On March 17, 2020, a paper entitled “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” was published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine (1). The paper assessed the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 and concluded, "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus" and "we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible."

This paper played an influential role—indeed, the central role—in communicating the false narrative that science established that SARS-CoV-2 entered humans through natural spillover, and not through research-related spillover (2-8).

Email messages and direct messages via the messaging program Slack among authors of the paper obtained under FOIA or by the U.S. Congress and publicly released in full in July 2023 (2-8), show, incontrovertibly, that the authors did not believe the conclusions of the paper at the time the paper was written, at the time the paper was submitted for publication, and at the time the paper was published. They thus show that the paper was, and is, the product of scientific fraud and scientific misconduct. 

It is imperative that this clearly fraudulent and clearly damaging paper be removed from the scientific literature.

We, the undersigned, call upon the editors of Nature Medicine to retract and remove the paper.

References

(1) Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W. Ian Lipkin, Edward C. Holmes & Robert F. Garry, The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine, volume 26, pages 450–452 (2020)

(2) Amid Partisan Politicking, Revelations on a Covid Origins Article, The Nation, July 12, 2023

(3) House Republicans Accidentally Released a Trove of Damning Covid Documents, The Intercept, July 12, 2023

(4) Top Scientists Misled Congress About Covid Origins, Newly Released Emails And Messages Show, Public, July 18, 2023

(5) "In Their Labs": Fifteen Illuminating Passages in The Proximal Origin Chats and Emails, Racket News, July 18, 2023

(6) Dr. Kristian Andersen – Written Testimony (Corrected Version) 

(7) "So Friggin' Likely": New Covid Documents Reveal Unparalleled Media Deception, Racket News, July 18, 2023

(8) Interim Staff Report – The Proximal Origin of a Cover-Up: Did the “Bethesda Boys” Downplay a Lab Leak? (July 12, 2023)

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