Gain-of-function research is specifically done to mimic what's happening in nature. Researchers (in China, or wherever) are trying to guess where pathogen evolution is going. Best we can tell, Chinese scientists were in the ballpark of COVID-19 but not *that* close.
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The rebuttal basically amounts to 'we don't have a firm answer on the intermediary host, and Chinese researchers were studying similar, but different, furin cleavage sites.' Taken together, that's not a slam dunk.
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Like I wrote, we have a pile of really good science supporting the idea that COVID-19 emerged from nature. The lab leak theory has a small heap of circumstantial evidence. Might that balance change in the near future? Maybe! But right now, we've got to face facts.
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Replying to @Justin_Ling
Pls do
@zeynep. Consistently right abt COVID19, thinks there’s something to the lab leak theory. Less an engineered/ manipulated virus, more a natural virus brought to Wuhan from S China by scientists. Then accidentally released via an infected lab workerhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/opinion/coronavirus-lab.html …1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @EnergiaPublica @Justin_Ling
Ralph Baric, maybe world’s leading coronavirus expert, says we cannot rule out engineering based solely on the genome, and has highlighted many things that can go wrong with just bat samples including recombination in the lab. Who am I to rule out things myself that he doesn’t?
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Replying to @zeynep @Justin_Ling
Sorry
@zeyneb if I misrepresented your article, the possibility of an engineered virus. My intent was to get@Justin_Ling to engage on a range of lab leak scenarios not just the possibility of an engineered/ gain-of-function virus. Love your work, thanks for the writing.1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
You're right that the possibility of a pure lab leak (i.e. COVID-19 was found in the wild, taken to the lab, then broke out) is the most plausible, but it's also a theory for which there is zero evidence beyond just the proximity of the WIV to the outbreak.
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zeynep tufekci Retweeted World Health Organization (WHO)
zeynep tufekci added,
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Evidence of a coverup isn't evidence of that particular coverup. We have a mountain of evidence proving China tried to hide the initial outbreak, because it didn't want bad press. It wanted to keep us from seeing them locking up and silencing their own citizens.
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Replying to @Justin_Ling @zeynep and
Still, it wasn’t much of a coverup if it was. In all the 2019 patients (and they admit it was there in November and even earlier) it looked like a bad Flu season combined with secondary bacterial pneumonia—among the elderly. And that is not at all unusual anywhere in the world
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Let's not insult Chinese doctors here, please. They tested for flu, and suspected a SARS-like coronavirus already in December at a minimum—before being threatened with jail. (We don't know the rest since they won't tell us, surprised that you think you do. Please share sources).
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Replying to @zeynep @Justin_Ling and
Ok, well flu virus surveillance methods are here, they rarely do viral flu tests anywhere in the world, not on individual patients, for sure, except for random population testing to look for spread patterns and small local testing. The culture for bacteriahttps://www.who.int/initiatives/global-influenza-surveillance-and-response-system …
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Replying to @AureliaCotta @zeynep and
And this discusses the Italian covid samples found in September 2019https://www.news-medical.net/news/20201117/SARS-CoV-2-was-circulating-in-Italy-before-China-recognized-its-existence.aspx …
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