I am not at all against the Worobey et al authors making a case to support their #COVID19 market origin hypothesis. I am against any misrepresentation of those arguments as proof that this hypothesis is proven. That is simply not supported by the available evidence.
@JamieMetzl Not to mention them saying that most knowledgeable scientists agree with them, and that if you don't agree with them then you're not a knowledgeable scientist.
@michaelzlin @JamieMetzl This really strikes me a twitter thing. I've talked with many scientists (in real life) about Covid origins, and there were exactly two who expressed 'high confidence' in a zoonotic spillover scenario. Most remain largely agnostic, and the more knowledgeable, often the more so.
@BallouxFrancois @michaelzlin @JamieMetzl Imo it's just peer pressure. For too long LL was a "not plausible" "conspiracy theory". Saying that you consider it in private is much less "scary" than exposing it to 1000s on Twitter.
@BallouxFrancois @michaelzlin @JamieMetzl I.e. zoocrew was very successful in creating a taboo. On the other hand, saying the opposite (zoo origin is pretty much certain) is used to "virtue signal" tribal allegiance.