Science | AAAS
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Linfa Wang: Natural
Michael Worobey: Natural
Alina Chan: Lab leak
Jesse Bloom: Lab leak
Passions flared a few times. Bloom said he was "really sort of stunned" to learn recently about a leaked 2018 research proposal from the EcoHealth Alliance to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that included the insertion of so-called "furin cleavage sites" into SARS-related bat coronaviruses, which could make them more infectious to humans. The proposal, which listed Wang as a coinvestigator, was rejected, and there is no evidence the research was done. But Bloom noted that "lots of people" in the origins debate have dismissed the notion that the furin cleavage site was added to SARS-CoV-2 in the lab, even calling it a conspiracy theory. "It's not fair to call that a conspiracy theory if, in fact, you know, the researchers involved were proposing it," Bloom said. "The fact that it kind of came to light under a leak after all of this discussion … to me that's just not transparent and honest." Wang, whose own lab had nothing to do with that part of the project, said it was not his role to make an unfunded DARPA proposal public.
The Atlantic covered the DARPA proposal that got leaked (mentioned in the discussion): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-lab-leak-debate-just-got-even-messier/ar-AAONgHa
