Reposted by Ørjan Sagvolden
Many who took the time to understand how much Lab Leaker conspiracism was cross-pollinating with extant conspiracy beliefs like antivaxx noted that vocal Lab Leaker nuts would increasingly center those other crank views as evidence for COVID-19 supposedly being engineered failed to materialize. 😬
![Conspiracies threaten science – not the other way around
There is a growing scientific consensus that SARS-CoV-2 most likely originated from a previously unidentified animal sold at the wet market in Wuhan. The arguments against this explanation, as advanced by Sigrid Bratlie in her book "Mysteriet i Wuhan" and in Aftenposten on October 15, have been largely refuted or taken out of context. Bratlie misrepresents peer-reviewed research and repeats media speculation to support the theory of a laboratory leak.
For a thorough review, we recommend the book "Lab Leak Fever " (2025) by Philipp Markolin, an Austrian science journalist [...]. Unlike Bratlie, he has interviewed key researchers such as Zhi Shengli, Peter Daszak and Kristian Andersen. These are people against whom Bratlie makes serious accusations.
Markolin shows that researchers [...] started with an openness to all hypotheses, as Bratlie asks us to do. When all the scientific facts pointed in one direction, they followed the science. Bratlie, on the other hand, interprets the fact that someone has changed their mind as a sign of a conspiracy.
The book documents how researchers who have worked extensively on the nature and origins of the virus are being subjected to threats and harassment. It also highlights how social media today promotes conspiracy theories and weakens trust in science.
The documentary film "Blame" (2025), directed by Christian Frei, depicts how research into the origins of the pandemic has come under attack in a political game. The film will be screened at BIFF in Bergen this October and at Film fra Sør in Oslo in November.
No one wants to take away Bratlie's freedom of expression. On the contrary, few have been given such broad space in the public sphere, often without critical counter-questions. She has even been invited to the Research Council's panel debate "The Fight for Truth" later in October. We recommend that she read Markolin's book before that debate.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5zqjavyvxgpqup52vic4whgn/bafkreihxq44247c6vcqb334szwqoxmohrn6gnnj4bbsuppvhtdbtivjtem)
