https://xitter.cf/t.co/eDe86mewZ8
Joined January 2023
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Tyler Stepke retweeted
Pandemics chain hard-to-predict events. Luck plays a big role.
But an epidemic in a mink farm is a terrifying petri dish for unleashing the power of evolution towards human-compatible flu viruses. Hard to imagine a worse way to tempt fate.
And for what? Few remaining fur farms.
I agree with Florian that we should shut this down.
This is probably the consensus position among people who helped investigate the origin of COVID and among people who helped with the cover-up like Florian.
We can have conversations about both lab safety and farm safety. Unfortunately, Florian blocked me for advocating for common-sense lab safety reforms and criticizing his role in the cover-up.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
"A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. [I]t could spark a…pandemic."
"State officials didn’t order the mink to be killed, which other countries with outbreaks have done. They are prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade."
propublica.org/article/bird-…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
There is no rational reason to wait for a next "triggering event" or "warning shot," especially when the last "triggering event"--release of the lab-generated virus that caused COVID--killed 20 million and cost $25 trillion.
Regulation needs to be implemented ***now***.
Contingency plans for the day after an AI-assisted or AI-initiated biological warning shot.
Colman-Lerner's and my "Break-Glass" paper is up.
preprints.org/manuscript/202…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
Whatever one believes about AI-facilitated outbreaks (lab leaks or bioterror), it makes sense to have an independent agency track the sale of enabling materials (pathogens, sequences, enzymes, cell lines, production & purification reagents) even when selling to established labs.
Contingency plans for the day after an AI-assisted or AI-initiated biological warning shot.
Colman-Lerner's and my "Break-Glass" paper is up.
preprints.org/manuscript/202…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
The @BrookingsInst is hosting a fireside chat on Nov 5 (in person and virtual) to assess the July 2026 Dangerous Gain-of-Function policy and legislative proposals such as the Gene Synthesis Screening bill and Risky Research Review Act.
brookings.edu/events/us-bios…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
I finally put a short publication-style version of my Bayesian analysis of covid origins up on arXiv. Comments would help for an anticipated v2 at some point.
arxiv.org/pdf/2610.29766
According to FBI + CIA + DOE scientists with access to the most data, a leak from a virology lab recently killed millions of people.
Rasmussen was the arguably the single most toxic source of disinformation in the cover-up. The total lack of accountability is dangerous.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
In this fourth installment of The Wuhan Mystery, I wrap up the backdrop to the genesis of Proximal Origin and how it intertwines with the Lancet Statement and a third paper dismissing the lab leak theory in the same period (Emerging Microbes and Infections). Then I give my final verdict on the Proximal Origin paper and conclude that I have no doubt that the authors decided to put their professional reputation on the line for a claim they had no scientific basis for when asked to bury the lab leak theory.
sigridbratlie.substack.com/p…
In next week’s installment, I go deeper into the role of Peter Daszak/EHA and Zhengli Shi/WIV. I also discuss the politicized efforts to blame the Huanan market for the outbreak in 2021 and 2022 (WHO mission, Lancet Commission, Market papers by the Andersen group).
Tyler Stepke retweeted
This is actually pretty crazy. A handful of editors have shaped everything @Wikipedia has to say about COVID lab leak.
The site almost categorically casts lab leak as a "conspiracy theory."
+ The DEFUSE proposal, a bombshell in the investigation into the origin of SARS-CoV-2 — was more or less ignored, then whittled down, then removed.
+ Animal origin, which is unproven, is presented as settled science.
+ The idea that COVID came from a lab in Wuhan is treated by key editors as as a racially motivated "MAGA" conspiracy theory.
Read the full story below.
A handful of Wikipedia editors have rewritten the story of Covid’s origins to depict ‘lab leak’ as a racist conspiracy — despite the FBI, CIA, and leading scientists all stating they believe the virus likely came from a lab.
Here’s how they buried the truth @AshleyRindsberg👇
Tyler Stepke retweeted
A handful of Wikipedia editors have rewritten the story of Covid’s origins to depict ‘lab leak’ as a racist conspiracy — despite the FBI, CIA, and leading scientists all stating they believe the virus likely came from a lab.
Here’s how they buried the truth @AshleyRindsberg👇
Tyler Stepke retweeted
In July, Senator Rand Paul released over 1,000 pages of Slack messages between four authors of the fraudulent Proximal Origin paper: Kristian Andersen, Eddie Holmes, Robert Garry, and Andrew Rambaut. In the latest episode of In Defense of Virology, virologist Simon Wain-Hobson and I discuss how these messages reveal scientists intoxicated by their newfound fame, plotting to silence critics while portraying themselves as morally righteous. As with previously released messages, these exchanges show that in private, the authors acknowledged lab-origin scenarios were highly plausible even though they claimed otherwise in their publications.
0:00 Introduction
1:14 “Near godlike power”
2:49 “Our fight is a righteous one”
7:12 Why hasn’t the scientific community held the authors accountable?
9:48 Shooting the messenger
13:17 Controlling the narrative
14:21 Private doubts about COVID-19 origins
16:47 Evidence versus belief
18:06 The authors’ reactions to the DEFUSE proposal
21:20 The striking coincidence between DEFUSE and SARS-CoV-2
23:58 The appearance of a conspiracy to conceal COVID-19 origins
25:11 Institutional incentives that enable misconduct
The article is excellent in staying grounded and sticking to the facts.
The article is excellent despite the fact that Munster and Letko still completely refuse to engage with journalists or the public about the biosecurity implications of their work.
Why not make it known Jan'20: Furin insert in unpublshed backbone plausible product of virus research?
“..diff grps of virologists were converging on the idea of inserting cleavage sites in spikes of potentially dangerous CoVs” -Alina Chan
@USRightToKnow usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/b…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
@RdeMaistre and I worked hard in 2020 to get the first version of that graph.
We could see the emerging steep growth in the numbers. 6 years later, the graph is telling quite a story, and it is not going to stop here.
We were also surprised that at the time all available public estimates of the number of P3s in China were so much behind and badly researched.
We had to come up with the first solid numbers.
@RdeMaistre keeps updating our work.
All for free for #DRASTIC.
@BillyBostickson @DrJBhattacharya @quay_dr
Since COVID China has strengthened its biosafety with 2020 Biosafety Law & 2025 National Health Commission’s regulation. But persistent concerns over transparency, & the rapid expansion of laboratory capacity offset these gains. So biosafety risks persist sites.google.com/view/ibca-i…
Peter Hotez is one of two US scientists who funded dangerous coronavirus gain-of-function in Wuhan leading up to the pandemic with US taxpayer cash (NIH grant AI098775).
The CIA, FBI, DOE, and German intelligence have now concluded COVID most likely leaked from a lab. Hotez still acts like the lab leak hypothesis is a conspiracy theory.
He has spent years disparaging brave scientists like Alina Chan as conspiracy theorists while pushing scientific fraud to aid the cover-up. The hypocrisy is deeply gross, as his disinformation has created real risks for actual courageous scientists.
But more importantly, his years of disinformation and support for the cover-up have meaningfully increased the likelihood of another catastrophic accident.
Millions of people died from a dangerous research program Hotez directly supported with US taxpayer funds. Millions of lives are still put at risk by his ongoing campaign of disinformation regarding the origin. It sounds harsh, but the reality is that Hotez is a threat to biosecurity and public health.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
1/5 Jon Cohen, better known for being on the fast dial list of Peter Daszak when he needed some friendly opinion published, is at it again with this remarkable sentence in his latest Science Fiction article:
ALT An anonymous NIH employee criticizes Quay's candidacy for NIAID, citing concerns about politicizing scientific research and public health.
It's not her worst take, but it's still insane to treat one of the most dangerous people involved in covering up the origin of COVID as a legitimate expert on biosecurity.
Millions of people died. Millions more were put at risk by Gronvall's mistakes.
nytimes.com/2026/10/08/opini…
The new US standards raise the bar on pathogen research safety without interfering with safe and important work.
We need cooperation with international partners to ensure we're all raising the bar together. A mistake in any nation can affect all of us.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
These standards must protect everyone while ensuring research keeps pace with SI and synthetic biology.
Join us in setting a new shared international standard.
On the sidelines of #UNGA81, the @UnderSecT team co-hosted an event with @NIHDirector_Jay to highlight U.S. international leadership in implementing new standards to halt dangerous gain of function research. Representatives from 25 countries attended to learn more about how they can join us to #StopDGOF. Grateful also to Anna Puglisi (@WHOSTP47) and Taylor Sexton(@USForeignAssist) for their important contributions to the engagement.
state.gov/releases/office-of…
