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Slack / Private Message Drop, p.1093 [SLACK_001307] · slack_pm:msg:11380

Page text: p.1093 · original PDF

Date
2022-02-16 13:52
Type
chat message · slack
recipient
Kristian G. Andersen, Robert F. Garry, Andrew Rambaut
speaker
Edward C. Holmes

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

If I were on the other side I would then ask why you wrote this second sentence?

In context

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  1. 2022-02-16 13:44 Edward C. Holmes open
    Your lawyers letter says "This was indicative of the view of Dr. Andersen and his co-authors that it was impossible toprove or disprove specific hypotheses as to the origins of SARS-CoV-2" while the PO paper actually says "we do not believe that any type of laboratory based scenario is plausible".
  2. 2022-02-16 13:46 Edward C. Holmes open
    To me that's a straight contradiction
  3. 2022-02-16 13:47 Kristian G. Andersen open
    Straight from our paper - "The genomic features described here may explain in part the infectiousness and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 inhumans. Although the evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a purposefully manipulated virus, it is currently impossible to prove or disprove the other theories of its origin described here. However, since we observed all notable SARS-CoV-2 features, including the optimized RBD and polybasic cleavage site, in related coronaviruses innature, we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible"
  4. 2022-02-16 13:51 Edward C. Holmes open
    Right, but we do actually then state that no laboratory-based scenario is plausible.
  5. 2022-02-16 13:52 Edward C. Holmes
    If I were on the other side I would then ask why you wrote this second sentence?
  6. 2022-02-16 13:54 Kristian G. Andersen open
    Well, that's the genius of that sentence - it says "we do not _*believe*_ that any type of laboratory based scenario is_*plausible*_". "Not plausible" does not mean "impossible".
  7. 2022-02-16 13:54 Andrew Rambaut open
    not-plausible to me means has a non-zero probability but still small
  8. 2022-02-16 13:54 Kristian G. Andersen open
    Yup
  9. 2022-02-16 13:54 Andrew Rambaut open
    As Kristian says - the categorical bit is 'any'

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