<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Baltimore">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Baltimore</a> is pretty good, though you have to wade through his illustrious career to find the Controversies section.<div><br></div><div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">In May 2021, Baltimore was quoted in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_of_the_Atomic_Scientists" title="Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</a> in an article about the origins of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19" title="COVID-19" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">COVID-19</a> virus, saying, "When I first saw the furin cleavage site in the viral sequence, with its arginine codons, I said to my wife it was the smoking gun for the origin of the virus. These features make a powerful challenge to the idea of a natural origin for SARS2."<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-114" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Baltimore#cite_note-114" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[114]</a></sup> This quote was widely shared and gave credence to the possibility of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_lab_leak_theory" title="COVID-19 lab leak theory" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Wuhan lab leak</a> that has been discussed extensively as part of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigations_into_the_origin_of_COVID-19" title="Investigations into the origin of COVID-19" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">investigations into the origin of COVID-19</a>.<br>A month later, Baltimore told the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times" title="Los Angeles Times" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">Los Angeles Times</a></i> that he "should have softened the phrase 'smoking gun' because I don't believe that it proves the origin of the furin cleavage site but it does sound that way. I believe that the question of whether the sequence was put in naturally or by molecular manipulation is very hard to determine but I wouldn't rule out either origin."<sup id="gmail-cite_ref-115" class="gmail-reference" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Baltimore#cite_note-115" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(6,69,173);background:none">[115]</a></sup></blockquote><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div><div>-- rec --</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Oct 8, 2021 at 2:47 PM Frank Wimberly <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">I mentioned this unhelpfully in today's vFriam meeting<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Baltimore_Case/hBB7-vrk4fAC?hl=en" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Baltimore_Case/hBB7-vrk4fAC?hl=en</a><br><br><div dir="auto">---<br>Frank C. Wimberly<br>140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br>Santa Fe, NM 87505<br><br>505 670-9918<br>Santa Fe, NM</div></div></div>
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