@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic Likely a mistake in the Science report @MatthewField2 and @asilver360.

LTC Colonel Chan, not Jan Jia-Tsrong, got infected during the Dec 2003 Taiwan SARS lab leak at the Taiwan Military Institute of Preventive Medical Research (IPMR), in a P4 setting.

gillesdemaneuf.medium.com/the-good-the-b…

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 However...

Here is Jan Jia-Tsrong, and next to him is Lieutenant Colonel Chan.

Rather similar indeed. So maybe Chan was an alias. Worth checking it up.
genomics.sinica.edu.tw/index.php/en/j…

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 After further checks I am confident that LTC Chan Jiacong (危家琼 in some Chinese article at the time) is indeed Jan Jia-Tsrong.
drive.google.com/file/d/1ve2deg…

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 Problem solved @MatthewField2 and @asilver360.

So the twist in the story is that Jan who got infected with SARS in a military P4 in Dec 2003 was supervising the lab worker who got infected with SARS-CoV-2 in a P3 lab in Nov. 2021.

You can't make that up.

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 We shall remind the reader that something not too dissimilar happened in Beijing:

The Institute of Virology (NIVDC) had an undisclosed SARS-CoV-2 lab infection there in Jan or Feb 2020.
The same institute had 4 SARS-1 infections in 2004, one triggering an outbreak.

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 Roll the dice long enough and you get snake-eyes, especially at P2 & P3 but even P4 (see Taiwan Dec 03 leak) and especially in weak institutional setups.

Some will report it (Taiwan), some won't (Beijing). That's about the only difference.

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 My article on the SARS lab leaks has been updated to reflect these latest pieces of information:

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 @threadreaderapp compile

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 Actually only a few weeks ago the Global Times named him.

It's a bit of a pattern. Important details about the 2003 Taiwan P4 leak came from Chinese sources.

Chinese transparency works very well when it involves Taiwan, not so much with the mainland!

globaltimes.cn/page/202112/12…

@franciscodeasis @MatthewField2 @BulletinAtomic @asilver360 For instance the details about Jan/Chan (his name as 危家琼 and details of his PhD from John Hopkins), but also the fact that the military P4 was designed and/or equipped by France (codename White Chicken 16, see reference [t.2] of my paper) were all available in Chinese sources.