV work funded by NIH was by definition not gain-of-function. ecohealthalliance.org/2023/03/ecohea… Key points from our letter:

More disingenuous reporting via cherry-picked phrases in FoIA'd emails that are wilfully misinterpreted. Of course we continued the work - analyzing data, writing & publishing papers so the world can see our results, despite having our funding terminated! Here's how disingenuous this story is - I already responded to their questions about this email - which they briefly bury in the middle of their story, before going down another rabbit hole re. a proposal that wasn't funded, and the work never done.

Virologists call for ‘Rational Discourse”’ Evidence …suggests that SARS-CoV-2 entered the human population by that [zoonotic spillover] route," says @GoodrumVirusLab. "There is no evidence to the contrary or in support of a lab leak, nothing credible." npr.org/sections/healt… Full article signed by >150 virologists journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mb…

Great to see this awesome paper that's working to develop better appreciation of bats & uses our "Living safely with Bats" toolkit. H/t @iejotre @ReederLab
@SchaerJuliane mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/2… Critical research that brings conservation and health together.

Traditionally in the hill tribes of Thailand you need to conduct a ceremony to ward off the bad spirits and feed the good spirits before you enter a cave. Here is our spirit guide performing the ceremon yr before we visited “Spirit Well” nr Mar Hong Son closer to Myanmar border. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Spirit Well is a collapsed cave system that’s striking with stalactites like giant shark teeth.

Cave swiftlet “fly-in” time at Tham Lod Cave Thailand nr Myanmar border. 300K swiftlets fly in, then the bats fly out. Beautiful chaos. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Beauty rat snake (AKA cave racer) hunting in the deepest part of the cave.

River of bats at Ratchaburi Cave, Thailand If you listen carefully you can hear their wings… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Interesting new analysis of SARS-CoV & SARS-CoV-2 whole genomes that comes up w/ a strategy to deal with the uber-recombination that's been going on, & a new estimate of rapid emergence from most recent common ancestors for both lineages.

https://twitter.com/jepekar/status/1582860043241762816

It's complicated stuff, & they (wisely) leave the reader to work out relevance re. COVID origins. I might be wrong, but it seems to support analysis that SARSr-CoV spillover is happening frequently across a broad geography. nature.com/articles/s4146…

Report of the Independent Task Force on COVID-19 and other Pandemic Origins, Prevention and Response published today in @PNASNews. @EckerleIsabella @HumeField @MarionKoopmans @calhi415 @suuyadana @neidl @BUCEID @hkumed @OhioState @unimalaya @KNUSTGH
🧵
pnas.org/doi/full/10.10… Authors include all original members of Taskforce under @TheLancet COVID-19 commission w/ the addition of two new members @MarionKoopmans & @suuyadana. Experts representing disciplinary, geographical diversity. 2/
independentcovidtaskforce.org/about-members

Hot off the press - preprint (not yet peer-reviewed) presents first ever global analysis of drivers of antimicrobial resistance emergence. @emmendelsohn @noamross @cmzambranat of @EcoHealthNYC, @thvanboeckel of @ETH_en & Ramanan Laxminarayan of @CDDEP. medrxiv.org/content/10.110… The rise of AMR strains is a key threat to global health, but what's behind increasing frequency of AMR emergence? Analysis has been hampered by lack of global datasets on antimicrobial drug use & difficulties identifying origins of AMR strains. who.int/news-room/fact…

My editorial in the current issue of EcoHealth. Getting ahead of the next pandemic requires targeted "Smart Surveillance" across human-wildlife interfaces. A collaborative, science-based, One Health approach that depends on international collaboration. link.springer.com/article/10.100… Smart surveillance will require triaging our efforts and resources to the wildlife reservoirs most likely to carry potentially-emerging viruses, and the places & communities on the front line of spillover events.