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Slack / Private Message Drop, p.280 [SLACK_000494] · slack_pm:msg:02910

Date: 2020-11-26 06:12
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Edward C. Holmes, Andrew Rambaut
speaker: Robert F. Garry
Topics: Natural origin / zoonotic spillover

Recipients on this medium are inferred from channel membership, not per-message addressing.

Tommy has 6 SARS-CoV-2 sero-positive pangolins that are currently being metagenomically sequenced. The other news - which is obviously strictly confidential - is that someone in China (Tong?) has apparently obtained a MERS-like virus from a pangolin.

Extracted statements

Rule-extracted, not adjudicated. The grade says what may be done with each one; read the document above before relying on any of them.

Statement	Grade	Attribution	Stance
Tommy has 6 SARS-CoV-2 sero-positive pangolins that are currently being metagenomically sequenced.	own voice, substantive	speaker_own	asserts
The other news - which is obviously strictly confidential - is that someone in China (Tong?) has apparently obtained a MERS-like virus from a pangolin.	needs context	speaker_own	questions

Statement

Grade

Attribution

Stance

Tommy has 6 SARS-CoV-2 sero-positive pangolins that are currently being metagenomically sequenced.

own voice, substantive

speaker_own

asserts

The other news - which is obviously strictly confidential - is that someone in China (Tong?) has apparently obtained a MERS-like virus from a pangolin.

needs context

speaker_own

questions

In context

A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.

2020-11-26 06:12 Robert F. Garry open

*project-wuhan_pangolin* - Jul 27th View in channel *Eddie Holmes* [9:50 PM] I'm not sure what I would conclude except that it is completely inappropriate to discuss the thoughts of the editors atNature. In addition, they completely fail to note that it was Clare that suggested Nature Medicine!! Clare seems tohave rejected the paper largely on the grounds that she thought it would go out of date quickly.
2020-11-26 06:12 Robert F. Garry

Tommy has 6 SARS-CoV-2 sero-positive pangolins that are currently being metagenomically sequenced. The other news - which is obviously strictly confidential - is that someone in China (Tong?) has apparently obtained a MERS-like virus from a pangolin.
2020-11-26 06:16 Robert F. Garry open

Just revisiting some earlier threads - The one from July 27th vis-a-vis Deep throat. Why Claire "rejected" was obvioysly incorrect - PO1 has held up well.
2020-11-26 06:19 Robert F. Garry open

*11 November 2020* Editor's Note: Readers are alerted that concerns have been raised about the identity of the pangolin samples reported in this paper and their relationship to previously published pangolin samples. Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved. The second Eddie quote also pertinent in light of Xiao et al.editors note *11 November 2020* Editor's Note: Readers are alerted that concerns have been raised about the identity of the pangolin samples reported in this paper and their relationship to previously published pangolin samples. Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved. This is Alina and her Drastic clique itseems, but new pango sequences would be very helpful.
2020-11-26 06:41 Robert F. Garry open

I'm also very interested in the MERS-like virus from the pangos. Long story short: a few weeks ago I mentioned a lotof SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein seroreactivity in preCOVID blood from Sierra Leonians. The N rxty has held up [the Spike/RBDmostly did not], but more complicated. We expressed the nucleocapsid of the other human coronavirusesto see if this could be explained by rxty to common cold viruses. HKU1 N gave us a little trouble but turns out that the SARS2 rxty can mostly be explained by rxty to MERS nucleocapsid (they are 50% identical, 79% similar at the amino acid level). Got the folks in Kenema doing PCR of nasal swabs and saliva. Obviously this will be moremeaningful if we can - you know - actually find the "MERS-like" virus. May explain why the COVID pandemic seemsto be sparing Africa.

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