Chat message

Slack / Private Message Drop, p.866 [SLACK_001080] · slack_pm:msg:09007

Date: 2021-05-25 03:46
Type: chat message · slack
recipient: Kristian G. Andersen, Robert F. Garry, Edward C. Holmes
speaker: Andrew Rambaut

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

Need to nail down the bit in the letter about the FCS - having the human viruses as examples is open to a comeback. The MERS one is cool though because it is a nearby RxxR motif in the right site but it is not a human virus

In context

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2021-05-25 03:37 Robert F. Garry open

Couple of points. If this origins thing was some sort of game [it's not], we'd still be in the first half or the early innings.As has been said, it's a long game. USG, WHO etc. realize they are not going to get any cooperation from China onany type of lab leak investigation. USG (yesterday's WH brief} has said they can't lead an so-called "investigation." Investigate what is the question. Notebooks from Shi's lab, sick days of WIV personnel, freezer inventories ofmysterious samples? IMO World Health Assembly is not going to pass any resolution to have WHO investigate "lab leak" or alter the trajectory of WHO's current origins study.
2021-05-25 03:41 Robert F. Garry open

@Eddie Holmes yes - I'd turn over the emails to Tony F. Remind him to "follow the animals." TF needs to turn them over to the other Tony --- Blinken Sec of State who will pass them to the CIA and the China watchers. Hopefull TFtells TB to "follow the animals."
2021-05-25 03:46 Andrew Rambaut

Need to nail down the bit in the letter about the FCS - having the human viruses as examples is open to a comeback. The MERS one is cool though because it is a nearby RxxR motif in the right site but it is not a human virus
2021-05-25 03:47 Andrew Rambaut open

The point is that it exists in nature in various coronaviruses in non-human animals. But seems to be important forH2H transmission.
2021-05-25 03:47 Robert F. Garry open

The Chinese absolutely positively 100% KNOW it did not come from any of their labs. But (as discussed in-channel], they are prefectly content to let Murdoch media rant and take the lead about a "lab leak." It distracts from having anyone discuss "gamey taste" and the multibillion dollar wildlife trade that they find highly embarrassing for whatever reason.
2021-05-25 03:48 Robert F. Garry open

@Andrew Rambaut Yes - spot-on!
2021-05-25 03:48 Andrew Rambaut open

@Andrew Rambaut I think the presence in human CoVs probably talks more to the bias towards spillovers from viruses that already have the FCS rather than it evolving in humans

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