Slack / Private Message Drop — page 235

origin. Of course, Dr. Chan is absolutely entitled to make these claims even though I strongly disagree with the comments made. However, in recent weeks her tweets have come far more inflammatory and in my opinion have clearly 'crossed the line' on multiple occasions. In particular, she has stated that there are serious question marks over the 'research integrity' of a number of papers (and their authors) that have been published on SARS-CoV-2 origins. She is particularly bothered that the same authors are appearing on multiple papers with the clear implication that she has uncovered some form of conspiracy and that these papers and their authors are therefore tarnished. I am one of these authors. In fact, I am the main author in question as I am involved in many of these papers. I've attached a number of these tweets below. You will see that in one she flippantly accuses people like me of mass murder. While I am all for free speech and dissenting opinion, questioning my research integrity online and implying that I am involved in some sort of cover-up is totally unacceptable. I've tried to let this go as much as I can, but enough is now enough. I will therefore pass all her tweets, as well as those of a variety of other people, to my lawyers here to assess if any can be classed as defamation. If they do, I will not hesitate to take legal action. To be clear, I am absolutely assure that there is nothing untoward about any of these papers. For example, she claims that the original sequence data for the bat virus RmYN02 is unavailable, which is plainly incorrect: Dr. Kristian Andersen managed to download it, reassemble the genome, and post it online. What Dr. Chan sees as conspiracy is simply collaboration, and as I've worked on emerging viruses for 30 years and very well known in this field, it is no surprise that people ask me to be involved in these studies. To tarnish my good name and suggest that I am involved, even tacitly, in any conspiracy is deeply, deeply insulting. She seems to have little comprehension of the hurt she is causing good and honest scientists who just want get to the bottom of what happened and who have done nothing wrong. Again, I have no problem with Dr. Chan expressing her opinions but the accusations she is making again me are troubling and insulting. I will not stand for my reputation to be questioned like this. With best wishes, Eddie Holmes [2020-10-27 15:39:19] [Eddie Holmes] Quite hard to phrase, but I hope that at least shows how pissed off I am. I cc'd Pardis and included a number of the tweets. [2020-10-27 15:40:54] [Robert Garry] Very well done Eddie - the message is quite clear and appropriate.. [2020-10-27 15:41:24] [Eddie Holmes] Thanks! I'll let you know what happens. [2020-10-27 16:27:45] [Kristian Andersen] [thread - ID: 2020-10-27 15:35:46] @Andrew Rambaut So the opposite of what Eddie and I get when we tweet? [2020-10-27 16:29:47] [Kristian Andersen] Agreed. Very well done. [2020-10-27 16:29:56] [Kristian Andersen] (and necessary - so thanks Eddie!)