COVER LETTER ORIGIN C19

Dear Friends and SARS-CoV-2 Hermits,

I've just finished an essay I've been working on the past several weeks.  It deals with the origin of the Covid-19 causing virus.  There are three competing (partially overlapping) origin theories:

1) that SARS-CoV-2 evolved naturally from bat viruses and then jumped directly to humans,

2) that a modified bat virus being studied  at one of the national labs in Wuhan accidentally leaked out, and 

3) that a modified bat virus was used as a starting material to synthesize a virus with greater infectivity and lethality to humans as a bioweapon (and then that virus leaked out.)

My article is here:  https://www.bobblum.com/ESSAYS/BIOMED/origin-c19.html

It's point of departure is an explosive video documentary by Epoch Times reporter Joshua Philipp, which has been viewed three million times on YouTube since April 7th 2020.

The video presents damning evidence that favors the accidental release scenarios above. But is the movie accurate?

The most compelling counter evidence (which favors theory 1 above - of natural evolution) is presented in a scholarly genomics article in Nature Medicine.

My main original contribution is to dissect the arguments in this dense, academic piece.

My bottom line (concurring with several other science writers) is that while all three origin theories are possible,  1) (natural evolution) is the most likely, 2) (leak of a bat virus under study at a Wuhan lab) is quite possible, and 3) (accidental leak of a synthetically modified virus) while least likely, cannot be ruled out.

I need to emphasize the vital contributions that scientists of Chinese origin working in the US
have made to our academic prestige.  American scientific progress would be greatly diminished absent their talented efforts.

Best wishes,

Bob Blum (MD, PhD)

www.bobblum.com
  AI/neurosci/med