Slack / Private Message Drop — page 33

I should add that I have no hidden agenda. I am in Wuhan at the moment and have been covering the outbreak here in China from the beginning. My intention is simply to examine the evidence and to try to help our audiences understand the scientific debate. I would welcome any thoughts and views you can provide me over email... and, if time ever becomes available, the chance to talk on the phone would be brilliant. I appreciate your time considering this request as well as all the work you and your team are doing on this public health emergency.``` [2020-05-22 07:28:23] [Andrew Rambaut] Should let it happen to get our Altmetric scores up. [2020-05-22 07:28:42] [Kristian Andersen] So annoying. Got the same.... haven't read the actual questions. Got similar shit from a Nature reporter [2020-05-22 07:29:00] [Andrew Rambaut] I assume this is what's his name 'molecular biologist' [2020-05-22 07:49:49] [Kristian Andersen] "Molecular biologist" - my arse. I think we know who this is... It seems like this shit isn't worth responding to - if he can't understand how a virus might be able to pick up 12 bases (and finds that hugely unlikely), then I can't help him. I wonder how the virus got its genome in the first place....? [2020-05-22 07:53:27] [Kristian Andersen] I might respond with a single sentence a long the lines of all of this is pure speculation - there is no data to suggest any of the stuff the 'molecular biologist' is proposing actually happened. Where's the data? [2020-05-22 08:23:48] [Robert Garry] I went back to look at my log BBC guy contacted me to - not with the long list of questions. I think I saw it and "forgot" to respond. Points for being concerned about my health. Not sure who the "molecular biologist is." Dear Robert, I hope you're well. I'm the BBC Correspondent based in Beijing... and have, of course, been covering the outbreak of sars-covid-2 here in China since early this year. I'm now looking at the question of the origin of the virus... which includes a trip to Wuhan to gather material later this week. I understand how busy you must be at the moment, but would you have a few moments to speak on the phone? I have a few questions on which I would value your input related to the recent paper that you co-authored in Nature Medicine. In the first instance I was hoping for a brief background chat over the phone, but alternatively, if easier we could converse over email. If you were interested we could then perhaps discuss, at a later date, the possibility of a more formal interview for TV via skype. Best wishes, John [2020-05-22 09:26:59] [Andrew Rambaut]