Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Lancet Report, Two Dozen Experts Say There's No Proof Of Covid Lab Leak
News 18: New Evidence Shows Covid-19 Evolved Naturally, Scientists Write In Lancet
There is no scientifically validated evidence to support the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, and more recent, peer-reviewed studies strongly suggest that the virus evolved in nature, a group of scientists wrote in The Lancet journal. The report published on Monday was compiled by two dozen biologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, physicians, public health experts and veterinarians from around the world. (7/6)
The Lancet: Science, Not Speculation, Is Essential To Determine How SARS-CoV-2 Reached Humans
On Feb 19, 2020, we, a group of physicians, veterinarians, epidemiologists, virologists, biologists, ecologists, and public health experts from around the world, joined together to express solidarity with our professional colleagues in China.1 Unsubstantiated allegations were being raised about the source of the COVID-19 outbreak and the integrity of our peers who were diligently working to learn more about the newly recognised virus, SARS-CoV-2, while struggling to care for the many patients admitted to hospital with severe illness in Wuhan and elsewhere in China. (Calisher et al, 7/5)
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Yahoo News: Lab Leak Theory, Once ‘Political Dynamite,’ Gains Credibility With Recent Publication
The rejections kept coming. The coronavirus was a topic of intense scientific fascination, yet the four Australian researchers challenging conventional wisdom about how the pandemic originated couldn’t find a publisher for their study. “We were quite stunned,” recalls one of that study’s authors, Dr. Nikolai Petrovsky, an endocrinologist at Flinders University in Australia who is also developing a coronavirus vaccine. The work he and his group had done only received what he called “blanket rejections.” That finally changed late last month, when Nature Scientific Reports published their paper, “In silico comparison of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2 binding affinities across species and implications for virus origin.” The journal is part of the prestigious Nature family of publications. Acceptance there has given greater credibility to a theory that until recently was taboo: that the coronavirus could have emerged from a laboratory. (Nazaryan, 7/2)
Fox News: VA Congressman Introduces Amendment Asking Biden To Declassify Intel Linking Wuhan Lab To COVID-19 Origins
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., on Thursday introduced an amendment asking President Biden to declassify intelligence linking the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the origins of COVID-19. Officials revealed in May that several workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in mid-November 2019, about a month before the first COVID-19 case was reported in the Chinese city, giving new credibility that the virus may have accidentally leaked from the lab and prompting demands for long-awaited answers about the origins of the pandemic. (Conklin, 7/3)
Politico: Virus Lab Leak Theory Dogs Democrats Eager To Keep Focus On Trump's Covid Failings
Congressional Democrats are having to balance escalating calls to investigate whether Covid-19 escaped from a lab in China with their efforts to highlight the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic and the ongoing push to stamp out the virus. The dilemma shows how much shaping a narrative of the health crisis ahead of the 2022 midterms is already consuming lawmakers as new outbreaks emerge in parts of the country. And it puts Democrats who control the congressional agenda in a bind, as they wrestle with the possibility of stoking potentially unprovable claims about a man-made crisis or facing accusations from Republicans of engineering a cover-up. (Ollstein, 7/4)
