Slack / Private Message Drop — page 95

Yes, completely BS. They original thought the cause of the disease was an henipavirus but didn't seem hugely convinced even then: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/new-killer-virus-china [2020-07-05 01:03:34] [Eddie Holmes] It was written up in EID. [shared file(s): 13-1022.pdf] [2020-07-05 01:06:19] [Eddie Holmes] There are just too many uncertainties to say that much. Clearly, the journos are trying to suggest that the 2012 disease was caused by RaTG13 and that is really the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2. Clearly not true. RmYN02 was sampled from a different county in Yunnan province and who knows that diversity of bat viruses there are in other localities. [2020-07-05 06:47:12] [Robert Garry] Wow - important read for sure - obviously a LOT of BS, but new and important information nonetheless. The penultimate paragraph sums up the BS. "Ebright alleges, however, that the type of work required to create Covid-19 from RaTG13 was "identical" to work the laboratory had done in the past. "The very same techniques, the very same experimental strategies using RaTG13 as the starting point, would yield a virus essentially identical to Sars-Cov-2." Seems extremely unlikely that RatG13 sickened 6 and killed 3 copper miners. Passing RaTG13 in human cells would not have generated the pangoCoV RBD. Last paragraph also interesting. There actually really are some "dots" - sick/dead miners connected to RaTG13. Coincidence? Probably a lot of unsampled CoVs in that mine. My guess one that one that didn't get sampled was the killer [50% CFR so makes SARS1 and 2 look tame]. Or maybe an unsampled paramyxovirus - respiratory version. "The Sunday Times put a series of questions to the WIV. They included why it had failed for months to acknowledge the closest match to the Covid-19 virus was found in a mine where people had died from a coronavirus-like illness. The questions were met with silence." Daszak clearly knew the whole story too - thou as Eddie indicates it's in plain sight - the whole series of dots are out there in print. Furthermore, WIV hasn't exactly been hiding RaTG13, but they may be itching to get back there as well. Gao too... [2020-07-05 06:59:06] [Robert Garry] The EID article was published June 2014 - lot's of Ebola happening then... [2020-07-05 07:21:56] [Andrew Rambaut] I blocked Ebright on Twitter so I haven't been following what he has been saying but suggesting that RaTG13 is the actual source material for lab production of SARS-CoV-2 is really dumb. [2020-07-05 07:54:46] [Robert Garry] Could be the straw that pushes us to Proximal Origin 2 perhaps... [2020-07-05 15:30:43] [Eddie Holmes] Yes, concluding that RaRTG13 is the source is really dumb. As I said above, all this suggests to me is that the only interesting virus they have at the WIV is RaTG13 and not another that they were secretly working on that gave rise to SARS-CoV-2. [2020-07-05 16:53:11] [Eddie Holmes] Funny that the author is at a centre for evidence-based medicine and then presents no evidence whatsoever: https:/ /www.smh.com.au/world/europe/coronavirus-pandemic-may-not-have-started-in-china-experts-say-20200706-p559 9t.html [2020-07-05 18:35:20]