Page 58 - EW July 2021 final

International News

CHINA A spokeswoman for The Lancet says that Dr. Daszak
Lab leak theory revival “is one of the world’s leading experts on zoonotic diseases,

including Coronaviruses, with experience of working in
China” and that his task force would assess “all leading
hypotheses” including “laboratory release”. Daszak did not
respond to a request for comment.
Rossana Segreto, a former researcher at the University of
Innsbruck, says that in January The Lancet rejected a letter
by her and colleagues calling for an “open scientific debate”
about the origins of the virus. A spokeswoman for the jour-
nal says it does not comment on unpublished papers.
Dr. Segreto also points a critical finger at Nature Medi-
cine, which in March 2020 added an ‘editors’ note’ to a 2015
paper documenting the creation of a “chimeric virus” from
a bat coronavirus in work done in collaboration with WIV.
The note emphasises that there is “no evidence” Corona-
virus was engineered. But this 2015 paper, critics argue, is
Wuhan Institute of Virology: more openness call exactly the kind of research that could lead to a risky new
virus, and the paper itself has been tweeted tens of thou-
JUST A MONTH AGO, THE IDEA THAT Coro- sands of times.
navirus came from an accidental lab leak in Wu- Several prestige journals have also rehabilitated the lab
han was derided by much of the press as a fringe leak theory, not just thrown cold water over it. A turning
conspiracy theory and banned on Facebook as a form of point in the theory’s credibility came on May 14, when Sci-
misinformation. Now, a host of distinguished scientists in- ence published a letter signed by 18 eminent Coronavirus
cluding Anthony Fauci, the US White House’s chief medical experts arguing that the leak was a “viable” theory.
adviser, credit the idea as plausible, if far from proven, and This was not the result of a change of policy by the jour-
are calling for more openness from the lab at the centre of nal to start taking the leak theory seriously, says Holden
the theory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals.
Journalists who have rehabilitated the lab leak theory “This letter was signed by important figures in the Covid
in recent months point the finger at The Lancet for allow- story, and we decided to publish it. We didn’t get anything
ing Peter Daszak, president of research funder EcoHealth prior to this that made it through our process,” he says.
Alliance, to squash notions of a lab leak early on — without Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature, says the
disclosing that he had a significant potential conflict of in- Science letter is a “very legitimate call” for further investiga-
terest. tion, and that no discussions about the origin of the virus
In February 2020, just as the Western world was waking had been “taboo” at Nature. She is “puzzled as to why we’re
up to the pandemic’s spread, Dr. Daszak, a British zoologist having (the debate) again in the absence of new evidence”.
who has become a controversial central figure in the ori-
gins debate, organised and signed a letter — along with the Soft power failure
who’s who of pandemic experts — in The Lancet to “strongly
condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does NTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ARE INCREASINGLY
not have a natural origin”. The letter has been mentioned fearful that their hopes of securing a degree from a Chi-
in news stories more than 350 times so far. Inese university will be dashed by the country’s 16-month
But nowhere did The Lancet disclose a critical fact — entry ban. The challenges faced by the thousands of regis-
Daszak had funded and worked with WIV researchers for tered students trapped outside China during the Corona-
years to collect bat coronaviruses from the wild — in order virus pandemic have been compounded by a lack of flex-
to get ahead of them before they spread to humans — and ibility on degree time limits, publishing requirements and
led National Institutes of Health-funded work on, among accreditation transfer. Many of the students involved are
other things, “virus infection experiments across a range of from Asia and Africa, and a large proportion are medical
cell cultures from different species and humanised mice” to students or postgraduate researchers in science and engi-
assess how they might spread. neering subjects.
“If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research One poll conducted in early June by the China Interna-
he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute tional Student Union (CISU) found that 75 percent of over-
conflict of interest was not declared to The Lancet’s read- seas students now have a more negative view of China. A key
ers,” says an investigation into the theory published by the problem cited by 65 percent of respondents is that China’s
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in early May. degree time limits are inflexible and “unmeetable,” given

58 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021