Tony's Diary Package — page 781

files from the Google Cloud and analyze the sequences, and have attached a pre-print on the analysis that I just submitted for posting by bioRxiv. Since SARS-CoV-2 origins and early spread has become a hot-button topic, I wanted to give you a heads up. I made sure to emphasize in the discussion that the SRA has many sequences and so isn't in a position to vet all deletions. Nonetheless, I think it would be highly worthwhile to do a comprehensive analysis of SRA (and other NIH) data that might be relevant to this topic that could have been deleted or otherwise overlooked. If I can be of any assistance, let me know. I have been running a pipeline to identify additional deleted SRA data using various heuristics including those in described in the attached pre-print, but have not yet completed the analysis enough to know the extent that the data I have recovered is relevant to SARS-CoV-2's origins or early spread. But as I mention in the pre-print, there are two known SRR deletions that are worth looking at. I definitely think it would be good to perform a SRA side search as well, since that will obviously be easier and more efficient, and could identify deleted data not on the cloud. Anyway, I hope overall this can be a good opportunity for the NIH to take the lead by using its remarkable data archives to make progress in resolving some of the important questions about the virus's origins. Thanks, Jesse ---- Jesse Bloom Associate Professor, Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center Affiliate Associate Professor, Genome Sciences & Microbiology, University of Washington Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute paper.pdf I believe that it was somewhat imprudent on the part of Jesse bloom to make statements such as he has that indicate nefarious motives on the part of the Chinese when we have no idea why they deleted the sequences. He used words such as "obscure" and "surreptitious" which will certainly