The Covid ‘lab leak’ theory isn’t just a rightwing conspiracy – pretending that’s the case is bad for science | Jane Qiu

A Piping Plover chick tries to squeeze in. Moms are so patient and amazing.

On the Pennine Way in Northumberland. Spectacular landscape underlain by Carboniferous rocks. A block by the path suddenly reveals a Stigmaria root from a giant Lepidodendron tree that grew in a coal swamp more than 300 million years ago. 🧵

Ewen Callaway reports on biology's rush for AI-enabled 'virtual cells'. So far it "has a lot of hype, but not a lot of concrete results or a clear path to success". "I don’t think there is a clear definition of a virtual cell", says CZI's Jonah Cool. @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why does the covid origins debate remain so polarising & acrimonious? What does this say about the state of science & the public discourse of science? My @theguardian.com op-ed debut, from a sociological perspective Include backstory behind the film Blame 1/ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How should researchers respond to allegations about their work? Lessons from three Nobel Prize winners who have retracted papers.

I’m grateful for the support of @pulitzercenter.bsky.social Thank you, @bmaher.bsky.social & Rich Monastersky @nature.com, for commissioning the story & great editing job I am indebted to many researchers I’ve spoken with, whose contributions I’m unable to acknowledge due to space constraints 17/

What stands to be lost is not only the continuity of data collection, but also crucial efforts to build local capacity—as well as the trust and solidarity that are essential to these efforts “We can only anticipate a decrease in this funding, until the next major crisis,” says Julien Cappelle 16/

The lack of clarity about the pandemic’s origins has led to heightened anxiety over lab biosafety & an intense distrust of scientists researching emerging pathogens A series of policy shifts since Trump took office have created a void in global disease-monitoring landscape that nobody can fill 15/

For @mvankerkhove.bsky.social, we need to address the incentives & disincentives What are the incentives for better regulation? What hinders effective monitoring? What could motivate timely release of information when the only outcomes seem to be stigma, trade restrictions & travel bans? 14/

“They don’t want to know what might be there” says @eddieholmes.bsky.social “If you find something new, it becomes a problem” Scientists in SE Asian countries told me that they’ve withheld information about newly identified pathogens because government officials didn’t authorize publication 13/

The pandemic has left a legacy that undermines the global efforts to prevent future outbreaks Zoonotic diseases, often associated with blame, stigma and punitive measures, have become a sensitive subject in many parts of the world and increasingly difficult to study 12/

Cutting-edge technologies could help collect & analyse massive amounts of data—from animals, humans & environment—safely & efficiently, drastically reducing the need to work with live viruses - ‘Smart’ surveillance - CRISPR-based pathogen detection - Metagenomics - VirScan: ‘extreme serology’ 11/

In 2020, China banned the farming and trading of most wildlife species for food, without offering adequate compensation or alternative livelihoods. Farmers lost their livelihoods overnight, and many were driven to suicide. Today, these practices have resurfaced and continue underground. 10/

Attempts to regulate the wildlife trade must take people’s livelihoods into account—or risk driving the activity underground. This happened when consumption of wild-animal meat was banned in West Africa during 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. 9/

Understanding the risks of wildlife trade requires mapping the supply chain & human behaviours that enable zoonotic viruses to thrive & spread Researchers are trying to understanding people’s perception of risks, their health-seeking behaviour, what they do when their animals are sick and why. 8/

Several teams, including @wcs.org and SVW, studied traded wildlife from source to destination Their work has yielded an interesting pattern: the number & diversity of potential pathogens in those animals, including coronaviruses, seem to have got concentrated & amplified along the supply chain 7/

At the wildlife rescue center at Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam (www.cucphuongtourism.com.vn), run by Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (svw.vn), I had the opportunity of witnessing how pangolin meals were prepared, and even got to take part in a feeding session one evening. 6/

I had first-hand encounter with confiscated pangolins at a rescue center run by Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (svw.vn) One pangolin had to have its left hind leg amputated due to an injury caused by a snare It was a privilege to take part in a feeding session and witness the animals in action 5/

Traded wild animals are often sick & teeming with potential pathogens Several Chinese teams found coronaviruses in confiscated pangolins, including those that share 92% of their genome with SARS-CoV-2 The viruses caused covid-like symptoms in pangolins, and have the potential to infect humans 4/

Some scientists like @jw132.bsky.social recognise the “small possibility” that research-associated activities could have triggered the pandemic. But that “should not prevent us for focusing on the bigger picture”: the wildlife trade poses a much greater zoonotic risk than do lab accidents. 3/

Like it or not,such human-wildlife interfaces are here to stay Without understanding how viruses jump species & why some jumps cause outbreaks & others don’t,you’re really flying blind,says @mvankerkhove.bsky.social @who.int “You’re making recommendations that may not be the most appropriate” 2/

Wildlife trade acts as a vast global network of unregulated natural laboratories,with ample opportunities for viruses to circulate & evolve to become more dangerous We can either turn a blind eye or try to understand & mitigate the risks My latest in @nature.com 1/ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I was a scientific advisor for the 2011 film "Contagion," written by Scott Burns. Tomorrow we'll have a panel discussion at the Tribeca Film Festival asking what would happen if we had A.I. write a sequel. tribecafilm.com/films/world-...

Live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, yet scientists lack support to study the risks they pose https://go.nature.com/455pSTt

Sierra Leone has confirmed 15 deaths and more than 3,000 mpox infections https://go.nature.com/4kYY1ZP

Key quote: "He started that company with Blake Byers, an investor who has said a significant portion of global GDP should be spent on “immortality” research, including biotech approaches and ways of uploading human minds to computers." Yes, we're in THAT territory.

🌏 Great piece @janeqiu.bsky.social 🙌 tinyurl.com/2uszpet7 Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga and @wcs.org in Vietnam are tracking viruses in traded wildlife and warning of risks in urban markets. Prevention starts with practice, behaviours and policies on the ground #OneHealth #PandemicPrevention

Important new piece by @janeqiu.bsky.social in @nature.com describing the live animal markets that we continue to allow to put us all at risk

Nature reports on how live-animal markets are a natural laboratory for viruses to evolve and spark deadly outbreaks, and how scientists lack support to study the risks these markets pose. #medsky 🧪

"It's the scariest thing we are doing." [email protected] traveled throughout southeast Asia, talking with the scientists working with live animal and exotic meat vendors as well as hunters and middlemen along the supply chain of this industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

Wildlife trade acts as a vast global network of unregulated natural laboratories,with ample opportunities for viruses to circulate & evolve to become more dangerous We can either turn a blind eye or try to understand & mitigate the risks My latest in @nature.com 1/ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨My latest: Trump's deportation tactics are undermining the bird flu response, outreach workers say. Detecting cases is key but farmworkers at highest risk - mainly immigrants - are afraid to leave home for care. @kffhealthnews.org / ABC kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

President Alan Garber: @harvard.edu “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” “No government…should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue” @apnews.com shorturl.at/QZZNY

“Human measurement of time may have grown from charting the phases of the moon. It was easier to note the good times for hunting, planting, and harvesting by counting a sequence of 29-day lunar cycles rather than the long 365-day movement of the sun.”

Hunter-gatherers made the long trip to Malta 1,000 years before agricultural societies arrived https://go.nature.com/4iaC9bZ

Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race https://go.nature.com/3XWPX2C

Another report of the @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social preprint The detect work that pinpointed the squirrel was remarkable “It’s unbelievable how well things fit together” This speaks volumes about the importance of long-term monitoring in tracking disease emergence shorturl.at/deZoR

The #Mpox virus can infect various species, but their reservoir in the wild was unclear. A preprint by @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social researchers, Ivorian partners, and @taichimpproject.bsky.social identified the fire-footed rope squirrel as a reservoir for the virus: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Another good reason why long-term (l-t) field sites are crucial for scientific research. Only l-t data collection, with l-t funding and a dedicated team on the ground provides a dataset for this. Thank you to SNF (17 y), MPS (28 y), HIOH and CNRS (new) for l-t support over 45 years. Read the thread

Disgusting beyond words..

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

I'm a (moderate) defender of Colossal & even (somewhat) of their saying that the Dire-ish Grey Wolves are Dire Wolves (tho I wouldn't say that). But this really is too much. Maybe "make a (small) contribution to fighting it"? TBF tho, they are helping w/conserving endangered species (red wolves).

“Extinction is a colossal problem facing the world.And Colossal is the company that’s going to fix it” The hubristic claim is jaw-dropping—textbook case of seeking tech fix for social ills What responsibility do scientists bear in shaping the type of res done/claims made? bsky.app/profile/kate...

In which I argue that the Trump administration risks taking us back to the 19th century when it comes to food safety. Which will not end well.

“Extinction is a colossal problem facing the world.And Colossal is the company that’s going to fix it” The hubristic claim is jaw-dropping—textbook case of seeking tech fix for social ills What responsibility do scientists bear in shaping the type of res done/claims made? bsky.app/profile/kate...

Are grey wolves with 20 gene edits 🐺 dire wolves? “Species concepts are human classification systems, and everybody can disagree and everyone can be right,” Beth Shapiro told me. "We are... saying, if they look like this animal, then they are the animal” www.newscientist.com/article/2475...

Emerging viruses generally emerge from their natural animal reservoirs, like these hantaviruses. Hantas are prevalent in rodents & as ecosystems continue to be disrupted, we will see more spillover to humans. Shutting down research is the worst thing we could do to counter these emerging threats.

Pretty frustrating to say the least. Through this program, we've built a world-leading pathogen monitoring system in San Diego. Now, we'll be far less prepared to track outbreaks quickly & at scale. A major problem when measles, avian influenza, Hep A, and other pathogens are knocking at our door.

Mpox has inflicted Africa since 1970 but its origins remain a mystery Thanks to long-term surveillance, scientists were able to pinpoint a squirrel species as the source of mpox outbreak But is it the reservoir? Or is it part of a network of reservoirs? My latest in @nature.com shorturl.at/lY7Kf