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zeynep's profile
zeynep tufekci
zeynep tufekci
zeynep tufekci
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@zeynep

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zeynep tufekciVerified account

@zeynep

Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @UNC professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter is @insight: http://www.theinsight.org 

floating in a most peculiar way
theinsight.org
Joined August 2009

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    1. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      (+) control 1: "The present study for the first time (on January 21st, 2020) reported a very important mutation.. not present in the S proteins of most other Betacoronavirus (e.g. SARS coronavirus)."https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338804501_A_furin_cleavage_site_was_discovered_in_the_S_protein_of_the_2019_novel_coronavirus …

      1 reply 1 retweet 9 likes
    2. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      (+) control 2 titled "The spike glycoprotein of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV contains a furin-like cleavage site absent in CoV of the same clade" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7114094/ …pic.twitter.com/d3DVQsKJhH

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
    3. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      Let's look at Dr Shi's papers. "The major differences in the sequence of the S gene of 2019-nCoV are the 3 short insertions in the N-terminal domain as well as changes in.. key residues in the receptor-binding motif compared with the sequence of SARS-CoV"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7#change-history …

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
    4. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      Paper 2: Even after aligning spike, they didn't see the new FCS insertion. "aligning 2019-nCoV S protein sequence with those of SARS-CoV and several bat-SL-CoVs, we predicted that the cleavage site for generating S1 and S2 subunits is located at R694/S695" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7033706/ …

      1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
    5. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      Furthermore, all 3 authors on this paper had been part of a collaboration engineering an S1/S2 FCS into a MERS-like CoV (pseudotyped) in 2015.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524054/ …

      2 replies 1 retweet 12 likes
    6. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      I'm not saying this is a smoking gun for SARS-CoV-2 being engineered. But as @zeynep pointed out, it should at least be considered as an oddity.

      2 replies 2 retweets 11 likes
    7. zeynep tufekci‏Verified account @zeynep 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @trvrb and

      Oddity, but not a coverup. You have to assume people with this much expertise understand not explicitly mentioning it in that paper isn’t going to be a coverup, given genome already available and everyone will go 👀 as soon as they see it. Coverups have to make sense in context.

      1 reply 2 retweets 8 likes
    8. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @zeynep @trvrb and

      It could be a mistake omission due to panic (despite very carefully picking out nearby insertions and even looking at the very site compared to other SARSrCoVs in their collection). Or it could be a situation where they could not draw attention to it.

      3 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
    9. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @zeynep and

      Someone told me an anecdote about scientists in the West told not to speak about impt details of a discovery which were potentially dual use. But the scientists fought back, pointing out that the omission would draw attention. In China, can scientists push back against the gov?

      3 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
    10. Roger Pielke Jr.‏Verified account @RogerPielkeJr 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @Ayjchan @zeynep and

      Roger Pielke Jr. Retweeted Roger Pielke Jr.

      Oddities are overdetermined in that available evidence allows many possible explanations That is why considering multiple oddities in context together is important A key element here is the Chinese gov’t stating that it views research publications as moves in a game of chesshttps://twitter.com/RogerPielkeJr/status/1401540854368522244 …

      Roger Pielke Jr. added,

      Roger Pielke Jr.Verified account @RogerPielkeJr
      This is the most remarkable new information I learned from it Chinese government views the publication of scientific research on COVID-19 like “moves in a game of chess” pic.twitter.com/TsptejuFGj
      Show this thread
      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
      zeynep tufekci‏Verified account @zeynep 10 Jun 2021
      Replying to @RogerPielkeJr @Ayjchan and

      Well fine but it would be a very stupid move in a game of chess not to mention the thing that’s already publicly available *and* very noticeable, on the theory that will be enough to bury it? Stupider things have happened but you have to acknowledge this is what it would mean.

      12:58 PM - 10 Jun 2021
      • 1 Retweet
      • 4 Likes
      • halvorz ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Allison Dan Garisto Elissa Shevinsky
      5 replies 1 retweet 4 likes
        1. hoeman‏ @_hoeman 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @zeynep @RogerPielkeJr and

          Censors, normally, are stupid.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @zeynep @RogerPielkeJr and

          I agree, but in Jan 2020, no one but the most field-specific scientists understood the obviousness of an FCS insertion in a novel SARS virus. Imagine a scenario where FCSs had been engineered into CoVs, a non-scientist official might've laid down the law not to draw attention.

          1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
        3. Alina Chan‏Verified account @Ayjchan 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @Ayjchan @zeynep and

          In the US and the UK, the scientist might've talked back to their gov, saying that this rule is incredibly stupid. What about in a country where a nation-wide gag order can be set on the #OriginsOfCovidhttps://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/asia/china-coronavirus-research-restrictions-intl-hnk/index.html …

          2 replies 2 retweets 9 likes
        4. Show replies
        1. New conversation
        2. Roger Pielke Jr.‏Verified account @RogerPielkeJr 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @zeynep @Ayjchan and

          Well, the whole pangolin episode followed exactly this series of "stupid moves" (and it was uncovered as a result) As someone who has spent a lot of time looking at issues of bad science in politics, stupid moves are pretty common

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
        3. zeynep tufekci‏Verified account @zeynep 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @RogerPielkeJr @Ayjchan and

          As I said, stupider things have happened. And it is odd. But purposefully not mentioning the thing everyone would notice because it had already become public and was also obviously very noticeable seems especially stupid. You have to assume the scientists would point that out.

          2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        4. Show replies
        1. Roconar‏ @Roconar 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @zeynep @RogerPielkeJr and

          Isn’t not highlighting Daszak’s conflicts of interest equally stupid, yet it worked for well over a year?

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Paul D. Thacker‏ @thackerpd 10 Jun 2021
          Replying to @zeynep @RogerPielkeJr and

          ‘We can speak about this as censorship.’ Researcher Says The Lancet Silences Open Discussion on COVID-19 Originshttps://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/we-can-speak-about-this-as-censorship …

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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