Well worth a read. Not because of the content - it's total horseshit - but because it's a prime example of what happens when you mix anti-science, conspiracism, arrogance, and a total lack of expertise.
Maybe one day NYT OpEds will engage with the actual science 🤷♂️.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/covid-pandemic-lab-leak.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4U4.Bco7.-RYRNJTd1SZK&smid=url-share
Maybe one day NYT OpEds will engage with the actual science 🤷♂️.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/opinion/covid-pandemic-lab-leak.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4U4.Bco7.-RYRNJTd1SZK&smid=url-share
Comments
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
Turns out, being a contrarian doesn’t always work out.
It’s tiresome, if so utterly predictable.
https://bsky.app/profile/xiruxi.bsky.social/post/3ll5hjjjbh22j
What a disgrace @zey.bsky.social.
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
For the story about McNeil, though, because that is such a perfect example too, I previously wrote a longer piece, incl. receipts.
https://medium.com/@K_G_Andersen/its-not-about-getting-the-scoop-it-s-about-getting-it-right-origin-of-covid-19-my-emails-7447e59d79e3
https://andersen-lab.com/congressional-testimony/
Now, I made that statement on Feb 1, where I still thought this could be LL.
But sure, I'll make sure next time I text a friend I'll think hard and carefully about how my text messages might be misconstrued by frenzied conspiracy theorists on X once the GOP decides to demand them and leak them.
Tufekci never mentions the timeline, which is *deeply* dishonest.
Now, as already stated, I was simply wrong of that early hypothesis. It happens.
Subsequent info made it clear that a lab leak was exceedingly unlikely.
Why is this so hard to understand?
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
False. He suggested a single word be changed. One word.
This is how smear campaigns work - on the pages of the NYTimes.
They actively suppressed reporting on it. 10's of thousands were killed in Gaza. 80% were women & children.
All false, although flawed reasoning was often pointed out, as were conspiracy theories.
Princeton — people like @kevinmkruse.bsky.social — should call out Tufekci and tell the public and NYT not to listen to her on this issue.
Total horseshit is exactly it.
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
Of course we can envision a convoluted possibility, but it's about what's probable. Is it likely a postdoc would go all the way across the city to a market, only infecting people there?
They’re not equivalent.
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
This is just standard rightwing victim-blaming — a common trope from the billionaire-funded efforts to harm science.
“It’s Kristian’s fault! Not Bhattacharya, Fox, or the rightwing attack on science.”
Get outta here.
It is no coincidence that Bhattacharya and his billionaire-funded allies attack both institutions and credentials. That allows them to substitute bullshit for real expertise.
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z
https://www.brookings.edu/events/biosafety-and-the-origin-of-covid-19-evidence-and-policy-implications/
The IC is often at least as versed in the science as academia—with far better funding (eg the NRO has 2 dozen Hubble or better).
They give their blood, sweat and tears to get some facts right; only to lose credibility as a collateral by association with Twitter-all-day/vibe sifting/power legitimizing fan fiction writers.
Will tell more soon
https://bsky.app/profile/proximalfraudsters.bsky.social/post/3lkmwsz4yo32z