The UN agency is seeking extra funding to offset the loss of its top donor, the United States. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Good. There was a scientific paper in the last week that didn’t fully discredit lab leak theory but made an extremely persuasive case—based on genetic analysis—that it was spread from bats to other mammals who were then hunted and brought to the wet market by randos.
China (responsibly, to stop the spread) did cull some animals between the bat cave and Wuhan. No one who cares about science will ever say something with 100% certainty unless it breaks the laws of physics or whatever. And we’ll never find the pangolin (or whatever) someone sold at the wet market. But very little from scientists points to lab leak. It’s all political actors making that claim.
Good. There was a scientific paper in the last week that didn’t fully discredit lab leak theory but made an extremely persuasive case—based on genetic analysis—that it was spread from bats to other mammals who were then hunted and brought to the wet market by randos.
Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867425003538
NY Times summary (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/science/covid-coronavirus-bats-genetics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.JwTo.IDxqWwXodYVf
China (responsibly, to stop the spread) did cull some animals between the bat cave and Wuhan. No one who cares about science will ever say something with 100% certainty unless it breaks the laws of physics or whatever. And we’ll never find the pangolin (or whatever) someone sold at the wet market. But very little from scientists points to lab leak. It’s all political actors making that claim.