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Slack / Private Message Drop, p.725 [SLACK_000939] · slack_pm:msg:07598

Date: 2021-04-22 12:32
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Edward C. Holmes, Andrew Rambaut
speaker: Robert F. Garry

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"It should be clarified that theories about a hypothetical man-made origin of SARS-CoV-2 have been thoroughly discredited by multiple coronavirus experts.21,28,29" "It is also highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 was released from a laboratory by accident because no laboratory had the virus nor did its genetic sequence exist in any sequence database before its initial GenBank deposition (early January 2020). China's laboratory safety practices, policies, training, and engineering are equivalent to those of the United States and other developed countries,32 making viral "escape" extremely unlikely, and of course impossible without a viral isolate present. SARS-CoV-2 shares genetic properties with many other sarbecoviruses, lies fully within their genetic cluster, and is thus a virus that emerged naturally."

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2021-04-22 12:32 Robert F. Garry

"It should be clarified that theories about a hypothetical man-made origin of SARS-CoV-2 have been thoroughly discredited by multiple coronavirus experts.21,28,29" "It is also highly unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 was released from a laboratory by accident because no laboratory had the virus nor did its genetic sequence exist in any sequence database before its initial GenBank deposition (early January 2020). China's laboratory safety practices, policies, training, and engineering are equivalent to those of the United States and other developed countries,32 making viral "escape" extremely unlikely, and of course impossible without a viral isolate present. SARS-CoV-2 shares genetic properties with many other sarbecoviruses, lies fully within their genetic cluster, and is thus a virus that emerged naturally."
2021-04-22 12:52 Kristian G. Andersen open

Yup - and that's a good article.
2021-04-22 12:53 Kristian G. Andersen open

[from people who would know]
2021-04-22 12:54 Robert F. Garry open

Really love the "Nature is clearly a cauldron for intense and dangerous coronavirus evolution" bit.
2021-04-22 12:56 Kristian G. Andersen open

Yeah. And this was written before we saw all the crazy new viruses and variants as of late - nature really is frightening.

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