1. The same “gang” of the Proximal Origin paper
https://t.co/Xmp20I58AQ
in action again (only Lipkin is missing, who knows why) to push once more faulty arguments in support of SARS2’s natural

2. The newly identified Cambodian, Thai and Japan sequences are presented as evidence that some odd features of the SARS2’s genome are natural because present in other natural viruses, as RaTG13 and pangolin CoV were used in The Proximal paper.

3. First the FCS. @ydeigin and I wrote a preprint where we show that the claimed partial FCS insertion in RmYN02 is highly doubtful and the same applies to the new bat CoV sequences

4. They present again only an amino acid biased alignment as in the Zhou paper
https://t.co/i9OZchD4LT
“adjusted by visual inspection” to push their false conclusion that all these CoVs have a partial FCS insertion at the S1/S2 junction and the FCS of SARS2 is therefore natural

5. SARS2 remains the only Sarbecovirus with a functioning FCS, as we describe here:
https://t.co/viqvfzv1Xa
and that can be easily inserted with the Seamless technology.

I must say it, @K_G_Andersen never ends to surprise me with his compelling arguments... If you want to figure out why Wade is wrong you can Google it 🤣😂🤣

Here he downplays the FCS of SARS2. These fragments do not really come and go all the time. I am not aware of experiments on CoV where the FCS arose by cell or animal passage. More on the FCS here:
https://t.co/oyPKBVVG4f

Here he refers to RmYN02, which has no insertion at the S1/S2 cleavage site
https://t.co/0Goapx6cXj
https://t.co/zEALrUUj8F
And to Gallaher's paper, with the fanciful theory of recombination on a train to Wuhan
Recombination is rare outside its group +
https://t.co/DBs7RMeq4X

As also my co-author @ydeigin says
https://t.co/qrOG0nlIzR
the FCS could be not optimal because part of a vaccine attenuation strategy
https://t.co/tHWG1Igf7Q
Andersen admitted to be wrong with his prediction of the O-linked glycans

The FCS might be similar at the aa level to some FCoV sequences, but less at the nt level.
https://t.co/Hvi3azygu6
Andersen does not mention that the FCS binds extremely well to heparan sulphate as possible result of cell passage
https://t.co/s7q6Ynh7NY