Nice article David! I think Philipp Markolin's excellent dissection and detailed explanation of the lab leak origin hypothesis won we over to a likely natural zoonotic event despite the arguments raised in Nicholas Wade's article and particularly over the origin of the furin cleavage site and the virus's unusual codon preference that you mention in your piece. Markolin doesn't dismiss the leak idea altogether, but zoonosis now makes more sense to me. Of course, the unfortunate association between the lab origin hypothesis and conspiracy mongering by the right wing press does nothing to clear the air or relieve tensions. And I've been taken aback by the frequently aggressive debunking of the lab origin hypothesis by the scientific community which does nothing to increase public confidence in expert opinion either!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment David. I'm going to check Markolin's essay. I'll admit that I was very impressed with Wade's article in May. But since then, I have read some very good counter arguments.
Sad I’m just seeing this write up! Have you since conducted a follow-up to this excellent data and analysis? I would love to compare current lab-leak origin frequency in media with mid-2021 frequency you observed in the data given the recent moderately confident US energy dept and FBI pro lab-leak conclusions. How might those impact or update your then-tentative conclusion?
Nice article David! I think Philipp Markolin's excellent dissection and detailed explanation of the lab leak origin hypothesis won we over to a likely natural zoonotic event despite the arguments raised in Nicholas Wade's article and particularly over the origin of the furin cleavage site and the virus's unusual codon preference that you mention in your piece. Markolin doesn't dismiss the leak idea altogether, but zoonosis now makes more sense to me. Of course, the unfortunate association between the lab origin hypothesis and conspiracy mongering by the right wing press does nothing to clear the air or relieve tensions. And I've been taken aback by the frequently aggressive debunking of the lab origin hypothesis by the scientific community which does nothing to increase public confidence in expert opinion either!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment David. I'm going to check Markolin's essay. I'll admit that I was very impressed with Wade's article in May. But since then, I have read some very good counter arguments.
Markolin's article, BTW, can be found in Medium (https://protagonist-science.medium.com/?p=f3d6fbb10ff9)
Sad I’m just seeing this write up! Have you since conducted a follow-up to this excellent data and analysis? I would love to compare current lab-leak origin frequency in media with mid-2021 frequency you observed in the data given the recent moderately confident US energy dept and FBI pro lab-leak conclusions. How might those impact or update your then-tentative conclusion?