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The strongest available evidence supports a zoonotic origin for COVID-19. - The virus is genetically diverse in ways typical of natural viruses and atypical of gain-of-function (GoF) viruses. 🧵

- To edit a virus in a lab, scientists need an existing "parent" virus to use as a starting template. The closest virus known before the pandemic was still decades of evolutionary divergence away from COVID-19. (Data from NIH)  🧵

RFK Jr: "The RSV epidemic came from GoF research." This is blatantly false. - RSV was discovered in chimpanzees in 1955, and later recognized as causing respiratory illness in human infants in 1956. - GoF research wasn't developed till the 1970s. (Data from CDC) 🧵

RFK Jr: "Lyme disease almost certainly came from GoF research."  Historically false. - Genetic sequencing of Ötzi, a naturally preserved mummy from 3300 BCE, revealed he was infected with Borrelia burgdorferi—the exact bacterium that causes Lyme disease. 🧵

- Scientists found Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in preserved ticks and mice collected in New England between 1870 and 1919. 🧵 (Data from CDC)

RFK Jr: "Scientists cannot point to one example in history where GoF research has actually been beneficial." Really RFK Jr.? GoF research has brought us:  - Research that informed current H5N1 (avian influenza) vaccine development. 🧵

- Live-attenuated vaccines that are accessible in areas of desperate need. - Development of antiviral therapies that help address viral resistance. 🧵 (Data from CDC & NIH)