Apologies and update added under DYOR. I try to avoid Twit and source the original links in these Substack posts since most sane people stay off that website.
Yes, that is the 2017 bat fly collection GPS logistics showing Institut Pastuer collected fecal samples from Chinese horseshoe bats, but they only published the bat flies.
And you don't collect bat fecal samples to test for bat flies, they (NMRC-A and DoD) were probably looking for coronaviruses (and found them). IP didn't (couldn't) publish the bat sequences until 2021 when they went back and collected the same bat fecal samples with their own money
IP only isolated Banal-236 on the 2nd collection, the one we humans produce antibodies against, but Baric can isolate any virus by just downloading the Banal sequences (presumably uploaded to DoD GEIS in 2017).
Great work and fascinating analysis!
It would be nice, as you usually do, if you cited my original discovery of the USNAMRU/Pasteur trip to that location:
https://x.com/BillyBostickson/status/1438929425047822339
finding confirmed:
https://x.com/babarlelephant/status/1439238959691878402
and the 2016 PREDICT trip
https://x.com/BillyBostickson/status/1438940242942169094
and maybe the 3 locations map created by @tlitb
https://x.com/BillyBostickson/status/1874047537403039987
Apologies and update added under DYOR. I try to avoid Twit and source the original links in these Substack posts since most sane people stay off that website.
Thanks, you have always been good about crediting me, so no worries, and despite our different conclusions.
Definitely suspicious. Found this report from pasteur but they did not even mention coronaviruses .
https://www.pasteur.la/project-carried-on-in-the-lab-14/assessment-of-the-potential-vector-threat-of-bat-borne-pathogens-and-the-host-associated-ectoparasites-in-the-provinces-of-vientiane-and-khammouane-of-the-lao-pdr-batmap-project-extension/
I suspect the 2021 sequences may hv been from 2017 samples. Unlike RaTG13 they actually isolated the virus (so they say)
Yes, that is the 2017 bat fly collection GPS logistics showing Institut Pastuer collected fecal samples from Chinese horseshoe bats, but they only published the bat flies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6856264/
And you don't collect bat fecal samples to test for bat flies, they (NMRC-A and DoD) were probably looking for coronaviruses (and found them). IP didn't (couldn't) publish the bat sequences until 2021 when they went back and collected the same bat fecal samples with their own money
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04532-4
IP only isolated Banal-236 on the 2nd collection, the one we humans produce antibodies against, but Baric can isolate any virus by just downloading the Banal sequences (presumably uploaded to DoD GEIS in 2017).
https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Health-Readiness/AFHSD/Global-Emerging-Infections-Surveillance-and-Response
LAB ACTIVITY
Viral and bacterial work will be performed by Dr. Marc Grandadam (IPL) and Dr. Paul
Newton’s (LOMWRU) teams in Vientiane, Lao PDR. These groups have extensive
experience in the detection of viruses and bacteria from animal and arthropod material.
1. Deep-sequencing and related pathogen identification and characterization will be
conducted in partnership with Dr. Andrew Haddow (USAMRIID).
Genomic RNA and DNA will be extracted using the appropriate kit. This will be used as the
template for CDNA synthesis using random hexamers. cDNA and DNA will be screened
using well-characterized family-specific sets of primers that detect conserved genomic
regions. These will be tested for a number of virus families. These may include, but are not
exclusive to the RNA virus families: Astroviridae, Bunyaviridae, Coronaviridae, Filoviridae,
Flaviviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Reoviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Togaviridae