The twisted and unsubstantiated logic for rejecting the lab pathway
Peter Embarek justified rejecting the lab hypothesis based on 2 main arguments:
- SARS-CoV-2 is not known in any lab.
- The WIV BSL4 is very safe
Patently wrong:
- Did he check the WIV DB that has been offline since Sep 19?
- All the work on BatCoVs was done at BSL2 and BSL3
and not just at the WIV.
Seriously!
He also mentioned that there were no cases before Dec 8th.
Well check the graph produced by the Chinese CDC itself on the 26th January 20:
See the full thread:
Then he added that the labs are safe. Right, that's not what the director of the WIV himself has been saying:
gillesdemaneuf.medium.com/evaluation-of-…
"[…] several high-level BSLs have insufficient operational funds for routine yet vital processes. Due to the limited resources, some BSL-3 laboratories run on extremely minimal operational costs or in some cases none at all."
That's what the boss of the WIV said in Oct 2019.
Last, he totally forgot the possibility of an infection while collecting samples.
With 15,000 bat samples collected, with demonstrated lack of PPEs, at some stage luck can run out.
What happen to that possibility? Not worth it?
How can he be sure that all the samples have been sequenced?
Plus the sequences of 100s of these sampled viruses have NOT been released but kept in the private section of the main Wuhan DB.
Plus potential chimera viruses that would not be disclosed.
A DB which is now offline.