https://xitter.cf/t.co/eDe86mewZ8
Joined January 2023
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I don't think we need to pretend. This is a high-priority risk that should be treated as an urgent containment emergency.
I think this is a consensus position among scientists who advocate for the lab leak hypothesis. Lab origin of COVID doesn't erase millennia of zoonotic risks
Tyler Stepke retweeted
In this week’s installment of The Wuhan Mystery, I start digging into the many oddities surrounding EcoHealth Alliance and WIV, and why their research on coronaviruses presented a major headache for NIH and NIAID. I also describe and criticize the politicized efforts to frame the wet market as the source when, more than a year into the pandemic, the lab leak theory refused to die.
Next week, I will go deeper into how the politicization of the search for Covids origins also permeated the Intelligence Community.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
✅Article by @alisonannyoung focusing on lab leaks
1. Most infected workers don't' even recall getting infected.
2. The causes of many lab-associated infections remain unknown & undocumented.
3. Workers didn't realize their illnesses came from their labs until it was too late.
Russian plague lab worker’s death: 3 lessons from the history of lab accidents healthbeat.org/2026/10/27/ru…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
"We inserted this furin cleavage site into a beta coronavirus from bats to help physicians treat future infections in humans"
Purdue University's IDEAS Lab built an autonomous drone that tracks runners through dense forests completely without GPS or cloud networks.
By running 3D LiDAR mapping and obstacle-avoidance AI entirely on-chip, it can weave under tree canopies and predict target movement through blind spots in real time.
Massive implications for next-gen search & rescue and edge AI.
Tyler Stepke retweeted
You nailed it @KatherineEban. And it wasn’t only @USDA @USDA_APHIS that drug their feet in the Biden Admin. @HHSGov agencies were slow to take action, share data, & test milk products or exposed workers. The entire response was slow, bare minimum, lacked transparency; hugely missed opportunity to build trust & sharpen pandemic readiness.
It’s no wonder the virus continues to circulate, mutate, & infect a broader circle of mammals across the U.S.
Modern pandemic readiness should be prioritized & funded urgently.
In 2024, I investigated why Biden Admin had slow-walked response to #H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows. The answer: @USDA let farmers not test cows, at dairy lobby's behest.
vanityfair.com/news/story/in…
Strong 🧵on evolution of H5N1 risks: "This should have ended 2 years ago." 👇
In response to falling trust in vaccines, the journal 'Vaccine' appointed two editor-in-chiefs involved in covering up the origin of COVID.
It's hard to imagine a more counterproductive move for trust in vaccines and public health.
Rasmussen is perhaps the most toxic person in the space. She published and defended fraudulent papers, called the veteran whistleblower who released the DEFUSE proposal a "school shooter," and tried to get professors fired for honesty about origins.
sciencedirect.com/journal/va…
Tyler Stepke retweeted
In 2024, I investigated why Biden Admin had slow-walked response to #H5N1 outbreak in dairy cows. The answer: @USDA let farmers not test cows, at dairy lobby's behest.
vanityfair.com/news/story/in…
Strong 🧵on evolution of H5N1 risks: "This should have ended 2 years ago." 👇
There is something really concerning (and disappointing) going on in the US right now.
A dangerous and preventable situation.
Let me explain.
nextstrain.org/avian-flu/h5n…
1/
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