On to my more contentious of the night.

“It’s very funny that everyone is worrying about preprints given that, collectively, journals are not doing a great job of keeping misinformation out,” Sever (co-founder of medRxiv and bioRxiv) said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/12/china-covid-misinformation-li-meng-yan/

There's been a lot of criticism of preprints since COVID-19 appeared. I've done my fair share too, breaking down preprints (and mostly peer-reviewed articles).

But I think the misinformation tragedy lies in peer-reviewed journals, NOT preprints. https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1320903797120606210

"In the academic world, the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins issued a point-by-point response one week after Yan’s paper appeared on Zenodo"

Why didn't John Hopkins do a point-by-points response to RaTG13 or the #pangolinpapers?

"MIT Press online journal “Rapid Reviews: COVID-19” featured four scathing reviews, including one from Robert Gallo, a renowned AIDS researcher and a titan within the field of virology."

Why didn't MIT Press do a scathing review of the RaTG13 and #pangolinpapers?

The rule of picking on those who can't defend themselves also applies in academia.

You're too scared to call out peer-reviewed papers by top labs in top journals. But you will rip a whistleblower to shreds when it's not even necessary.

I don't agree with most of what @DrLiMengYAN1 has said. It's clear that she is under unimaginable circumstances.

But I think what experts have said about her reflects on your own integrity, courage, and will to find the true origins of this virus. https://twitter.com/Ayjchan/status/1306393772985638913

These articles don't tell me anything new about Dr. Yan.

They tell me about you. The journalists and scientists tearing her down while there are serious scientific issues in the peer-reviewed articles in top journals.

I know this is going to be a cataclysmic revelation for some people. With whistleblowers, it’s not what they got wrong. It’s what they got right. (It’s the opposite for experts.)

You got a person blowing the whistle on wrongdoing. They don’t have everything right, alright? https://twitter.com/ayjchan/status/1306398561517686784

I don’t understand experts and journalists who expect whistleblowers to come forward with a bulletproof dossier of evidence.

Many whistleblowers are terrified for their lives and futures but made the decision to give it all up so they could do something - anything but nothing.

So while you’re sitting at home in the pandemic (yes, you could be getting threats and people are emailing/tweeting your employer to get you fired), and a journalist emails you to get some quotes on some whistleblower who lost everything, please put yourself in their shoes.

You want whistleblowers with evidence... you should be giving classes to scientist trainees on how to document professional misconduct. Not what’s right or wrong. Tell them how to save and screenshot every email and message.

And just deal with it. The stuff whistleblowers tell you- maybe half of it is not true or exaggerated (what they feel), but they say these things to communicate their terror.

If you don’t know how to understand and talk with whistleblowers, I suggest you engage someone who does.