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Comment by Simon Wain-Hobson

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Virologist and Biosafety Now contributor
Traits, smoking guns for some, but invoking the high burden of scientific proof, the jury is out. What is highly abnormal, so much so that the word suspicious is in order, is the astounding dearth of SARS2-like bat coronaviruses genomes published to date.
AI Verified (Feb 11, 2026)
Source:
Simon Wain-Hobson, "Distal truths," Biosafety Now, February 11, 2026.
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Policy proposals and claims
COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
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AI Verified The quote is relevant because, in source context, it is part of the author's discussion of COVID-19 origins and is used as a reason in evaluating lab-related versus natural-spillover explanations. The surrounding passage explicitly critiques confident natural-origin claims, says "the jury is out," and treats the lack of published SARS2-like bat coronavirus genomes as suspicious evidence within that origins debate, which makes the author's stance on the complete statement determinable. ([biosafetynow.substack.com](https://biosafetynow.substack.com/p/distal-truths)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
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AI Verified He is explicitly undecided: the quote says, despite some traits being "smoking guns for some," "the jury is out," and the article adds that in early 2020 there were "no data either way to conclude." His note that the lack of related bat genomes is "suspicious" shows suspicion toward a lab-related possibility, but not a settled endorsement that lab origin is more likely than zoonotic spillover. ([biosafetynow.substack.com](https://biosafetynow.substack.com/p/distal-truths)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago

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AI Verified The supplied URL is fetchable. Its article page is titled "Distal truths," credits Simon Wain-Hobson, is dated Feb 11, 2026, and contains the submitted passage verbatim: "Traits, smoking guns for some ... the astounding dearth of SARS2-like bat coronaviruses genomes published to date." The stored author, date, source URL, and quote text match the source. ([biosafetynow.substack.com](https://biosafetynow.substack.com/p/distal-truths)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
replying to Simon Wain-Hobson