Indian ‘seeker’ among sleuths who raised heat on lab theory

A motley group of social media detectives with backgrounds in science have been leading efforts to uncover clues about the origins of the Sars-cov-2 virus, particularly if it leaked from a lab in Wuhan – according to new reports, which identifies one of them as an Indian based, possibly, in Bhubaneswar.

A group of 24 people that calls itself DRASTIC, or Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19, began looking into clues from Chinese scientific databases shortly after the pandemic began, Newsweek reported earlier this week.

The clues involve scientific papers that detail how researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and other Chinese establishments were investigating coronaviruses found in an abandoned mine, how these studies may have been meant to find a vaccine, and some instances where authorities attempted to conceal data.

Some of these have now come into the spotlight. Top American health official Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that China should release the health records of nine people, including six miners who fell sick in 2012 – an incident that may have kick-started a biological investigation into Sars-like coronaviruses, according to the clues uncovered by DRASTIC.

“It starts with an outbreak of severe unexplained pneumonia cases in 2012, which saw six miners hospitalised. Three of them died, and the cause for their illness was suspected to be due to “Sarslike COV”. The symptoms were almost indistinguishable from COVID-19,” said the Indian who uses the nom de guerre The Seeker on Twitter, and was identified as among the DRASTIC members who pieced together the most crucial of the clues.

The group was also profiled in a piece by CNET on April 15, which identifies as The Seeker being a resident of Bhubaneswar, though in both cases, the person asked to remain anonymous.

According to tweets by DRASTIC members, particularly The

Seeker, the illness of the miners may be the first time a predecessor or a close relative of the Sarscov-2 virus may have infected humans. “WIV went on a yearslong investigation into the same mine, on the lookout for what afflicted the miners,” The Seeker wrote on April 8.

The clues the group has found has led it to suspect the WIV researchers were likely investigating the pathogen that caused the 2012 illness (and death) of the men who went into the abandoned mine, and one of the pathogens they isolated may have leaked from the lab at a later date.