Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #OriginsofCovid
Most recents (24)
So I’ve been away for a while and probably for the first time, I think I’m behind the curve in the #OriginsofCOVID debate.
Some recent happenings led me back. Before I venture onto that, here’s a lil rundown, a repeat of sorts, of what I have been carrying with me all this time.
Some recent happenings led me back. Before I venture onto that, here’s a lil rundown, a repeat of sorts, of what I have been carrying with me all this time.
It’s late 2019 and hospitals in Wuhan were overflowing with patients having SARS-like symptoms. Strict measures were put in place to restrict the flow of information.
In early 2020, news started trickling out of China - and I distinctly remember watching it with horror.
In early 2020, news started trickling out of China - and I distinctly remember watching it with horror.
Wuhan was far outside the hot zone where SARS-like coronaviruses of such kind had been previously identified.
Wuhan was also known to a specialized scientific community, as the home to an institute studying SARS-like viruses, especially the ones with pandemic potential.
Wuhan was also known to a specialized scientific community, as the home to an institute studying SARS-like viruses, especially the ones with pandemic potential.
1/few. Attendees of #Nido2023 may be wondering why I am not being allowed to ask questions of the speakers. Attendees should know too that I was denied the right to share our printed scientific articles. No reason given so far except the "instructions of @ProfVolkerThiel" ...
2/few.
So here are the dangerous papers you are not being allowed to see:
independentsciencenews.org/commentaries/a…
and
independentsciencenews.org/health/did-wes…
One reason may be that last week at #ECV2023 Prof Martin Beer, collaborator with @ProfVolkerThiel embarrassed himself with terrible answers to my...
So here are the dangerous papers you are not being allowed to see:
independentsciencenews.org/commentaries/a…
and
independentsciencenews.org/health/did-wes…
One reason may be that last week at #ECV2023 Prof Martin Beer, collaborator with @ProfVolkerThiel embarrassed himself with terrible answers to my...
3/few.
questions, thus exposing his research program as not a fair-minded and objective enquiry into #Covidorigins but a veiled defence of the zoonotic origin.
Here is a link to our discussion:
questions, thus exposing his research program as not a fair-minded and objective enquiry into #Covidorigins but a veiled defence of the zoonotic origin.
Here is a link to our discussion:
This by @KatzOnEarth makes a crucial point that gets glossed over in 99% of #OriginsOfCovid discourse. There’s no unitary “lab leak theory.” There’s nothing that generates testable predictions (a necessity for something to be science). theracket.news/p/there-is-no-…
The Trump/Pompeo State Department had a whole special stovepiped team dedicated to claiming COVID was a Chinese government bioweapon released on purpose. Or maybe by accident. But probably at the World Military Games.
This was bizarre and stupid and had no relationship to anything in biology or human behavior or the epidemiology of the virus. But it got the old Iraq-WMD team together and almost led to a formal diplomatic protest claiming bioweapon treaty violations.
Truly nothing I wrote to Mr. Barkan is a) accusing anyone of lying or b) politically polarized. @RossBarkan could obviously delete this, apologize, and respond to my request for a scientific basis for his conclusions (and rejecting the findings of 5 other intel agencies). 
To be very clear, here’s what I wrote. Each tweet specifically focuses on evidence rather than partisan alignment of the issue. The only one polarizing the discussion is @RossBarkan. I’m not accusing DOE of lying, but Barkan is. I expect better of @NYMag and @thenation writers.
But @RossBarkan’s angle here is illustrative. He *assumes* that the entire dynamic of the #OriginsOfCovid discourse exists in a political realm. It seems not to *occur* to him that people are capable of reaching conclusions based on evidence.
The messaging to convince us that "we'll never know" the truth about #CovidOrigins started in earnest after the US IC was briefed by an unknown group of experts. The ground was being prepared ahead of that. Example from Jan 2021:
June 2021, a US Senator reminds us how unlikely we are to ever know where this #COVID19 virus came from
By the end of June 2021, a rare interview with US Intelligence chief Avril Haines was used to press home the "we'll probably never know" #OriginsOfCovid message
To those still wondering perhaps why I keep on about the startling differences between the House/McCaul and Senate/Burr #OriginsofCovid report, I'm going to outline what I find to be the most glaring omissions.
First, the title. That should say enough but lets keep going.
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First, the title. That should say enough but lets keep going.
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Feel free to follow along as we go over this document together. These are not my opinions or findings, I just believe fair and open analysis of this document is imperative to our understanding of the Origins of COVID-19. It warrants consideration.
hsdl.org/?view&did=8460…
hsdl.org/?view&did=8460…
"It is beyond doubt that the CCP actively engaged in a cover-up designed to obfuscate data, hide relevant public health information, and suppress doctors and journalists who attempted to warn the world."
Burr & Co. report doesnt mention any CCP involvement.
Burr & Co. report doesnt mention any CCP involvement.
Senate Minority Staff Oversight's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee led by @SenatorBurr re: #OriginsOfCovid report was released today. I have seen a lot of discussion about this so I thought I'd chime in on what I find very odd.
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washingtonpost.com/science/2022/1…
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washingtonpost.com/science/2022/1…
The Burr report states, "The objective was to review publicly available, open-source information to examine the two prevailing theories of origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.."
However, there was one very important document that Burr & Co failed to review, cite or even mention. Why?
However, there was one very important document that Burr & Co failed to review, cite or even mention. Why?
The Burr report's conclusion references: the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, the COVID- 19 Lancet Commission, and the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence 90-Day Assessment on the COVID-19 Origins.
Why not the McCaul/HFAC report?
Why not the McCaul/HFAC report?
From the very beginning of this Pandemic, I have heard pundits, politicians & other public health officials speak about "winning hearts and minds" when talking about vaccine acceptance strategies. Pacification is the more formal term for winning hearts and minds. How ironic.
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Using nudge theory strategies to steer the behaviors of an entire population is not how to win over anyone's heart or mind. That is called brainwashing or the more accepted term - behavioral modification or control.
gavi.org/vaccineswork/s…
gavi.org/vaccineswork/s…
When you have a federally funded institution openly admitting to utilizing behavioral control techniques through social "nudging" with the intent of "ESTABLISHING COVID-19 VACCINATION AS AN ACCEPTED SOCIAL NORM" that is behavioral modification en masse.
@HouseForeign compiled a fascinating & well researched report on the #OriginsOfCovid that raise a lot of questions about EcoHealth Alliance, Daszak, NIH & WIV. I'll stay impartial but I'm curious why there's not enough oversight or inquiry into this.
gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/upl…
gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/upl…
RE: @HouseForeign : "we now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak. We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019."
"We have uncovered evidence of how top scientists at the WIV and Dr. Peter Daszak furthered that cover-up. Their actions include bullying scientists who questioned whether the virus could have leaked from a lab;.."
Still ongoing just ask @WashburneAlex @VBruttel @tony_vandongen!
Still ongoing just ask @WashburneAlex @VBruttel @tony_vandongen!
Physicist David Robert Grimes Finds Conspiracies Everywhere disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/physicist-da…
If you questions vaccine side effects? Conspiracy theorist
Pesticides & radiation? Conspiracy theorist....
Clinical trials? Conspiracy!
#OriginsOfCovd Conspiracy theorist, of course! /1
If you questions vaccine side effects? Conspiracy theorist
Pesticides & radiation? Conspiracy theorist....
Clinical trials? Conspiracy!
#OriginsOfCovd Conspiracy theorist, of course! /1
Grimes excels at is wading into controversial scientific topics, for which he has little experience or publication record, and “debunking” contrary evidence and real experts as “conspiracy theorists.” @BBCJohnBeattie /2
We now better understand the rare side effects of blood clotting w/ AstraZeneca's vaccine.
But when agencies first reported these side effects, David Grimes rushed to dismiss them in an @IrishTimesOpEd in the @IrishTimes @ScienceNelson disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/physicist-da… /3
But when agencies first reported these side effects, David Grimes rushed to dismiss them in an @IrishTimesOpEd in the @IrishTimes @ScienceNelson disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/physicist-da… /3
Pursued On All Sides By Journalists and Congress, Peter Daszak Seeks Refuge At Science Magazine, via @DisInfoChron disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/pursued-on-a…
Enough with silly nonreporting reporting, send the subpoenas /1
Enough with silly nonreporting reporting, send the subpoenas /1
It's become clear that, despite assurances from Tim Appenzeller at Science, that publication won't pursue stories about congressional investigations that make Peter Daszak or the NIH look bad. /2
The latest volley from Science is this odd profile of Peter Daszak that Science's Editor-in-Chief made clear on Twitter was for political purposes to undermine opinions that #originsofcovid could have started in a Wuhan lab. This sort of honesty is called a Kinsley gaffe. /3
Sometimes the #OriginsOfCOVID gang (@Ayjchan etc) decide that the Chinese government’s reticence about sharing information from research centers is evidence for a #LabLeak. By that standard, is this evidence for spillover? washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pac…
More. The Chinese government and regional governments have made it extremely hard to get any data on fur farms, exotic meat farms, and wild meat hunters. The *existence* of those products for sale in Wuhan is still being covered up within China.
Enshi is far closer to Wuhan than Yunnan, where the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2 in China has been found. But it appears no one has sampled the viromes of Rhinolophus in Enshi. Practices there clearly warrant investigation.
Natural origin proponents and agnostic/lab leak proponents keep talking past each other because there are some fundamental differences in how we interpret the state of knowledge and novel findings relating to #OriginsOfCovid
Close relatives to SARS2 have been found in bats.
Natural origin proponents: we will find the intermediate host of SARS2 soon.
Agnostic/lab origin proponents: we still don’t know how the virus got from bats to humans.
Natural origin proponents: we will find the intermediate host of SARS2 soon.
Agnostic/lab origin proponents: we still don’t know how the virus got from bats to humans.
On precedents.
Natural origin proponents: this new pandemic is most likely history repeating itself.
Agnostic/lab origin proponents: viruses, including coronavirus and the first SARS virus, have leaked from labs too.
Natural origin proponents: this new pandemic is most likely history repeating itself.
Agnostic/lab origin proponents: viruses, including coronavirus and the first SARS virus, have leaked from labs too.
It's not right that information directly relevant to the #OriginsOfCovid - much of it from sources outside of China - are only being revealed close to 2 years post-outbreak.
These documents only made public in September 2021 make any scientific reviews (some would say critical reviews) or science journalism pieces prior to last month out-of-date and uninformed.
theintercept.com/2021/09/06/new…
theintercept.com/2021/09/23/cor…
theintercept.com/2021/09/06/new…
theintercept.com/2021/09/23/cor…
If anyone is writing a new #OriginsOfCovid journalistic piece or a critical review/op-ed for publication at a scientific journal, you must include the new findings from the #Defuse DARPA proposal leaked by Drastic and the NIH EcoHealth progress reports FOIA'ed by @theintercept
My interview w/ author Elaine Dewar on her latest book "On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years” about her journey investigating #OriginsOfCovid disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/a-candid-con… /1
Elaine Dewar on scientific publishers, "Some—Nature, The Lancet, eMI—turned themselves into platforms for the science equivalent of propaganda." All to stay on the good side of China. #originsofcovid disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/a-candid-con… /2
In her book, Dewar notes: in January 2020, Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology submitted a study to @Nature and another study to a different journal that contradicted the Nature paper. Neither have been corrected. (Who peer reviews Nature studies?) #originsofcovid /3
Trying to explain what folks are seeing: last week DRASTIC released a leaked 2018 DARPA grant that wasn’t funded, but had some wild proposals: i.e. UNC/EcoH/WIV proposed spraying China’s caves w/bat vaccines made using bat viruses, to protect the world from a bat virus pandemic.
They wrote about adding a furin cleavage site into their lab’s bat viruses & asked DOD to fund them. (The existence of a furin cleavage site in the COVID-19 virus has had scientists scratching their heads, normal bat viruses don’t have these furin cleavage sites, they tell us.)
Some say the COVID-19 virus’ fcs means it came from a lab. Some find it odd no one involved in the 2018 grant told the world they’d had this bat virus proposal out there. Last week,Linfa Wang confirmed his involvement & UNC’s in the rejected grant & defended not saying anything.
These redactions are getting kind of over the top.
I don’t think releasing a Feb 2020 discussion among scientists about the origins will make that much difference in terms of the West’s relationship with China. It’s not like it’s going to surprise us that they were taking a lab leak seriously - we saw that in Farrar’s book.
What’s there left to surprise us with?
Why has the DEFUSE EcoHealth x WIV document not hit the mainstream?
The public needs to know there was a pipeline for genetically modifying novel SARS-like coronaviruses as part of an international collaboration involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The public needs to know there was a pipeline for genetically modifying novel SARS-like coronaviruses as part of an international collaboration involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The biggest reason as far as I can see is that the largest news outlets refuse to run stories once they lose the exclusive.
This makes little sense to me because what % of people are following the Twitter users tweeting about DEFUSE?
This makes little sense to me because what % of people are following the Twitter users tweeting about DEFUSE?
The DEFUSE story was so close to being in a big newspaper but got pulled last minute when it was dropped on Twitter.
This is a disservice to the public and to the documents and the whistleblower.
This is a disservice to the public and to the documents and the whistleblower.
The documents FOIA’ed or leaked in the past month have shown us that there is a lot of info relevant to #OriginsOfCovid still being withheld even outside of China. Many FOIAs are still in progress, and it could take years before those emails and documents are finally released.
It’s troubling that the individuals sitting on these documents don’t have knowledge or access to a secure whistleblower channel, or in some cases they appear not to even understand the impact of the info they’re sitting on and their decision not to make public what they know.
If, in Jan 2020, the world was informed of the DEFUSE proposal and that scientists don’t know whether the virus came from a market or a lab, there’s a possibility we could’ve ended this pandemic before it got so out of control.
Both #OriginsOfCovid study committees with strong ties to EcoHealth Alliance & WIV have finally been disbanded.
As many are aware by now, there are plentiful opportunities outside China to collect information about the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.
wsj.com/articles/who-s…
As many are aware by now, there are plentiful opportunities outside China to collect information about the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.
wsj.com/articles/who-s…
"The previous WHO-selected team.. recommended that their Chinese counterparts analyze blood banks, test farmworkers and further scrutinize the earliest suspected cases.. China hasn’t said whether it has undertaken such work. The original WHO team has been disbanded."
If there are any people out there who believe China would not do everything in its power to rapidly identify the source of a killer virus in one of its top cities, with or without the recommendations of foreign experts...
I imagine some scientists are now praying that one of the most well-funded, prolific, cutting-edge labs in the world suddenly didn’t have the will, funding or ingenuity to follow through and expand on the SARSr-CoV engineering ideas they proposed in early 2018. #OriginsOfCovid
This is an astute observation by @zeynep
The more senior authors and signatories of @TheLancet letters and the Holmes et al. @CellCellPress paper should be approached for extended comment on the EcoHealth proposal.
The more senior authors and signatories of @TheLancet letters and the Holmes et al. @CellCellPress paper should be approached for extended comment on the EcoHealth proposal.
To do that, we really need the best of the best journalists to cover this story. @theintercept @fastlerner @MaraHvistendahl @maiahibbett and @TheAtlantic @danengber have made valiant efforts to authenticate the document and to juxtapose arguments from experts on both sides.
It’s difficult to reconcile this interview of the former DNI with the recent declassified summary by the IC. If there is compelling evidence of a lab origin (which I had heard of back in August) then why did the IC agencies largely not reach even low confidence conclusions?
Reminder of how the IC implements ruled regarding just natural exposure vs lab origin:
Also this today.
I think something’s very wrong if evidence of this nature exists and yet is not being shared with the public in a timely manner.
“Expect more bat-CoVs closer to SARS-CoV-2 & some likely w/ FCS or related in nature.” - @peterdaszak
“Expect more bat-CoVs closer to SARS-CoV-2 & some likely w/ FCS or related in nature.” - @peterdaszak
“Op Eds & books planned & many more FoIAs on their way. But if we looks at the scientific data…” - @peterdaszak
Actually the scientific data in @theintercept FOIA has been very illuminating as to the GOF work being performed by EcoHealth and WIV.
Actually the scientific data in @theintercept FOIA has been very illuminating as to the GOF work being performed by EcoHealth and WIV.
“There have been dozens of FoIA’d docs, emails, reports, proposals (even ones that didn’t get funded!).” - @peterdaszak
The FOIA’ed emails show us how @TheLancet letter condemning non-natural origin hypotheses was orchestrated by Daszak.
The FOIA’ed emails show us how @TheLancet letter condemning non-natural origin hypotheses was orchestrated by Daszak.
I spent years running congressional investigations and twice had to warn attorneys about lying to Congress. The legal standard is clear: Fauci broke the law by misleading Congress about his funding of research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/anthony-fauc… /1
Newsweek, former Acting Director of the CIA Michael Morell, and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs have all found that Fauci's NIAID funded gain-of-function research at Wuhan. Are they lying? Or did Fauci mislead and lie before Congress? #originsofcovid /2
In a Channel 4 documentary, David Relman explains that Fauci's NIAID did fund gain-of-function at Wuhan. Relman points to the paper in PLOS Pathogens disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/anthony-fauc… /3
