Scientists call for uncensored debate on virus lab leak theory
SCIENTIFIC debate about coronavirus will be reduced to “insults on Twitter” unless medical journals allow uncensored discussion, an expert has warned.
Jacques van Helden, professor of bioinformatics at Aix-marseille University in France, said The Lancet had “censored scientific discussion” about the hypothesis Covid originally came from a lab leak.
Professor van Helden said The Lancet published a letter in February last year that effectively shut down debate over the origins of the virus.
This highly influential letter – which has since been cited in thousands of scientific publications – was signed by 27 experts warning against the “conspiracy theory” the virus could have come from a lab.
It was later discovered the letter, with signatories including Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, was arranged by Peter Daszak.
He runs the non-profit Ecohealth Alliance, which has awarded US grant money to a Wuhan lab to study viruses.
Jamie Metzl, who sits on the
World Health Organisation’s advisory committee on human genome editing, said: “The Lancet letter was scientific propaganda and a form of thuggery and intimidation.
“By labelling anyone with different views a conspiracy theorist, the Lancet letter was the worst form of bullying in full contravention of the scientific method.”
And Prof van Helden has called for an end to “conspiracy theory labels”.
He and 13 other academics wrote to The Lancet to call for an open discussion about the origins of the virus earlier this year.the journal did not publish their appeal. Prof van Helden said: “Initially I accepted the virus was from a natural source.
“However, I decided to look into this and discovered that the arguments to claim it could not possibly have been a lab leak were from just one scientific paper published in March 2020. Our analysis showed the reasoning behind this was weak and its conclusions invalid.
“To say that something has leaked from a lab does not make it a conspiracy theory.
“There have been multiple cases of this happening in the past including from top security labs before.
“Why was that letter signed by so many people?why can’t we discuss this issue in a scientific journal? I do not want to have to resort to an open exchange on Twitter.”
Prof van Helden, who said he does not favour a specific hypothesis, added: “Scientists should have a right to discuss this scientific question in scientific journals rather than leaving it to social media and politicians, and I hope we can now have an open debate.”
The Lancet declined to comment.