the 35-page report¶

I read the 35-page report. The "evidence" they cite:

1) There's no conclusive proof of zoonotic origins 2) Wuhan Institute of Virology studied coronaviruses to try and predict potentially pandemic-causing pathogenic strains 3) China developed vaccines quickly https://t.co/3vJzNC6ZZi Obviously, not having proof of something doesn't prove an alternative hypothesis. Before we had proof of germ theory, that didn't prove miasma theory correct.

And obviously, the rapid development of a vaccine doesn't even come close to saying anything about viral origins. As far as the labs themselves studying coronaviruses (specifically to avoid a repeat of SARS), that's a common and noble scientific pursuit. We need to understand pandemic-potential diseases and how they work in order to head them off. Labs, including at WIV, often gather field samples to detect already-circulating diseases. They also very commonly modify those samples to try to create more pathogenic strains, since in the wild, those diseases are evolving constantly, and we need to be ahead of evolution. It does look like a lab at WIV was studying a sample of the naturally-occurring RaTG13. SARS-CoV-2 has about 96% sequence similarity to RaTG13, much closer than its ~80% similarity to typical SARS. RaTG13 was discovered in 2013, after 3 miners died of a mysterious pneumonia. Those same samples from the miners, by the way, have later tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Several more bat coronaviruses with even higher similarity to SARS-CoV-2 have since been discovered.

So no WIV wasn't even specifically studying any samples that could cause COVID. I'm not saying there's no way SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab. Just like no one should be saying there's no way it came from zoonotic exposure. I'm saying that, as someone familiar with BSL protocols, the lab leak hypothesis was already very unlikely, so it needs REAL evidence. If this is the best they can come up with after a politically-motivated Senate investigation, I'm actually more certain now that the lab leak hypothesis is bogus.