Part 1 of Bryce Nickels' two-part conversation with Neil Harrison offers a critical examination of the evidence for the hypothesis that the COVID-19 pandemic began at the Huanan Seafood Market in early December 2019. Neil discusses how he became interested in the origins debate and highlights the controversies surrounding it. He also shares his journey to coauthoring a May 2022 paper with economist Jeffrey Sachs, titled "A call for an independent inquiry into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus," published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Bryce and Neil go on to question the "dots and circles" method used by Michael Worobey and colleagues in their 2022 Science paper, which claims the pandemic started at the Huanan Seafood Market—a conclusion that Neil bluntly describes as "bullshit."
0:00 - 0:32 Music by Tess Parks
0:33 - 3:30 Neil Harrison introduces himself and shares how he became interested in investigating COVID-19's origins.
3:31 - 11:50 Neil discusses his and Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs' 2022 opinion piece in PNAS, titled “A call for an independent inquiry into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
11:51 - 15:30 Neil reviews the prevailing scientific “consensus” on the Wuhan outbreak's timing and location, based on two 2022 Science papers (Pekar et al., and Worobey et al.), which place it at the Huanan Seafood Market in early December 2019.
15:31 - 18:30 Neil clarifies that by early 2020, it was evident that the pandemic did not begin at the Huanan Seafood Market.
18:31 - 19:45 Bryce and Neil discuss why, in late 2021, some Western scientists began promoting the narrative that the Wuhan outbreak originated at Huanan Seafood Market.
19:46 - 22:00 Neil explains why the idea that the virus began at the Huanan Seafood Market persists and is heavily promoted, contrasting it with the substantial evidence of natural origins for SARS-1, which does not exist for SARS-2.
22:01 - 38:00 Neil critiques the “dots and circles” analysis by Worobey et al. in their 2022 Science paper, calling it “nonsense” when applied to establish the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in New York City in early 2020.
38:01 - 40:54 Bryce challenges Michael Worobey to apply his “dots and circles” analysis to outbreaks in New York City and Italy to test its validity.
40:55 - 40:58 Neil concludes, saying, “I think we’ve beaten that one to death,” reinforcing that the claim of the outbreak's origin at the Huanan Seafood Market is unsound.
40:59 - 41:36 Music by Tess Parks
For more information on studies of the New York City epidemic see:
Wikipedia page for COVID-19 pandemic in New York City
Paper by Jeffrey Harris (Department of Economist, MIT): The Subways Seeded the Massive Coronavirus Epidemic in New York City
Reporting by Jim Dolan from 2021: Eyewitness to a Pandemic: Episode 1 - An Invisible Menace
