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 The Origin of SARS-CoV-2 is a Riddle-
+  * [[https://drasticresearch.org/|drasticresearch.org]]
 ==== DRASTIC Team ====
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 === Shortcuts ===
-The DARPA DEFUSE documents are available here ((https://web.archive.org/web/20220416173818/https://drasticresearch.org/2021/09/21/the-defuse-project-documents/))
+The DARPA [[:DEFUSE]] documents are available here ((https://web.archive.org/web/20220416173818/https://drasticresearch.org/2021/09/21/the-defuse-project-documents/))
 our analysis of these documents is here ((https://web.archive.org/web/20220424153733/https://drasticresearch.org/2021/09/20/1583/))
 and Simon Wain-Hobson’s analysis is here ((https://web.archive.org/web/20220426194920/https://drasticresearch.org/2021/10/06/new-analysis-of-defuse-proposal/))
+==== SARS-COV-2 Laboratory Leak Hypothesis ====((https://drasticresearch.org/2021/11/01/1754/?relatedposts_hit=1&relatedposts_origin=1712&relatedposts_position=2))
+Guest Post by Andrew Tuntable, Ph. D. Email: atuntable@gmail.com Twitter: @atuntable
+=== SARS-COV-2 Laboratory Leak Hypothesis ===
+  * The Lab Leak Hypothesis
+  * The Importance of the Hypothesis
+  * Beyond Reasonable Doubt
+  * Summary of the Evidence
+  * Geography
+  * Natural precursors
+  * Laboratory Leaks
+  * Chimera
+  * Furin Cleavage Site
+  * Database Removal and Obfuscation
+  * Sick WIV Workers
+  * Eco Health Alliance and NIH Research Grants
+  * Early Contact Tracing
+  * Chinese Reaction
+== Rebuttal of the Lab Leak Hypothesis ===
+  * Linage A and B
+  * RaTG13 is Too Different
+  * The Furin Cleavage Site Encoding
+  * Engineering SARS-COV-2 is Beyond Current Technology
+  * The WIV Cannot Disprove a Leak
+  * Researchers Became Infected Inside the Caves
+  * Danielle Andersen
+  * Chinese Bioweapons Program
+  * Wuhan [[:World Military Games]]
+=== Reactions to the Lab Leak Hypothesis ===
+  * Andersen Paper
+  * [[:Peter Daszak]] Letter
+  * WHO Investigation
+  * Biden Investigation
+  * [[:Ralph Baric]] Letter
+  * Political Environment
+  * Trump Administration
+  * [[:Anthony Fauci]] and Gain of Function
+  * The Virology Community
+=== Gain of Function Research ===
+Conclusion
+Annotated Biography
+=== The Lab Leak Hypothesis ===
+Virologists study dangerous viruses.  They collect them from the wild, they study them in labs, and they genetically engineer them.  One goal of their research is to help prevent future pandemics.
+However, viruses have escaped from laboratories around the world on several occasions.  New techniques for bioengineering can enable dangerous viruses to be created in research laboratories.
+Previous pandemics such as SARS and MERS have arisen naturally as viruses jump from species to species and evolve through natural selection.  The lab leak hypothesis proposes that the [[:SARS-COV-2]] virus responsible for Covid-19 did not arise naturally but escaped from a virology laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) [Segreto20] [Deigin21].
+=== The Importance of the Hypothesis ===
+If SARS-COV-2 did result from a lab leak then such research needs to be much more carefully controlled in order to prevent any future outbreak of an even more potent virus.
+There is no suggestion that the leak was deliberate.  The Wuhan Institute of Virology published their impressive results and collaborated openly with other virologists around the world.  For example, their chief scientist Shi Zhengli collaborated closely with Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina.  The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a well respected member of the international community of virologists.
+Until recently, any suggestion of a laboratory leak was discounted as an unsubstantiated far right conspiracy theory.  However, as more and more evidence has accumulated many leading scientists now consider the theory plausible if not proven.
+This paper should not be viewed as an attack on China.  But rather, it provides a strong motivation to review the practice of virology internationally.
+Beyond Reasonable Doubt
+There will never be a mathematical proof that SARS-COV-2 is the result of a laboratory leak.
+However there is now a large body of evidence to support a leak hypothesis.  Taken collectively we believe that it proves the hypothesis well beyond any reasonable doubt.  But the reader is encouraged to review the evidence and draw their own conclusions.
+There is no absolute proof.  But there is most certainly plenty of evidence.
+=== Summary of the Evidence ===((https://web.archive.org/web/20220428210313/https://drasticresearch.org/2021/11/01/1754/))
+==== DRASTIC Timeline ====
+  *
+  * Our Key Contributions
+  * March 2020
+  * Discovered the link between RaTG13 and BtCoV4991
+  * In March 2020, Rossana Segreto made the first public connection between RaTG13 and BtCoV4991 and in April 2020 published a preprint about the possibility they might be the same virus.
+  *
+  * April 2020
+  * First comprehensive analysis of gain-of-function work done at WIV
+  * In April 2020, Yuri Deigin published the first in-depth analysis of gain-of-function work done at WIV and how it could have led to SARS2 leaking from their lab.
+  *
+  * April 2020
+  * Discovered the link between RaTG13 and the Mojiang mine
+  * In April 2020, Yuri Deigin traced the origin of RaTG13 to the mine in Mojiang, which then prompted TheSeeker to discover a Master’s thesis and a PhD thesis on an unusual case of pneumonia in the same mineshaft where RaTG13, the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2, was found. Mona and Rahul Bahulikar later published a paper on these Mojiang miners’ cases.
+  * May 2020
+  * Discovered that the WIV virus database has been taken offline
+  * In May 2020, Yuri Deigin was the first to publicly report the deletion of the WIV virus database.
+  *
+  * May 2020
+  * The peculiarities of the FCS: CGG-CGG codons and FauI site
+  * In May 2020, @ydeigin pointed out the peculiar CGG-CGG codons and FauI restriction enzyme site in the PRRA insertion in SARS2 which created a novel furin cleavage site.
+  * June 2020
+  * Discovered that RaTG13 was sequenced long before 2020
+  * In June 2020, after WIV released RaTG13 sequencing data, Francisco de Asis found that RaTG13 was sequenced long before the pandemic rather than after, as was implied in WIV’s February 2020 Nature paper. RaTG13 amplicon fasta headers showed dates back to 2017 and 2018, and also a label referred as “7896” pointing to one of the eight viruses close to SARS-CoV-2 after RaTG13.
+  * November 2020
+  * Published the most widely cited lab leak hypothesis peer reviewed paper
+  * In November 2020, Rossana Segreto and Yuri Deigin published their paper “The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin”. Their paper was mentioned by several mainstream media outlets, as one of the first peer reviewed papers considering a possible lab origin of SARS-CoV-2. It has since become the most widely cited lab leak hypothesis paper, as well as one with the highest Altmetric score.
+  *
+  * May 2021
+  * Published 3 more WIV PhD theses showing work done on RaTG13/BtCoV4991
+  * In May 2021, TheSeeker has published 3 more PhD theses from WIV which showed there was active work done on RaTG13/BtCoV4991, including full genome sequencing in the 2019 PhD thesis. We also pointed out that the BtCoV4991 spike gene seems to have a 1% difference from the RaTG13 spike gene, raising questions as to whether the two might actually not be identical. ((https://drasticscience.com/work))
+==== DRASTIC PUBLICATIONS ====
+Our Publications
+. Lab-Made? SARS-CoV-2 Genealogy Through the Lens of Gain-of-Function Research
+By Yuri Deigin ((https://yurideigin.medium.com/lab-made-cov2-genealogy-through-the-lens-of-gain-of-function-research-f96dd7413748))
+. Lethal Pneumonia Cases in Mojiang Miners (2012) and the Mineshaft Could Provide Important Clues to the Origin of SARS-CoV-2 By Monali C. Rahalkar and Rahul A. Bahulikar ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33194988/))
+. The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin By Rossana Segreto and Yuri Deigin ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33200842/))
+. Should we discount the laboratory origin of COVID-19? By Rossana Segreto, Yuri Deigin, Kevin McCairn, Alejandro Sousa, Dan Sirotkin, Karl Sirotkin, Jonathan J Couey, Adrian Jones, Daoyu Zhang ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33786037/))
+.SARS-CoV-2's claimed natural origin is undermined by issues with genome sequences of its relative strains: Coronavirus sequences RaTG13, MP789 and RmYN02 raise multiple questions to be critically addressed by the scientific community By Yuri Deigin and Rossana Segreto ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34046923/))
+.The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 is consistent with both natural or laboratory origin: Response to Tyshkovskiy and Panchin By Yuri Deigin and Rossana Segreto ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34327738/))
+. An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2
+By Jacques van Helden, Colin D Butler, Guillaume Achaz, Bruno Canard, Didier Casane, Jean-Michel Claverie, Fabien Colombo, Virginie Courtier, Richard H Ebright, François Graner, Milton Leitenberg, Serge Morand, [[Nikolai Petrovsky]], Rossana Segreto, Etienne Decroly, José Halloy ((https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34543608/))
+. Outlines of a probabilistic evaluation of possible SARS-CoV-2 origins By Gilles Demaneuf, Rodolphe de Maistre ((https://zenodo.org/record/4067919))
+. Unexpected novel Merbecovirus discoveries in agricultural sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China
+By Daoyu Zhang, Adrian Jones, Yuri Deigin, Karl Sirotkin, Alejandro Sousa ((https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.01533))
+. Cloning vectors and contamination in metagenomic datasets raise concerns over pangolin CoV genome authenticity By Adrian Jones, Daoyu Zhang, Yuri Deigin, Steven C. Quay ((https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.08163))
+. CONTAMINATION OR VACCINE RESEARCH? RNA Sequencing data of early COVID-19 patient samples show abnormal presence of vectorized H7N9 hemagglutinin segment By Steven C. Quay, Monali C. Rahalkar, Adrian Jones , Rahul A. Bahulikar ((https://www.scienceopen.com/document?vid=e8c20375-f982-44c3-a223-84dd579f640d))
+. The Anomalous Nature of the Fecal Swab Data, Receptor Binding Domain and Other Questions in RaTG13 Genome
+By Monali C. Rahalkar and Rahul A. Bahulikar ((https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202008.0205/))
+. An Introduction to Wuhan BSL-4 Engineering By Rodolphe de Maistre ((https://rdemaistre.medium.com/introduction-to-wuhan-bsl-4-engineering-4ede5f67741c))
+Site Collection ((https://drasticscience.com/work))
+==== Contact  DRASTICscience@protonmail.com ====
+==== Interviews ====
+Walter M Chesnut: Gigaohm Biological High Resistance Low Noise Information Brief -
+gigaohmbiological on Twitch with Charles Rixey & Mathew Crawford
+This is a fantastic episode covering the recent discrepancies in the data uncovered by analysis of the monthly medical reports from the US military.  The authors of 'Prometheus Shrugged" and "Rounding the Earth" blogs on SubStack join Sherlock Ohms for a discussion you don't want to miss.((https://gigaohmbiological.com/archive))
+{{ ::drastic_lab_leak_vanity_fair.png?600|}}
+==== DRASTIC - Vanity Fair Reporting ====
+The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
+Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.
+Vanity Fair By Katherine Eban - June 3, 2021
+On February 19, 2020, The [[:Lancet]], among the most respected and influential medical journals in the world, published a statement that roundly rejected the lab-leak hypothesis, effectively casting it as a xenophobic cousin to climate change denialism and anti-vaxxism.
+[[:Gilles Demaneuf]] published his findings in a Medium post, titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: a review of SARS Lab Escapes.” By then, he had begun working with another armchair investigator, [[:Rodolphe de Maistre]]. A laboratory project director based in Paris who had previously studied and worked in China, de Maistre was busy debunking the notion that the [[:Wuhan Institute of Virology]] was a “laboratory” at all. In fact, the WIV housed numerous laboratories that worked on coronaviruses. Only one of them has the highest biosafety protocol: BSL-4, in which researchers must wear full-body pressurized suits with independent oxygen. Others are designated BSL-3 and even BSL-2, roughly as secure as an American dentist’s office.
+Having connected online, Demaneuf and de Maistre began assembling a comprehensive list of research laboratories in China. As they posted their findings on [[:Twitter]], they were soon joined by others around the world. Some were cutting-edge scientists at prestigious research institutes. Others were unemployed science enthusiasts. Together, they formed a group called DRASTIC, short for Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating [[:COVID-19]]. Their stated objective was to solve the riddle of COVID-19’s origin.
+As they posted their findings, the DRASTIC researchers attracted new allies. Among the most prominent was [[:Jamie Metzl]], who launched a blog on April 16 that became a go-to site for government researchers and journalists examining the lab-leak hypothesis. A former executive vice president of the Asia Society, Metzl sits on the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on human genome editing and served in the Clinton administration as the NSC’s director for multilateral affairs. In his first post on the subject, he made clear that he had no definitive proof and believed that Chinese researchers at the WIV had the “best intentions.” Metzl also noted, “In no way do I seek to support or align myself with any activities that may be considered unfair, dishonest, nationalistic, racist, bigoted, or biased in any way.”((https://web.archive.org/web/20210603100523/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins))