Published on Sunday, 17th March, 2024 by Independent Science News: The Future of the Lab Leak Theory
by Jonathan Latham, PhD and Allison Wilson, PhD.
Synposis: Recent developments in the lab leak theory of COVID19’s origins have been very significant. New documents revealed by the organisation US Right To Know under FOIA legislation have added specific evidential flesh to the suggestion that work was underway to assemble viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2. The new specifics include the purchase of particular DNA cutting enzymes whose use had previously only been inferred by sequence analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as likely signatures of viral genetic engineering. But the new FOIA evidence, though damning in suggesting basic manipulation and a lab escape, collectively explains only a fraction of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Where did the rest come from? Why should we care? In this article, originally posted as a thread of tweets (on Twitter/X), we highlight new evidence showing that, before appearing in Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 developed features that required substantial evolution after exiting its bat reservoir host. The evolutionary pathway needed for this can be inferred and it is incompatible with any standard or obvious zoonotic process involving an intermediate host. Key features of SARS-CoV-2, in short, are difficult to reconcile either with genetic engineering or a zoonosis. The simple explanation for them is selection and evolution in immunocompromised human lungs, presumably one of the Mojiang miners. Most likely therefore, SARS-CoV-2 was, simultaneously, a lab leak, a reverse engineered virus, and an evolutionary product of a miner lung, since these theories are compatible with each other and, in fact, complementary.
Read the full story with all scientific references at: https://www.independentsciencenews.org/commentaries/the-future-of-the-lab-leak-theory/
