4 ms·

Bill Gates' team and other global health experts have been pushing for a truly open sequence database for awhile now -- GISAID of course has been freaking out a

Bill Gates' team and other global health experts have been pushing for a truly open sequence database for awhile now -- GISAID of course has been freaking out and threatening litigation all over the place for every perceived slight. Then there was the other scandal of late, Martin Enserink wrote about that one too (https://www.science.org/content/article/dispute-simmers-over-who-first-shared-sars-cov-2-s-genome https://www.science.org/content/article/dispute-simmers-over...). Basically GISAID claimed they were the first to publish the original Covid genome, when nobody at all remembers it like that and all of the contemperaneous reports credit Eddie Holmes and the courageous Chinese Zhang Yong-Zhen who published that first sequence on Virological days before GISAID/WHO released theirs. GISAID has gone so far as to backdate their original blog posts to establish 'evidence' for the date of publication. They've also threatened litigation for people who claim that the Virological post preceded their publication.. Something is seriously wrong over there.

YeBanKo 4y ago
I am not familiar with how GISAID works, but there any sort of signature that authenticates data and ensure integrity. If they backdated the post, could they also tempered with sequences data?
- mikeyouse 4y ago
  They can definitely mess with the sequence metadata (date submitted, date published, authors, etc) - but they primarily host NGS sequences which can trivially be verified against the original sequencing runs maintained by the researchers, so it's pretty unlikely they've ever tampered with actual genomic data.
hgsgm 4y ago
Gates wants open sequence data for his closed vaccine companies to profit from.
revelio 4y ago
The whole field of virology seems totally messed up not just this one organization. These accusations are hardly a surprise given the bizarre behavior and culture of deception that seems to pervade the field. So many virologists were willing to sign that notorious Daszak open letter that was blatantly pseudo-scientific and the result of a genuine conspiracy. Where were the objectors? The article has quotes like this: many flu scientists hesitated to share newly sequenced influenza genomes, concerned that rivals would skim the most interesting data and publish a paper first and Indonesia stopped sharing H5N1 samples with the world in 2007 over concerns that foreign scientists were describing a virus from Indonesia without proper credit The whole point of giving these people government funding is because they claim it'll let them focus exclusively on noble humanitarian goals, yet here they are acting like tabloid journalists. and GISAID has many stalwart supporters. “I’ve known Peter for a number of years, and his push for ‘equitable sharing’ has helped the database, scientists, and the health of humans and animals around the world,” says virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center, who co-chairs GISAID’s Scientific Advisory Council Equitable sharing seems to be about what you'd expect [1], Should data sharing in epidemics and pandemics primarily advance utility, or should it advance equity as well? Can anything they say be trusted? How many screwed up public health institutions are out there exactly? Why do we fund these people?? [1] https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-021-00701-8 https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s129...
- RobotToaster 4y ago
  The whole field of medical research seems pretty messed up, given the perverse incentives the grant system and privatised pharmaceutical industry create.

YeBanKo 4y ago

I am not familiar with how GISAID works, but there any sort of signature that authenticates data and ensure integrity. If they backdated the post, could they also tempered with sequences data?

mikeyouse 4y ago
They can definitely mess with the sequence metadata (date submitted, date published, authors, etc) - but they primarily host NGS sequences which can trivially be verified against the original sequencing runs maintained by the researchers, so it's pretty unlikely they've ever tampered with actual genomic data.

hgsgm 4y ago

Gates wants open sequence data for his closed vaccine companies to profit from.

revelio 4y ago

The whole field of virology seems totally messed up not just this one organization. These accusations are hardly a surprise given the bizarre behavior and culture of deception that seems to pervade the field. So many virologists were willing to sign that notorious Daszak open letter that was blatantly pseudo-scientific and the result of a genuine conspiracy. Where were the objectors? The article has quotes like this: many flu scientists hesitated to share newly sequenced influenza genomes, concerned that rivals would skim the most interesting data and publish a paper first and Indonesia stopped sharing H5N1 samples with the world in 2007 over concerns that foreign scientists were describing a virus from Indonesia without proper credit The whole point of giving these people government funding is because they claim it'll let them focus exclusively on noble humanitarian goals, yet here they are acting like tabloid journalists. and GISAID has many stalwart supporters. “I’ve known Peter for a number of years, and his push for ‘equitable sharing’ has helped the database, scientists, and the health of humans and animals around the world,” says virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center, who co-chairs GISAID’s Scientific Advisory Council Equitable sharing seems to be about what you'd expect [1], Should data sharing in epidemics and pandemics primarily advance utility, or should it advance equity as well? Can anything they say be trusted? How many screwed up public health institutions are out there exactly? Why do we fund these people?? [1] https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-021-00701-8 https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s129...

RobotToaster 4y ago
The whole field of medical research seems pretty messed up, given the perverse incentives the grant system and privatised pharmaceutical industry create.