The Authors
In no particular order:
only non-Chinese scientist allowed into original genome sequence loop), teleconferencer, honorary professor at Fudan, Guest Prof, China CDC, Beijing (2014-2020), has known Farrar & Gao since their career intersections at Oxford/Wellcome in the 90’s. Lead author - also with Andersen and Rambaut on: The Evolution of the Ebola virus: insights from the 2013-16 pandemic. The only thing known for certain about the origin of that outbreak is it's unknown to this day. A lab-leak is suspected. Are our experts also experts at writing shonky origin narratives?
Andrew Rambaut:
Man of Mystery. All the others have put themselves out there to pump the paper - but Rambaut stayed in the shadows. Still, you can judge a man by the company he keeps - Oxford - specifically Nuffield Department. DPhil from Oxford in 1997 places him there at the same time as brothers-in-arms Farrar, Gao, Holmes, Worobey. Evolutionary biologist specializing in emerging human viral pathogens (funny how the more human viral pathogenicists emerged as a fund-attracting force - the more emerging human viral pathogens emerged), genomic surveillance enthusiast, Feb 1 Teleconferencer, first person Holmes called with the sequence - published on his website, SAGE member (with Jeremy Farrar), futurist (as is Farrar), the blank photo above is from a conference titled: Next-generation molecular and evolutionary epidemiology of infectious disease: challenges and opportunities
Robert Garry: the TWIV love-in panelist puts it best: 608 So you got into immuno-suppressive retroviruses - before HIV came along - and then worked on HIV - and then you got into emerging diseases - emerging infections - ahr - now of course we have a global pandemic of SARS-Covid-2, so i’m gonna be really really closely tracking what you do next! (general laughter)
Me too!
TWIV forgot to mention Ebola.
Stalwart at Tulane (since 1983), founded Zalgen labs, NIH funded bioweapons expert (according to Andersen), member of The Consortium mixed up in the 2013-14 Ebola outbreak in west Africa. Origin never found but a narrative was: the toddler, the hollow tree, and the bat in a remote Guinea village. GoF lab-exit candidate - never investigated. Instead: Science: (R)esearchers learned of the tree and linked it to one of the outbreak's first victims. But, in a frustrating twist, the tree had burned to a stump just before they arrived, thwarting their search for evidence that might confirm the scenario.
Kristian Andersen: Scripps hotshot - youngest - lead-author - got his own lab. Scripps had been hemorrhaging money for years when on Nov 27, 2019 it announced Shenzhen Bay Laboratory a trans-Pacific chemical biology research collaboration ) - Garry describes Andersen as a generational scientist - a big-data futurist - Once was a Twitter warrior - closed his account when the battle heated-up with Drastic. Joint author with Holmes and Rambaut on Nature Ebola origin paper.
celebrity scientist salesman (with more ties to high-ranking China officials than Marco Polo), was in China meeting Li Ke-chiang and George Gao (18:30) when Feb 1 teleconference happened. (41:46): I offered my services to President Xi, who I found very impressive. Co-authorRegular ofcollaborator with Daszak - co-authored murky MERS-origin paper with Daszakhim in Saudi Arabia. Contagion advisor: I devised the imaginary virus that wreaks havoc in the film. Cool!
The web they weave:
All Cool!friends - regularly collaborating with each other.
All have a hotline to Nature for whatever they want published
Funded by Wellcome (VIZIONS) & NIH
Involved in the 2013-14 Ebola outbreak/cover-up
All knowingly lied to deceive the world - to serve their own financial/power interests