Scientists smuggling deadly viruses
Don't take my word for it - Andersen, who was co-leading a mission in Sierra Leone from 2010-14 to fight bioterrorism, co-authors a June 2016 Cell paper, Roots not Parachutes, lamenting there was a lot of gung ho behaviour going on in the international science community at that precise time:
In some instances, researchers 'parachuted' into the affected countries, conducted research in isolation, and departed without creating sustainable infrastructure or a lasting impact. In several cases, international scientists with no established collaborations in West Africa allegedly transported samples back to their home countries for further research, in many cases without permission or knowledge of the affected nations (Heymann et al., 2016).
In other words:
illegal smuggling of Ebola by international scientists - in several cases
- according to Kristian Andersen, citing Heymann et al. al, allegedly
How can that even be written in an academic paper published by Cell - and not spark a criminal investigation?
International Scientists smuggling the deadly Ebola virus!viruses! - sorry, i can't get over that.
That's the hide-in-plain-sight behaviour that the real cohort of high risk individuals gets away with inside the international science scene.
Naturally, there was no talk of that behaviour in Andersen's parallel 2016 paper a few months later with Holmes and Rambaut, titled The evolution of the Ebola virus: Insights ...
In this evolution story:
It is believed that bats serve as the primary reservoir for EBOV. .. (T)he origin and spread of the 2013–2016 EVD epidemic seem well resolved.
appears - probably - seems - believed
In fact, Baize's paper reports the first confirmed case was in a Health worker at Gueckedou hospital, Guinea on Feb 23. It speculates about a chain of 12 unconfirmed but suspected cases, going back 83 days, to the bat tree on Dec 2 - that may have lead to the first confirmed case but notes
Baize's not well established theory, in turn, is based on what he calls initial epidemiologic investigation that he doesn't cite but it appears to be a Fabian Leendertz expedition.
Let's going exploring with Fabian in West Africa ...