[yonaguska]

Ecohealth Alliance with another "peer-reviewed" published paper attempting to quell the lab-leak hypothesis.

Peter Daszak being one of the authors of this paper basically removes any shred of credibility for what is effectively an opinion piece.

[jackfoxy]

Chris Martensen's analysis of the dump of Fauci's emails is pretty damning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNxoVFZwMYw

The coordinated lying and censorship from leading institutions and media over the last 18 months does not make me hopeful that this time it will be different.

[jxramos]

Wow, super transparent with all the primary sources walkthrough and the links to everything in the description. Nice find.

[jackfoxy]

Martensen called the pandemic on Jan 26, 2020. The WHO called it March 11.

For the next 6 months he produced videos every weekday analyzing the covid news of the day and relevant published papers, always citing the primary sources. Since then his covid videos have been less frequent, but always data and science oriented.

YouTube immediately demonitized his videos, and may have banned a couple. He uses made-up names for 2 notable off-patent drugs because he claims YT will censor him if he mentions them by name. He has a PhD in pathology from Duke University and has published in Nature. You would think he is qualified to discuss this stuff.

[temp8964]

Lancet is still publishing paper from this guy? It seems the ethical standard of the viorlogy scientific community is shockingly low. Maybe I just don't understand "how science works".

[908B64B197]

> Ecohealth Alliance with another "peer-reviewed" published paper attempting to quell the lab-leak hypothesis.

It would be interesting to look at who's funding these organizations and individuals. Is some of the funding tied to entities that are under the control of the CCP?

[disk0]

> Is some of the funding tied to entities that are under the control of the CCP?

Per Sam Husseni's reporting[0]:

"""

Meticulous investigation of U.S. government databases reveals that Pentagon funding for the EcoHealth Alliance from 2013 to 2020, including contracts, grants and subcontracts, was just under $39 million. Most, $34.6 million, was from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), which is a branch of the DOD which states it is tasked to “counter and deter weapons of mass destruction and improvised threat networks.”

Most of the remaining money to EHA was from USAID (State Dept.), comprising at least $64,700,000 (1). These two sources thus total over $103 million. (See Fig).

Another $20 million came from Health and Human Services ($13 million, which includes National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control), National Science Foundation ($2.6 million), Department of Homeland Security ($2.3 million), Department of Commerce ($1.2 million), Department of Agriculture ($0.6 million), and Department of Interior ($0.3 million). So, total U.S. government funding for EHA to-date stands at $123 million, approximately one third of which comes from the Pentagon directly. The full funding breakdown is available here and is summarized by year, source, and type, in a spreadsheet format.

"""

If this was a lab leak, it's an international issue caused by the hubris of at least two countries working together on a footgun (e.g. at Wuhan lab, and Ralph Baric's previous gain of function research on bat coronaviruses [1])

[0] https://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/peter-daszaks-ec...

[1] https://twitter.com/gumby4christ/status/1361175723407527939

[m0llusk]

This doesn't attempt to quell anything, it just points out that being certain of origins is probably going to require rigorous investigation. This is the same as with SARS and MERS which both took around 15 years to fully understand and also did not have full cooperation from the governments involved.

Like most science all of the statements here can be verified with respect to the sources cited. Saying that the origins of SARS-CoV2 have not been conclusively established but are of great interest is not controversial.

If there is any lack of credibility here it is with lab leak hypothesis enthusiasts failing to supply solid evidence and then claiming that criticism amounts to both censorship and a kind of indirect proof of their assertions.

[ChemSpider]

> failing to supply solid evidence

How, if all data from Wuhan is off limits?

My complaint is that this letter should be addressed to Mr. Xi. But instead they make it sound like this is a global issue.

It is only China that is blocking all research into the origin. No other country has placed any blocks or limits on the research.

[m0llusk]

Most research into viral origins is driven by sampling and sequencing of genetic material. Even without cooperation from China there is still a record of virus samples preserved for research and also found in the environment. It is not clear that China has the ability to block the reveal of SARS-CoV2 origins. It is also not clear that a revealed origin would actually change anything about efforts to deal with COVID-19.

Furthermore, your focus on China is revealing. Other nations botched their response to COVID-19 and that is their responsibility. There is no good reason for COVID-19 to have become so deadly. The blame for the impact of COVID-19 belongs with all the developed nations that had every reason to know there would be more coronavirus outbreaks after SARS and MERS and decided instead to focus on politics or on ineffective strategies such as hosing down streets with bleach instead of responding coherently to the pandemic.

[PicassoCTs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdYDL_RK--w&t=6s

He knows what he is talking about though. And he knows its the end of his field and career if he yields.

[pfortuny]

Moreover: no statement on conflicts of interest (at least not readily available), possibly because it is “only” a letter (wish I could get one published in the lancet…).

Rubbish.

[m0llusk]

You might not agree with what is stated, but the final paragraph is full of clarifications of interests.

> PD's remuneration is paid solely in the form of a salary from EcoHealth Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation. EcoHealth Alliance's mission ... Funding for this work comes from ... EcoHealth Alliance's work in China was previously funded by ... PD joined the WHO–China joint global study on the animal origins of SARS-CoV-2 towards the end of 2020 and is currently a member. As per WHO rules ... includes collaboration with a range of universities and governmental health and environmental science organisations, all of which are listed in prior publications, three of which received funding from ... All of EcoHealth Alliance's work is reviewed and approved by ...

And so on. This is the longest paragraph by far and goes into considerable detail regarding the contributors, their sources, and the intentions and revenue sources for all involvements.

[pfortuny]

Everywhere I publish, conflicts of interest appear under a specific heading though.

Thanks anyway.

[jMyles]

> Peter Daszak being one of the authors of this paper basically removes any shred of credibility for what is effectively an opinion piece.

It does come across as completely shameless. But why include him if not for transparency? Obviously publishing without his name is a boost in credibility, so why not do so?

In any case, it's not a very well-written or convincing letter, so it's even more puzzling. This part really got me:

> Recently, many of us have individually received inquiries asking whether we still support what we said in early 2020.1 The answer is clear: we reaffirm our expression of solidarity with those in China who confronted the outbreak then, and the many health professionals around the world who have since worked to exhaustion, and at personal risk, in the relentless and continuing battle against this virus. Our respect and gratitude have only grown with time.

[throwaway4good]

Christian Drosten is a big name in Germany’s covid efforts. His name on this statement with Peter Daszak is quite a message.

[ChemSpider]

No doubt Drosten is a great scientist, but he seems to be very naive when it comes to Chinese politics and nationalism:

In his podcast he said: "...we basically do not consider Chinese scientists to be influenced...".

This might be have been true before September 2019, when this virus research was just an average research topic out of many, but it is certainly not true since the pandemic started.