While we are at it... let's provide one of the articles in full -- via Wayback Machine so you can't make claims about a paywall blocking the source. Debunked COVID-19 conspiracy theory weaves a UNC medical researcher into the tale https://web.archive.org/web/2021010...observer.com/news/local/article241996426.html The messages started coming a little more than a month ago, first on social media and eventually by email. By March, Kari Debbink, a professor at Bowie State University who holds a doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill, had received her first death threat. The reason: She was being accused of helping create the novel coronavirus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down much of the world, in a lab in North Carolina. “To me it is just unbelievable that I would end up in a position to have someone think I could start a global pandemic,” she said in a phone interview with The News & Observer. “I reported it to the police … and they were just like, ‘What is going on?’” As COVID-19 spread at the start of the year, so did rumors and speculation about its origin. Some said it was a biological weapon developed by the Chinese, or that it escaped from a laboratory accidentally or even that the disease was amplified by 5G technology. One unfounded theory that many internet users have latched onto and that has been amplified by right wing news channels, like One America News, has placed its sights on North Carolina. It claims — falsely — that COVID-19 was created at UNC-Chapel Hill, specifically in the lab of Ralph Baric, where Debbink once worked. Baric is one of the world’s preeminent researchers of coronaviruses — having studied the family of viruses known for their crown-like shape for 30 years. His lab on the UNC campus was one of the first places in the U.S. to receive a sample of the novel coronavirus earlier this year to begin conducting tests. And while experts and researchers in the field who have examined the genomic structure of COVID-19 have overwhelmingly concluded that the virus originated in wildlife, the UNC rumor has continued to spread on social media and message boards. Stated simply, scientists have reported that the makeup of the virus points to it being the result of natural evolution rather than bio-engineering. Dr. Ralph Baric, of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, was one of the first people in the U.S. to receive a sample of the coronavirus. UNC-Chapel Hill UNC declined to comment for this story, and Baric was not available for an interview. Baric’s lab is putting a potential COVID-19 treatment through human trials. Debbink worked in Baric’s lab while pursuingher doctorate at UNC, which is how she came to be a target online. She believes Baric has been tied up in conspiracy theories because of a lack of scientific knowledge among the general public. “Not everybody is able to read a scientific paper and understand it,” she said. “It is very easy for someone to watch a video that makes [false information] seem like a totally legitimate idea.” It’s unnerving, she added, to see people make threats over something they likely don’t understand. Previous study of one coronavirus strain Baric’s name appears to have been swept up into theories around the new coronavirus because of a 2015 paper he co-authored with more than a dozen other scientists, including one associated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab located near the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. That paper showed coronaviruses in bats were capable of directly infecting humans rather than evolving in another animal first. Bats have been shown to be responsible for other coronaviruses in the past, like SARS and MERS, though the virus passed through a different animal host before infecting humans in those cases. To prove this, the scientists created a a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus and used it to infect mice whose modified genomes mimicked human lung receptors. Creating an infectious virus for experiments — also known as “gain-of-function research” — had become a topic of debate around the time of the 2015 study. Some fellow scientists, Nature reported, questioned whether the insights from gain-of-function research were worth the risks, however slim they might be. Baric told Nature that without the research that particular coronavirus strain — which is different from the one causing COVID-19 — would not be viewed as a threat that requires more attention. In 2014, the U.S. government decided it would stop funding gain-of-function research, though Baric’s study was underway and was grandfathered in. The National Institutes of Health deemed the study not risky enough to fall under the moratorium on funding, Baric told Nature in 2015. The lingering literature around the debate appears to have drawn attention to Baric’s work. An editor’s note attached to the top of Nature’s article about the debate now reads: “We are aware that this story is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered. There is no evidence that this is true.” Debbink, who helped author Baric’s 2015 paper, said everyone involved with that research has been targeted online by harassers who are accusing them of creating a biological weapon. Expert research shows the virus didn’t come from a lab But since COVID-19, just one of several known coronavirus strains in the world, has had a chance to be studied, scientists have been resolute in saying there’s no proof of it being engineered by humans. On the contrary it appears to be quite natural in origin, likely coming from bats, they say. A recent article in the journal of Emerging Microbes & Infections aimed squarely at false claims about Baric’s 2015 paper. The authors of the study found no connection between Baric’s research and the new pandemic — because the hybrid Baric used and the virus that causes COVID-19 are completely different strains. “This claim lacks any scientific basis and must be discounted...,” the authors wrote. “[T]here is no credible evidence to support [it].” Susan Weiss, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and an author of the article, said she didn’t have time to talk to an N&O reporter about the false theories but added, “The conspiracy theory is ridiculous.” In February, The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, published a statement “strongly condemn[ing] conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.” The group of scientists who published the statement cited nine different genomic analyses that all pointed overwhelmingly toward a natural origin of the virus. “Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumors, and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this virus,” the scientists in The Lancet wrote. Debbink said she doesn’t expect researchers to slow down their work because of the conspiracy theories, but she is worried about the long-term consequences of them. “I think conspiracy theories are very harmful to the public discourse,” she said, “... less so because of people like me getting death threats ... but because they degrade the public trust in science and confuse people.”
Hey moron lying asshole from North Carolina.... who is defending the traitor from UNC who trained Dr. Shi from China and bioweapons research.... If Vanity fair is lying about this... your traitor from Daszak could sue them for millions of dollars if they do not retract.... . Otherwise this is proof he is an unethical scumbag..... "In the end, Daszak did. At least six other signers had either worked at, or had been funded by, EcoHealth Alliance. The statement ended with a declaration of objectivity: “We declare no competing interests.”" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/202...inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins It soon emerged, based on emails obtained by a Freedom of Information group called U.S. Right to Know, that Daszak had not only signed but organized the influential Lancet statement, with the intention of concealing his role and creating the impression of scientific unanimity. Under the subject line, “No need for you to sign the “Statement” Ralph!!,” he wrote to two scientists, including UNC’s Dr. Ralph Baric, who had collaborated with Shi Zhengli on the gain-of-function study that created a coronavirus capable of infecting human cells: “you, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.” Daszak added, “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.” Baric agreed, writing back, “Otherwise it looks self-serving and we lose impact.” Baric did not sign the statement. In the end, Daszak did. At least six other signers had either worked at, or had been funded by, EcoHealth Alliance. The statement ended with a declaration of objectivity: “We declare no competing interests.”
Keep pushing your nonsense.... enjoy taking information out of context. Do you have any shame for promoting misinformation continually that brings harm to people's families?
this is the dangerous fucking nonsense you are defending.... your professors excuse... for doing bioweapons research.... "Some fellow scientists, Nature reported, questioned whether the insights from gain-of-function research were worth the risks, however slim they might be. Baric told Nature that without the research that particular coronavirus strain — which is different from the one causing COVID-19 — would not be viewed as a threat that requires more attention." plus your article is pushing the now debunked nonsense that Covid 19 did not come from a lab... now many top scientists are saying its likely it did.
what you posted here has nothing to do with what I was writing... its bullshit... save the argument by Rand Paul... and what he said was hardly debunked... the BBC articles explained to you that gain of function research was being done. When a virus which can't infect humans is turned into a virus which can... that is gain of function... bio weapons research by any definition. Fauci bullshit and equivocation notwithstanding... We have shown this to you myraid times... you are fucking commie liar. Are you denying you traitor baric was teach Dr. Shi how to weaponize corona viruses? lets try this another way... was he training her in dual use research... your boy is traitor... to humanity as are you ... now that you are defend this shit.
The vanity fair article said this..he did train her you scumbag... why the hell are are you lying about this? Under the subject line, “No need for you to sign the “Statement” Ralph!!,” he wrote to two scientists, including UNC’s Dr. Ralph Baric, who had collaborated with Shi Zhengli on the gain-of-function study that created a coronavirus capable of infecting human cells: “you, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.” Daszak added, “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.” If your traitor from UNC did not train Dr. Shi on how to weaponize viruses... let me know...I will take it back. I don't want to defame anyone. But... telling me you debunked that with your now old outdated bullshit about Covid not coming from a lab is irrelevant to my point... and probably wrong... as many experts are not saying there are multiple reasons to believe it came from the lab. experts. He and Fauci and Daszak should be looking at a Nuremberg type investigation and if this is correct... trial. Saying his Superiors (Fauci) approved this... is not an excuse..
Exactly... jem -- as always -- is pushing a false narrative with no proof. In this case the false narrative has been harmful to the UNC scientists and their families.
what's the context though? To publish a paper showing "natural emergence" to launder your reputation and intentionally leaving your name out to project "independence"?