# Pete & Ian

First published on [Formosa Hut](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2421), December 29, 2020

![[image]](http://formosahut.com/forum/images/uploaded/202012220456005fe17c605f237.jpg)

Peter Daszak is high-profile member of the WHO's *Team of Twelve* approved by China to investigate the origin of Covid.

Daszak is a close collaborator with W. Ian Lipkin, an author of the notorious *[Proximal Origin](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2052)* paper that purported to 'prove' Covid had not leaked from a lab - it was [pangolins that done it](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2053). They have co-authored several papers and articles and have been accused of *[misinterpretation of data implicating dromedary camels in MERS](https://mbio.asm.org/content/5/4/e01482-14)* during a [shady trip to Saudi Arabia](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/health/some-scientists-cast-doubt-on-finding-on-origins-of-mers-virus.html) in which *frozen samples accidentally were thawed en route to Columbia University*.

Thanks partially to a world-first critique of the Proximal Origin paper [published by](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2052) Formosa Hut in May 2020, and subsequent exposure from a group called [DRASTIC](https://twitter.com/hashtag/DRASTIC?src=hashtag_click), that paper has now been discredited as a high-powered academic fraud committed on the behalves of the CCP and western interests. Before that though, the paper's *pangolin findings* were headlines in all major media outlets around the world for several weeks, during which time it achieved its purpose of suppressing speculation about a lab-leak.

The debunking of that paper, on which all arguments that Covid was natural in origin were initially based, received almost no coverage. At best, it was reduced to a by-line, such as in [ this Dec 2020 puff-piece ](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/virus-hunters-unveils-team-10-scientists-trace-covid-19-origins/) about the upcoming WHO investigation that quietly mentions further examination *appeared to rule out pangolins (as) none had tested positive*.

Remember, this bedrock paper, published by Nature & authored by scientists with [massive China COIs](http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=2039), was touted by the bulk of the science community (including Daszak) & all main-stream media, as incontrovertible evidence that Covid was a natural event. Turned out to be a load of made-up crap.

I'd have thought ***Top Scientists linked to CCP spread disinformation about Covid Origins*** would be a good headline - i'd read it. But it seems *now is not the right time to talk about that*.