Good lord, did this ever strike a nerve. Among virologists, mainly US in origin. Very odd.
I made my case, and presented evidence. They are certainly free to say, “I can see how you might think that, but here’s the real story…” and then present their data.
Not what’s happening at all. Instead we have emotional outbursts, ad hominem attacks, appeals to authority and all-around circling of the wagons. At least over on Twitter.
Methinks the Senator doth protest too loudly…
Angie Rasmussen, who was recently on our podcast, really went out of her way to act aggrieved and make no use of the moment to provide some proper education.
Instead, she posted a Forbes article describing it as an “excellent summary of the evidence.”
Okay - so I went and read it (which is more than any of the angry virologists did for my video)…
It was quite literally a summary of assertions. See for yourself:
A Virologist Explains Why It Is Unlikely COVID-19 Escaped From A Lab
Dr. Jason Kindrachuk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba.
Nearly five months into the first coronavirus pandemic, the debate rages on over the source of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. An early cluster of cases, linked to an animal market in Wuhan, initially suggested that humans had been infected by animals. Due to the nature of wet markets, it appeared that animals held in close proximity to each other may have provided a unique opportunity for the virus to jump from species to species (as happened with SARS).
But a growing number of conspiracy theories have emerged through misinformation campaigns, from blaming a nefarious bioengineered virus to the emergence of 5G as the cause of COVID-19.
*sigh* The first refuge of the intellectually weak is to label an uncomfortable line of questioning a "conspiracy theory." So that's a big strike against Jason K here. Poor style. Low points...
These theories, however, aren’t borne out by the evidence. The most likely origin, supported by the vast majority of scientists around the world, doesn’t involve cell towers or mad scientists or even wild animal markets.
In fact, it is quite simple: the virus likely came from bats.
Okay, that's not evidence. That's an assertion. Big difference. Again, low points. But he's just getting started, so maybe he gets going later on?
Recent technological advancements like deep sequencing have been used to detect and sequence the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as other viruses acquired from bat samples in the field. These investigations have provided detailed information regarding the diversity of viruses found within bats as well as their evolutionary history. Indeed, bats are the likely reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 given the similarity of the virus to bat SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses.
Ah - here he defers to sequence similarity as the definitive evidence for a natural host. Okay then. Let's use known sequences.
When we do, we discover that -
hands down! - the all-important receptor binding domain (RBD) came from a pangolin, not a bat.
It's not even a contest. The pangolin/1 has 5 out of 5 all-important RBD contact amino acids (AAs - red boxes) in common with the pangolin, and 8 out of 9 adjacent AAs (yellow boxes). It's closest 'bat relative' - RaTG13 only scores 1/5 for RBD contact, and 4/9 adjacent AAs. The other bat coronaviruses and SARS-classic are far worse.
If you weren't blinkered by the necessity of this having "come from bats" the evidence would clearly tilt you towards pangolins being the source of the RBD. At least in all other moments in virology the closest match is the place you look. Just not this time, I guess? Now Jason K is certain that bats are the source? Weird. Very weird.
Then Jason K gets super weak in his arguments:
How do we know the virus didn’t escape from a lab?
While there is growing consensus and scientific evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats, there is a growing chorus of questions regarding the nature of spillover into humans. A recent report raised the specter of a laboratory escape of the virus based on US State Department cables from 2018. At the time, the department raised safety concerns regarding the Wuhan Institute for Virology, a high-containment laboratory.
Indeed, accidental laboratory exposures and escapes have occurred in the past, including the influenza virus and SARS-CoV.
However, this week the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff echoed that the weight of evidence continued to suggest natural rather than accidental emergence for SARS-CoV-2. There has been no other science supporting the escape theory.
Research continues to point to identifying the reservoir host and potential intermediate host(s) for SARS-CoV-2 as this remains the most plausible explanation for emergence of the virus.
Uh... Wut? Since when is the Joint Chiefs of Staff your go-to source for evidence of viral origins? Wouldn't that be both out of their wheelhouse as well as possibly slanted to whatever geopolitical realities are cooking behind the scenes? Is it reasonable to expect that the Joint Chiefs of Staff would not have higher priorities than being 100% transparent with militarily explosive information?
Given that, it's a very strange appeal-to-authority for me. Strange enough for me to ask
"is that all you've got?"
The article doesn't get any better or offer up any other "facts" or evidence. It's a string of assertions. So it's odd that Dr Rasmussen thought that was the best counter to the lab-origin theory.
At any rate, that's what's been going on all morning for me...I am literally shaking my head at the degree of obfuscation and illogical arguments being proffered.
