R to @Ayjchan: “The Catalan government will never admit that the African swine fever virus that infected wild boars leaked out from its laboratory. It would face incalculable financial claims if it did so,” declared the agricultural organization ASAJA.
https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-12/catalonia-lab-was-experimenting-with-african-swine-fever-virus-when-the-first-infected-boar-was-found-nearby.html
In reporting on a plausible leak of ASF from Spain's CReSA lab:
"human factor is.. common causes of laboratory accidents. CReSA.. dismissed a technician for sexual harassment in 2018, after he tried to kiss a female colleague inside the high-biosecurity experimental unit"
🤦♀️
R to @Ayjchan: EcoHealth's president was talking on podcasts in Dec 2019 about making chimeric SARS-like viruses with Ralph Baric. So their memory must be poor if they forgot all about this a few weeks later when news broke about a novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdYDL_RK--w&t=1793s
R to @Ayjchan: Giving maximum benefit of the doubt, maybe these US scientists all really forgot all about their 2018 plan and didn't think any of it was relevant to share with investigators.
This still means it's important to go in and see what else they forgot or didn't think was important.
R to @Ayjchan: In an extreme scenario, a US scientist could be sitting on an email where Wuhan scientists described initiating the 2018 experiments or working on a new lineage of SARS-like viruses.
The longer evidence is withheld, the more damage will be done to public trust in science.
US scientists failed to disclose their 2018 plans with Wuhan virologists to create viruses with the same makeup as Covid-19. Those plans were leaked from inside the US gov in 2021.
This is why people want to know what other evidence could still be buried in US institutions.
R to @Ayjchan: There is an opportunity here to set an international precedent for sharing the genomic sequence of an outbreak pathogen ASAP. The 1st carcass was found on Nov 25 a few hundred meters from a lab working with ASF. It's been a month. The genomic sequence is still unpublished.
Spanish authorities are still investigating the origins of the African Swine Fever outbreak near Barcelona. A lab origin could "trigger multimillion-euro compensation claims from the Spanish pork sector, which exports almost €9 billion annually."
https://elpais.com/ciencia/2025-12-30/los-analisis-geneticos-sugieren-que-el-virus-de-la-peste-porcina-no-salio-del-laboratorio-de-la-generalitat-que-estaba-a-cientos-de-metros.html
"Models latch onto surface patterns, struggle to walk away from bad ideas, and try to explain failures instead of learning from them."
One could say the same about many human scientists.
R to @Ayjchan: "The outcome could set precedents for future pandemic-related litigation and diplomatic engagement between the two countries."
https://www.newsweek.com/missouri-reveals-which-chinese-assets-it-will-target-in-50b-row-11243305
R to @Ayjchan: abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt…
Missouri sued China for hoarding personal protective equipment in the pandemic & won $24B that they're planning to collect by seizing Chinese-owned assets in the state.
China, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, is now demanding $50B from Missouri for defamation.
Los @mossos y la @guardiacivil han ido a por muestras de los virus con los que trabaja el CReSA para ver si coincide con el de los jabalís infectados de peste porcina africana. Las muestras las recogen los especialistas de los Tedax. También solicitan documentos y clonan dispositivos https://elpais.com/espana/catalunya/2025-12-18/los-mossos-y-la-guardia-civil-registran-la-sede-del-laboratorio-senalado-por-la-fuga-de-peste-porcina.html?ssm=TW_CC
How can the government hope to receive reliable intelligence on vital national security issues if it deports a Chinese dissident who provided evidence of China's Uyghur camps?
R to @WHO: If one cares about science, truth and minimizing pandemic harms, you have to re-evaluate the realistic functions of the World Health Organization in responding to pandemics and their process (if any is codified) for verifying facts and scientific data in times of crisis.
R to @WHO: Even 3 months after the detected outbreak in Wuhan, the World Health Organization was still telling the world that Covid was not airborne and to focus on disinfecting surfaces.
https://x.com/WHO/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en