Conversations with Bryce Nickels: Neil Harrison (Professor, Columbia) part 2

The second part of Bryce Nickels' two-part conversation with Neil Harrison offering a critical examination of the evidence for the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic began at the Huanan Seafood Market in early December 2019. Click here to listen to the first part of their conversation.In the second half of the discussion, Bryce and Neil discuss why, in late 2021, virologists rushed to convince the public that the Wuhan outbreak began in December 2019, despite extensive evidence and independent confirmations from multiple groups suggesting a more likely start date in October 2019.0:00 - 0:32 Music by Tess Parks0:33 - 2:31 Bryce recaps part one, explaining why the claim that the COVID-19 pandemic started at the Huanan Seafood Market is unsound.2:32 - 7:17 Neil discusses possible reasons why anyone trying to cover up a lab origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, may want place the time of the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019 (which is not supported by the available evidence), instead of October 2019 (which is supported by the available evidence).7:18 - 15:00 Neil presents evidence supporting an outbreak timeline of October 2019, rather than December 2019. He explains that three separate research groups independently reached this conclusion and notes how the early 2020 outbreak in New York City also supports this timeline.15:01 - 26:10 Neil and Bryce examine how the leak of the DEFUSE proposal by DRASTIC in September 2021 might have influenced virologists to publish unsound studies pushing the December 2019 timeline to downplay a lab origin of COVID-19. The 2018 DEFUSE grant proposal to DARPA included experiments to add furin cleavage sites to coronaviruses. This feature, new to SARS-CoV-2 and absent in its closest relatives, points toward a lab origin rather than a natural one.26:11 - 33:00 Neil outlines why the claim that SARS-CoV-2 originated from an infected raccoon dog at the Huanan Seafood Market lacks credibility.33:01 - 39:40 Bryce and Neil end by discussing the political landscape surrounding COVID origins and biosafety.39:41 - 40:20 Music by Tess ParksArticles suggesting the epidemic began in Wuhan in October 2019:Li et al., Transmission dynamics and evolutionary history of 2019‐nCoV. J. Med. Virol. 2020.van Dorp et al., Emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2. Infect. Genet. Evol. 2020.Bai et al., Comprehensive evolution and molecular characteristics of a large number of SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveal its epidemic trends. Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2020.Kumar et al., An evolutionary portrait of the progenitor SARS-CoV-2 and its dominant offshoots in COVID-19 pandemic. Mol. Biol. Evol. 2021.Pekar et al., Timing the SARS-CoV-2 index case in Hubei province. Science 2021Articles suggesting the epidemic began in Wuhan in December 2019:Pekar et al., The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2. Science 2022See also:Ma J. Coronavirus: China’s first confirmed Covid-19 case traced back to November 17. Southern China Morning Post. 2020.Retraction Request for Worobey et al., 2022 & Pekar et al., 2022For more information on studies of the New York City epidemic, see:Wikipedia page for COVID-19 pandemic in New York CityPaper by Jeffrey Harris (Department of Economist, MIT): The Subways Seeded the Massive Coronavirus Epidemic in New York CityReporting by Jim Dolan from 2021: Eyewitness to a Pandemic: Episode 1 - An Invisible Menace Get full access to Science From the Fringe at sciencefromthefringe.substack.com/subscribe