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There is a story circulating about the "death penalty" for China's crisprbabies researcher JK He. There is no factual basis to it. Dr. He says via email he's "doing fine" (thread)
It started with a press briefing by Robin Lovell-Badge, a big shot biologist in the United Kingdom. Also a big mouth in this instance I am afraid, as he speculated that in China "quite a few people have lost their heads" for corruption.pic.twitter.com/pHsmALrNoZ
It's true China does execute white collar criminals. China executed the former heads of its FDA for corruption a decade ago.https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/business/worldbusiness/11execute.html …
Also true that Dr. He seems to be under some kind of house arrest.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/world/asia/he-jiankui-china-scientist-gene-editing.html …
BUT ABSOLUTELY NO ONE SAID THAT HE JIANKUI IS ACTUALLY FACING THE DEATH PENALTY, OR THAT SUCH A PENALTY IS LIKELY But Lovell-Badge's comments took on a life of their own.pic.twitter.com/mMVzGf6dp1
Lovell-Badge tells me: "The journalists in the room then fed off each other and some clearly wanted to make a story out of this, rather than listen to me saying that this is silly, and it is very unlikely that China would want any further damage to their reputation. "pic.twitter.com/RPDYCmo9Sy
The first story, by the Telegraph, walked it up to the line. "Chinese scientist who genetically edited babies under armed guard amid fears he could face death penalty" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/01/07/chinese-scientist-genetically-edited-babies-armed-guard-amid/ … Fair enough, sort of, but then...
News aggregators removed the nuance and extended the claim into a falsehood: "HE JIANKUI, THE CHINESE SCIENTIST WHO GENE-EDITED BABIES, MAY FACE DEATH PENALTY, COLLEAGUE SAYS" -Newsweek "CRISPR Human Gene Editing Scientist Faces Death Penalty" -- Next Big Futurepic.twitter.com/mr5YUZ8xuh
Is He Jiankui facing the death penalty? No one writing or commenting on this had any idea. No one is saying so other than headline writers. Which means they are basically calling for an execution.
Keep in mind, Dr. He is actually reading these stories in China. He read them last night. Lovell-Badge says got an email from the Chinese scientist saying he is "doing fine" . fwiw, don't know if that is true either, but have some compassion. //END
PS--This untimely press briefing (untimely because no news) was organized by the Science Media Centre in London (http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/ ) @SMC_London
Antonio, why did Lovell-Badge give this presser in the 1st place? Was it all focused on He?
Did RLB even say anything about a death penalty? The quote was something like "people have lost their heads for corruption" which seems like hyperbole. Presumably China isn't decapitating people.
the only verbatim quote I saw was that one.
That's great news, Antonio. Thanks for following through on this story.
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