Ralph Baric is one of the world's leading coronavirus experts. In a recent interview with the MIT Technology Review he said, “If you study hundreds of different bat viruses at BSL-2, your luck may eventually run out.”
A report from Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the U.S. Congress has said the "preponderance of evidence proves" the virus leaked from the WIV "sometime before September 12th, 2019".
I've written a comment piece for Mail+ about the shameful attempt by eminent British scientists to suppress the lab leak theory, pegged to the editorial in the BMJ calling for a "full, open, and independent investigation".
As a recent NYT article notes, nearly every case of SARS since the first outbreak has been due to lab leaks. There have been "six incidents in three countries, including twice in a single month from a lab in Beijing".
Chinese scientists have deleted dozens of test samples from patients in Wuhan from an international database used to track the evolution of Covid, in an "obscure" move that some say acts as proof of the lab leak theory.
SARS-CoV-2 has a genetic feature that has never been observed in natural SARS-like viruses, but which is the preferred feature for scientists engineering viruses. Is this the smoking gun for a gain-of-function lab leak?
The censorship of the lab leak theory and its collapse is a reminder of how those with vested interests and things to hide can succeed in deflecting unwanted attention and why a genuinely free media is so important.
Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, now being actively investigated, the lab leak theory always had lots to commend it. New emails show Dr Fauci was told the virus "looks engineered" back in February 2020.
I've written a piece for Mail+ today on why it was wrong for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to remove content defending the lab leak theory and label it 'misinformation', given that it's now entered the mainstream.
Three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care in November 2019 for possible COVID-19. But is that too late for a lab leak?
