---
type: Conversation
title: Private channel session 1499
description: "slack conversation, 20 messages, 2021-06-09."
tags:
  - conversation
  - slack
medium: slack
message_count: 20
started_at: "2021-06-09T15:37:19"
ended_at: "2021-06-09T17:41:28"
duration_seconds: 7449
sources:
  - { id: slack_pm, resource: /sources/slack-pm.md, title: Slack / Private Message Drop, author: "process:senate-hsgac-release" }
generated: { by: randpaul-corpus-pipeline/1.0, at: "2026-08-01T12:42:27Z" }
status: stable
---

A slack conversation of 20 messages spanning 2h 4m.

# Metadata

- **Started:** 2021-06-09T15:37:19
- **Ended:** 2021-06-09T17:41:28
- **Duration:** 2h 4m
- **Participants:** 3
- **Source:** [slack_pm](/sources/slack-pm.md)
- **Pages:** 937-938

# Participants

* [Andrew Rambaut](/people/andrew-rambaut.md)
* [Edward C. Holmes](/people/edward-c-holmes.md)
* [Kristian G. Andersen](/people/kristian-g-andersen.md)
* [Robert F. Garry](/people/robert-f-garry.md)

# Transcript

**[2021-06-09T15:37:19] Edward C. Holmes:** Got this. He's a total piece of shit. I can either ignore him - in which case there might be some story that I am hiding stuff - or tell him that it was the presence of restriction enzyme sites and the reduced diversity near them which wethen released were the reddest of herrings. [shared file(s): Screen Shot 2021-06-10 at 8.33.29 am.png]

**[2021-06-09T15:39:31] Edward C. Holmes:** It's the stuff in your Twitter thread Kristian.

**[2021-06-09T16:13:33] Kristian G. Andersen:** Yeah, I'd just point him to my tweet - it's here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210607101425if_/https://twitter.com/K_G_Andersen/status/1400892933130256384

**[2021-06-09T16:13:49] Kristian G. Andersen:** If he's got further questions, he can go ahead and do the alignment himself.

**[2021-06-09T16:14:53] Edward C. Holmes:** Thanks! Send him that.

**[2021-06-09T16:16:45] Kristian G. Andersen:** Yeah, I'd just email him saying that it was "the restriction site as Kristian described here: XX".

**[2021-06-09T16:18:36] Edward C. Holmes:** On it!

**[2021-06-09T16:18:49] Kristian G. Andersen:** He's such a turd - the worst.

**[2021-06-09T16:19:17] Edward C. Holmes:** Total turd. BUT it would be good to show we are no hiding stuff.

**[2021-06-09T16:26:57] Kristian G. Andersen:** Talking about turds. [shared file(s): Screen Shot 2021-06-09 at 16.26.07.png]

**[2021-06-09T16:27:39] Edward C. Holmes:** Makes me sick.

**[2021-06-09T16:36:54] Edward C. Holmes:** But I'm just a China stooge [shared file(s): Screen Shot 2021-06-10 at 9.35.09 am.png]

**[2021-06-09T16:46:02] Robert F. Garry:** eDim is polluting the twitter with his rhetoric.

**[2021-06-09T16:50:11] Edward C. Holmes:** Yes, pure hate. I'd take my CV down but then I'll just get accused of covering things up.

**[2021-06-09T17:03:27] Kristian G. Andersen:** Bob / Eddie (and Andrew - but I assume he's :zzz:) - any chance the two of you would have time to take a quick lookat a document I'm preparing for Jim / NYTimes. It's about recent events and it's the only interview I'll take, so just want to make sure I don't get anything wrong.

**[2021-06-09T17:03:48] Edward C. Holmes:** Sure, pass it on.

**[2021-06-09T17:04:12] Kristian G. Andersen:** Thanks - just shared the doc. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F7T48AATRUu2ItnzDqIBaakxDYSVGWlwAXYzAZz7dhU/edit?usp=sharing

**[2021-06-09T17:35:19] Edward C. Holmes:** Looks good. A few things: (i) our Nature Medicine article was not an official policy document or an official statement -it was a just a scientific paper by a group of scientists; (ii) he is focused on one line in the paper but we also clearly say that is 'currently impossible' to prove or disprove other theories so were obviously open to more data and changing evidence; (iii) might say that the pangolin data - which coincidentally appeared at the same time because Iwas an author on the Lam et al. paper - was very helpful in suggesting a natural origin; (iv) it's ludicrous to suggest that our paper shut down research into a lab escape as the govt bodies were obviously still going on with…

**[2021-06-09T17:37:27] Kristian G. Andersen:** Very good, thanks Eddie. Yeah, it's ludicrous to suggest we somehow shut down the conversation - come on! Race to the bottom.

**[2021-06-09T17:41:28] Edward C. Holmes:** Agreed. That point needs to be made very clearly and very strongly.