R to @NIH: Link to the lecture next Friday:
https://videocast.nih.gov/watch/244438a5-0e6b-11f1-9f14-124f0a52e769
Matt Ridley will be giving the inaugural lecture for @NIH's new lecture series for scientific freedom next week.
Topic: Covid origins.
I hope NIH staffers will keep an open mind and attend the lecture.
In reality, those involved with this dGOF research and those who knew about this unnecessarily dangerous research had a responsibility to be transparent with all authorities and the public. That information would have informed the response and may have prevented the pandemic.
R to @Ayjchan: I think we could've skipped the whole bat soup, pangolin, raccoon dog, frozen foods saga.
Probably also would've saved the Proximal Origin authors from themselves.
R to @Ayjchan: Imagine if, in Jan 2020, US intel agencies & the public had been told that scientists in Wuhan had been collecting close relatives of SARS-CoV-2 from a mine with unexplained pneumonia cases, they had been making tons of chimeric viruses with published & unpublished sequences, sometimes leading to surprise gain-of-function (virus growth and lethality in humanized mice), and said they would put novel furin cleavage sites into novel SARS-like viruses, all at BSL-2 (not high containment), and 3 of the scientists in that exact lab had a Covid-like illness in November 2019.
The Covid origins cover up showed that top virologists - some are US intel assets - suffered an abrupt loss of intelligence or became parties to a conspiracy to shut down public discussion of a catastrophic lab leak in Wuhan.
By 2018, these virologists knew gain-of-function bat coronavirus experiments were planned or ongoing in Wuhan and the scientists there were making chimeric, genetically modified viruses out of sequences that weren't shared with the public or other scientists.
Yet, when Covid emerged, these same virologists authored or ghost authored influential papers claiming a lab origin was a conspiracy theory.
R to @usrtk: Since this work was described in an EcoHealth Alliance 2018-2019 progress report to NIH, it could be said that the NIH funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create chimeric MERS-like viruses (possibly outside of high containment) prior to the pandemic.
R to @usrtk: In 2021, EcoHealth Alliance separately told NIH about chimeric MERS experiments at the WIV (2 years late!). Unclear which sequences were used since these chimera did grow and infect cells whereas the one mentioned in the 2018 email did not.
https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Year-5-EHAv.pdf
R to @usrtk: Baric (US virologist) published on the same novel MERS-like CoV in 2023 but also didn't mention whether he had tried creating chimeric MERS-CoV as Shi (Wuhan virologist) suggested in 2018.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adg5567
R to @usrtk: Worth pointing out:
The WIV paper describing the novel MERS-like virus and pseudovirus experiments was only submitted Jan 2018, published June.
Feb 2018 email: they already made chimeric MERS-CoV virus with the sequence and didn't publish the results.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6002729/
R to @usrtk: Afaik there is no US law stopping any capable scientist from enhancing novel SARS and MERS-like viruses outside of high containment.
No law prohibits the sale of reagents for this work.
And, if the results are novel, there's nothing stopping top journals from publishing it.
R to @usrtk: Again and again, virologists justify gain-of-function research by saying the viruses they're enhancing have not been shown to infect humans or are "animal viruses".
GOF will only be constrained once the virus causes an outbreak in humans.
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/12-5-2025-Partial-Production-for-USRTK-v.-NIH-Case-No.-24-cv-2785-JEB-NIH-FOIA-Request-63076.pdf
R to @usrtk: USTRK also unearthed this 2018 email where Wuhan and US scientists discussed having conducted recombinant MERS-like virus experiments not described in any public grant or paper at the time.
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Li-email-to-Shi-about-sharing-422-spike-sequence.pdf
R to @usrtk: SARS-like viruses can and have escaped from high containment labs (BSL3 and 4).
It's atrocious that the public isn't informed about planned or ongoing experiments in their local labs that could have major consequences for their health and safety.
R to @usrtk: Page 10: We will... introduce (RaTG13) or ablate (SARS2) proprotein convertase furin cleavage sites... recover recombinant viruses... Virus growth will be evaluated in... primary human airway epithelium and other primary human lung cells.
https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Post-outbreak-RaTG-SARS2-proposal.pdf
New FOIAs by @USRTK show US virologists proposed putting furin cleavage sites into viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 (Covid) AFTER the pandemic began.
There's still no gov oversight of privately funded work on pathogens that aren't select agents.
R to @Ayjchan: I feel that this case would've gotten 1000x more attention if only one of the illegal biolab's computers was labeled with "AI".
R to @Ayjchan: Shockingly, the illegal biolab had purchased pathogens from accredited & respected US labs that apparently hadn't vetted their clients thoroughly.
A bill to track the sale of dangerous pathogens was introduced last Oct but I've heard is unlikely to pass.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5747/text
R to @Ayjchan: Without testing, it was impossible to "fully assess the potential risks.. posed to the community. It is possible that there were other highly dangerous pathogens.. in the coded vials or otherwise unlabeled."
Also impossible to know which other US communities are affected.
R to @Ayjchan: The head of the illegal biolab was a fugitive that had stolen US IP worth hundreds of millions, and claimed that his fraudulent activity would help “defeat the American aggressor and wild ambitious wolf!”
R to @Ayjchan: The illegal biolab was discovered in Reedley CA in 2022. CDC refused to help local officials until a local Member of Congress was roped in. CDC refused to test samples despite labels including HIV, Tuberculosis, and the deadliest known form of Malaria.
https://chinaselectcommittee.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/scc-reedley-report-11.15.pdf
Most biosecurity folks I've met are more worried about bioterror than accidental lab leaks. But here's an illegal biolab in the US run by an anti-🇺🇸 person receiving millions from China, US CDC refused to test samples labeled Ebola, HIV, etc. No idea what the lab intended to do.
Why is the chief of WHO now (very late) telling us that China was never transparent about COVID origin and WHO also suspect it was a lab leak. China’s institutional capture of multilateral institutions is damaging for the entire world and turning the US against these institutions
R to @Ayjchan: The world doesn't need to keep witnessing more ineptitude from its top scientists and the @WHO. This is not good for public trust in science. This is not good for scientists' trust in scientific leadership.
https://x.com/Ayjchan/status/1360315563634028548
R to @Ayjchan: And who can forget that the only American the @WHO sent to explore the origins of Covid in 2021 was Peter Daszak, long time partner, funder, and karaoke buddy of the Wuhan scientists suspected of causing the pandemic.
https://x.com/Ayjchan/status/1359892457597652994
R to @WHO: x.com/gdemaneuf/status/19024…
R to @WHO: You cannot ask virus hunters to investigate their own friends for plausibly causing the worst research accident in human history.
https://x.com/Ayjchan/status/1880010638224986215
The @WHO hired & promoted a chief scientist (now assistant DG) who orchestrated the influential Proximal Origin letter dismissing any lab origin of Covid & signed a letter calling lab leak hypotheses conspiracy theories.
Not convinced a new SAGO will take lab leaks seriously.
R to @WHO: Germany's equivalent of the CDC director who served during the pandemic said, "With the current state of knowledge, I consider the laboratory theory more likely."
"We need new international agreements on biosafety in research."
https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/corona-lothar-wieler-haelt-labor-ursprung-von-sars-cov-2-fuer-die-wahrscheinlichere-these-a-1e2bcf76-2bfa-4fb4-b3bb-a9a0ed6ac606
R to @WHO: It's inexplicable that the current U.S. admin has not declassified some of the intelligence that, according to current and ex-U.S. officials who have seen the intel, make a lab origin the default hypothesis, if not the only viable hypothesis.
R to @WHO: I agree with the op-ed on one point:
Germany and U.S. should make public the intelligence that points to a lab origin of Covid-19. Germany's foreign intelligence service has 80-95% certainty of a lab origin.
The truth is too important to keep hidden after 20+ million dead.
R to @Nature: The @WHO team included extreme proponents of a natural origin. 3 refused to even evaluate a lab origin and 1 "requests that her dissent regarding the evaluation of the lab-leak hypotheses be noted."
None of their members have publicly leaned toward a lab origin.
R to @WHO: "... the [Chinese] government has not provided the necessary information that we have requested."
R to @WHO: "Repeated requests have been made to the Chinese government by the WHO to release the health records of research-lab staff, biosafety and biosecurity protocols, and audits or independent inspections conducted to verify the safety procedures of labs in Wuhan..."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00530-y
I question the utility of @WHO convening an expert team to investigate the origins of novel outbreaks.
Today's op-ed in @nature by said team reiterated that a lab origin cannot be assessed as long as the country of origin refuses to allow an investigation.
I’m grateful to have the chance to read @bgurley Bill Gurley’s first book, Runnin’ Down A Dream, before its official launch tomorrow. In a time when there are so many books and news stories about things going horribly wrong, it was a much-needed reprieve to read a book about things going right.
The soul needs more stories about people who flip the script, change potentially millions of lives for the better with their work, and create an immortality project beyond their own initial expectations. In the book’s profiles of human tenacity, there are common themes of taking large risks, suffering to follow one’s calling, becoming immersed mentally and physically in chasing a dream, and getting up every time you get knocked down by others or your own mistakes – with the help of family, friends, mentors and peers who oftentimes provided a wakeup call, a safety net and an entryway into a new world.
Runnin’ Down A Dream also has clear advice on finding and keeping mentors and peers, and has an essential book list at the end. I recommend this book to anyone who feels unsure about the future or stuck in their careers, parents and teachers who want their kids to live the best version of their lives, children once they can read advanced texts, and people who are in the middle of running down their dreams and could use some encouragement.
R to @Ayjchan: I agree with the private stance of 2020 Kristian Andersen.
Those gain-of-function experiments with clear & actionable benefits should still be done at maximum containment.
"It only takes one mistake" to cause catastrophe.
https://x.com/Ayjchan/status/1682074082139947023
6 years ago, influential scientists conspired to suppress questions about a lab origin of Covid.
Privately, they joked that virus hunters had caused a pandemic with a virus "beautifully adapted to human transmission."
This type of research remains untracked & unregulated.
R to @Ayjchan: Covid prematurely ended 20M+ lives
👨🔬scientists still experiment with new coronaviruses outside high containment
🔍low visibility + no independent oversight of research that can kill millions
🇺🇸no US policy on such research, any policy will likely be scrapped by next admin
The scientific community - of which I am a part of - should have expressed much more humility and much less hubris as it was becoming obvious that initial COVID policies were not going to be effective against a highly transmissible respiratory pathogen. The same be said about their doubling down on COVID origins especially after circumstantial evidence for an unnatural origin became so strong.