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I'm just amazed at the tweet by the editor of Scientific American. HOW could she have written that, and MONTHS after two magisterial pieces of reporting, in Boston Magazine and New York, on the entirely plausible possibility of a lab leak (and maybe Nicholas Wade was already reporting on it, too?) Was it sheer laziness on her part? Stupidity? Intellectual dishonesty? Has she ever recanted?

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She has not changed her position, at least not publicly. Laura is my former colleague at Science so I have known her for many years. In her case, I would say it’s ideological: She thinks she is fighting “disinformation” from the right-wing, but has never seriously investigated what the real information is or had any of her writers do so (Other than an early puff piece about Shi Zhengli by writer Jane Qiu.)

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Sep 23, 2023Liked by Michael Balter

Thank you for alerting me to Michael's analysis and its clear introduction here. I'll be sharing both in my weekly news review tomorrow.

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