Exclusive: Secret gain-of-function research on novel coronavirus in Wuhan uncovered from mining genomic datasets with Steve Massey

Last week, Adrian Jones, Daoyu Zhang, Steven Massey, Yuri Deigin, Louis Nemzer, and Steven Quay reported out on an ingenious analysis of genomic datasets from NCBI that indicate a lab in Wuhan was performing potentially risky genetic engineering manipulations on a novel coronavirus that was previously unreported. The manipulation? Inserting a MERS spike protein into a previously unreported coronavirus. MERS has a case fatality rate of over 30%. What is clear from the analysis is that at least one lab in Wuhan was performing risky gain-of-function research on unreported coronaviruses before the pandemic started, the kind that could have created SARS-CoV-2. It also shows that risky GOF research is being conducted in Wuhan that has no identifiable medical benefit, but has the potential to create a pandemic level pathogen. Today I interview Steven Massey, a professor of bioinformatics that has been actively researching the origin of SARS-CoV-2 since the pandemic began and one of the authors of this significant discovery. We discuss the paper, how his team discovered this novel engineered coronavirus from Wuhan, and what it means in the search for the origin of COVID-19...