Tyler Stepke retweetledi
WHO still denying everything.
COVID’s origins: what we do and don’t know nature.com/articles/d4158…
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Tyler Stepke
15.3K posts
Tyler Stepke retweetledi
Probabilities must be expressed as odds. Saying that the sequence is ‘consistent with zoonotic crossover’ because of precedents (especially very weak ones) means nothing per se.
It is exactly because an FCS may - eventually - come to that class of beta coronaviruses, that researchers were looking at introducing one and then at hardening it via passaging.
The argument thus works both way, but especially well for the research origin since the evolutionary stepping stones are nowhere to be found in that beta coronaviruses class, … except in grant proposals that perfectly captured the directions of the research that was being done.
Zachary shows a total lack of logic, by making a mistake that a smart 8 year old would avoid.
Zachary A. Klase@ProfKlase
@mattwridley Only one yet. The furin cleavage site has developed independently across the corona lineage, including betacoronaviruses on multiple independent occasions. This is not a rare event. Sequence change is consistent with zoonotic crossover - cell.com/cell/fulltext/…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
This is good, and quarantining extremely small numbers of ppl for diseases that have ~50 percent mortality rates is entirely compatible with opposition to whole-of-society Covid lockdowns:
nytimes.com/2026/05/21/us/…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
So show us another case of a fcs in a sarbecovirus.
There’s nearly a thousand described ones. No fcs except the insertion in sars cov 2.
For six years people like you have been predicting another would show up.
Zachary A. Klase@ProfKlase
@mattwridley Only one yet. The furin cleavage site has developed independently across the corona lineage, including betacoronaviruses on multiple independent occasions. This is not a rare event. Sequence change is consistent with zoonotic crossover - cell.com/cell/fulltext/…
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@ProfKlase @mattwridley First time in a sarbecovirus just happens to emerge right after the nearby lab with reckless biosafety standards proposed inserting one. Years of effort to find a natural origin returned literally no evidence. Your bias and ignorance is dangerous.
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@mattwridley Only one yet. The furin cleavage site has developed independently across the corona lineage, including betacoronaviruses on multiple independent occasions. This is not a rare event.
Sequence change is consistent with zoonotic crossover - cell.com/cell/fulltext/…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
I have been told someone found my lecture persuasive until they spoke to a virologist who said: "lots of viruses have furin cleavage sites".
Repeat after me, slowly:
SARS-COV-2 IS THE ONLY SARBECOVIRUS EVER FOUND WITH A FURIN CLEAVAGE SITE.
OUT OF SEVERAL HUNDRED STRAINS.
Matt Ridley@mattwridley
In my lecture at @NIH, at the invitation of @NIHDirector_Jay, I explained why I changed my mind from thinking the lab leak theory of covid origins was unlikely to thinking it was almost certainly true. Please watch and assess the evidence yourself. videocast.nih.gov/watch/244438a5…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
@frothferous @TylerAStepke Patino-Galindo et al 2024 determined that it's highly unlikely for recombination to occur between viruses belonging to different subgenera - let alone in different genera - of the Coronaviridae family - see excerpt👇from:
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jv…
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SARS-CoV-2 is the only sarbecovirus ever found with an FCS.
The idea to insert an FCS into sarbecoviruses in 2018 was inspired by the natural occurrence of FCS in more distant viruses.
The dangerous bias of many virologists is no longer surprising.
I'm unsure if any scientific field has been as thoroughly disgraced as modern virology, which is deeply tragic given the critical importance of the field to the health of our species. It will take decades to repair and rebuild trust with the public.
Matt Ridley@mattwridley
I have been told someone found my lecture persuasive until they spoke to a virologist who said: "lots of viruses have furin cleavage sites". Repeat after me, slowly: SARS-COV-2 IS THE ONLY SARBECOVIRUS EVER FOUND WITH A FURIN CLEAVAGE SITE. OUT OF SEVERAL HUNDRED STRAINS.
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@JeromeAdamsMD Millions of deaths and millions suffering from long COVID... all from a preventable accident at a US-funded lab where we supported reckless SARS gain-of-function at BSL-2 and gave our blessing to their insane biosafety practices.
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Crits-Christoph is responsible for the worst of the statistical malpractice in the campaign of fraud to cover up the origin of COVID.
His victory here reveals a dangerous lack of technical talent and ethical standards in US biosecurity.
We need many more serious and ethical scientists working on these problems.
Rebecc@ ███████@Rebecca21951651
LOL Team Crits-Christoph comes out on top in @DARPA's bio-attribution challenge. We're well and truly fucked. darpa.mil/research/chall…
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@pan_accindex Emily was one of the key journalists involved in exposing the origin of COVID, the single deadliest accident in human history.
Despite disagreements I may have with her, she has contributed substantially to improving public health and global biosecurity.
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Emily Loop has yet to apologize for falsely sharing the myth that the COVID vaccine killed children. She is not a journalist, but a pathetic slopagandist. If you had any decency Emily, you would retire from the public sphere forever.
Emily Kopp@emilyakopp
@pan_accindex @TracyBethHoeg bad prediction. your side was never very good at assessing evidence and making projections
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It's been a good month for accountability for the COVID origin coverup.
Morens was indicted, Baric was debarred, and Taubenberger stepped down.
A few more of the worst actors like Andersen still need to face accountability, but it's a solid foundation. I'm very grateful to everyone who helped advocate for accountability.
The hardest work still lies ahead. We need to build durable and capable institutions to ensure these dangerous mistakes never happen again (both the reckless biosafety violations and the multi-year campaign of fraud to cover up the accident).
Richard H. Ebright@R_H_Ebright
Jeffery Taubenberger, the Fauci-era holdover and promoter of gain-of-function research who headed Fauci's institute at NIH in the last year reportedly no longer holds that post. If true, this is a major step toward avoiding a next lab-generated pandemic. statnews.com/2026/05/21/nih…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
Steven Quay, who is under consideration for the position, would be a strong choice to replace Taubenberger as NIAID Director and help the current administration follow through on its stated goal of preventing another lab-generated pandemic.
STAT@statnews
Jeffery Taubenberger, the acting head of the NIAID, the NIH’s infectious disease institute, is reported to have stepped down. trib.al/WrC3r2u
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
Jeffery Taubenberger--a Fauci acolyte, a Morens co-conspirator, and a promoter and practitioner of dangerous gain-of-function research--reportedly no longer holds position of Acting Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
statnews.com/2026/05/21/nih…
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
"There is some circumstantial evidence in each direction." Not really.
For a lab leak:
1) A single spillover event
2) of a PERFECTLY human adapted virus
3) In Wuhan, 800 miles from where the nearest bats and viruses were, but the WIV was.
For a natural origin:
1) Errr.....
The Seeker@TheSeeker268
Marc Lipsitch (IYKYK) on COVID origin: "There is some circumstantial evidence in each direction. I am totally happy to have an honest discussion with somebody who thinks it’s 99% either way. It’s the 100% that is the problem—and opinion is roughly split between the lab leak hypothesis and zoonotic or animal origin. Certainty in either direction is just an implausible reading of the evidence." persuasion.community/p/marc-lipsitch
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Peter Hotez fun facts:
1. Peter is one of two people who funneled US tax money to dangerous gain-of-function in Wuhan.
2. Peter defamed and disparaged every serious scientist engaging in unbiased investigation of COVID origins, including the most grounded and respectful scientists like Alina Chan.
3. Peter has never contributed to a vaccine that anyone reading this should consider taking. Bob Kadlec, founder of Operation Warp Speed, believes Peter's Wuhan collaborators were likely responsible for the lab leak of COVID and millions of deaths.
He's a threat to global biosecurity cosplaying as a vaccine expert. It's insane and dangerous that CNN/BBC continue buying it.
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
"Bird flu DGOF research debunked by flu folks"
new essay by Simon Wain-Hobson
biosafetynow.substack.com/p/bird-flu-dgo…
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Hotez funneled US money to dangerous gain-of-function at WIV and helped cause the last pandemic.
He spent years attacking any scientist engaging in serious origin investigations.
He is one of the least credible and most dangerous people to interview about emerging outbreaks.
Omar Jimenez@OmarJimenez
"This is going to be a complicated one," @PeterHotez says of the newest Ebola outbreak, "particularly with the World Cup coming up. And people are going to be traveling all over the world."
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
Never forget that NY Times #scicomm writer Carl Zimmer praised Shi Zhengli as evidence accumulated that a virus escaped from her lab and was killing people.
Drew Holden@DrewHolden360
“It’s impossible to overstate how comprehensively the legacy press fought to bury the lab leak hypothesis. Every mention of the lab leak theory was shouted down. Every proponent of the possibility was ridiculed as a crazy person, regardless of their standing in their respective scientific field. The media ‘fact checks’ were endless. One such fact check from USA Today, published in March 2020 (and since updated) asserted that the claim that COVID ‘may have originated in a research laboratory in Wuhan, China’ was ‘one of the most prominent examples of false information about the virus.’” From my latest A COVID Autopsy.
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Tyler Stepke retweetledi
"A team led by Sandhya Dhawan from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand noted that there had been roughly 70 infamous lab leaks since the 1900s and expected there to be even more in the future, which threaten the globe."
dailymail.com/sciencetech/ar…
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