COVID Transmissions for 5-28-2021
Listen to this interview with the SARS-CoV-2 origin investigators
Greetings from an undisclosed location in my apartment. Welcome to COVID Transmissions.
It has been 558 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. In 558, an earthquake destroyed the dome of the Hagia Sophia, but rebuilding began almost immediately.
I heard yesterday that the US has reached 50% of the population vaccinated, which is a pathway to another rebuilding of sorts.
Today we’ll revisit—again—the origins of SARS-CoV-2, because of a new interview that I would like to share with you all. Other than that, have a great weekend!
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Now, let’s talk COVID.
Re-revisiting the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Almost as though it was coordinated with the team over there (it was not), This Week in Virology (TWiV) posted an episode about SARS-CoV-2 origins right on the same day I chose to revisit the issue. It also happened to be the same day that noted inexpert opinion-generator Nate Silver decided to start a firestorm on Twitter by pretending there is some reason to believe deeply in a lab-leak. Silver also admitted that the amount of evidence for that belief has in no way changed since the time he felt it was very unlikely.
So it has been a pretty complicated day for that conversation, but I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to that TWiV episode, because it is probably the best thing you’ll have the opportunity to listen to on this topic. TWiV interviewed Peter Daszak, Thea Kølsen Fischer, and Marion Koopmans, all of whom are virus experts who were part of the WHO fact-finding investigation in Wuhan, China that represented “phase one” of the organization’s efforts to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
These are seriously impressive people who were right there at the scene of where this happened, and we have the opportunity to hear it right from them. We’re really fortunate that TWiV exists as a forum for such things.
Having listened to the episode, I’m rather gratified that what these scientists have to say generally aligns also with what I said yesterday, though they provide some exciting details on top of that. Without further delay, here it is:
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Baby bok choy
One of the things that my emphasis on stir-frying has made me better at is getting vegetables nicely seared while keeping them looking and tasting fresh. I had some baby bok choy that needed cooking, so last night I decided to throw something together with that. After halving the bok choy, I got some oil nice and hot, started to sauté some garlic in it, and then tossed the bok choy with a mixture of maple syrup, salt, and a chili-lime seasoning. It was super easy to let these cook until looking like this:
This went together with some wild salmon that I’d crisped up (see prior newsletters for the saga of getting that right!), for this effect:
This was really easy. Try it!
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Always,
JS