I find this tweet really upsetting. I grew up in South Africa- moved there in 1976. Around that time an Australian died of Marburg in Johannesburg as a result of zoonotic infection in Zimbabwe. There was fear of this disease when I was growing up. 1/
I find this tweet really upsetting. I grew up in South Africa- moved there in 1976. Around that time an Australian died of Marburg in Johannesburg as a result of zoonotic infection in Zimbabwe. There was fear of this disease when I was growing up. 1/
Yes, in 1967 monkeys with the virus were shipped via London to Germany for vaccine testing, and infected some researchers in Frankfurt & Marburg who were not properly protected. This had nothing to do with SARS-CoV-2 lab leak theories which relate to gain-of-function research. 2/
Putting Marburg forward as an example of "lab leak" in the current context of intense debate over the origins of #covid19 is highly irresponsible. Yes, animal research carries risks.. all animal research does.. and one can debate its ethics. Is it ok to work with mice? 3/
These are issues to debate, and the arguments are complex. There are numerous safety practices in place. They have improved a lot since 1967. They are not perfect. @jbkinney knows this. He does research involving mouse experiments. elifesciences.org/articles/6377 4/
The reality is that biology and biomedical research would suffer tremendous setbacks if all research with animal models was stopped. Whether one should pause gain-of-function research is another matter. The two questions are not equivalent. 5/
@akcayerol @lpachter @jbkinney You also have no idea what you are talking about - join the zoom call if you also care to educate yourself.
@Bryce_Nickels @akcayerol @lpachter @jbkinney Quick question 🙋🏻♂️ Didn’t all prior lab leaks involve pathogens already found in nature? Serious question.
@imUrB00gieman @akcayerol @lpachter @jbkinney You are getting into a controversial topic because we still have not agreed on what qualifies as a lab leak. Many virologists do not seem to understand that a lab leak can involve a pathogen from nature that is being studied in a lab.
@Bryce_Nickels @akcayerol @lpachter @jbkinney So that is a yes? All of these were confirmed to occur in nature prior to the lab leaking them except for #SARSCoV2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_l…