11 Comments

Just wrote a comment to say i hope you continue with this excellent work. /// Very valuable

Expand full comment

Great work...together with a Times piece out on the WHO and the likes of Alina Chan on Twitter, decent probing is at last being done. The lapses in effort and integrity from scientists, journalists, public servants – have been horrific. It seems scientists are too anxious to deal honestly with the lab questions in public. A lot of people also scared of China. I hope you keep going.

Expand full comment

Thank you so much. I am hoping to write some more. I have some reporting that sheds some different light on some of the coverage in the ST piece. I really appreciate your support.

Expand full comment

Nicholson Baker dropped his piece in New York Magazine (section: the Intelligencer. / nice coincidence there) then stepped out of the debate. No interviews since that I can see. I saw him dissed for "not being a scientist" and of course, he's primarily a novelist, but his work on record-keeping and history and his humanist values – which include a streak of strong anti-technocratic feeling – are really strong. He is a brilliant researcher. His piece was also careful to walk the line of not entirely 'othering' China. Anyway – if you are looking for further voices or subjects to draw in, I feel he would be very valuable. L

Expand full comment

I had to go back and read this. It is an astonishing piece of work. I remember hearing criticism about this item being an "opinion" piece, rather than a piece of investigative journalism. But I don't think that is fair. The care that he takes in crafting his piece based on research is self evident. It is clear what the speculation is and how it arises from what we know. And it is useful because it sets out the possibilities clearly. If you don't have a PhD in virology it isn't evident what sorts of projects were being worked on and why. Thanks for the recommendation as well.

Expand full comment

I see some pieces (bbc i think) about the Chinese disinformation - conspiracy campaign that tries to impugn a US military lab. If you look at comments on youtube and tweets right now, you can see dubious looking accounts insisting that 'Fort Detrick' should be investigated. The Economist podcast based on your piece also highlighted – as someone who lived in China i can tell you that the leaderships relationship to truth is so perverse that they do inadvertently reveal their hand. The articles in Global Times, etc. (Which alina chan has picked up on) and other official behaviours are very revealing right now. You might ask colleagues in Hong Kong or somewhere to archive weibo posts or other material in Chinese. I write a creative type blog under a pseudonym and might find the time to make a post on this, I'll share it with you later if you like. I realized i actually worked as volunteer teacher in a community near that cave in Yunnan. I hope you can do follow ups soon....

Expand full comment

I have got another post on Overmatter coming soon. Next is vaccine supply. After that there is more to say on the origins. Interesting that you worked near that cave. Did people visit it often? I'm thinking cavers or people collecting guano for fertiliser? Are there any mink or civet-like cats native to that region?

Expand full comment

Also – the ccp has just published an extraordinary missal. That is essential to catch. The youtuber serpentzz has a piece on it. Inside it mentions 'biological warfare' – this is interesting insofar as it is a validation at their highest level of some kind of toxic science being behind this.

Expand full comment

Look forward to your post. I was in Xishuanbanna, a prefecture alongside. I haven't a clue about that cave but lived in identical landscape. I think yes to your guano collection Q – the "miners" who were infected and whom Shi Zhengli met, i think while on their various deathbeds, might have been harvesting deep guano to monetize it. Yes – that civet cat from the 2003 Guangzhou sars outbreak is there. And they do eat that, in Guangzhou markets. And they identified it as carrier swiftly. As alina chen pointed out, after 20 tears, all the scientific upgrades and thousands (by their own words) of wild animal samples, they can't find the intermediary now?

Expand full comment