COVID-19 Records

Private channel session 1396

24 messages over 4h 5m, 2021-05-18 – 2021-05-18.

A “conversation” here is an activity session — a run of messages with under 60 minutes of silence inside it. The channel had no native conversation boundaries.

  1. 2021-05-18 05:59 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.831
    @Eddie Holmes Perhaps telling that I got it too, but simply failed to bother to click on it.
  2. 2021-05-18 06:06 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.831
    Just an FYI - I did go ahead and submit the virological post as a tech comment to Science. As you know, Science requires that you send it to the authors for comment, so I sent to the Bloom and Relman. JB sent this: Hi Bob, Thanks for reaching out, and hope all is well. I look forward to reading your thoughts about this. We will look over your comment and get back to you as soon as possible. Apologies if it ends up taking a day or two: because have a substantial number of co-authors on the letter, we need to make sure we adequately check with others before sending anything that could be construed as a group response. --Jesse---- Jesse Bloom Associate Professor, Fred Hutch Cancer Research CenterAffiliate Associate Professor, Genome Sciences & Microbiology, University of Washington Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  3. 2021-05-18 06:17 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.831
    Also - Vince R asked me to do a TWiV on origins (he did mention hearing the Bob's Bullocks podcast) - I'm assuming he may have reached out to @Kristian Andersen. Even though he gets a lot wrong, I might do it...
  4. 2021-05-18 06:47 Andrew Rambaut open PDF p.831
    Ask him whether he thinks there is ZERO chance that B.1.1.7 is more transmissible.
  5. 2021-05-18 06:49 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.831
    @Eddie Holmes Me too.... Not responding to it.
  6. 2021-05-18 06:53 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.831
    Yeah, do TWIV Bob. Vince did not contact me, but it's worth you going. The evidence doc will be useful...
  7. 2021-05-18 06:53 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.831
    VR also thought that Bas-Congo virus was going to be the next Ebola - hopefully though an opportunity to counter some Bloomshit. Just need to not go quite as far with the rhetoric as Bill G. @Kristian Andersen may have to dosome coaching/intervention for some restraint. It actually is the problem - responding tit-for-tat to the likes of eDim -for example - obscures who the crazy person is.
  8. 2021-05-18 06:57 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.831
    WashPost has totally gone off the deep end. "Did some byproduct of the research leak, or did workers become inadvertently infected? Was the research carried out in less protected BSL-2 laboratories instead of the more secure BSL-4? Did Dr. Shi successfully manipulate a virus in the lab to add genetic features boosting affinity for human cells, as science journalist Nicholas Wade has suggested in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists? These and other questions have been met with stout denials and roadblocks from China. In response to the Science letter, which called for opening records of research labs, Dr. Shi said, "It's definitely not acceptable," and, "Who can provide an evidence that does not exist?" That brings us no closer to identifying the pandemic's origins. If the laboratory leak theory is wrong, China could easily clarify the situation by being more open and transparent. Instead, it acts as if there is something to hide." [shared file(s): Opinion _ Two possible theories of the pandemic's origins remain viable. The world needs to know. -The Washington Post.pdf]
  9. 2021-05-18 07:06 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.832
    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/05/the-stakes-of-finding-covid-19s-origins
  10. 2021-05-18 07:11 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.832
    Again the Politifact article - "The lab leak theory is distinct from the hypothesis that gain-of-function research created the new coronavirus, said Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of Harvard University and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. The lab leak theory "can be as simple as a *researcher being infected by an animal or even another infected person*in remote areas, and then bringing it into one of the most densely populated cities on Earth." The gain-of-function hypothesis supposes both that a virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute and that scientists there tampered with it inways that could have made it more infective or deadly."
  11. 2021-05-18 07:14 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.832
    So, if a virologist takes a field trip to Southern China and gets infected *FROM ANOTHER PERSON* that is somehow a Lab Leak. On the basis of this we want to shut down virologists and BSL3/4 labs. Why is this lunacy given an credence whatsoever?
  12. 2021-05-18 07:20 Andrew Rambaut open PDF p.832
    Lunacy. What if it was a botanist or a palaeontologist?
  13. 2021-05-18 07:28 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.832
    This is good - let them go down these crazy paths since it makes the bloomshitters look even dumber as we continue to learn more about how this _actually_ emerged.
  14. 2021-05-18 07:54 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.832
    "What if it was a botanist or a palaeontologist?" Shut them all down! Fieldwork of ANY kind is too dangerous [says the guy who works with Lassa and Ebola blood samples at hmmmm BLS2+ in Africa].
  15. 2021-05-18 08:12 Andrew Rambaut open PDF p.832
    The more they define 'lab escape' as just anything that involves a virologist in someway the less likely it is that it was lab escape because virologists are generally outnumbered by almost every other subdivision of the population.
  16. 2021-05-18 09:10 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.832
    I think Dr. Quay missed the points but FWIW. Not sure why he can't post.... Dr. Garry- here is a single slide of my approach for your thoughts and comments: SLACK_001047 Regards, Steve On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 11:43 PM Steven Quay, MD, PhD i Sot; wrote: > Dear Dr. Garry- > > Thank you for your recent post on the genomic origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Attached is my response to your analysis. Would you be willing to post this in the comment section? I am not able to post them myself directly.>> Regards, Steve> --> Steven Quay, MD, PhD>>>>>> Dr. Quay Website> Breast Cancer TEDx Talk> STAY SAFE #1 Amazon Medical Book>>>>Skype:Steve.Quay2016 [shared file(s): Responseto virology input..pdf, image.png]
  17. 2021-05-18 09:10 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.833
    Steve is indeed wrong - he doesn't understand phylogenetics (but A for effort). He can't post because he needs aninvitation to set up an account - I propose we don't give him that invitation since it's all crazy talk... (his 300+ page Bayesian analysis of the origin is a good example..)
  18. 2021-05-18 09:10 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.833
    What's important about the two markets / two lineages isn't the fact that there are two lineages - it's that you have two independent lineages associated with two different markets. It's highly unlikely that a lab escape - of all places -would be associated with two different markets.
  19. 2021-05-18 09:10 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.833
    I'm either going to A. ignore Dr. Quay or B. tell him that I'm going to forward the emails to virological administration. I'll follow @Andrew Rambaut advice on this. I'm leaning to A.
  20. 2021-05-18 09:10 Andrew Rambaut open PDF p.833
    Most people get so frustrated with not being able to find the register button that they end up emailing me.
  21. 2021-05-18 09:10 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.833
    So, option C is pointing him to the register button. Quay is clearly off way base, but "allowing" him to post at least shows we're not afraid to take on a challenge.
  22. 2021-05-18 09:10 Kristian G. Andersen open PDF p.833
    I'd just ignore him. Then Andrew can ignore him.
  23. 2021-05-18 09:10 Andrew Rambaut open PDF p.833
    There is no register button
  24. 2021-05-18 10:05 Robert F. Garry open PDF p.834
    I'll just ignore him. He's likely expecting that - then he can tweet about me, which is not a problem.