Key articles on origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research and biolabs
U.S. Right to Know
Pursuing truth and transparency for public health
The controversy over “Proximal Origin” represents years of unanswered questions about how the Covid lab leak hypothesis was cast as a conspiracy theory.
Sign up to receive updates from the Biohazards Blog. By Sainath Suryanarayanan, PhD Here, we provide our emails with senior authors of Liu et al. and Xiao et al., and the editors of PLoS Pathogens and Nature. We also present an in-depth discussion of the questions and concerns raised by these emails, which put in … Nature and PLoS Pathogens probe scientific veracity of key studies linking pangolin coronaviruses to origin of SARS-CoV-2
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there is no proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” for one COVID-19 origin hypothesis or the other in a brief interview with U.S. Right to Know. In an interview in Washington on Thursday, Tedros was asked about recent preprint publications claiming “dispositive” evidence that COVID-19 originated … WHO chief Tedros: No dispositive evidence yet on COVID’s origin
EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, the head of an organization involved in research that genetically manipulates coronaviruses, discussed hiding his role in a statement published last year in The Lancet that condemned as “conspiracy theories” concerns that the COVID-19 virus may have originated in a research lab, emails obtained by US Right to Know show. … Scientists discussed masking their involvement in key journal letter on Covid origins, emails show
Update 2.15.21 – Newly surfaced Daszak email: “No need for you to sign the ‘Statement’ Ralph!! ” Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of … EcoHealth Alliance orchestrated key scientists’ statement on “natural origin” of SARS-CoV-2
Biosafety experts, including one with longstanding ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), privately harbored questions about risks taken with coronavirus research at biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) labs, including those in Wuhan, according to emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know. The researchers felt that BSL-3 labs were more vulnerable to accidents, even more … Wuhan’s lower biosafety level labs posed greater risk for coronavirus lab leak, experts said
A multimillion-dollar bat coronavirus research grant, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was made public last week, revealing that researchers based in Wuhan, China had manipulated coronaviruses in ways that led to increased severity of infection, employing platforms that tested the ability of bat coronaviruses to use human receptors. The grant documents underscore … How NIH-funded research in China could have led to the COVID-19 pandemic
See our reporting on the origins of Covid-19 for updates on our investigation, and we are posting documents from our investigation here. Sign up here to receive weekly updates. In July 2020, U.S. Right to Know began submitting public records requests in pursuit of data from public institutions in an effort to discover what is … Why we are researching the origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research and biolabs
On May 24, 2021, the U.S. State Department released more records in response to our FOIA lawsuit. These may be of interest: “PRC claims of COVID transmission via cold chain food imports growing”: A November 18, 2020 State Department cable expressed skepticism of Chinese state media claims that SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted via imported cold chain … Three State Department cables
