Conversations

Peer reviewed research shows that the Huanan seafood market was very likely the COVID-19 pandemic and that a lab leak is incredibly unlikely. Paper authors and virologists Prof Kristian Andersen and Prof Michael Worobey talk us through their motivations, papers and findings.

Virologist and Croonian Medal Awardee Professor Edward Holmes has been at the centre of discussion around the COVID-19 pandemic. In this extraordinarily candid discussion he explains his work, his part in studying the origins of the pandemic, how research in conducted in China and more!

An exclusive interview with Dr. Spyros Lytras and Jonathan Pekar about their latest preprint on the ancestry of SARS-related Coronaviruses.

They tackle the evolutionary history of over 27 recombinant genomic segments that constitute the mosaic genome of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, and gain some surprising insight into where these viruses really come from.

Professor Alice Hughes, who has lead a research team in Yunnan, China and discovered multiple close bat relatives of SARS-CoV-2 explains zoonotic risk factors in SE Asia and the difficulties of performing ecological studies in the region.

Alice did her PhD in bat ecology at the University of Bristol with fieldwork in Thailand. She had a research group in Yunnan, China for nine years before she decided to leave for a position in Hong Kong after Chinese censorship of her work.

Alice has broad expertise and deep knowledge on many topics related to the origin of Covid, so in this conversation, we make full use of her insights and fly through a variety of topics at a fast pace, and having tons of fun doing so

Parasitologist Dr. Carlos Morel, member of the WHO´s SAGO committee, talks us through his years of work studying novel pathogens and his work at the WHO during the COVID pandemic.

In 2023, I had the honor to give a talk at Fiocruz, which is a leading public health organisation comparable with the CDC. Fiocruz has an interesting history and has been the heart of fighting public health threats of known & novel emerging diseases; and they were quite open to my idea that public health faces new challenges with our changing information environments.

Virologists Prof Angela Rasmussen and Dr Stephen Goldstein break down some of the most common and pernicious lab leak arguments online after new, peer reviewed research shows that the Huanan seafood market was very likely the COVID-19 pandemic and that a lab leak is incredibly unlikely.

In this video from 2021, virology professor Stuart Neil and Dr Philipp Markolin help Dr. Sam Gregson break down the latest news, evidence, and controversies in the Covid origins debate.