This was meant to be quick analysis of a paper published in Nature Medicine titled 'The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2' which argued: "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct."

The paper instead expounds the Huanan Seafood Market/pangolin theory and purports to debunk 'conspiracy theories' related to the virus emanating from an Wuhan lab. The paper appears to have some major flaws which i wanted to explore as well as some possible reasons for it's publication.

However, preliminary research into the paper and who wrote it has taken me so far down the rabbit hole of the relationship between academic institutions and China that a new topic is needed.

The first thing to remember is that the people who wrote this paper are not some mug punters like us venting stuff on a forum - they’re paid professionals who’ve been given the prestigious platform of Nature Medicine to help the world understand the source of the virus. When people say ‘listen to the experts’ - they are the experts.

So let’s meet the experts who co-authored the above paper. There are five of them - all men - all big-hitters in the virology community.